Natural Lines

The final project for my nature photography class consists of a cohesive portfolio with a theme.  I chose "lines" as the theme for my cohesive portfolio.  I will chose photos, and continue to take photos throughout the semester, which have a strong sense of lines both in the natural subjects and in the composition. 
I will include the following images, and others with similar natural lines.

McConnell's Mill

I really enjoyed our class trip to McConnell's Mill because we arrived just after sunrise, and there was lots of variety of subjects to photography.  We went along the Hell's Hollow trail and to the mill itself.  I experimented a lot with photographing the river and waterfalls.  It was my first serious attempt at longer exposures of water, and I got a few photos that I really like.  I tried to set the shutter open long enough that I would capture the smooth milky quality of the water, but unfortunately there was a lot of available light, so even with my ISO at 100 I couldn't do have my shutter open much longer than a few seconds.
It was also fun to photograph the combination of water and ice, surrounded by moss.  Overall, I'm pleased with the images I made on this trip.  How do you think these compare to the ones I've taken on other trips?

Trough Creek

I enjoyed our class trip to Trough Creek, although so far it was the most photographically challenging. It was very cold and snowing a lot, so my camera lens kept fogging up which made many of my pictures come out blurry. When I managed to keep it free of condensation, snow flakes would get on my lens, also blurring my images.

Other than these technical difficulties, I also found this trip personally challenging. During the last few nature photography trips I focused a lot on patterns and details, even though I made sure to get wider angles and more inclusive images. But while at Trough Creek I found myself getting tired of close, tight, pictures. They could be taken anywhere, and I wanted to try to include more sense of places in my images. However, at the same time I wanted to create unique and creative photos.

I really like some of the photos I took that day, but overall it was not my favorite trip so far. The three pictures I posted below are my favorites, and I will definitely use at least one of them for my portfolio. What do you think?

Raccoon Creek pt. 2

Here are some more images from Raccoon Creek, as promised!

Raccoon Creek

I really enjoyed the trip to Raccoon Creek, Frankfort Mineral Springs that my nature photography class took last week. It was a lovely warm (for this time of year) day with lots of great subject matter. Some of my friends and I wandered through the woods until we found an old abandoned building. It was basically a small, two room house built into a hill, with lots of windows. The windows were good to use as frames for the outside, and I've posted one such image above. The roof was falling apart, so the trees above were visible. The outside of the roof was covered in moss, which was also really fun to photograph, and was great for both close ups, and for showing more of the roof.

After we explored in and around the house, we made our way down the hill to where most of our classmates had congregated around a waterfall. Although it was small, the waterfall was really pretty because it fell off a cliff over a small cave area, and it had been cold enough recently that there was quite a bit of ice under the overhang. After photographing the water from many angles (including from under the overhang), my friends and I followed the creek back through the valley. There was a lot more moss and some cool mushrooms and such growing on fallen trees.

Overall it was a fun trip, and challenging to try to get photos that would look unique compared to the rest of the class. I like a lot of the images I made, and chose these four to post first because I think they work really well together as a set, not only because of the subject (nature) but also because the colors are consistent.  But I will post some more later this week! I especially want to put a few of the moss covered roof I mentioned and more of the waterfall, so check back soon!

 

presque isle state park

On Saturday I went to Eerie, PA with my nature photography class. We photographed at Presque Isle state park, which is right on the lake and a very beautiful place. Unfortunately we were unlucky with the weather, and it was an unexciting overcast day, with some rain and snow. This made most of my pictures turn out with low contrast. It also made the sand, water and sky shades of gray, and so difficult to make look interesting in our pictures. So I tried to focus on textures, patterns, water-drops, and any visually stimulating subjects I could find. Because I could not take beautiful beach with snow photographs, I hoped that by eliminating most of the bleakness and monotone I might make more interesting pictures. What do you think?

downtown nature

 

 That the arrow points North was about the extent of my knowledge on how to use a compass before yesterday. But in my nature photography class, we learned how to navigate using a compass, degree directions, and landmarks. I worked in a group with my classmates and friends, Karen and Amy (also fantastic photographers). We got very confused several times, but since we were navigating downtown Pittsburgh, Point State Park, and the North Shore, we managed to follow the directions given by our instructor.

  Unfortunately, it was an overcast day, so it was difficult to get good lighting. There was also not very much nature along out path, or within the city. Patches of moss, a few trees, grass, geese, and a few other random bits of foliage were just about our only subject options.

   In some of the images I took I tried to incorporate the city, and show urban nature. Others I composed the photographs so as to eliminate buildings, parking lots, cars, and other city objects. My favorite pictures from this walk were the ones in which I excluded the city, either through framing, angle, or focus. I picked these three photographs because I like the shapes and simple colors. I converted the image of the dried and cracked dirt to black and white from the original browns. The image of the tree branches and seeds was already mostly monotone, I only increased the contrast and black a little to emphasize the curving lines of the branches and eliminate distracting details. I barely edited the photo of the red branches. I really like the simplicity of the single leaf, the lines, and the bright color on the soft background.

   What do you think of these photos, and urban nature photography?