Frame Within a Frame – May 16

I really liked this photograph because it makes the frame within the frame look like a portal to another world. In the foreground, we have some buildings, with a slightly industrial feel because of the concrete building on the left and the bland colors all around. However, through the middle, we can see a field, a mountain, and trees in the background. There are vibrant colors, no buildings, it’s just nice.

Using Props – Apr 18

For this prompt, I wanted to be a bit different and use digital props, rather than physical ones. I wanted to create a more abstract, surrealist piece of art, so I used a four-second shutter speed to create a blur of colors from around the room. Then, I used inverted “curves” in Adobe Photoshop, as well as an array of other adjustments to hue, saturation, brightness, and contrast, to create a very abstract image with bright colors and vague shapes. I like this photo because when you look at it, you can just make it look like anything you want. If you stare at it long enough, it could be a face, a car, a lake, anything. 

Depth of Field – March 21

Depth of field is one of my favorite basic compositional components of photography. Changing the aperture of the camera was one of the first things I learned about in my first photography course in my freshman year, and I thought it was great how professional and clean it made my photos look. Over my time using a camera, I’ve learned how shallow and deep depths of field contribute to different types of photos, but in this photo blog, I wanted to go back to my original favorite type of photo – shallow depth of field with a simple subject.

Viewpoint – February 14

Worms-eye-view is one of the most common yet interesting forms of photography. The angle of taking the photo from the ground makes every object seem so massive in a very interesting way. Playing with perspective is a very useful tool to learn as a photographer because comparing and contrasting objects of very different sizes can have a very different feel when using worms-eye-view, which I used here to make this small ladder and lightbulbs seem like skyscrapers to my low-perspective camera.

Color Theory – January 24

For color theory, I took a photo of a box of colored pencils, increasing the vibrance and saturation to emphasize the variety of colors represented in the image. I thought that by not including the bottom or top of the colored pencils, there was a cool effect of continuation off of the frame. The lack of start and end really makes it seem as though the pencils are never-ending.

Rule of Odds – December 19

I know this doesn’t look like your ordinary “Urbanscape” – but hear me out. Over the course of my high school years, I have taken a considerable interest in architecture and urban planning. This December, I underwent an independent project in which I attempted to design a building using an unconventional inspiration – a dumpling. This photograph was one of the main inspirations for the project. I imagined a rotund base, curving up toward the spiraled peak of the tower, with some sort of skyscraper antenna at the top. The project fell into pieces in the end, but I use this image as a constant reminder of the importance of creativity, especially in architecture and urban planning – inspiration is everywhere.

Rule of Thirds Emotion – November 18

This was definitely one of the more difficult photo-blog prompts I have faced so far. As I took my photographs, I realized that the ones I thought were more on the right track used the technique of the subject looking out of the frame. I wanted to generate and push the feeling of longing – staring off-shot, almost a tired look, soft colors – I had the recipe down to a tee. While editing in Adobe Photoshop, I had to reduce a lot of the harsher bright white colors in the background, but after these minor adjustments, I was happy with the way the photo turned out.

Fill the Frame – October 17

I think filling the frame of a photograph is often overlooked as a technique of photographic composition. Artists often try to provide context, myself included, by backing away from the subject and taking photos of it in its surroundings. However, sometimes it may be beneficial to take things for what they are. This sign doesn’t have to be a sign. Maybe it’s just a graphic advertising Seafood To-Go! Not everything needs to have a context, not everything needs to fit into its environment – oftentimes, things should just be taken for what they are, rather than analyzed and criticized for how they interact with what’s around them.

Facial Symmetry – September 16

Facial symmetry is very interesting to me. Why did we need symmetry? Why isn’t the human nose on the left and the mouth on the right? Almost all animals and even plants have elements of symmetry. Trees trunks are symmetrical, leaves are symmetrical, and almost all creatures’ faces are symmetrical, from leopards and lions to ants and spiders. Symmetry often resembles and symbolizes balance – scales are balanced when they are symmetrical, for example. Symmetry is everywhere around us, and it only takes the smallest of efforts to notice it.

Geometry – May 17

I have always been fascinated by architecture-based photography – the different shapes and angles that are formed by buildings is incredibly unique. I really enjoyed this particular photograph because of repetition of shape in the windows, the different angles that the buildings were facing, and the leading line that the wire provided. If I could have changed one thing about this photograph, though, I would have tried to get a different perspective to not include the building on the far left – I think this photograph would benefit a lot from some negative space in that area.