Category: Inspiration

I was inspired by how the reflection of light off this building highlighted the intricate architecture and stone detailing. On its own, the building is somewhat interesting, but the added sharpness of the reflecting sun truly draws the viewer’s eyes to the different details in the structure. From the stained glass windows to the columns and ornate railings, the high-contrast light and shadow bring out the small features you otherwise would have missed.

For the prompt of serenity, my goal was to photograph peacefulness and the feeling of being untroubled. My experience in Japan, specifically at the Osaka Castle, was very reminiscent of these feelings. Traveling to a country I had never been to before and exploring cities without the weight of school or daily life pressures made me feel a kind of serenity I hadn’t experienced in a long time. While not the typical image associated with being at peace and untroubled, this photo captures my experience of serenity.

The prompt of golden hour inspired me to capture the feeling of this time of day in my photograph. To me, the warm glow of golden hour feels nostalgic because it reminds me of my childhood, playing outside right before the sun goes down. To photograph this feeling, I wanted to find a place where the sun would make the entire place glow. At this location, I liked the way the sun bounced off the water and created a lens flare as, for some reason, it reminds me a lot more of childhood.

Given the prompt of eyes, I found inspiration in the eyes of the young. When you are young, you are seeing the world for the first time, and from a perspective different from anyone else. I think the idea of building your own perspective based on your own experiences and what you see is a beautiful concept. The photograph I landed on to capture this concept is one I took of a baby deer looking at its surrounding world with youthful wonder.

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.

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.

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.