Author: lucyw

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Photo Blog Twenty-Four: Tell a Lie

Shriya, my ‘little sister’ from badminton

Over spring break, I got to know fellow teammates through the impromptu badminton socials that we held! We brought racquets and birds, basketballs, frisbee, a soccer ball, and even decks of cards to do a variety of different activities. This photo, taken at an aperture of 4.6, shutter speed 1/320, and ISO 100, is a memento of our social at Jose Antonio Vargas Elementary School. I think it relates to the prompt of “telling a lie through the camera” as a result of combining several different elements that normally are seen in different niches in society. The marked grass field in the background suggests athleticism. The subject is holding a Rubik’s cube, which is associated with brainiacs and intellect. Her outfit resembles what teens might wear on a beach day to a party. This photo shows the “lie” that these elements can’t exist together in one person to be true in real life, which combats the stereotyped social barriers. Finally, this photo is also compositionally interesting because the background consists of two separate halves of different colors: green tones and gray.

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Photo Blog Twenty-Three: Leading Lines in Food

Farmers’ Market: rainbow chard

My friend and I visited the Farmers’ Market one weekend; while he took samples, I took photos! I was taken by the vibrant colors of this bundle of rainbow chard; its texture and shape cause it to almost look like the surface of string cheese when it’s partly eaten from the horizontal. The lines on the vegetable lead out of the frame, toward the top and right of the view, seeming to connect to the red veins on the leaves of the vegetable.

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Photo Blog Twenty-Two: Stranger

A child at play; Bubb Park

Taking photos of people in their natural element is great fun! It’s usually a little awkward to capture detailed close-ups, especially focusing on natural facial expressions, without having the subject notice it, but this photo blog prompt was the perfect opportunity to have fun while going incognito as a photographer. This child was playing in the sandpit with his plastic dinosaur when I was sitting in the grass close by. Lying low on the grass and holding my camera close to ground level allowed me to capture a straight, centered view of the little boy. I think this photo also encapsulates the sense of curiosity and fun that everyone experiences to the greatest level as a child and must fight to maintain as they grow older. I took this photo using an aperture of 1.8, ISO 100, and shutter speed 1/320, using the Cloudy white balance.

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Photo Blog Twenty-One: Serenity

Someone’s happy backyard

I think sunlight always helps to create a calm, happier ambience. Nothing is more peaceful for me than sitting on a tree branch high up and feeling all the warmth shining down. This photo captures my mood in this scenario. The chairs seem empty, but the brightness creates an inviting environment that ensures they won’t stay empty.

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Photo Blog Twenty: Rule of Odds

Candlelight on a fish menorah

This photo applies the rule of odds in a doubled sense. There is a total number of seven candles in this photo, and they are sorted into three groups at the left, center, and right positions, which have an odd number of candles each. When I look at the photo, my attention is caught by the group of candles in the center, while the other groups create a nice balance. It’s interesting how the leftmost candle is positioned at a higher level than the rest, balancing the slanted angle of the menorah.





Here is another photo that I wanted to share!

Dancing streams of droplets in a fountain

This photo was taken with a shutter speed of 1/500, an aperture of 5.6, and ISO of 100. I was walking by a fountain after having gotten my first interview recording for the profile documentary project, and my attention was caught by the streams of water shooting up from the fountain’s edges. Water is always great fun to photograph, especially experimenting with different shutter speeds. There are three strands of droplets falling by gravity, about to be swallowed by the black holes below.

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Photo Blog Nineteen: Aging

A Green Foothills event at Coyote Valley

It was sweet seeing this couple’s display of affection throughout the event. This elderly couple reminds me of the couple mentioned in Alec Benjamin’s song, If We Have Each Other (check it out!). The photo is also compositionally interesting by displaying the rule of odds in the three picnic blankets spread out across the hill. I took this photo using the following settings: an aperture of 2.6, ISO of 100, and shutter speed of 1/1600. I then edited original photo in Photoshop using a multiply blend mode at 64% opacity.

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Photo Blog Eighteen: NoFilter

A classmate (Kayla) wrote her haiku about photo filters and “liquid gold”. This is the phrase I thought about when I saw the gorgeous golden light at Palo Alto Baylands during a short solo trip to destress. This photo is unedited, showing the natural reflected light filtered only by my hand in the corner blocking the blinding rays of whiter light. The showing of the hand, slightly blurred at the edges but solid, is one of my favorite components of this photo among many.

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Photo Blog Seventeen: Negative Space

Hikers walking toward a lone tree at Rancho San Antonio

This photo, nearly centering around the tree, shows a balance between the negative space offered by the sky and atmosphere, and the solid subject of the grassy hills, the lone tree, and distant masses of darker trees.

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Photo Blog Sixteen: Shadow

Hiker girl; Las Uvas Canyon county park

Through this photo, I hope to share the experience of a hiker. The girl is hunched over, looking up to face the stretch of hillward slopes she has yet to traverse. I was surprised by the clarity of her facial features and the shape of her ponytail that the image was able to capture.

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Photo Blog Fifteen: Anonymous

On the Bay Trail along the airport, next to Tom Sarge Field.

I meant to take a photo of my mom at the far right, but including this family of four (five, if you count the dog!) complete strangers in the photo made for a much more interesting composition. I like how while the viewpoint is held in a fixed alignment with the man at the center, there are other figures that draw your attention and place your focus over a flexible range. There is an element of one-point perspective along the path, leading to someplace behind my mom’s head. All of the subjects’ faces are turned in the opposite direction, which together with the monochrome style creates anonymity.