Tuesday, January 31, 2012

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?





Wednesday, January 25, 2012

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?