COMM 300 has been a life changing experience for me. I started the beginning of this semester a complete beginner in the world of photography. As a final project in the class I compiled a my best shots from the semester into a photobook of my own design.

The photobook is simple and clean in its design and I feel that it all encompasses my general theme that this past winter was cold.

I designed the entire book in Adobe InDesign and then had it printed using blurb. I hope you enjoy it.

 

This is a link to my photobook

BEFORE EDITING

 

AFTER EDITING

 

In order to get this image from its original state to the beautiful image that it is now I had to do a little work. To start I lightened up the entire image, giving more warmth, and adding a red mask. I then cleaned any blemishes and smoothed the models skin. I then added clarity to the fox had, the eyes, and the gun. Finally I brightened the background to bring out the wallpaper and I added a burned edge to give it more character.

To prepare it for print I made it way more sharp than normal and I brightened the entire image. I knew that it would darken and get blurry when I printed it so I added extra of both.

I chose to insert this image into the East Idaho Community Photo Contest. This is a contest for resident of Eastern Idaho to show their unique photography skills and passions. Images entered into the contest have a chance of being placed in the Idaho Falls Magazine.  I felt like this image depicts what it was like for the people in Western Montana and Eastern Idaho during the times of the “Cold Wild West.” They were hard times but they are part of our history and helped us to become the strong state we are today. This image, I feel, captures that strong spirit and I wanted East Idaho to see it.

Originally this picture had a lot of light coming in from the big windows. So I darkened the background and the widows to make a more moody feel to the image. I then added contrast and added light to the models face and hand. This allows your eyes to be drawn to his hand and face.  I cropped in close and added some basic edits for color. All in all I love this picture.

http://www.idahofallsmagazine.com/2018/05/east-idaho-community-photo-contest

submitted on March 1st 2019

As I looked through the pictures I have taken over the past semester, I struggled to choose my favorite five pictures. These images weren’t just pictures that I took but also memories. So, the images I finally decided to use as my top five are those that not only are beautiful and fun but are also great memories for me.

This image has always been one of my favorites. I love the lighting and the intensity. I love the way that your eyes follow his arm to the tip of his gun.

This picture was one of my favorite before I even shot it. I love the intensity of the gun in your face and the story that it tells.

This is my favorite portrait. I love it because of the blue color and how it contrasts with the dark background and neutral colors of the model. I also love the light in the models eyes.

This image has always inspired me by its crazy angles and abstract design. It helps me to remember that sometimes you need a crazy angle to get a good shot.

I love this image because it shows the beauty that comes from Macro photography. The detail of the snowflakes and the depth of the petals is beautiful.

Macro photography is like looking at life through a incredible new lens. There is so much beauty in the simplicity of life and yet we pass it by every single day.

For this assignment we needed to have two pictures with water droplets and two without.

This first image was fun for me. I love the contrast of the yellows, reds, and blacks. It make the image pop and help suggest just how attractive these fishing flies are. IN this image I drakened the backgound to add contrast and lightened the red and yellow flies. I think it is simple and beautiful.

This leaf is the first of my two images with water drops. In this image I really wanted to capture the beauty of the yellow pollen on the leaf. I also love the natural red and yellow natural colors on the leaf. In this image I increased the contrast and did some other basic edits but other than that its completely as it was in camera.

This is my second image with water drops. I love the way that the drops collect on the blueberries. I chose to do very little to this image. I did some basic edits but other than that it very as is.

In this image I really wanted to capure a big snowflake. The flakes were very tiny however but I do feel like I got some good ones. For this image I cropped it in nice on the flower and then added contrast and increase to the whites.

This image was one of my favorites simply due to how uncommon it was. I darkened the background and lowered the highlights and other normal edits. I love the gold and metallic look it brings.

I loved deciding which photos to use as my fine art images. I had many pictures to choose from but these five where my personal favorite.

 

In this first image I love the contrast between the model and the window. To make sure that it contrasted I darkened the window and wood background and then lightened the models face and his hands. The dynamic light makes for a very dramatic feeling image. 

This image was dramatically brighter before I edited it. I loved the natural light on the wheel and so I darkened the borders and shadows and brightened the area directly around the center of the wheel. Thats where I want your eyes to go and so that why I brightened it. 

In this barrel shot I really wanted to bring out the different colors in the barrel. I darkened the blacks and increased the contrast the colors of the barrel. I also darkened the background to bring out the beauty of the wood background.

This image was one of my favorites from the very beginning of bannack. I didn’t crop this image at all it was exactly as it was in the camera. I just love the intimacy of the image. I brightened his face to bring your eyes right to his face and eyes.

I love this image as well. I had a hard time getting this image due to the amount of people who wanted it. I just love the dynamics of this scene. I darkened the front model and then masked him in in photoshop. Other than that I hardly did anything other than minor tweeks.

This image was taken with a very shallow depth of field. I think it captured the beauty of the rugged wild west with the sage brush and cold snow.

The Bannack Portrait Assignment was my favorite of the entire trip. The models were so interesting and exciting to work with. I found that the greatest way of interacting with the model was to know their name and to speak very clearly what it was you wanted them to do. They were so helpful and willing to try whatever crazy idea I had.

As I took the pictures it immediately became clear to me that background is very important when doing portraits. In the first photo I made sure to put the rustic Hotel Meade in the background of the portrait. I made my focus the eyes of the model and then had a slightly blurred hotel in the background. To create more of a contrast between the sky and the hotel I darkend the sky with a burn brush and I darkened the words “Hotel Meade” the same way. I then lightened the eyes to give them a little more of a spark.

For this portrait, I felt that the blue curtains and natural light of the widow really brought out the beauty of the model. Cropped the image close to her face to make it more intimate, I burned the edges of the photo to bring you eyes straight to her and the curtains, and I cleared up her face.

In this image we used a golden reflector to brighten up his face opposite the window.  In post I lowered the exposure to lessen the golden reflector and I cleared up the background from any words that are curved in the wall.

In this image all I did was some basic adjustments with color and shadows and then I added a burn brush around the edges to bring the focus on her face. I also brightened her eyes to draw attention.

For my final portrait I wanted a bit more of a body shot I love this image because of the color and exotic clothing of the model. In post I did some basic edits and then cropped it in a little closer to get rid of other distractions from the image.

The Bannack- Creative project was one of my favorite parts of the Bannack trip. I chose to do one picture of a levitation shot, one picture of a commercial shot, and one picture that is a conceptual shot.

My first shot is conceptual. I love the feeling that you get when you see the revolver right in your face. It helps to tell the story of someone who is about to be in real trouble with this big burly cowboy.

 

My second image is a levitation shot. I had my model stand on a table and then I took a picture without model or table.

My final picture is a commercial shot of a Benchmade knife. I felt like the rustic feel of the town was perfect for the idea of the outdoorsy feel of the pocket knife.

Bannack Ghost Town is an amazing place, with so much history, it feels like there is no way you can capture it in just a few pictures.

As I brainstormed the subject of my photo series I struggled to nail down just one idea until I realized that even though door knobs are the most common choice for a Bannack photo series door knobs are the one thing that have been touched by everyone who has ever been to the town. Each person who comes into these homes touched these door knobs and therefore became as much a part of the town as the knob itself. So, I decided to try and capture some amazing images of the item that connects us all.

I had pictures of over a dozen knobs to choose from but these five represented my favorite angles and the most detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LANDSCAPE

This week I decided to take pictures of one of my favorite summer destinations, Fun Farm Bridge. This bridge is the best for jumping into the river, fishing, and just having good summer times. Right now its cold and it beautiful so I decided to capture the often forgotten beauty of this winter bridge.

I have attempted to visit the bridge multiple times this past week. Each time I went the lighting was absolutely terrible. Finally today the sun snuck out from behind the clouds for a beautiful sunset. I loved the way that the metal looked with its cold rust. Many of my pictures illustrate that cold feeling and contrast it with the beautifully warm sunset. Each image features the bridge as my subject. I took pictures from as many angles as possible without getting too cold.

To help humanize one of the images I chose to view the bridge in one of my side mirrors. This shows the humanity of the car as well as helps you maybe to see how small the bridge is. It’s hard to really tell out of a mirror but the bridge is not large.

I blended two images to make the board in the first picture look like it had slats. The original was a solid board.