Out of all four elements, I feel like fire is the only one I don’t have a connection to. I don’t really find myself moved by fire that often, so I wanted to challenge myself by using fire and my subject. I don’t know if it’s particularly moving, but I’m actually really happy with how this turned out. I’m very satisfied leaving this as my last photo blog for the semester.
I found this spot randomly while walking through downtown Mountain View with my brothers. I thought it looked really cool and I liked how the two vibrant wall sections on the side contrast to the muddier colors of the middle.
I grew up with Massachusetts winters, so the prospect of having what I would normally call “autumn leaves” in the middle of December is very strange to me. Nevertheless, I’ve come to accept the out-of-whack Mountain View weather, so I wanted to capture some of that out-of-place-ness in this photo.
When I think about gratitude, I think about the people in my life, and the person I most often feel the most grateful for is my little brother, Ronan. Despite being four years apart, we’re basically like twins. He understands me better than most people, and I love hanging out with him. He’s my best friend in the whole world and I am always grateful to have him in my life.
We had the same rule of thirds prompt last year, so I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it this time around. The added prompt of “emotion” made it a little easier to choose what I wanted to do, but I’m not sure how well that came across in this picture. The two green trees on the side help emphasize the wilting one in the center. I think that the tree in the center on its own is a little sad to me, because all the other trees look so full and green.
For whatever reason, the first thing that came to mind when I thought of “color” was this metal art piece behind City Hall in downtown Mountain View. It’s on the way to the library, so I see it every time I walk over there, and I’ve always really liked it. I still like the original colored version of the photo, but the black and white turned out nice as well in my opinion.
Although there are a lot of people who inspire me, for this photo I decided to capture my dad. He’s someone who will do anything and everything for the people he loves and cares about. When he’s passionate about something, he pours his entire self into it, which is something I strive to do. I took this photo of him outside in the garden, where he works everyday on bonsai and his other plants. He’s a very weird guy (in a good way), and I love him very, very much.
The prompt for this week was pretty open ended, so I ended up choosing a picture of this building on Castro Street. I really liked the way that all the windows looked in the frame, so I thought it fit pretty well. That being said, I kind of hate this building, because as you can see, there is a panel with slimmer windows than the rest of them, but it is slightly off center and it bugs me to pieces every time I see it.
This prompt called for friends and family, but lucky for me, those mean the same thing! That sentiment may be a little corny, but my family and I are all really close and I’m so grateful for that. My mom, Annie, passed away when I was 10, but I wanted to make sure she was still in the picture with us, so I had my little brother hold up a photo of her. When I was 13, my brother, my dad, and I all moved to Mountain View to move in with my dad’s girlfriend, Elina, and since then, the five of us have all been together. I feel really lucky to be a part of such a happy blended family!
I was struggling with this prompt at first, mostly because I think that habits are hard to realize if they’re your own, but then I realized that as I was thinking, I was twirling my curls around my fingers, something I admittedly do fairly often. At first I tried taking the picture using a piece of hair currently on my head, but it was a little too hard, so I decided instead to use an old strand that I cut off last year when my hair was dyed. Using the camera with one hand was tricky, and looking back, there were probably more time efficient ways to have taken this photo, but I still think it turned out alright.