Framing

This week my other task was to collect at least five shots that represent framing. This was easier said than done, while still producing what I consider quality work. Over the span of the week though, I feel like I captured at least five quality shots. I also played around with the settings in Picasa a bit just for fun. I will include those photos, along with the originals.

                                                 The Old Mill

This old Mill in Johnson is located near a covered bridge, which I attempted to use to frame my shot. I really like the way the tree leaves hang down over the bridge. I really wished the tree branch partially covering the mill wasn't in the way, but there was no way to get to it to move it, and this angle was pretty much the only one I could capture from below the bridge without a waterproof camera!

 

 

These next two shots were taken from inside the bridge, using the different shaped windows to try to frame the shot.

 

 

Plot Hill Cemetery:

While trying to capture shots for my rule of thirds entry, I snapped this one through the front gate of the cemetery to capture a framed picture of the stones. I wasn't entirely happy with the way this one turned out, but it was hard to fit the gate and both posts into the frame and capture the stones at the same time.

 

Main Street Cemetery:

I used two three Grave stones in another cemetery to frame a shot of these monoliths.
 

Flowers:

The old fence surrounding my yard makes a good frame for a picture of one of my flower gardens!

 

Color Edits:

While I was fiddling with Picasa, I messed with the colors a bit on a few of my shots. I realize this wasn't part of the assignment, but I liked the look of them, so I decided to share what I came up with! By using the Focal black and white tool, you can add areas of color to a black and white photo. I thought these two looked pretty neat!

 

The rule of Thirds

This week I practiced the Rule of thirds.
The rule of thirds basically breaks a picture into an imaginary grid with 9 boxes. The object of the rule of thirds is to place the subject of the photo on one of the lines instead of centering it. By using this rule, the photographer can typically make the picture more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
This first photograph was taken by centering my subject (The large pillar stone in this cemetery)
If I add the grid, you can see that it is almost perfectly centered.

 

For my next picture I tried to use the imaginary grid to capture my subject using the rule of thirds. Since the grid is imaginary, I had a little trouble lining it up perfectly, but you can clearly see the difference between using the rule of thirds vs. centering the subject.

I had a lot of fun with the rule of thirds. I am sure with practice, I can line up my pictures better, which will lead to better photographs. Below is the original pictures without the grid, along with some other pictures I took this week trying to capture the rule of thirds.

Centered Subject

                                                Rule of Thirds



Here are some more photo's I took on my trip to the Cemetery to compare the rule of thirds:

Centered

Rule of Thirds

Centered

Rule of Thirds

 

 

And finally, here are the other pictures I took this week to try and capture the rule of thirds:

 

For these pictures of an old Mill, I tried to place the tower of the building on the imaginary grid line:

 

A bit about Austhetics

Aesthetics is defined as the appreciation of Beauty and the principles of nature. Since Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there is no written rule for what is Aesthetically pleasing in a photograph. Photographers, however, use certain rules regarding what most people find pleasing to the eye to guide them.

Composition, Color, and Lighting, all contribute to what people find pleasing to the eye. Sharpness, contrast and focus are also important. The unusualness or originality of a photograph can also make it Austhetically pleasing to the viewer. Under exposure, Over exposure, and even Double exposure have all yielded successful results in some cases to make a a picture Austhetically pleasing. General rules like "The rule of thirds" and "Framing" have been found to make a picture more Austhetically pleasing to most viewers, which is why most photographers follow these guidelines. It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with these rules of thumb, and experiment with each of them in your pictures.

At the end of the day, Austhetics really is a subjective subject however. Due to the individual likes and dislikes of people, what might seen Austhetic to some, may not to others. By experimenting with different settings and situations however, you can find that good pictures that most find Austhetically pleasing are not impossible to obtain.

For this weeks lighting assignment I tried to capture pictures of the catholic church in Underhill at various times of the day. I have always loved driving through Underhill center, it's a pretty little town. Although I don't believe the church is old, it looks rather tranquil among the farm fields!

The first photo was taken on an overcast morning. The church looks a little dark to me, and the mood of the photo makes me feel a little bland. This photo is my least favorite of the three. I should have concentrated on framing it a little better when I took it. I also don't like the single fence post in the foreground. I feel like the picture would have been better if I had used the fence to frame the bottom of the picture like I did in picture 2.

 

The second photo was taken on the same day at about noon. The sky was much clearer, and there were a few clouds in the sky. The church looks a little more cheerful to me. I tried to take this picture at a greater distance to include some of the clouds. I don't like the way the single cloud is in back of the steeple. I also tried to work on framing my subject with the trees and the fence line., which I feel worked well.

The third picture was my favorite. By the time I took this it was late afternoon, and there were a lot of shadows in the field in front of the church. To me this picture has the best feel to it. It feels a lot more tranquil then the other two, mainly because of the lighting. I feel like the shadows actually become the subject with the church in the background, even though the church was what I was trying to capture.

This assignment showed me how using natural light at different times of the day can really change the mood of a photo. Although I was simply trying to capture different light sources, I see how different lighting can achieve a different "Feel" even if the subject remains the same.

 

 

 

The Butterfly

For this week I tried to capture pictures that showed various types of Color.
For the first picture I tried to capture a butterfly on a light purple flower to for a complementary color scheme.

 

For my second shot I attempted to capture an Analogous Color scheme by taking a picture of various shades of green with a blue backdrop.

 

I enjoyed the first picture much more than the second photo, and I feel it was a better shot. I have been trying to work on my focus a lot more, and have been having trouble doing so. I feel like the butterfly photo was the first time I have actually gotten a close up photo that was in focus, so I was pretty excited when I viewed in on my camera!

 

I took multiple pictures of the butterfly, messing around with the background as well. I figured I would share those as well, simply because I liked them:

 

Under The Sea

In the spirit of it being a rain day, and a day off from work, I tried to center all of my pictures around Water and the Sea. I used a variety of items and textures, including my daughters bath toys, a fishing lure, close up's of a few paintings, fungus on a stump, a mud puddle, running water from a faucet, and a even a close up of a gob of hair gel. The hardest part of taking these pictures was getting a good close up with my camera since there is no macro setting. The hardest part of making a collage was placing the pictures where I envisioned them while I was taking them. I also had a hard time getting all 21 pictures into the collage. Here is the final result of my project:

Here are my two favorite photo's of my house plant. Both are close up photos of the same plant. In the first one I tried to concentrate on a single leaf, instead of the multiple leaves in photo two. The first is taken from above, and my carpet serves as a backdrop. I like the fact that my carpet also has similar leaves on it, I think it adds a bit of contrast to the picture.

In the second photo I tried to focus on a cluster of leaves from the side. While I still like this photo, I do not like it as much as the first one. If I were to retake these two, I would probably dust off the plant, so that all the leaves were shiny instead of dusty. The background shows part of my couch, as well as the carpet. I was not overly happy with the background. I believe it lacks the contrast the first picture does because of the lack of a single background.

Overall, I am happy with these photos, although the subject isn't terribly exciting. For my next group of photos I am going to experiment with lighting, and also focus on capturing a better background.

 

 

 

 

 

The Forgotten House Plant

This week I chose a House plant I had forgotten I even owned as my subject. Apparently these things can go a long time without watering! I have no idea what type of plant it is, but I photographed it anyway.

This photo captures the entire plant. You can clearly see the dust on the leaves.

 

 

This close up picture is of the leaves of the plant. The waxy leaves reflect the light, and appear much cleaner due to the reflection than they did in the first photo.

 

This picture captures the Dirty pot the plant is planted in, and a few of the dusty leaves again. Because this picture wasn't taken at the same zoom as picture 2, the dust is again visible on the leaves.

 

 

This top view of the plant only captures one of the stems. The plant appears much smaller in this picture, but only because one of the two stems is out of frame.

 

 

This picture is taken from beneath the plant. Because the tops of each leaf is similar to the bottom, it's difficult to tell the angle just by the picture alone. The bottom of the leaves are much cleaner than the top, since the dust can't accumulate there.

 

 

This close up of a leaf is my favorite picture. I tried to frame the photo using the leaf on the left, and put the main subject slightly off center. I remembered these techniques from a High school photography class long ago. I think this shot is the most interesting out of the bunch, and the subject is still clearly identifiable to the viewer.

Although the Subject clearly doesn't change, it's amazing how different it looks from different angles. By playing around with the angles, I was able to capture different aspects of the plant. Distance also played a factor in how the plant appeared. In some of the photo's the dust clearly proved how neglectful I am when it comes to house plants, but by changing the zoom, I was able to make it appear like this plant has been taken care of better than it really has.