Final Exam Photo - Oh...To Be a Bird - Diagonal Focus

This photo is for my final exam in my digital photography class. I took it in Siesta Key, Florida back in February. I was wandering a beach with a lot of old ruined piers when a boy climbed out on one to get closer to a water bird. This is the photo I took.

Assignment #12 - Animal Shot/Humor - Stuck?

Since you already have seen my fascination with birds, this one should be no surprise for content. However, this nuthatch looks like he might have gotten himself stuck from the way he's feeding from my birdfeeder!

Assignment #11 Emotional Movement - Vincent's Attempt

This photo was taken by me (as you can see in the background) during one of my children's karate classes. Each student was taking a turn sparring with the instructor and trying a certain technique or fighting style. This student was attempting to perform a leg sweep at the time.

Assignment #13 - Photosketch/Remove Items/Transform B&W - Mackenzie Collage

This collage took some serious work to put together!! The top left photo has only some minor editing that I would do to a normal photo. The top right photo has the blemishes on my daughter's cheek and chin, as well as some stray hairs on her forehead, edited out. On the lower left photo, I transformed it to a black and white photo. The last photo on the lower right has a dry-brush filter on it. This seems to give it an old-fashioned photo look to it...the kind I remember seeing in old photos of my mom in the late 50's. Then I made all the photos in to layers, and positioned them into this collage. Lastly, I flattened the photos to make it into one image. (You may have to click on the photo to enlarge it to see the changes effectively.)

Assignment #4 - Portrait Photo - Modern Sleeping Beauty

My occasional outside-the-box thinking produced this portrait photo of one of my daughter's classmates on our field trip to the Tellus Museum. She fell sound asleep on the bus on the way there and I turned around and quickly took this shot of her. It's priceless!

Assignment #10 - Atmospheric Space - Sky Ripples

This photo is of a view off my back porch at sunset. It was one of the first photos that I took for this class. The rippled clouds in a v-shape caught my attention, however, the original photo had the power lines in them that go across part of the lower left of the photo. Of course, I felt the photo would be improved without the lines, so this was one of my early attempts at erasing objects!

Assignment #9 - Depth of Field/Architecture - Tellus Observatory

This was one of those photos, where you turn around and say "I have to take a photo!" I was on my daughter's field trip to the Tellus Museum in Cartersville and was waiting on the students when saw this shot. I love the perspective of it and the dome looks so crisp and new!

Assignment #8 - Nighttime - Epcot at Night

I took this shot just days before our class began and was pleased to learn how to photo-edit it to look even more stunning. I would have used a photo taken during this class, but I really haven't been anywhere to take a photo at night or with a flash! So, I had to stick with this one.

Assignment #7 - Light & Shadow - Shadow Play

This assignment was the toughest to decide on my subject....I couldn't decide what I wanted! My kids were in the driveway so I decided to take some shots of the shadows they were playing with!

Assignment #6 - Double Exposure - Sunset Silhouette

This one was a toughie! I had some difficulty lining up and leveling my horizons to make this double exposure picture. It combined a photo of a couple walking on the beach at sunset and a boat pulling a parasail. I'm pretty pleased with the double exposure effect that came out in the end!

Assignment #5 - Ambiguous Space - Bird of Ambiguity

By now you've noticed I have quite a fascination with photographing birds (I think it's because they never complain about having their picture taken!) and here's another one with some oddly ambiguous space and a very cute goldfinch!

Assignment #3 - Four Choices - Rhythm is the Key

For Assignment #3, Selective Focus/Texture/Rhythm/Unusual Angle, I chose my piano's keys! It shows selective focus, rhythm, and an unusual angle. My piano is one of my prized possessions - it was the piano my mother learned how to play on!

Assignment #1 - Rule of Thirds - Two Lil' Birdies

This photo was taken out my window looking at my feeders. These two perched on my feeder hanger and I happened to catch them in a perfect spacing for the Rule of Thirds, once I cropped the photo.

Assignment #2 - Transforming Objects - Seeing Green

Here's my photo for Assignment #2 -Transforming an Object. I've titled it "Seeing Green" and it's of my Oxalis plant. Let me know what you think!

Playing around on Photoshop CS3

Well, I had my only on-campus class at West GA last night and have started playing around on Photoshop. Now I know I should use a photo with higher ppi, but I thought since I posted this photo....I should edit it too. So here is the edited version of Lola the Snowwoman!

I even managed to edit out and blend in the background of the big white anomaly over Lola's head and didn't just crop it out! (I think it must have been a snowflake close up.)

The Start of My Photo Blog

Tonight is the first night of my grad school photography class! So, here I am setting up a required photo blog for my class. Hopefully this will work for what I need!

Lola, my 'snowwoman,' welcomes you! (My kids and I made her this past Thanksgiving at my parents' house in Ohio.)