windows
This challenge was fun, it provided a subject I had never really focused on in my photos before. I wanted to show windows in different ways, so in this challenge I tried to capture windows from the outside, inside, and reflections. I wanted the photos to have a theme and look similar to each other, so I made them all black and white. I think the black and white adds a but of drama to the photos, and allows the viewer to focus less on the busy background but more on the subject, the window. The first photo was taken of an old hostel in Gastown, it was the worn-out windows that first caught my attention. The dark, ominous windows kind of make you wonder what’s inside. The grungy and mysterious look is what I really like about this photo, I think the black and white was a really good choice for this photo. In the next photo I wanted to capture a window from the inside. I took this photo while waiting for food in a cafe Downtown. I think this photo has an interesting perspective as the window is shown at a lower angle, like the first photo, it makes you wonder what’s outside. I think different looking lamps in this photo make it a lot more interesting. The next photo I captured a reflection in a window, to diversify the series. This photo was a lot harder than I thought it would be to take, I had to find the right lighting and where the reflection showed up most prominently. This photo is really cool because it looks kind of confusing,it's hard to tell where is inside and where is outside. It’s a lot different from the rest but I really like this photo. The last photo I added because I liked it a lot. I love the shape of the window and the patterns and textures. I think the composition is really nice, and it matches the rest of the theme. Overall I liked this challenge, I think I will try to focus on windows again, as I thought the outcomes of these pictures were really great.
colour
I think this photo challenge could have been interpreted and executed in so many interesting and different ways. I chose to take a few photos focused on one colour. I chose yellow, this is a colour that I never really chose as the focus of my photos, so it was a different experience to go out and try and find yellow things to take photos of. I also wanted to explore the colour yellow throughout my photos, and how it affects the mood and attitude of photos. The first photo was taken in an alley downtown, some of the wall was painted yellow and the rest was bare. I wanted to isolate the yellow in my photos, so I made the rest of the photo in black and white. I think this photo was an example of how yellow does not always show happiness, the mood in this photo is kind of plain and boring, however the vibrant yellow does make it more interesting. The second photo is more of a portrait, it is a picture of my friend in a field of little yellow buttercups. I used the same method of isolating the yellow in this picture, and I am really happy with the results. In this photo, the yellow contributed to a much happier mood and feeling. The last photo is of the side of a building and was taken in Gastown. This photo took a bit longer to edit than the others, as I had to find the right levels for the buildings in the background. I think this photo is really interesting, and unlike photos I have taken before because it focuses on words rather than things or people. I liked this quote, and I think the area around the wall, like the apartments, buildings, and gates, really give it character and allow it to stand out. I tried a lot of new things in this photo challenge, and I learned a bit more about my personal styles and preferences. I really liked getting to explore the colour yellow, and I would like to maybe try this again with other colours.
negative space
Taking negative space photos was really interesting and kind of new for me, and I had a lot of fun completing this challenge. I had trouble taking photos that I liked at first, but eventually I took all three at the New Westminster Quay. For the negative space in all three of my photos I used the sky. This day as the sun was setting behind me, I used the dark blue and purple sky in front of me to add more colour to the photos I was taking. The first photos are of two lamps that stood along the walkway, I like these pictures the best because I think they have excellent composition and the colours in them are very dramatic and mysterious. The last photo is alright, although I don’t love it’s composition as much, it does a good job of showing negative space. This photo also doesn’t just focus on one thing like the lamps, but everything in the landscape. I think I did a good job capturing negative space in these photos, and I had fun trying something new. I am happy with how these photos turned out and I am definitely going to try this style of photography again.
macro
While taking photos for this photo challenge, I got to learn a lot more about the camera and lenses. I had never used the macro lense before this challenge, and it took me awhile to get used to it, as the lense is not exactly the easiest to use. It took awhile before I could actually get the camera to focus where I wanted, as the subjects I was capturing were all very small. For this challenge I wanted to focus on things like small plants and flowers, because I think these look really nice close up. The first photo was taken outside the school. I really like the colours in this photo, as well as the shallow depth of field. I had to edit this photo to apply rule of thirds, and I also tried to emphasize the colours and natural contrast. The second photo was also taken outside of the school, I was drawn the the bright and vivid pink. Again, I really like the shallow depth of field that the macro lense allowed me to capture. I edited this photo to try and make the flowers more clear and defined. In the last photo I chose to take a picture of the cherry tree outside my house. I didn’t have the macro lense to take this photo, but I used a portrait lense instead to capture the blossoms up close. I think the composition and abundance of colours in this photo are what make it great. Overall I am happy with my macro photos, and how I was able to improve my photography skills by exploring more lenses.
silhouettes
This photo challenge was really interesting and I am happy with the photos I was able to take. When I think of silhouettes I think of dark figures and a sunset in the background, so that’s what I tried to create with this challenge. Some of these photos I took on my holiday in Hawaii, and one was taken at crescent beach here in British Columbia. I was inspired by the colourful sunsets and palm trees at the beach in Maui, so I tried to go out every night for a walk to get pictures. The moon and stars were very clear there, and I was actually able to capture the moon in one of my photos. In that photo I really liked how the colours were more blue rather than bright orange, it looks very calming. I didn't need to edit this image a lot, I just played with the curves and sharpening tool to make it more defined. The next photo I took in Hawaii had more vivid colours, and even captured the sun just creeping below the horizon. I was also able to use rule of thirds in this photo, I used the large palm tree in to do so. The last photo is the one I took at Crescent Beach, I like how there are layer in this photo, the big tree in the front, then the branches, then the sunset, the depth makes the photo look really nice. Before I cropped this photo, you could see more branches on the tree, and it looked really cool, but the horizon was in the middle of the photo rather than a third so I had to crop it. Overall I really like these photos, I think silhouettes are really fun to capture, and I had a lot of fun exploring my sunset theme.
mundanity
I was really looking forward to this photo challenge, because personally I like photographs that don’t have too much colour in them, and ones that are more plain and simple rather than complex. At first I didn’t really have an idea for these photos, but I was walking around an outdoor shopping complex and I got a lot of inspiration from the plain walls and mundane objects. I also got a picture when I was in Hawaii, and on my sister and I’s balcony there was this little table and chair that seemed so boring in such a lively and exciting place. For each photo, I decided to make it even more mundane by using photoshop. For each photo I made sure to use an unsharp mask just to define the image a bit more, and then I played around with the saturation and levels, to make the colours less vibrant. I think all of these photos were really interesting, because I took the extra ordinary, like a shopping cart, an electrical room door, and a table and chair, and focused the image around it, capturing it in an extraordinary way. I think these pictures were really fun to take and edit, and it was interesting looking for ordinary things to capture rather than something more captivating. Overall I am impressed with the images I was able to produce for this photo challenge. I got to try new things and new ways of taking photos as a photographer, and I think that I have been able to see a lot of improvement from the beginning of this class.
Jack Frost
It snowed a lot over the weekend, so thought that it would be a perfect time to capture jackfrost photos. I got inspirations from these photos while outside shoveling snow. I looked up and saw all of the ever green trees were covered in snow, like powder has been sprinkled over top of them. I went around my neighbourhood getting pictures of all of the trees I could find and came up with these images. The sky was very overcast so the lighting was not that great, but after editing the photos is Photoshop I was able to achieve the lighting and exposure that I wanted. In the first photo I like how textured the trees look. Also how the branches sag from the piles of snow resting on top of them. The second photo I love the different kinds of trees there are. Some of them still have their leaves while others branches are bare. In the last photo I like the angles and perspective this photo has, like you're walking in a forest and looking up. These photos are not my favourites but I am happy with how they turned out.
architecture
This challenge was equally fun and challenging. It was interesting to look at buildings and see them less as buildings and more as art. While searching for interesting pieces of architecture to take pictures of, I got to explore the beautiful city of Vancouver. I took the first photo while looking for a place for my friend and I to eat. I wanted this photo to show what it is like to walk along the streets and look up and the tall buildings, each with unique yet simple designs. I really like the angle and perspective this photo was taken at. The second photo was taken near waterfront, you cans see the whale statue in the background. I thought this building was really interesting, especially because of the reflective windows that reflect the bay and mountains. The pillars and wooden ceiling are what first caught my eye, and I like how the pillars lead your eyes through the photo. The last photo is one of my favourites, because it is kind of weird to look at. I like the repetitiveness of the windows, and how you’re not really sure where the building starts or ends because of the angle it was taken at. I did the same editing with all these photos, because I wanted them all to look fairly similar. First I sharpened them and adjusted the curves on each photo. After I lowered the saturation by a lot depending on how vibrant the colours in the photo were. Lastly I changed the levels until I was happy with how the photo turned out. Overall I really like them, I took most of them when it was snowing or raining so the weather was an added challenge while taking these.I really enjoyed this challenge because I learned to appreciate the design and thought that goes into building.
holiday/winter
For my holiday pictures, I wanted to focus on the materials and textures of the holidays. I celebrate Christmas with my family, and I was inspired to take these photos after seeing all of the ribbons, bows, and ornaments we had out. The photos all have a white background, but this allows the metallic gold and silver hues to stand out. The first photo shows a bunched up ribbon, one I used to wrap presents with. I think that the close up perspective the photo was taken at is really interesting, it allowed for a blur in both the front and back of the photo and a captivating focus in the middle. The second image is of an ornament that was on our tree. The way the object is positioned allows for the gold top to really stand out. Lastly, the final picture is of gold bows that would be used to go on top of presents. This image is also close-up, and the depth of field is shallower, blurring most of the ribbon in the background. The gold colours really contrast against the plain background. I think that I was able to capture the materials and materials of christmas and the holidays in an interesting way, and I think all of the photos go together quite nicely. I don’t love the lighting in these pictures, as it is a lot warmer than I thought, but it allows for the objects to really shine. I think I could have done a better job with my composition, as the rule of thirds is not applied, however it does make for a more interesting final piece.
choice - skyscrapers
For this photo challenge, I took inspiration from a photo I had recently taken and decided to capture two more just like it. The subject I took pictures of were tall buildings taken from lower angles, and I edited all the photos to make them black and white, introducing a dramatic perspective of the skyscrapers in Vancouver. The first photo was the photo that I based this mini-series off of. This is a picture of the Vancouver Library, the building is so interesting both inside and out, and I took this picture after looking up and seeing this. These next pictures were taken when I visited Vancouver with a friend. I have always thought the perspective you get from taking a photo of a very tall building from a low angle was so captivating because of the various lines and patterns. I took both photos when roaming around near waterfront. In photoshop I made all of the photos black and white and changed the black point, highlights, shadows and exposure to add a more dramatic look to all of the pictures. I am really proud of these photos, although I feel like I could have taken the library photo from a better angle, I really like how powerful the buildings look in black and white. I wanted these photos to make the viewer feel as though they were really there, looking up at these monstrous towers.
night photography
For this photo challenge, my dad and I went outside one night to walk around the neighbourhood and see what night photos we could capture. We ended up by the playground outside a school near my house and the vibrant colours and interesting designs and angles of the playground inspired me to get these photos. The first photo is a picture of a red object that I still do not know the purpose of. If you look closely you can see stars glowing in the sky. The next photo is of the green monkey bars, the sky was actually very dark, but changing the camera settings made it look a lot brighter. The last picture is really weird because of the loops, curves and the angle the picture was taken from. Taking these photos was a kind of difficult process, in manual mode I used a very slow shutter speed, about 2 seconds, to really capture the low light, and I had to play around with the f stop to see what worked best with the shutter speed. I also had the ISO set low to reduce noise and used a tripod to stabilize the lens. Night photography can be very hard, my dad helped with a lot of these photos and taught me how to properly set up a camera for this kind of photography. One theme that all of my pictures share is the playground. I wanted to capture something most people see in the day, and how something so fun and adored by children can turn strange and eerie at night. I am really proud of these photos, especially because of the process it took to get them. Some of the photos are a bit grainy in places but only because of the way the camera was set up to take night photos. I love all the dramatic shadows and vibrant colours that are displayed.
opposites
The opposites that I captured this week were: colour and no colour, full and empty, and acoustic and electric. For the colour and no colour, I used a photo of my sister walking in Queen Elizabeth Park. This park always has such colourful and vibrant flowers and plants; the opposite of dull. The colours of the park were what inspired me to create this piece and I think it is really interesting to see the black and white contrast with the colours. It also looks like the girl is walking from the bright and colourful world to a much duller and uninteresting one. The many ways this photo could be interpreted is one of the reasons this is my favourite opposite photo For full and empty I used a jar in my room, usually full of jellybeans and took one picture of it full and one empty. This picture took a lot more editing then I had expected as I had to make it seem like the two different pictures I took of the jar were only one. I like the sharp, clean line straight down the middle of the jar, making it both empty on one side and full on the other, because it makes the photo look even more impossible. For the acoustic and electric, I took two different photos of two different guitars in my house and put them together, much like the empty and full. There are a lot of guitars in my house but decided to go with these two in particular because not only are the electric and acoustic but their colours also contrast with each other. The classical guitar has very warm colours and a beautiful design, whereas the electric guitar has a glossy and dark pattern. My goals for my photos were to make it clear what opposites my photos were representing, and I believe that I was able to do that. Although I don't think these are my strongest photos, I think I did a good job expressing opposites and using my editing skills in Photoshop.
food
This week, I learned just how difficult food photography can be. I am really proud of all of these images, even though there are a few things I don't like, I think they are pretty good for the first week. The photo on the coffee on the left was taken very spur-of-the-moment, and that is one of the reasons I like it. Usually all of my photos are planned out, but the idea for this photo came from seeing my dad's coffee on the table. Of course I had to be quick taking the photos so it wouldn't get cold. The only problem I have with this photo is the background, it kind of distracts from the scattered coffee beans, but I really like everything else about this photo so I didn't bother changing it. I really like the contrast from the coffee and the grey cup and saucer it's in, also the rule of thirds works really well for this picture.
The middle photo was the first one I took, we had company over and my mom made this beautiful charcuterie board and I thought it would make a great photograph. The photo kind of reminds me of something you could see in a food/life magazine, that's why I like it so much. There are a few parts of the photo where it is grain-y and a bit too overexposed, I think I could have done a better job editing this photo. Other than a few small things I dont like, the many different colours in this photo makes it look really cool, and the business of the photo gives it a lot of character.
The last photo is of my Sunday morning breakfast. I brought the croissant and berries outside onto a little table we have sitting on our deck, I thought it would make a great background. It took my a while to find a good spot to put the plate in, and I finally decided to put it in the center a but to the right. I wish I had zoomed out a bit more when taking this photo, also I am not really happy with the deck floor you can see between the cracks of the table. My favourite part about this photo is the colourful plate and berries really contrasts from the plain background, it allows the subject to stand out.
One theme I kept for most of these photos was taking them at a bird's eye view. The angle I took these photos at really allows the viewer to be able to see everything about the photos. I think these photos turned out really great, especially for the first week. I am excited to see how much my photos will progress by the end of the year.
The middle photo was the first one I took, we had company over and my mom made this beautiful charcuterie board and I thought it would make a great photograph. The photo kind of reminds me of something you could see in a food/life magazine, that's why I like it so much. There are a few parts of the photo where it is grain-y and a bit too overexposed, I think I could have done a better job editing this photo. Other than a few small things I dont like, the many different colours in this photo makes it look really cool, and the business of the photo gives it a lot of character.
The last photo is of my Sunday morning breakfast. I brought the croissant and berries outside onto a little table we have sitting on our deck, I thought it would make a great background. It took my a while to find a good spot to put the plate in, and I finally decided to put it in the center a but to the right. I wish I had zoomed out a bit more when taking this photo, also I am not really happy with the deck floor you can see between the cracks of the table. My favourite part about this photo is the colourful plate and berries really contrasts from the plain background, it allows the subject to stand out.
One theme I kept for most of these photos was taking them at a bird's eye view. The angle I took these photos at really allows the viewer to be able to see everything about the photos. I think these photos turned out really great, especially for the first week. I am excited to see how much my photos will progress by the end of the year.