2. Frostbite I used this photograph for one of my portfolio projects towards the beginning of the class. This is a plant that sits on the stairs outside in the back of the house. This plant used to be a bright, rich green and I found it absolutely fascinating that it turned this eerie orange color when it was dead. It literally looks like the frost from the cold sucked up all the life and happiness of the plant. In the photo the plant is surrounded by snow yet there is no snow on the plant itself. I like the composition of the whole image also. I don’t think the image would have been as successful if I had taken the shot and planted the subject in the middle. Having it off to the side and off balance is refreshing and different.
3. Icing on the Pines The detail in this image is what really makes it one of my favorites, I believe. The angle in which I shot it also has a contributing factor. I think the snow really helped to avoid the green of the pines needles to dissolve in one another. This was another photo I had taken with my zoom lens. I can tell by the focus and subtle blurriness in the background. The beads of ice and water are so clear to the eye and the snow really does look like icing. It is placed so gracefully on the needles.
4. Perpendicular Illusion This photo I had taken is a bit different from what I usually take for photos. But I love it. Once again, I played around with my zoom lens and as a result got this beauty. There are three major key objects in this photo that are really focused on: the leaf, the branch and the rock. This was just one of those times where I wandered around my campus looking for things to take pictures of and stumbled upon this composition. I did not set this composition up myself. I think that is what I like so much about it. I also love the neutral colors. The brown of the branch and the orangey red tones in the leaf really stand out against the bluish gray of the rock. I also love the angle of the rock and how it gradually gets smaller and finally disappears at the top of the photo. There is also a lot of detail in the branch itself. There is some sand resting on it to the right of the image and it really stands out because the image itself is just so clear.
5. No Sound But The Wind What I love most about this photo is the colors in it. I took this photograph while I was at school around 3:30 PM. I like it because most of the trees around here are covered in snow or do not have leaves at the moment. But this shot looks like it may have been taken in the Spring or Summer. I love how there are the leaves and then the pine needles shown. The pine needles look like a dusting in the background. This photo also looks like it could be a painting. There is some blurriness to it but it is not enough to really ruin the photo. The blues and yellows in it look great against the little bit of green and red shown in the leaves and pine needles. It is an interesting shot and I’m proud of it.
6. My Life As Kelly This collage was a task in itself but I loved working and creating it. I had a lot of fun putting together the still life. It was challenging trying to find objects to photograph but it worked out. I think this is a photograph that really represents me. With my iPod I am constantly listening to it. It is ALWAYS with me. The picture on the front of it is a picture of one of my favorite bands performing at a concert which is another thing I love to do. The star earring that I warped around the page of the book is a representation of my love and obsession of jewelry. I am always wearing earrings, rings, bracelets and necklaces. I thought it was a great idea to kind of make it look like a bookmark. The miniature beach chair is actually a photo holder. But I cropped that out to make it look like it was just a beach chair. I got that from Cape Cod, Massachusetts which is one of my favorite places to vacation. I love the summer so I thought that was fitting. The books represent my love for quotes and reading in general. I am not a huge reader but if it is something that catches my interest I will read it, most definitely. And the background, which is one of my scarf’s, is a representation of my love for plaid and scarves. These are all random objects but it describes who I am the best and I love it.
7. World of Color This was one of the more recent portfolio projects I created and I think it might actually be my favorite. To me, this photograph describes the kind of person I am and who I am. I am a very artistic individual. I love photographs—being in them or taking them—so the montage of photographs here display that. I am a huge Disney fan and Walt Disney World is my favorite place on Earth. It is actually my dream to design for Disney someday. I love shiny, glittery stuff and I love to draw. I took a bunch of art classes my Senior year of high school and I remember experimenting with different media all the time. So when I think or color with colored pencils, I think of the techniques I practiced over and over again in my drawing composition class. This collage not only represents me but it also represents memories from my past and I absolutely LOVE that.
8. Trapped I think this may be one of my favorite photographs I have taken. And too think I was just walking around my backyard one day and found this lonely frozen leaf just begging to be photographed! I thought it was just really interesting how the ice surrounding the leaf is formed into the shape of the edge of the leaf. Everything else around it was frozen and trapped under the leaf. You can see that some of the grass is trying to peak through. The color of the leaf drew me to it also. It was just so dark and still so full. Not a tear in it. I thought it fit in perfectly with that week’s portfolio project and when I desaturated it in Photoshop I was amazed at the turn out.
9. Peripheral Vision I absolutely love this photo. I love the distinct difference between the two trees on each side’s focus and the blurred focus on the wider trunk of the tree in the background. I think the focus of the photo is really balanced. I really loved playing with my zoom lens while taking these shots. I love the results I get when I am using that! Even though there are a lot of browns and grays and a tad of blue in the photo I think it stands out. I really do love taking pictures of nature because there are so many beautiful shots I can get just from one subject matter. Also, the lighting (during the day) is perfect and I am not limited in any way with settings on my camera.
10. Color After Color For one of our weeks we had to come up with a composition of color. I searched my entire house looking for something that really displayed color the best. I stumbled across my box of colored pencils and thought that I could arrange them in so many different ways to create not just an interesting composition but also a colorful one. I played with the focus and how the shadow would be shown on the colored pencils in the forefront. I actually really like how the singled out colored pencil is a touch out of focus. There are so many colors shown in this photograph and the composition really scream “art” to me. I was very happy with this particular photograph.
