Week Four (cont.):

I worked with photoshop a little more today to create some different versions of two photo stories that I want to put in my concentration. The first is one that I'll place near the end as I incorporate people in to my images. I have two versions of the photo story; one with a picture of a mountain goat and the other with a shot of the Colorado River at the bottom of The Grand Canyon:

 

The second photo story is made up of images that I took on the Indian Creek Trail during class. I'm leaning towards the second one, but I could also retake some of my pictures to get one that fits better with the other two images. I edited the exposure of the bridge picture in photoshop because it was originally really overexposed.

 

 

By the end of this week I hope to have at least four or five final photo stories. Tomorrow I'll be taking pictures in the dance studio for one of them, and I'll probably end up going on a hike this weekend in order to get more pictures. 





Week Four:

Today I worked with photoshop to create my first final piece. I kept it pretty simple by only editing each picture a little bit to increase the contrast of colors.

Once it gets sunny (if it ever gets sunny!) I'll retake some of my macro shots with more interesting composition.



Week Three:

It took me a while to decide on a final concentration theme, but I think I've finally got it. I'm planning to take pictures of places that are deserted by humans in the beginning of the series, and then slowly progress to places that have traces of people, and finish off with places full of people. Whether it be a full ballet studio or a deserted hiking trail, I'll take a large picture of the area, and then take 2 to 5 macro shots showing tiny details about the place and combine them in to a collage or layer them in photoshop. This week I took a lot of pictures in the sun on a hiking trail, so I'll be posting those today. Also, I took a few really cool shots this morning when the whole town was covered in fog.

Here are the shots that I took the other morning. I was trying to portray a place that had just had a kid in it, but the kid had left. I'm not totally sure if I want to include these in my concentration, but if I do, I'll make the one of the full balloon floating in the street larger than the other two, and have them on top of each other on the right of the bigger picture.

Here are a few of the shots from a hike that I took on Indian Creek Trail. The light was perfect, and I found a lot of manmade things that were rusted and deserted. I can't decide between the two pictures of the trail; I really like the lens flare in the top picture, but if it looks unprofessional I can remove it in photoshop. What do you guys think?

I'll probably end up taking a few more pictures and adding them in to the final collage in photoshop, but these are the good ones that I ended up with.

I went out on the trail during class on Thursday and took a lot of pictures. They have the same kind of feeling as the above pictures, but they seem more natural and peaceful. 

Finally, here are the pictures that I want to end my concentration with. I think that they show how people and nature can connect and make each other better. 

Week Two (cont.):

Here are a few pictures from a road trip that I took over the summer with my family. They bring in a feeling of family togetherness and also show how open and beautiful rural landscapes can be, which is something that I'm definitely trying to portray in my concentration. This series is proving to be a lot harder than it seemed originally, because getting my family or a group of friends together over the weekend, when all of them are working or doing homework is next to impossible. I'm hoping to take my younger sisters on a hike this weekend, if the weather is nice, and take some pictures that represent the love and friendship between siblings.

 

 

 

I edited the second picture from the top using the rainbow tutorial in my previous post. It's rough, but I got the basic idea of how to use this tool in photoshop so that I'll be able to apply it to pictures in my final concentration if I want.

 







Week Two:

Over the weekend I spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas for my concentration series because my original idea ended up being too dark for me to concentrate on for six whole weeks. My new idea is to do a series on growing up in a rural town like Hood River. I love photographing both kids and nature, and in this series I'll get to do both. Once the weather clears up, I have a photoshoot planned with a two year old who will be the beginning of my concentration. I'll focus on scenery around The Gorge and how beautiful of a place our home is, while also bringing in ideas like parental love and friendship. I haven't taken any pictures yet this week, but I found a really cool website with a million photoshop tutorials that I'll use at some point during my concentration.

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/

I really liked their tutorial on selective coloring, which is something that I've always wondered how to do.

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/selective-coloring/

So, I tried it out on an old photo of mine, just for practice. The edges are a little rough, but once I have a picture I want to use this technique on, I'll spend more time making it perfect.

 

Another tutorial I was interested in was one about adding rays of sunlight in to a picture. This could be useful while photographing sunrises or sunsets because it's an easy way to add something to the photograph that is hard to capture, especially here in The Gorge when sun is so scarce.

 

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/light-rays/

 

I also found a few more natural looking tutorials which I look forward to using as I begin editing my images.

 

water reflection effect: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/water-reflection-effect-in-photoshop-cs6/ 

 

water ripples effect: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/water-ripples/

 

rainbow effect: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/rainbow/

 

lens flare effect: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/lens-flare/

 

action blurring effect: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/action-zoom/

 

glow effect: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/high-key-glow/

 

soft glow effect: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/soft-focus/

 

warm golden sunset effect: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/photoshop-sunset/

 

All of these tutorials will help my pictures to look more natural and cheerful. By Friday I'll have pictures taken and ready to edit using these techinques. 

Week One:

Over the weekend, I experimented with the actual subject matter of my series. I started out by taking a few pictures of empty pointe shoes in front of a mirror, which brought out a feeling of dejection and giving up. Originally, I had wanted to focus on the life of and pressure on a serious dancer in highschool. But then I opened my medicine cabinet to find some advil, and I found bottles of prescription medication. This got me thinking, and I decided to focus more on drug addiction that results from too much pressure in my concentration rather than just the actual pressure.