Final

The 10 best pictures that I have taken this year are posted below:

 

 

This picture was taken last week for our advertising project. We chose to make ads for sour skittles, and I believe that this was my best. Not only was I able to get an awesome shallow depth of field, but I was also able to photoshop a colored heart onto the picture. This photograph demonstrates my ability to combine all of my skills that I have learned this year into a final product.

Here is a picture of a few cards, which was taken for the "zombie apocalypse" project. I chose to take a deck of cards for entertainment. This picture has nice lighting, is extremely crisp, and has a very shallow depth of field. If I looked at this picture, not knowing where it was taken, I would think that it was taken in a park or a forest, when it was really taken in the front of our school.

Although this picture was taken in the beginning of the year during the angles project, I believe it is one of my strongest. The picture is very crisp and uses a creative technique of bending the light with the mirror. Some people may say that the crack in the mirror distracts from the picture, but I believe that it adds a neat effect.

Above is my favorite picture that I photoshoped and by far my favorite project (big/small world). First, I took a picture of Julianne on Emily's back against a simple background. Then, I cut them out of the photo using photoshop and added them to this picture of this mason jar. When I first put the two photos together, Emily and Julianne looked like they were stickers on the jar. I overcame this challenge by lowering the opacity of my two models, coming out with the photo above.

This picture of my cat was taken at my house. The most challenging part of this photo was getting him to stay still and "pose". I had to take multiple shots of him looking out the fence, but ended up getting this one good "framing" photo. In this photo, I love how is face is in one diamond and then his name tag is in the one to his right.

This picture is also of my cat. This photo was also very hard to take because he wouldn't stay still. My favorite part of this photo is how his eye is extremely crisp and clean. When you look at this photo, a sort of glass dome seems to appear over his eye.

Here is a photo that was taken during the color splash project. It was one of the simplest pictures to take and edit, all I had to do was desaturate the photo and color over her eye. I like how you can see every little detail in her face, and although this would usually be a bad thing for most people, it contrasts against the depth of field.

This photo was taken a few days ago as a demonstration of my skills that I have gathered this year. I put the camera in macro mode and was about 2 inches away from the flower. My favorite part of this photo is how the first few petals of the flower are in focus and as you move back, they get more and more blurred.

Similar to most of my photos, this picture has a strong depth of field. I love the spring colors to this photo, which creates a soft and happy feel. Although this is going against the composition technique of rule of thirds,  I believe that because the ipod is centered it draws more attention to it.

 

This photo was taken during the portrait project. Kendall was a difficult model to work with, but when he decided do focus and do what was asked of him, the photos turned out great. The shadows around his eyes create an intense look, similar to a mask that a villain/superhero would wear.

 

What were your favorite things about this class?

I loved the freedom to go off and take pictures, and not have to be restricted for too long in a classroom.

 

What did you learn about photography that you think was most important for you?

The basis to good photography is learning how to work the camera, and I learned how to this year.

 

What advice would you have for other students taking the class next year?

TAKE WAY MORE PICTURES THAN YOU THINK YOU WILL EVER NEED.

 

Any parting thoughts?

I loved this class and it was definitely my favorite of the year. The only thing that I think should be done differently next year is the amount of time that is spent explaining things. In the beginning of the year it was okay to spend time explaining projects, but near the end of the year, I believe it got a bit tedious to listen to the same things over an over again. Other than this, thanks for an amazing year!