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!