Author: mirat

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Water

Large ripples in body of water caused by swimming ducks, sunset reflected off water.
75-300mm, f5.0, ISO 800, 1/250

For this image, I was inspired by the concept of water and how it interacts and reacts to other forces. Water is very versatile, but I liked the idea of photographing it on a larger scale, as in a larger body of water such as the one depicted. When I was shooting in the Baylands Nature Preserve, I loved the way the ripples caused by the ducks interacted with and bounced off each other. In my final image, I was able to capture large ripples coming off of one duck along with less prominent ripples from other ducks and objects. The added reflection of the sunset on the water’s surface makes the ripples more visible, and the overall image illustrates the concept of the ripple effect of differing forces upon each other.

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Balance in Holiday Traditions

Christmas present wrapped in "merry" wrapping paper with red bell, gold ribbons, and sticker tag.
50mm, f3.0, ISO 320, 1/64

To illustrate a holiday tradition that my family has, I took a photograph of one of our wrapped Christmas presents. A simple holiday tradition in my family has always been to open wrapped Christmas presents on Christmas morning. For this prompt, I decided to photograph a present that was wrapped in a way creating balance. The bell in the top left corner and the sticker in the bottom right create balance due to their similar red color and positioning. The addition of the gold ribbons adds to the asymmetrical balanced composition. Overall, the photograph is composed in a way that draws attention through the usage of balance.

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White Balance

Two images of a candle shown side by side, left is colored normally, right has a prominent orange cast.
50mm, f4.0, ISO 800, 1/256

My goal with these photos was to use a different white balance setting to change the overall mood and tone of the photograph. In the photo on the left, I used auto white balance to show what the composition looked like in real life. On the right, after experimenting with different settings I changed the white balance to shade, which gave all the colors of the image a more orange cast. This makes it feel more warm and cozy, as opposed to the original which appears somewhat cold and uninviting.

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Sunset

Up close photo of an eye with a reflection of a sunset across half of the iris.
105mm, f5.0, ISO 800, 1/256

In this photograph, I was challenged with capturing a sunset in a creative way. As I have always loved watching sunsets, I was set on finding a way to depict the act of watching a sunset in the photo. I landed on the concept of photographing the reflection of a sunset in an eye because it would do exactly that, and add more interest into the image. During the shoot, finding the proper angle that would allow for the sunset to be seen across a major portion of the iris posed a significant challenge, but with some trial and error the final shot turned out just how I had hoped.

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Sports Story

Side profile of man looking at an implied screen outside the frame, man has intense, focused stare.
50mm, f3.0, ISO 3200, 1/128

With this photo my intention was to capture the intensity of people’s passion for watching sports and their loyal commitment to their teams. Using my dad as the model, I had him pose to look as though he was watching a sports game of his favorite team on the television. Taking inspiration from his own affinity for Michigan college football, I was able to tell the story of dedication to and the feeling of investment in a sports team as a fan.

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Symmetry Landscape

Landscape image depicting sky and body of water, with vegetation in between -- four trees lined up on horizon equally spaced apart.
75-300mm, f5.0, ISO 100, 1/256

In this image, I photographed subtle symmetry in a natural landscape. While exploring the Baylands Nature Preserve, I was originally looking for perfect symmetry using the reflections of the environment in the water. However, I quickly found that exact symmetry is not as interesting to look at as subtle symmetry, which is noticeable but doesn’t take away from the composition itself. This photo has implications of both translational symmetry as it depicts four repeated trees, and reflectional symmetry because the left and right sides of the photo are mirror images of each other.

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Mood

Mira sitting at a desk, back facing to camera with hands on her head and extending out doing multiple activities.
24mm, f4.3, ISO 100, 30″

This photograph illustrates the feelings of anxiety and stress I was having the day I shot it. I felt extremely overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to complete, and figured that would be an interesting concept to make into a photo. I created clutter on the desk to demonstrate all the things I had to do, and how chaotic my mind felt. This shot was difficult to take as I had to get the timing of the long exposure right so all the things I was doing would show up, with the main focus being me in distress. In the end, once I figured out the timing, the photo turned out exactly as I had wanted.

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Self-Portrait

Photo of Mira sitting cross-legged, holding up blank canvas in front of her face
50mm, f3.0, ISO 1600, 1/64

In this self-portrait, I captured my anxiety and insecurity of not knowing who I want to be without displaying my face. While I am only sixteen, it can be scary seeing how many of my peers seem to already be figuring out their lives, and I wanted to capture the fear of an unknown future in a photograph. I used an empty canvas to symbolize my undefined sense of self; a blank slate waiting to be filled. I struggled with trying to figure out how I wanted to tie in the blank canvas. Whether that be me turned away from the camera, looking at the canvas or what I ended up using, which had the canvas covering my face, but me pointed at the camera. In the end, I think the shot I was able to get emulates the concept I was originally aiming for.