Category: Composition

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.

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.

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!

Looking at this image gives me “Into the Woods” vibes. 龙龙’s green eye perfectly matches the color of the leaf blades, while his dark hair creates an effective contrast. This viewpoint may be of a leaf on the bush, or an insect, inches from his face. I took this photo using shutter speed 1/160, aperture 5.0, and ISO 100.

A woman, her distant husband, and two teenage daughters are invited for a stay in San Diego by her altruistic older sister, who seeks to fix the gaps in this family.

That is a possible logline for a movie that I feel this photo could portray. The neutral colors of the sand and sky make the pop of green and yellow and the dark tints of skin and black clothing stand out, leading the viewer’s focus to these people. I thought it was interesting how there are three ‘groups’ of people, with a trio positioned between a man and a woman. This space makes me think of gaps within a family and possible ways the unity of the trio could spread to the people on the edge.

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I also want to share this photo of an immature (I think) seagull centered in the frame against beige sand, its form perfectly reflected beneath it.

I took a night walk along Castro last December and took many still object photos of the restaurant chairs stacked up, or chained together, awaiting the next morning. I’ve wanted to display this photo since then! These chairs, not quite aligned in a straight line, remind me of a migrating flock’s V-formation. The odd number of chairs add a sense of center and balance to the photo. I took this photo using a shutter speed of 1/60, an aperture of 2.8, and an ISO of 1600.

龙龙 follows me as I talk a walk around my neighborhood block, bouncing from yard to yard, and then disappears into a neighbor’s green hedges. Now, it’s my turn to follow.
This perspective through the hedge places his body at the top-right intersection of an imagined grid of thirds. The focus on the background – on this cat’s retreating form and the dirt and pine needles around areas he passed – creates a feeling of mysteriousness and curiosity.

Here’s another photo. 龙龙 looks especially like Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon in this view.

I love going to Filoli Gardens; it’s a great setting to take photos! And, it’s easy to find views that fill the frame with one color. Looking back on my photos, I found these three that bring me the most joy – I can remember being in the warmth and inhaling the perfumed scent of flowers.

Here is each photo by itself:

I was hesitant to walk around with my camera at the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival, worried that vendors would shoo me away for asking to take photos, but a lot of them were really generous and let me take as many as I wanted. This photo is of an artist who created Talking Thyme; her booth was full of colorful creations, including resin coasters with plants imbed in them and cutting boards made to look like ocean waves.

In order to create the symmetrical left and right faces on either side of the original, I selected one side of the photo (divided by the center line of the face), deleted it, and horizontally flipped the remaining half of the photo. Placed above a copy of the original and moved to show the other side of the face, the combination gives a semblance of a person who has a perfectly symmetrical face.

The photo was taken at shutter speed 1/256, aperture 4.5, and ISO 100.

Inside Mr. Sun’s, the lighting arrangement reminds me of Ikea’s numerous, wonderful lamp designs. Not only do the spherical lightbulbs represent an aspect of geometry, the rods holding the lightbulbs are also arranged in the shape of an open cage, as they extend downward. Overall, the light fixture resembles an interesting geometric configuration.