Freshmen Spirit

So here's a group portrait shot of the freshmen class cheering group that took the front row in the recent homecoming rally. While at one point they were rather misspelled, they came through for this picture and showed all the letters they needed for the word "FRESHMEN".

I did have to do some cropping and adjustment for this image, but I thought it told the true story of the joy and spirit that these girls were showing toward their class at MDI HS!

The Park Bench

The bench used for the double exposure here was not actually in a park, but rather a part of the smaller courtyard here at school. The texture of weathered wood is always fascinating to me, and the sunlight striking both the wood and the moss at the end of the bench gave me a vision that anticipated the effect that resulted here. I used the "Hipstamatic" app, which is a constant favorite, and which also has a double exposure button. I am always astonished by the result and I have learned over the years I have used it that it requires a fairly accurate understanding of overlapping light and how one image can "affect" another. Even images shot in reverse order have a very different look from one another.

For this one I like the texture, obviously, and the geometric structure of the plank lines in the composition. I didn't do anything with the color, but the washed out look is very fitting for this image as the planks were sun faded and soft gray in the relatively bright sunlight. The layered look of the piece also gives it a depth that I find interesting as the top layer reveals portions of what rests below it.

The "Daedalus"

Too Close to the Sun

Going out with students to enjoy the sunny atmosphere led me to the small courtyard off the Maine Office here at school today, and after a quick "double exposure" (bench texture)with my "Hipstamatic" app on my phone I became interested in the steel figure sculpture by Clark Fitzgerald in that area. I was almost immediately drawn into the various textures on the aging steel surfaces. While some of these textures are simply natural occurrence from the welding process, many are the result of weathering of the paint on the piece and have no context other than visual interest when viewed closely. I will post three that I enjoy.

Sustinence

Peanuts have become a primary food source for me over the past few years, as they have the protein, fat and carbs that I need to consider in my diet. They are also an interesting photo source, but limited as they are so small. To counteract the small I use a magnifier and shoot close to the subject, giving each nut it's own identity, and perhaps even it's own personality.

The abstract and random patterns that evolve create a pleasant contrast in each shot, with the shapes of the nuts becoming varied and the negative dark space between them pulling everything together in a unified manner.

Popcorn

This is the last kernel (popped of course) from a group of a dozen or more that was given to me by a student in my DigPhoto class the other day. One of the points I was trying to make with the handful of popcorn was that to truly enjoy something one should take some time with it, no matter what it is. Perhaps you might be able to think of a few things to which this philosophy might apply, but in this case it was the art of making a photograph that I was attempting to make an analogy towards.

This is, I think appropriately, a "macro" shot, where the idea of photographing small things requires the photographer to "get in close". In this case close was a matter of less than an inch, and the only thing I really felt I wanted to do to the image in "post" was to crop it to a more square format than the original. The color has not been altered, or have any of the levels of light or contrast. The extremely narrow depth of field is apparent, and certainly a typical characteristic of a shot with a magnifying lens. I really like the way that depth of field draws the eye toward the middle of the kernel where the color seems to be brightest and where the surface textures are most apparent. Rule of thirds (balance), shape, form and texture all play a role in this image.

Overlapping Brothers

In trying to express the bonds between siblings I sometimes feel that a single picture doesn't do justice to the mood.

This shot was made with the Hipstamatic app and the double exposure button, which does take some getting used to in aligning and exposing images.

Early Morning Light

Early morning while driving past the golf course in Trenton. The foggy day was an expectation as I had seen a couple of "patchy" spots of fog driving through the Mud Creek Road, but it was the sun that froze me in place and caused me to pull over and iPhone this shot.

The sun backlighting the large tree and at the same time balancing a focal point with the smaller tree was of particular interest to me. There was a definite feeling or mood of calmness in this shot, which i think fog tends to do anyway, but the distinction here was the fog masking depth as it usually does, but in this case with the sun "burning" through. The colors were posterized even in the "live" presence.

Male Mosquito at Sunset

I saw this "creature on the window out back and had to get a photo. How marvelously engineered these long-legged creatures seem to be! The element of line took over for me here with the legs all coming together at one point in the image, dividing segments as the sun settled into the horizon. Unedited, this was an easy piece for my phone to capture.

Yellow Foggy Morning

 The sun this morning was amazing, although the fog had a great deal to do with that. I first noticed how "glowing" the sun was through my rearview mirror, with the color being almost a "golden glow" in the way that it lit everything up. I shot one-handed quickly from the window, taking three or four different versions of the image here at the top. This ended up as my favorite because of it's clarity and the position of the telephone poles. I cropped the image tightly around the rearview mirror, and I liked the drops of water that stand out so sharply.





The second shot of the trees was actually a "no-look" as I just held the phone against the window and clicked off a number of shots, with the one to the right being the one I selected. I did increase the contrast and "tune-up" this one a bit as it was pretty "blasted out" by the bright sun, but I enjoy the effects that the sunlight has on the branches of the tree and the way it shines through and illuminates some branches more than others.

At Dessert

Jen and I had our first meal at Olive Garden and when it came to the dessert, it only took a minute to make a choice. Here is before and after!