Epitome of Summer

So I completely failed at the DAILY part of this photo project... But I'm not going to give up all together. From now on, I'm going to try to do at the very least a WEEKLY photo. If I have inspiration in between, I'll share those photos, too.

This one is from an Iowa Cubs game on a beautiful Saturday evening in Des Moines. Can you think of a picture that represents a good 'ole summer evening any better? I think I've mentioned it once or twice... but I love the city I live in. (Click on the photo to enlarge and get the full effect of the panorama.)

Census 2010

Sorry for my absence in posts lately... I've been crazy busy with work and life.

There's been lots going on, but nothing I've felt compelled to blog about.

Until now.

This is probably one of the most exciting things that's happened to me of late...

the 2010 Census.

It's not that the census is the most exciting thing of all time. It's just that I feel that I'm participating in history or doing my civic duty. The census is only taken once a decade, and this is my first chance to fill it out.

Last week, we got a letter from the Census Bureau, and I thought it was the actual census. Nope. It was a letter warning us that we were going to receive the real deal in a week or so. I was so excited that I warned my roomie to not even THINK about filling out the Census, because I was doing it.

The act of filling out the census wasn't even that exciting... I answered a few basic questions, and I was done. Whoop-dee-doo... Oh well... civic duty and all that, right?

On a final note, I think the Census 2010 commercials have been very good. I've heard a good one on the radio about towns not having enough teachers and stoplights. I've also seen some good ones on TV. I think they evoke a sense of responsibility... at least they did for me!

January 19 - Side-tracked

About the photo:

On my way back to Des Moines today, I was again noticing the pretty surroundings. It wasn't as foggy today as it was yesterday, and since there was also more daylight and it was less dangerous than taking pictures WHILE driving, I said "what the hay?" and decided to stop for a photo adventure.

I pulled onto a side road right before Atlantic, Iowa, and got out of my car to take a few photos. I started with the tree you see below on the right. The ice hanging on it was beautiful! Then I moved up the road a little and took a few more shots. The one below on the left is one I thought was funny and ironic because it shows the dirty snow that's never shown in pictures, but always comes with this weather!

Assessment:

• Color: Or lack thereof... I love the whiteness of this picture.
• Contrast: The branches against the white sky are really cool!
• Horizon: The fence on the horizon line is kind of eerie.
• Composition: Of course... the rule of thirds!

January 18 - Snowstorm

About the photo:

Okay, so I know it's bad to try to take pictures while driving in a snowstorm.... BUT it was so pretty, and I just couldn't resist. This photo was taken on my drive to my hometown, Clarinda, on MLK, Jr. Day. The roads weren't really too bad (so don't yell at me too much), but there was quite a bit of fog, and it made my surroundings looks so magical. I took these with my small Canon PowerShot, and because I was focusing on the road, I didn't even really look at the camera while I shot the picture. This shot was my favorite of about 15 that I took.

Assessment:

• Composition: I love the composition of this picture. The passenger-side door kind of acts as a frame, and I really like the reflection you see in the mirror. The main focus of the photo is in the center of the image, but I like how the ground acts as an anchor and the tree limbs extend up, almost vanishing into the foggy sky.
• Color: I enjoy that this photo is almost monochrome in a blueish-gray shade.

January 16 - Doorway

About the photo:

Props go out to my SCI coworker Aimee for seeing this sweet shot! We were having dinner at Bon Thai in the East Village. We noticed that the light coming through the door from the street cast a cool shadow on the wall.

Assessment:

• The most obvious element to this photo is the effect created by shadow. The light coming in from the street made it so the backwards text was readable against the wall.
• Although it's not intentional, there is kind of a color tint to this shot -- it's very green-yellow. I think it kind of gives it an antique feel.
• The last subtle element in this photo is the lines. I shot the picture at an angle, so the strong lines of the door frame and the shadow shape the picture and the lines create a nice dramatic effect.

My apologies.

So it turns out, this daily blogging thing is a little more difficult than I anticipated it would be.

I apologize and will try to do better with keeping up-to-date!

January 12 - Snow & Screen

About the photo:

Taken from the top floor of my office building toward the parking lot. Nothing too fancy here.

Assessment:

• There's nothing really too technical to talk about with this picture... I like the focus on the screen. I'm getting a little artsy here, but it could kind of say that the gross snowy scene outside is trapping us, making us stay indoors.

January 10 - Menagerie

About the photo:

If you didn't see yesterday's post, I have been house-sitting at my aunt and uncle's house this weekend. Their house sits on the banks of a river, and it's sooo pretty. Before, I've only house-sat during the summer, but I got to see how pretty it is during the winter too!

My aunt is very picky about her animals... she has four garbage cans full of bird seed in her garage, and she left me very specific instructions about feeding them. This morning, I woke up and filled all of the feeders per her instructions. Then a few hours later, I saw two deer, about fifteen pheasants and a few handfuls of other birds outside! It was really amazing!

Assessment:

• Color: (Or lack thereof.) I decided to turn this photo to monochrome because I felt like the color really didn't enhance the photo at all -- especially because the palate was pretty bland anyway with the white snow and brown trees and animals. As a black and white image, the trees and the animals really stand out against the background.
• Lines: I like the visual effect created by the trees. It adds a little interest to the photo in a vertical way.
• Chaos: There were a lot of unplanned elements in this photo... namely, the animals. I was just shooting rapidly to try to get a good picture, but I kind of like the chaos of the animals all roaming around.
• I wish you could see the deer a little better... I tried some more zoomed shots, but I liked being able to see the whole scene. Oh well, I guess you win some and lose some!
• I didn't really capture the depth of the scene either. The yard has several terraces, so the deer is much further down than some of the pheasants in the foreground. The perspective is a little off because of that.

January 9 - Perfect shot!

About the photo:

The title for this post doesn't reflect the actual quality of the photo... it's not my favorite or perfect by any means!

I'm house-sitting at my aunt and uncle's house this weekend. My uncle is a big pool player, so I thought it would be fun to take some shots of the table and balls in the cool natural light. Yep, that's about it!

Assessment:

• Over-exposure: The original photos taken on the automatic setting were a little boring, so I switched it to manual and adjusted the shutter speed to about 3/4 of a second -- meaning the shutter would stay open for that long. I like that the white edges of the balls almost fade away into the bright natural light on the table.
• Depth of field: There's not too much depth of field in respect to the aperture of the photo, but I do like the depth you get from the cue ball being in the background.
• Shadow: I probably could have done more with the shadows in this shot, but I do like the shadow cast by the cue ball in the top of the photo.
• Other than that, there's not much going on here...

January 7 - Oops!

About the picture:

Ahhh!!! Taking this picture today is why I started this 365 project!! Today on my snow day, I was sitting around in my PJs until noon and realized that the natural light bouncing off the snow would be really pretty to shoot. I grabbed my camera and the nearest model, my roommate's cat Sugar.

The pictures started off more as "glamour shots" (shown below), and they were nice and all. I was having fun doing macro photography and focusing on her eyes. But at one point, Sugar was sitting on the coffee-table with her back to the light. My camera was on automatic, so I flipped open the flash to compensate for the backlight, and started to shoot. One time, the flash didn't fire, and I almost deleted what I thought was a dark picture right then and there... but when I opened it up on my computer, I was so surprised to find my photo of the day!

Assessment:

I think it's obvious by now that I LOVE this picture. Let's see if I can explain why...

• First of all, I think I love this photo because it was unexpected. I love when you do something great on accident. It shows me that it's okay to not be in control ALL the time! Sometimes, mistakes can be wonderful!
• Adjustments: Cropping this photo might have been the biggest adjustment I made -- it defined the white versus black that you see in the picture. I also increased the exposure, making the black/white distinction a little stronger.
• Contrast: The contrast in this photo is obvious. The entire picture plays off of the black versus white element.
• Lighting: This is probably my favorite aspect of the shot. I knew the backlighting would make the cat be too dark, but I didn't anticipate the silhouette that was caused by it. And it's amazing! Her whole shape can be very clearly outlined by against the black background. At the same time, no features on her front side are discernable.
• Balance: The last thing I love about this photo is the balance. Besides the obvious division of black and white sides, I think the overall balance is really enhanced by her tail (still in silhouette) stretching over into the white side. It's just perfect!

January 6 - Ice Formations

About the photo:

I took this photo on my lunch break today... at Culver's. Water from the top of the building was obviously dripping down into the bush causing these crazy icicles. There was a better clump of ice in the same bush, but I didn't get a good shot of it. Bummer!

Assessment:

• I was kind of disappointed with this picture because of the cars in the background. I took this photo from inside the restaurant and wanted to try to take more outside (to avoid the background cars), but I ran out of time and had to go back to work.
• In order to make the icicles stand out, I really cranked up the contrast. I also made slight adjustments to the highlights, saturation and sharpness.
• Finally, I added a little bit of edge blur to push the focus toward the center of the picture.

January 4, 2010 - Reconstructing

About the photo:

This photo was taken while I was in the Netherlands as one of our photography assignments. The assignment was to find an object or scene to reconstruct using multiple images. It could either be a realistic reconstruction or a creative one.

Here's my result:

Assessment:

• This project was very interesting because it made me think outside of my normal "photography comfort zone."
• I loved the car from the start because I felt it had a great character. In the reconstruction, I tried to enhance that character. Being stretched out makes the car unique and whimsical.
• It was hard to visualize the end result when I was shooting the car. I tried from all sorts of angles and probably took 25-30 pictures of it. My final piece used 8-10 of those pictures.

January 3 - Portrait

To start off my Photo 365 Project, I chose this portrait of myself from my trip to the Netherlands last summer.

About the photo:

This photo was taken at the Municipal Museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The basement of the museum was a experimental design where the exhibits were interactive and modern.

Assessment:

• Contrast: The red coloring is not a photo enhancement, the room itself was red with red lighting. I like the contrast in the photo - between the reds, whites and blacks.
• Balance: The space between myself and the lamp adds an interesting balance effect.
• Lighting: The light from the lamp also adds interest on the walls.
• Vignette: I added a vignette to the photo to make it a little more mysterious.

365 Project

One of my 2010 resolutions is to start a 365 Photo Project -- posting one photo each day of 2010.

As you can see, my resolution is getting a little bit of a late start... today is January 3. But I'll do a little catch up, and call it even! =)

I still need to decide if I will use photos I take on that day, photos I already have, or a combination of the two. I would love to be able to use new material each day, but I don't know if that's really feasible. That's why I'm considering the combination...

I'm going to try to keep the storytelling to a minimum, and focus on the technique and process of the pictures. We'll see how that goes!

Will I really be able to keep with this? I don't know, but that's the "project" aspect of this adventure.

Enjoy, and as always, feel free to comment on my photos!