Light is a character

 Light plays a character in this photo because the sun is shining through the clouds, and makes the mountain look like a silhouette.

 In this photo, the lighting at sunset allows for the array of colors in the sky.  The photo is fairly simple, but the lighting in the sky is what makes it intriguing.

Again, the lighting in the sky and clouds allows this photo to demonstrate complementary colors blue and orange, and a very unique texture.

Off Camera Flash

I enjoyed using the off camera flash.  I had many troubles at home, and I ended up pressing the camera button along with the off camera flash button which was not ideal, but I ended up with a few images I was happy with.  The top image of the pinecone was taken with a functioning off camera flash, and I think the shadow/lighting of the pinecone came out well, but the overall image is very Branson and not very intriguing.


At home was where I had my struggles with the off camera flash.  I tried to focus on reflections instead, and I think the bottom three images captures what I was looking for.  Overall, my favorite image is the bottom photo, but I wish I had used a white/solid background.  I will continue to take more photos and hopefully the off camera flash will make my images more successful.

High Key/Low Key

What works about my low key image is that the umbrella was highlighted in intriguing areas due to the porch light in my backyard.  Low key was difficult at first, but once I found an area with enough but not too much lighting, many of my photos improved.

I had a more challenging time with high key.  I had trouble finding an area where the lighting allowed for me to take an image with a mostly white background.  When I was inside, I did not find a space where I'd find success taking high key photos, so I took photos outside.  In my backyard, I had lighter photos but they still did not achieve the high key I was looking for.  Eventually, I took photos of the skies at Branson.  My photo did not appear how I was hoping, but my ability to take high key photos definitely improved over the course of this assignment.

Exposure Triangle

The strengths of these three images lie in the exposure triangle: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.  I experimented a lot with changing the f stop.  As I lowered the f stop, the background blurred and focused on one particular place/object.  Specifically in the middle and bottom photos, I focused on having a low f stop, and I think that gave me an evocative photo.  The exposure triangle also allows me to control the lighting, and I think the top image has an interesting lighting from the lights on my Christmas tree.  I like this photo because of the colors that were reflected onto the ornament, and the contrast in lighting.

Portrait Photos

I considered the idea of the portrait while taking my pictures.  Angela was my model, and I tried to frame the images in a flattering way.  I attempted to keep the rule of thirds in mind, but I broke the rule a couple of times.  My work physically addresses the priorities of the assignment because I was able to print successful images of Angela.  I pushed myself to gain a better understanding the physical properties of light by experimenting with different angles and reflections.  I used different settings on the camera such as changing the aperture to provide a variety of styles.  In the dark room, I was able to use my knowledge in order to know whether I needed to make my print lighter or darker.  I was able to change the time or aperture to improve the image.  I was able to better control the variety of tools over time because I became more accustomed to the different settings.  I found an aperture that was one or two stops from all the way closed worked the best for my roll of film.