Category: Inspiration

I think one of the things that can often be portrayed using a camera, that could never work in real life, is distorted proportions. This is why I wanted to make this photograph look as though my little brother was standing next to a massive soccer ball, or possibly this regular-sized soccer ball was next to my tiny brother. Either way, this is pretty obviously a “lie”, because they are both regular sized things. Distortion of proportions is a very interesting way to create perspective within photography.

Before taking the photo for the prompt “serenity”, I wanted to be sure I had the correct definition for it. Serenity is defined as “the state of being calm, peaceful, untroubled”. I felt that this picture of some baby goats playing on a small stool embodied this definition very well. They all seem so happy and carefree. For the picture’s composition, I focused on centering the stool and having the subjects (the goats) revolve around it. I also tried to incorporate the rule of odds as well, so I picked a photo with three main subjects. When editing the photo, I also tried to make it brighter and more vibrant to continue the theme of serenity.

I chose this photo for the No Filter prompt because I felt that, while almost every photograph looks better with some editing, this one really symbolized and represented the problems with photos before editing. There are some minor issues with the contrast and overall exposure – if I were to edit it I would try to make the main subject (the dog) less bright, and increase contrast and vibrance in the background. I think the No Filter prompt is very important in showing the audience that photographs are basically never perfect right away – they require some work before they are ready to be published.

For this photograph, I tried to capture an eerie picture of a neighboring house that has a gate in front of their long driveway. I used this to depict the theme of anonymity because they are so far away from the street, from the public, hidden away. I also used Photoshop to make the area behind the gate black and white, which I thought was a nice touch to add to the eeriness. I also made selections around the black and white area to make a more gradual ascent into color. For composition, there is a lot of repetition and leading lines within the gate’s pattern, as well as rule of thirds, as the center of the gate and the right side of it are both on the vertical third lines.

This photo is of some trash reminiscent of a holiday tradition that was slightly different this year because of a certain global pandemic. Normally my family celebrates Christmas with family members coming to our house, but obviously that could not happen this year. I desaturated color from the photo a bit because I wanted this to have a more sad tone, because basically everyone missed out on a lot of good things happening this holiday season.

I think Black and White photography is an underused tool that can definitely be used to an advantage in many situations. Most people realize that color brings a lot to a photograph, but don’t understand how the lack of color can actually deepen the meaning or tone of the photo. In this case, I really liked both color and black and white versions of the photos I was taking, but I decided that black and white was better for this photograph.

In this photo, I used a fast shutter speed to freeze my brothers hands and a baseball that he was tossing into the air. I think it shows that the ball is weightless, as it looks like it is floating. Metaphorically, I think the concept of weightlessness is very complex and interesting, as it can represent things like freedom or carelessness, which are very heavy, complicated subjects.