Semester 2 Final

For at least a couple weeks now, I have been trying to decide what to do my final on. I just couldn't quite think of one thing that I knew would turn out awesome or anything. It seemed like once I picked a project to do, I'd take a couple pictures for it and then get bored with that subject. I went from macro photography to focusing on color to silhouettes to self portraits. I couldn't decide on just one project to do. Basically what I've done is just get all the pictures that I've been taking for the past couple weeks that were originally meant for my final, and putting them all in one post. So basically there isn't one specific subject here, but rather a picture or two from each idea I had for my final.

Macro
These are a few of the first photos I started taking for my final, I was just trying to get ideas of what I could do.

Original



I soon realized, well crap I did macro for my final last semester. Because of the colors in this photo, it actually sparked my idea to do pictures focusing on color for my final.


Original


Color
I had been browsing around on deviant art and I found this picture http://browse.deviantart.com/photography/?qh=&section=&q=red+lips#/d2e8td4
Red is my favorite color, and I really liked the simplicity of this shot while at the same time the red stood out dramatically.
This was the first photo I took for what I thought would be my "color" project. I basically loved how the red stood out so much in this picture, so I thought I'd take other photos where colors stood out.


However, I just ended up just spending a lot of time on these photos and didn't get around to any other colors. That and I just honestly got bored with this project as well.


Silhouettes
http://digital-photography-school.com/5-fun-weekend-photography-projects-part-2
I got the idea for silhouettes off this website. This was someting new to me, I didn't know how to take them until I read about it on that site. I was kind of stumped at first, trying to think of where I could even shoot good silhouettes. I figured I'd go to honeysuckle and give it a shot. I found that as the sun was setting, the water made for a perfect background for silhouette pictures.

The trick to them is to have a fast shutter speed with a light background and there shouldn't be much light shining on the subject. I'm pretty happy with how these ones turned out.

I also figured that silhouettes didn't just have to be a person, so I took a few of the trees. I cropped this one because there was just a bunch of empty space above it.


Self Portrait
http://digital-photography-school.com/self-portrait-photography-tips
On that page, the first photo inspired me to do this project. It's a picture of a man in front of a mirror brushing his teeth, and in the reflection in the mirror, he is tying his tie. I thought it was a pretty sweet concept, so I figured I'd try.
I put my camera on my tripod and set it for self timer with continuous shots.

I chose these two photos as the best out of the bunch.


Then.. I opened them in photoshop. I used layers and put the photo of me brushing my hair on top of the other. I then used the eraser tool and in the mirror reflection, I erased until the image of me putting on makeup appered. It was a pretty simple project, but I really like how it turned out.


Although this final project wasn't exactly organized in any way, I'm happy with everything I ended up doing. I learned how to take silhouette shots which I'm really stoked about and will definitely be taking more of those. One thing that I learned about myself after this entire class is that I really can't stick to one subject. I'm constantly changing my mind and wanting to do something better and different. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing as far as being a photographer goes, but I think it keeps it exciting, and it works for me.

Camera Obscura

http://www.abelardomorell.net/photography/cameraobsc_01/cameraobsc_01.html

Abelardo Morell was my inspiration for this project, basically his stuff is amazing. I really wanna be able to get some shots like that someday

On Wednesday I made a camera obscura in my room
I covered both of my windows with black garbage bags and cut a small square in one of them

This was my setup. Just used my tripod with a 30 second shutter speed WHICH SUCKED
I tried it on bulb but my hand on the shutter was too unsteady and messed up the picture
Anyways, these are my results
very noisy because my iso was at 1600, the only way i could get enough light with 30 seconds

Muddy Butt Races '10

On Sunday I went over to good ol' St. Maries Idaho for the muddy butt races, which are tag team endur-o cross races. Teams of two compete against each other in different divisions. Each team mate does the track 3 times, equalling about 30 miles all together, it's pretty intense stuff. My friends Tyler and Cody got first place in the lightweight division, and came in 45 minutes before anyone else in their division.

I thought it would be a good chance to get some action shots as well as capture some emotions.

This is right before Tyler left for his first lap, I like how guy in front of him looks like he is saying good luck, I thought I captured a pretty good moment right there.

These are just a few ones I got of Tyler as he was coming to the end of his first lap. On the second picture I used a photoshop action called urban acid, basically it messes with the color curves and a couple other things. I just thought it went well with the subject of the picture.






I really like how two racers are pretty much in the exact same position doing the same thing in this shot.




Right when the guys come back from doing a lap, they all have the same expression. It's really weird because all you can see through their helmet is their eyes but they always have the same look of exhaustion, and almost worry or fear in their eyes.