Portfolio

ISO: 400  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/200

            I took this picture at my house. I checked out some gear for the weekend and decided that I hadn't done anything personal in a while and I wanted to get some more pictures. This was at a time when yearbook assignments were piling high but they were all boring stuff like head shots, so I was ready to do something a little more exciting than a head shot. This bench is really old and broken but I liked that it looked that way for a picture. I started off at a different angle, and took several of this bench but liked this image the best. I turned it to black and white and liked the contrast and the rocks in the background. I had fun taking pictures that day and it was almost refreshing to get more excited about photography again since all the head shots had kind of dulled me there for a couple weeks. I was using the 50mm lens while shooting this.

ISO: 400  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/500

         I took this picture the same day that I took the one of the bench. It was getting close to sunset, golden hour I guess you could say. I know Smith says he doesn't like it when the sun is in the back and blown, and I usually don't either, but I decided to try it anyways and ended up liking this one. I think I liked it cause there's the flower and then you can see a spider web faintly too. I hadn't really shot much at golden hour so I had to experiment with settings and every time I turned a different way I had to change them. My purpose in taking this picture was I was trying to get some nature pictures since we had talked about doing a nature portfolio for TOPS. We ended up not entering that category but I'm glad I had taken these pictures anyway. I took several other pictures of the flowers at golden hour but I didn't like how those turned out. This was the only one that I liked. I used the 50mm lens for this photo as well.

ISO: 400  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/1000

          I took this picture at the beginning of the year. I had an idea for an environmental portrait of him golfing since he is so into golf. Well, Matt (the subject of this image) also loves reading and was so into his book that he couldn't put it down. So, I asked him if he could at least go read in a more interesting place like the hammock. I told him how to lay down for several pictures, but in this one he got in that position by himself. I learned that for an environmental portrait sometimes it's better to just let the subject do as they please so it looks more natural. All the pictures I told him what to do in didn't turn out. To get this picture I was laying in the bushes to be far enough back. I was using a 28-75mm lens and was zoomed out all the way. I entered this picture into ATPI at the beginning of the year, and then at shoot out later in the year and for both of those it got absolutely nothing. It kind of upset me but I entered it into Jostens anyways and it ended up getting 2nd place in portrait. I was SUPER excited and still am.

ISO: 200  f/8.0  shutter speed: 1/8000

          This picture was taken after I had been learning how to do silhouettes at school. I never fully mastered it until I got home and kept trying to get it to work. I realized that you had to expose for the sky and then take an image of your subject with the sun behind the subject and you in the shade. I was laying down for this image and was really happy with how it turned out. I was using a 28-75mm lens and was zoomed in at 40mm. This image made me really happy especially because I finally learned how to do silhouettes.

ISO:200  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/100

          This picture was taken in Costa Rica. We were about to go zip lining and I was getting ready to take some pictures of my family, but decided to experiment with the group before us. I liked this one because of the tree with the sign on it, and the guy watching the other guy help the girl get ready to go. I guess it's the composition that I like about it. I was using a 17-50mm lens. I turned this image to black and white and thought it told a story a lot better that way versus being in color. I can't decide if I wish the guy on the far right should be all the way in the image or not, but this is not cropped so I can't change it anyways.

ISO: 200  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/125

             This was one of my book cover pictures. This is of Hannah. For this picture I learned how to do photoshop work and do the overlays of the color and all the blending and stuff. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I was using a 17-50mm lens and was zoomed in all the way to 50mm. 

ISO: 200  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/800

           I took this picture in Costa Rica at a horse ranch place. I had just learned how to do HDR pictures at home right before we left for the trip so I wanted to try some there. This is the only one that turned out. I didn't have a tripod so I set it on the fence, and later learned that I could've held it and done the thing (I forgot what it's called) but where you hold the shutter down and it takes 3 pictures at different exposures. However, I'm glad I didn't do it that way because this is made up of 7 images and gives it more detail than 3 would have. I was using a 17-50mm lens for this picture.

ISO: 1250  f/3.5  shutter speed: 1/200

            This was at a, I wanna say freshman basketball game, I can't remember exactly which grade this was though. I like that our team had the ball and how the other team was trying to block/get the ball/do whatever he was trying to do. I was using a 28-75mm lens for this game and discovered that that is probably my favorite lens for shooting basketball.

ISO: 1000  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/25

              I took this picture a while ago in my dad's office. I used all natural lighting for this and learned that natural lighting can be really cool at times. I like the shadows this created and turned it to black and white. I like that it's rustic looking. I used a 17-50mm lens for this.

ISO: 100  f/16.0  shutter speed: 1/250

           I took this picture for my self-portrait six weeks project. We had taped newspapers all over a wall in my porch and set the camera up on a tripod using self-timer. I set up one flash with a snoot aimed down at the book and one flash in a cup behind me. My original plan was for me to be silhouetted and the book lit up, but I learned there was too much spill light to do that. The other mistake I did was part of the light stand is in the picture, but it's at the corner so it's hard to see unless you look really close. I learned more about flashes in doing this picture, and used a 17-50mm lens.

          All 10 of these images mean a lot to me, hence the fact I chose them for my portfolio, but they all have a story to them and a reason as to why I chose them. A year ago I loved taking pictures especially if I had gotten the chance to use a 'fancy' camera. Everything I took on a 'fancy' camera was just so pretty and great. Now, I go back and look at that and wonder what was going through my mind to make me think it even semi looked decent. I only thought I had a clue what was going on, but looking back I was beyond naïve. Through these images I have learned so much from the technical aspect to the composition and everything in between. I have loved being a part of the Commercial Photography program and wouldn't change that for anything. It has been my best high school experience by far and not returning would just be plain awful. I can remember telling my sister after the first week of school I didn't know there was something at Texas High this great that even existed. As time went on, there were definitely times I found it to be very stressful, but a stress that pushed me further. I never imagined I would learn as much as I did this year, nor never thought it possible to learn so much about one subject in that short amount of time. But now that I know it is possible, I would like to continue learning like this next year. I'm hoping to really learn and get a better grasp on lighting next year since that is one of the most important parts of a photograph. After high school, I hope to continue doing photography and maybe eventually doing it as a career. For now, though, I'm just hoping to get as much out of it next year as I did this year.