Portrait Assignment - My buddy Rob

A photo of my friend Rob, taken by the St. Joseph River near Johnny Appleseed.

 

Rob pretending to brood ...

Rob telling a story.

Food Assignment

 

For this project I thought I'd photograph the best foods in the world - a head of garlic on a small bed of parsley, some loose garlic cloves, a selection of Greek olives, crumbles of feta cheese, chick peas, and fresh sliced lemon. These are staples in my home kitchen.

 

Each of these photos has had some form of "airbrushing" in Photoshop. My wife pointed out that the garlic cloves had eyes and looked like little mice, so those were removed with the clone tool.

 

In this photo I digitally added a decorative background, in addition to removing a blemish or two.

 

EXTRA. In this photo I experimented with Photoshop's pattern tool for the background, and I also copied the layer containing the feta cheese and tried to draw some more detail out of it.

Light

 

An arrangement made for my painting class. The light source is a strong spotlight coming from the left hand side of the picture.

 

Votive candles at a small shrine to Our Lady at St. Charles Borromeo.  It's a small, darkened corner that glows a soft yellow through the tinted candle holders.

Silhouette of trees against the sky at sunset. For this shot I placed my camera on a tripod and experimented with various shutter speeds until I got the shot I needed. The darkness of the trees was emphasized in Photoshop.

Statue of St. Peter near St. Peter's Catholic Church. At first I thought that I would attempt a silhouette, with the sun behind the statue. Then I noticed that the position of the sun breaking through the trees above the statue's head looked curiously like a halo. While not quite a true silhouette, there are some deep shadows on the statue's white surface that I think are interesting.

 

Strong directional light coming through the windows at St. Peter's. There's a little bit of play with the color hitting the inside ledge of the windows as light passes through the stained glass. The repetition of the vertical lines within and without the windows as the light bursts through is fascinating to me.

The ceiling at St. Peter's. Even though the building is lit with a series of hanging, cylindrical chandeliers, light is also coming in from the outside, and so the effect is somewhat diffused, with the ceiling itself being the least well lit. As a result, the white of the ceiling appears to be a sort of amber color in this photo.

 

 Photo taken in class on 9/19/10 at a slow shutter speed.

 

I took my dog out one evening just before bed, and shot this photo of her on the front step in near total darkness at a slow shutter speed. Not knowing she was supposed to be posing, she kept moving her head around and shifting her feet, leading to the "ghost dog" we have here. Great photography? Probably not. But it created a fun effect.

Composition Project - Johnny Appleseed Fest, 9/18/10

Dominant Foreground, Contributing Background
Rule of Thirds

Perspective
Texture, Pattern

Selective Focus
Tight Shot

Texture
Tight Shot

Repetition
Texture

Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds, divided

Dominant Foreground, Contributing Background

More photos from Assignment One - 8/28/10

  

  

 

Name Project 9-13-10

M = keys, I = fire hydrant, C = cloud formation, H = underside of a trash can lid

A = parking lot symbol, E = my dog Zoe, L = water socks.

Eyes 09-10-10