Category: Inspiration

This prompt was by far the most open ended out of the ones we have been assigned so far, giving us a very broad subject to photograph, which forced me to really think about unique ways to depict the way I interact with water on a day to day basis. This photo was shot on the ledge above my family’s kitchen sink, where a small puddle tends to form when water sprays erratically from the tap (most often when we are washing dishes). The glass on the upper left side of the composition is our glass measuring cup, which I use when I need to measure liquids (typically water) when I’m baking. Out of all of the forms and types of water I could have chosen to photograph, I chose this because of how mundane it was. It is one of the kinds of things that you could walk by every single day and not notice until you take the time to observe it specifically. By photographing something so ordinary, I wanted to reflect that the beauty of water doesn’t just reside in ornate fountains and massive waterfalls, but also in the small, repeated moments that shape our everyday routines.

50mm, 1/125, F5.6, ISO 800

This composition is of a wooden dresser at my Grandparent’s house, and depicts a quilt she made, as well as a family photo (tucked behind the vases). The nature of the composition is actually the reason behind my choices for white balance. In the original photo, which was taken with the auto white balance setting on, the light from the lamp came of as kind of green and sickly, which I didn’t really feel was representative of the emotions and feelings I associated with the subject matter. That is why I made the white balance much warmer in the final photo. I felt it (especially with how exaggerated it is) really gave a homely and cozy vibe to the photo, better represented how warm and comforting my Grandparent’s house is to me. Overall, I think changing the white balance helped me tell the story I wanted to tell.

The mood I wanted to reflect in this photo is being at peace. The day I shot this photo, I had just gotten back a good grade on a test I was stressed about, and was very happy. But I didn’t want to just reflect happiness in my photo, because what I was experiencing was less about being happy about the specific grade and more about feeling relieved that there was no longer this impending grade hanging over my head. I chose this composition, with a primarily empty frame, because I thought the clear blue sky (devoid of clouds) was very representative of my lack of worries. The tree is a very yellowish green, which was an intentional choice meant to play off of color associations of yellow (such as happiness). Its placement in the lower corner serves to anchor the composition, while keeping most of the frame open, reinforcing that sense of spaciousness and mental clarity. The minimal composition strips away visual clutter just as I felt my mind being cleared of stress, creating a parallel between the simplicity of the image and the simplicity of that peaceful moment.