Portraits and Landscapes

1. A Black & White Soul
2. This photo was taken in Chandler, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates portraits. I decided to edit this and make it monochrome because it just spoke louder that way. I think that it is so interesting that in a world full of color, the soul is black and white. I feel like you just focus on who he is as a person and not so much where he is or what he is doing.

1. Grounded
2. This photo was taken in a field in Chandler, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates landscape. You will probably disagree with me on this, and that's okay. With landscapes, a general rule of mine is that the eye has to have something to focus on. Whether it's a shallow depth of field or some other object to bring in the attention, it HAS to be there. Otherwise, our eyes just glide off of the photo and never rest on anything and therefore we don't really take in the photo. So I tried to have something for it to focus on. Using a deeper depth of field just made the viewer feel lost and confused. Also, I edited this by some cropping, bringing up exposure, and bringing out the blues in the sky.

1. More Than I Supposed
2. This photo was taken in a field in Chandler, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates landscape with a portrait. I love that the viewer's eye is able to focus on the subject while still taking in the beauty of the land at the same time. Something new that I did when editing this photo, was to add a bit of distortion to bring the viewer in with the subject. I actually kinda like how it turned out. Other edits include bringing up the exposure, adding a slight vignette, and bringing up the saturation a bit.

And uhh...if you ever need a model for a mini cooper you should get in contact with this guy:

This honestly was really fun. Especially because it was just some random guys car... XD

Experiments in Lighting

1. Shadowed Hope
2. This photo was taken near a field across the street in my house in Chandler, AZ.
3. This photo demonstrates bad lighting levels. The light hits her face harshly and creates shadows. It also creates a lot of highlights and shadows in her hair which is distracting.

Taken in the hour after Sunrise

Taken in the Late Afternoon.

Taken at Dusk.

1. The Relevance of Time.
2. These photos were taken in Chandler, AZ.
3. They demonstrate the different levels of lighting. I only took one in the golden hour on purpose. I really wanted to see if the golden hour made a big difference. It really does make a difference!! (I'm so sorry that they aren't all next to each other! I tried like a thousand different ways, but my blog won't cooperate.)

1. Good Morning
2. This photo was taken in Chandler, AZ.
3. This photo demonstrates good lighting levels. Her skin color is a smooth all the way across. I love the raw look of this photo. I convinced her to come outside during golden hour in the morning just minutes after she woke up. Isn't she so beautiful? (Also super kind to consent to photographs that early in the morning XD)

**Also, just a note: My blog automatically puts the white edging on all of my photos, so that wasn't me.

Midterm Project

1. Beauty of Growth
2. This photo was taken in a neighborhood in Chandler.
3. This photo demonstrates good color with the use of complimentary colors green and pink (red), good background with the shallow depth of field, it breaks balance by placing the flower bud on the left side, and also demonstrates viewpoint with the high angle of the camera on the subject. The only editing I have done was a slight vignette (really, just a tiny one so that our eyes more easily focus on the photo) and I brought up the exposure by a couple points. I think it turned out nicely. :)

1. Contemplation
2. This photo was taken in Gilbert, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates rule of thirds, viewpoint with the high angle, color through the color tones, and asymmetry with the subject positioned to the left of the shot. I also would argue that there is a bit of a leading line created by her body position. It starts with the braid in her hair, leading the eyes to the book and then the rest of her leg and her boot lead the viewer to the water of the photo. You may disagree with that though. :P As for editing, all I did was bring up the exposure a little bit.

1. Faithe to See*
2. This photo was taken in my home in Chandler, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates color by using contrast emphasized by the lack of color, framing through the subjects body position around the notebook, viewpoint through the high angle and context the framing provides, and also rule of thirds. For editing, I saturated this photo, cropped it, and added a really slight vignette.

*I titled this one "Faithe to See" because it is a photo of my sister, Faithe. She has spina bifida and hydrocephalus. She's got a surgery coming up in a couple of weeks that requires her to stay in bed for the majority of the time, so I took this photo while she was laying in her bed drawing which is a familiar sight. I really am most proud of this photo for the story it tells. I think that she really has the faith to see past her challenges and into the bright future. Nearly every photo she draws is about one of her dreams coming true. Most stunning to me are the drawings were she is walking like this photo. She's the figure standing on the right, cooking from what she told me. This photo is extremely moving to me and I hope that shows through.

1. Rooted*
2. This photo was taken in Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates framing through the wire fence, color through the warm color tones, leading lines through the bridge, and good background with the shallow depth of field. I personally think this one is the best because it not only demonstrates a lot of good photography concepts but it tells a story as well, which is what I really want to do through my photography.

*This one is not for grading, I just thought I'd show it to you because I'm pretty proud of it. I took it before this photography class even began and at the time I just thought it looked really nice but now I understand why. And I LOVE that feeling!

Framing and Viewpoint

1. Web of Frames
2. This was taken in my home in Chandler, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates good framing. I used the shutters on my window to frame the spider web with a single dead bug in it. You might think it's gross, but it's definitely my most unique framing photo.

1. Arizona Lake
2. This photo was taken in Chandler, Arizona near a sidewalk in front of a house.
3. This photo demonstrates unique viewpoint. I used a higher angle but also got really close to the subject to make it look larger. In reality, this little plant is only a couple inches long. The water between the rocks was just the runoff of the neighbor's sprinklers.

1. Rusted Stories
2. This photo was taken at the Arboretum in Superior, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates good viewpoint. I came in really close the subject and by tilting it I made it a lot more interesting. The angle was just slightly lower than the subject. I really like the layers in this photo. I'm pretty proud of it :)

Patterns and Backgrounds

1. Common Rebel
2. This photo was taken of a bush in front of a home in Chandler, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates patterns by breaking it. There were many leaves just like this one and if I had used a deeper depth of field it would have just blended into the pattern. But by using a shallow depth of field, I broke the pattern. I'm really like how it turned out :)

1. A Walk
2. This photo was taken at a park in my neighborhood in Chandler, Arizona.
3. This photo demonstrates good background. The background is pleasing to the eye and gives context to the subject. The shallow depth of field gives just enough so that the viewer knows where the subject is but also allows for the viewer's eye to be drawn immediately to the subject.

1. Beauty in the Ashes
2. This photo was taken along a trail in Chandler, Arizona. (It's like I live there or something :P)
3. This photo demonstrates bad background. Even though the subject is interesting and in the forefront, the background colors throw off the viewer and make the photo seem chaotic with too much going on. Even with the shallow depth of field, the random brown blurred splotches are distracting and take away from the subject.

**Just so you know, my blog automatically puts the white edging on all of the photos, so just know that I did not put those on them.

Leading Lines and Balance & Symmetry

1. Serenity of Space.

2. This photo was taken at the Barn in a Gilbert neighborhood. 

3. This photo demonstrates leading lines because both the horizontal line and diagonal line bring the eye straight to the focus of the photo. This photo is clearly edited. I made a lot of little edits, but essentially I drastically heightened the contrast, clarity, and mildly tweaked the highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, vibrance, and saturation. After editing it so dramatically, I just couldn't go back to the original photo-it looked so flat. Let me know if you hate it :P 

1. Harmonized Life
2. This photo was taken at a house in a neighborhood in Chandler.
3. This demonstrates vertical symmetry because the photo can almost be folded in half horizontally. (Almost because of the plant.) This photo also demonstrates balance because both halves of the photo are equally filled. I really like the calm balanced feel of the photo.

1. I Thought of You
2. This photo was taken in my home on a table.
3. This photo demonstrates asymmetry because both sides of the photo are not the same. The only editing was cropping and fixing the white balance so the white was really white. I also really like how simple yet intriguing this photo is. To me, it tells a story, but perhaps that's just because I took it :P

Rule of Thirds & Color

1. Country Girl.
2. I took this by the fence across from my house.
3. This demonstrates color. Green and yellow are analogous colors because they are next to each other on the color wheel and look good together. The only editing I did was a slight crop to make the line of the wire straighter. It still looks crooked because the left side of the wire is darker than the right side of the wire so it looks further back and tricks our eyes. Sorry if that drives you nuts :P XD

1. Olivia.
2. I took this at the Gilbert Arizona LDS Temple
3. This photo demonstrates rule of thirds. It can clearly be split into vertical thirds. I really like the water in this. :)

1. Breath of Color
2. I took this at the Gilbert Arizona LDS Temple.
3. This photo demonstrates Rule of Thirds and Color. Green and Red/Pink are complimentary colors. They create good contrast; the green really makes the pink stand out. It also demonstrates Rule of Thirds because the center of the flower matches up with the intersection of of the top horizontal line and the left vertical line.

**Also, my blog automatically puts the white edging on all photos that I post, so I'm not the one putting that on all of them.