My Photo Gallery: Spring is Coming

I have named this collection of photos: Spring is Coming.
It has taken a long time for spring to arrive this year, especially for us Alaskans.  I am sharing the message that spring is coming by showing the signs of the season.
I tried to implement all of the photography skills we learned this year. I did several still life photos and a few landscapes.
I had some trouble getting pictures of birds. Other than that I just took pictures of what spoke to me most.

All of these pictures were taken in my yard or on the street where I live. I didn't do any photo manipulations.

My Boots: This demonstrates some good colors and a different perspective; aiming down at my boots.

Snow and Mud: The demonstrates the rule of thirds.

Green Grass!: A great up-close perspective of the new grass.

Moss on the Bank: Another great perspective shot with good colors.

Mini Falls: Thought this looked like a real waterfall. 

Light and Shadow: This demonstrates the rule of thirds. it also demonstrates a good background because of the contrast of light and shadow.

Clues in the Snow: I thought this would make a great pattern photo. Can you guess what this is?

Mountain Home: This demonstrates the rule of thirds with the house and the mountain. It also has a nice depth perception; Branches, House, Mountain.

Pickup Truck: This demonstrates symmetry because of the wheels reflection in the puddle.

Feels like Summer: An excellent perspective shot and rule of thirds. Also great color and leading lines.

Drip, Drop: This shows rule of thirds and some leading, "circles".

Pussy Willows!: A great pattern and background picture.

Family Circle: I took this because of the colors. it also provides some framing to the scene in the background.

Talkeetna Mountains: This has some lovely depth and follows the rule of thirds.

The Artful Dodger: I only got one picture of him. Candid photo of a playful bird. Yes, I managed to line him up with the rule of thirds. And the trees frame him.

Photo Manipulations

Waiting and Watching- This is me and a few friends in a theater in Wasilla, Alaska waiting for practice to start.

The Interrupting Bear-Yes, this is the Interrupting Bear, which we appear to be oblivious to.

Across the Valley- I have this lovely view out my front windows.

Mountains on Venus- No, I have no idea what mountains on Venus look like but i thought that this manipulation made the mountain and the trees look weird and unnatural.

Snowy Blur-I took this picture on the drive to Valdez, Alaska in the middle of January. It was sunrise and most of the pictures i took had this hazy, overexposed look.

Blue.- I darkened Snowy Blur and increased the contrast to get rid of the hazy overexposure.

Candid Photos

Quick Time!- I only got about 7 pictures of this moose before the barking dogs scared him away! It's hard to make these pictures turn out right but this one was one of the best, even though he is trotting away.

Webster's Dictionary- That's the book they're reading. :) This is my little brother and sister, my regular models, reading next to our plant Malvolio.

I'm Sneaky!- Emily didn't notice me taking this picture as I sat across from her at the dinning room table.

OOPS - Nathan had a little accident with his chair.... No, he's totally posing, but I find it hilarious never the less!

Still Life and Movement

This is my Still Life photo. I have decided to call it "Refrigerated Summer". I really like the angle of this strawberry. I took this picture in a bowl in my kitchen. 

"Splatter". I took movement pictures with water.  I don't love the shadow in this one but I like how the water looks. I took this in a bowl.

"Tea Pot" I was boiling some tea and I decided to take a picture of the flames. I really like the angle of this one and how the flames look.

Portraits and Landscapes

Red- This is a mountain near my house. The sun was setting when I took this picture.  The mountain is reflecting the sunset colors from across the sky. And the Spruce Tree follows the rule of thirds. I took this out on the road.

THE SPLITS!-I decided to follow the theme from class last week by having my little sister do the splits for my portrait shot. I took it above her looking down so that I could have a clean background. I was in my living room.

Goof Ball-This is my goofy little brother! The sun was rising when I took this picture so we needed a slightly shady spot so the sun wouldn't be in his eyes. I managed to capture him at a good angle with the framing effect of the tree in the foreground.

Lighting

 "Prom Flowers".
For this picture I had light from outside and  I turned on the indoor lights and aimed down; away from all of the windows in the dining room. This picture has a nice background and you are able to see the beautiful flowers!

 "The Cozy Corner"
The Cozy Corner demonstrates bad lighting for my vase of flowers. I actually like the picture; it gives me a cozy feeling. But the lighting makes the flowers to dark to see. It it kinda hurts my eyes from the overexposure in the background.

"Sun"

Here in Alaska We have a thing for sun... We don't get it in the Winter. But ALAS! The Spring is coming! I took this picture around sunrise. I really love the lighting.

"Bright Sky"

 This is at noon. It is not as pretty as "Sun" which was taken in the morning. The sky is very bright and you can't make out the mountain as well.

"Photographed Painting"

It may just be my camera, but in order for it to capture low light it does something weird with the pixels. It looks really cool because it looks painted! It was overcast when I took this picture so I wasn't able to capture any sunset/twilight colors.

Photography Class Midterm

These are the pictures for my photography midterm. I had to to combine all my skills into three pictures... scary. But I like how they turned out. I laid out a blanket in my rood and thus proceeded to pull out all of my stuff and take pictures of it. The first one is called "Rainbow Beads". I included these beads in all of the pictures to add some color. This one has framing (an actually picture frame), pattern, color, rule of thirds, symmetry and good background. The second is called "Size 10". This one has balance with the shoe and the beads. It also has the rule of thirds, patterns, Perspective, and the rule of thirds. The third one is called "Bausch". It has those fabulous leading lines and symmetry & asymmetry. I added a touch of color, background, rule of thirds, perspective.

Framing and Perspective

The first picture is called, "My Favorite Toy" It is a picture of the bottom of my Four Wheeler. This is a picture with a different perspective. I took this out my work out room window. The second picture is called "When Warmth Frames Cold" It's basically the door to the outdoors! :) I took this with our backdoor; it frames our tree house. The last picture is called "Not a Real Tree" because it's a fake tree. But it's still a cool picture! It's taken from the bottom of the tree for a cool perspective. These picture came came from a session that I had with my yard before framing and perspective class. Since I took them before that class I figured that they wouldn't count... :( It just shows how psychic I am! :)