Keep on striding.
My stepfather isn’t a fan of casinos or Las Vegas, but when we took our trip to the Grand Canyon, we visited this casino to see the sights. Inside, I looked up to see these glass flower creations decorating the ceiling of the casino’s lobby. Putting aside the negatives of Las Vegas, I think of these colorful creations as representing the diverse innovations we will develop with time. I took this photo using a shutter speed of 1/60, an aperture of 2.5, and an ISO of 400.
With my parents, I hiked on a trail at the Grand Canyon over the spring break in April. We didn’t have time to go all the way down, but I hope to go back one day and reach the river deltas at the bottom. On the way back up the trail, this view from within a limestone archway reminded me of this photo blog prompt.
This is my current portrait photo showing how I believe others see me. Most friends and classmates usually see me in a mask and being a little stressed out. My forearms are shiny with sweat in this photo, which connects with how my teammates see me as a hardworking badminton player. This photo was taken by my friend Kira at a shutter speed of 1/400, aperture of 2.0, and ISO of 1600, in sports mode.
Below is another photo of me that a badminton teammate took using Freestyle’s DSLR camera.
This scene was from a weekend where my parents and I were preparing a feast of dishes for my aunt and uncle coming over. I find it interesting how the focus is on the plates rather than as one might expect it to be on the people. This photo was taken at shutter speed 1/60, aperture 3.2, and ISO 800.
I created the light effects in these photos by using a “sunrise projector” (a glass orb encased in a round plastic piece, with a rainbow filter in it) and shining its rays through a colander from my kitchen. The translucent sphere that the light spots are shone upon is a blue glass ornament that I found in my cabinet.
This photo above shows how I imagine a disco-dancing floor to look.
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I also want to share this photo below: I created it by holding up a photo of toddler me in a tree within a popsicle stick frame to be reflected in the sunset projector when it was displaying no light.
Hairspray oil is a product that my mom uses often, so I wanted to create an advertisement-quality photo for it. I want to try to add on some text in the blank foreground space to the left so as to include some central persuasion selling the product. The color of the sunlight is my favorite component of the image. I took this photo in a wooden cabin in Arizona!
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Arguably, we can’t live comfortably without lotion, so I also took this monochrome photo as an advertisement for hand cream! I thought the small candle and the flattened leaves propped between it and the cream’s packaging were interesting accessories to augmenting the nature aspect of the product.
Current events in my life include cold rain and badminton games.
I captured the photo the tulips heavy with dew using a shutter speed of 1/1000, an aperture of 4.0, and an ISO of 100 during a weekend trip to Filoli Gardens.
The game photo was taken by my friend and teammate Kira in the sports mode at a shutter speed of 1/400, aperture of 1.8, and ISO of 1250. Technically photo blogs are supposed to be original photos, but I wanted to include her photo because it includes two of the best people I’ve come to know through the team. I’m wishing them to have the best moments in their senior year!
Inspired by creative-staged photos in which the subject is posed as a fruit ninja, I asked my stepdad to wield his gardening saw as if he were slicing through an orange dropping from our neighbor’s tree. I stuck chopsticks into cut halves of one such orange and my mom helped me to hold them up as I took photos. I Photoshopped out the chopsticks and also created revealing masks over images where the orange pulp was in greater focus so that both they and my subject were in focus. Next time, I will try pouring water over fruit props to share a greater sense of their juicyness!
Sunlight penetrating the thick sides of a glass bowl cast a rainbow belt onto my backyard deck. With the shamrock-green glass next to it, placed upon the weathered wood that represents with Earth and nature, I’m reminded of leprechauns and stories about their pots of gold hidden at the ends of rainbows. Of course, the stories share of humans that seek to steal those riches and generally what doesn’t belong to them. In this way, my photo symbolizes the deadly sin of greed.
I’m two years out of taking lessons, but piano won’t stop being part of my soul. During the Ski Week break, I’ve had time to dig out some of my favorite pieces from years prior and try my hands at them again. Each circle and reminder I scribbled down are marks of my journey in learning this piece. This photo was taken at a shutter speed of 1/60, an aperture of 2.2, and ISO of 3200.