Photo Contest Entry: Endurance

"Endure to the End" * 6/3/2011--1:03 PM * Omaha, Nebraska * f/5.6 * 1/60 * Canon E'OS DIGITAL REBEL XT *I put the camera on the floor and listened for the focus "beep" and shot it. It took me a few times but I got a great focus. I took the photo into Camera Raw and increased the blacks and decreased the exposure. I used an adjustment brush on the tears in her shoes.

This submission was for the photography contest in the Photographics Society. I chose to enter this contest because I liked having a theme to the contest. I went on vacation to Nebraska, my mission, and searched to find a picture that would work. I starred at this sisters shoes and knew that it would be a great shot!

Large Format Photo Choice

"The Pace of Nature" * Rexburg, Idaho * 6/12/2011 – 7:23 PM * f/5.6 *1/250 sec *Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT *

I took this picture during the evening time when there was great light. There were shadows everywhere and the water was moving slowly but had enough movement to show a ripple effect and bring texture into the shot. I took the camera portrait style so I could keep the focal point on the lighting that draws the eye up the river and almost through the bend. The clarity was great when I opened it up on the computer and I was very pleased. After printing it, I realized that I needed to increase the greens which is why I increased my levels even more but masked everything out. It already has great contrast with the shadows that the surrounding trees created. I chose the image because it looked great raw and had to make minor edits. That is the kind of photography I enjoy. Also, I feel like it has great composition and depth and would look great in large photo format.  I decreased exposure and increased saturation in camera raw and then brought it into photo shop to do adjustment layers. Adjusted the levels to increase the exposure of green tree and masked out other areas to keep contrast.

Fine Art



"Bloom" * 6/3/2011--12:40 PM * 1/250 * f 5.6 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Brought it into camera raw and filled in the blacks a little and increased the saturation and clarity.



Used the tutorial in the book to complete the fine art template. I placed the picture in and really liked the effect that it gave to the flowers. I don't have a signature stamp, so I just added text at the bottom and matched the color with the flower.




I just took this picture the other day and didn't think that it would be a great prospect for my fine art template, but I really do love it. I saized the photo down to fit in but sill had to configure an arrangement that would look best. I like how it looks like a painting.
**JUST NOTICED THE QUOTE IS WRONG ON HERE! IT SHOULD SAY, "Steam is no stronger than it was a hundred years ago but it is put to better use." **

 

"Steaming" * 6/9/11--8:20 PM * 1/160 * f 5.6 *Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod * This picture was originally meant to be an hdr but didn't want the watermark because I don't have the program yet. I brought it in to camera raw and played with the saturation and colors. Then, brought it into photoshop and cropped the bottom and added a photo filter: film grain.



Night Lights

Camera Motion * 6/9/11--9:16 PM * 4 sec * f 3.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Instead of moving my camera around to paint with the colors, I just zoomed in and out with my lense to create a blurred effect with the lights. I like how it turned out! I had to use content aware to get rid of a few of the tags that are on the guitars and then rebuild a guitar head using the stamp tool. Then I increased the blues and greens and the overall saturation.

Blurred Lights * 6//9/2011--9:05 PM * 8 sec * f 4.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod * I set my camera up on a tripod and got this shot after playing with the shutter speed a few times. Then, I cropped it and used content aware to get rid of some of the annoying loud signs in the background. I brought up the saturation and increased the blacks to bring more focus on the streaming line.



Light Sketching * 6/9/2011--9:37 PM * 8 sec * f 3.5 *  Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod * I had my husband go by the large puddle of water in our driveway and draw a fish while I took the picture. You couldn't see him very much but I needed to edit out his white shoes, so I used the stamp and healing tools to do that. Then I turned it black and white and masked out the grass and half of the water that was blue.


 

Light Painting * 6/9/2011--9:44 PM * 10 sec * f 3.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod * Had my husband paint the wreath and then spell out home. Then, I had to take it into photoshop to create a more even light by painting black over certain parts. Then I increased the saturation and added a warm sepia blending mode over it.



Scannography

"The Guymon's" * 6/7/11--5:25 * Spori Scanner * 800 dpi * Epson v500 * Scanned each item individually with a black foam core poster over them and then took them all into Camera Raw and increased the blacks to have a more defined black edge to make it easier to cut. Then, I cut them all out and placed them on this black background.

"Fabricated" * 6/7/11--5:20 * Spori Scanner * 800 dpi * Epson v500 * This took a few tries on the scanner using preview. I had to figure out how to make sure everything was covered by fabric and that the G was centered. I brought it into Camera Raw and adjusted the exposure, increased the blacks and saturation and even used the adjustment brush on the G. (I sized it at 1000 because it would have been too small at 700.)

Edge Effects

"I'm just a summer girl" * 6/4/2011 – 3:03 PM * Omaha, Nebraska * 1/1250 sec * f/5.0 *  Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Taking pictures outside on a sunny day was rough, however, we did have a roof over this part when I took the picture. I ended up increasing the exposure and then increasing the blacks to detract from the background in Camera Raw. Then, I brought it in photoshop and added a brushed-on effect. I switched between brushes to get the look I wanted and kept the opacity at 100. 

 "Symbols" *  6/4/2011 – 3:00 PM * Omaha, Nebraska * 1/3200 sec * f/5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I had to zoom in really close to get this shot. The bride actually asked me to take a picture of her necklace because it has the diamond from her mothers wedding ring that her deceased dad gave her. I wasn't sure which to focus on more so I focused in the middle of the shot. Then, brought it into camera raw and increased the blacks and contrast. I also took an adjustment brush and touched on the ring and the necklace. When creating the transparent frame, I had to decrease the exposure of the original picture to increase the burned boarder. I wanted it to focus on the ring and the necklace so I made the frame a little thicker.

"Walking on Water" * 6/2/2011 – 1:53 PM * Omaha, Nebraska: Mormon Trail Center * 1/30 sec * f/3.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT  * I took this picture at the bronze exhibit at the Mormon Trail Center (my mission). Lighting was difficult but I got this angle and I loved the shot. I added the flexible brushed on effect and alternated my brushes. Also, I reduced the opacity to help blend the edging a little better. 

Best@Bannack

"Come home soon" * 5/25/2011 – 11:29 AM * Bannack, Montana: Saloon * f/4.5 * 1/250 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I took this photo in the saloon and tried to use the natural light to light up her face. It was really dark on her right side so I took it into Camera Raw and decreased the exposure and added a drastic vignette to help the eye focus on her stomach. 

"Hands hold tightly" * 5/25/2011 – 11:29 AM * Bannack, Montana: Saloon * f/5.6 * 1/500 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I zoomed in to get this photo while taking the picture above. I got a few with her hands in different places but liked this one the most because the hands tell a great story. The background was already black because of the lighting in the room so I didn't have to edit that.The only real edit I made using a adjustment brush in Camera Raw on her ring because it was a little too dark. Then I used the shapes and minus tool to text wrap the quote . I thought it would even more powerful to add the quote in there.

"Etched History" * 5/25/2011 – 2:07 AM * Bannack, Montana * f/5.6 * 1/25 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I took a picture of this Bannack sign and put a picture of the wall in the jail over it. I decreased the opacity and used overlay as the blending mode. I had to rotate the wall of the jail because I felt like it would help with the alignment of the letters.

"Crooked" * 5/25/2011 – 2:51 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/4.5 * 1/400 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * The doors were already crooked on this shot but I liked the layering of the doors that was naturally created. I didn't even have to tilt my camera to show the tilt! I brought it into camera raw and decreased the exposure so I could darken the inside of the house. Then I increased the saturation which added those yellows and rust colors.

"Cast your pearls" * 5/25/2011 – 5:15 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/5.6 * 1/15 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * This picture really tuned out great, raw. I hung the pearls on the door and they were really long so I tied them in a knot. Then, I tilted the camera to bring more of an angle. For editing--all I did was pull it into photo shop and added more blur using the gaussian blur filter and masked out the pearls.

"Alice's Door" * 5/25/2011 – 2:17 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/4.5 * 1/15 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * It was really dark in this room so I had to adjust my shutter speed a little bit. I caught a little natural light coming in on the door. I focused on the pink door and the door in front of it became less of a focus. I brought it into Camera Raw and increased the saturation and lighten the exposure. Then, I brought it into photo shop and brought in more saturation but masked out everything but the pink door.

"The door is always open" * 5/25/2011 – 5:01 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/4.0 * 1/160 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * This was really bright at first so I used spot metering to adjust the exposure compensation. When I brought it into photo shop and changed it to black and white, it looked a little plain. So, I added a grain filter to make it look more authentic.

"Take one down, pass it around" * 5/25/2011 – 4:31 AM * Bannack, Montana: Saloon * f/4.0 * 1/10 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I really like all the contrast of imagery in this photo. The bottles are not aligned, they have shadows and they all have different levels of rootbeer. I took it into photoshop and decreased the exposure and changed it to sephia.

"The Long Walk Home" * 5/25/2011 – 11:59 AM * Bannack, Montana * f/4.0 * 1/800 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * This is 4 different photos. I used photo merge in photoshop to stitch the photos together. There was hardly any room on the side so I cropped it and used content aware to get rid of a wheel barrel and add in some grass on the side. Then, I increased the saturation and it turned the house, red. I masked out everything but the door and the grass to keep the red in there.

HDR@Bannack

5/25/2011 – 12:56 PM * Bannack, Montana: Mead Hotel * f/4.5 * 1/500 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod with Bracketing

5/25/2011 – 12:56 PM * Bannack, Montana: Mead Hotel * f/4.5 * 1/2000 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod with Bracketing

5/25/2011 – 12:56 PM * Bannack, Montana: Mead Hotel * f/4.5 * 1/4000 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod with Bracketing

"Come and Stay"  I set this up on a tripod and strategically positioned the camera in a way so I could get the clouds. They looked really unrealistic already so when it blended, it brought really great color. I editing the photo in HDR using tone mapping and turned down the brightness, increase the vivid colors and smoothed it out. I kept it on the eye catching setting.

5/25/2011 – 2:48 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/5.6 * 1/1000 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod with Bracketing

5/25/2011 – 2:48 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/5.6 * 1/4000 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod with Bracketing

5/25/2011 – 2:48 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/5.6 * 1/250 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Tripod with Bracketing

"Paint me a River" * Used bracketing with a tripod and zoom to capture the bend of the river. I played with the color equalizer on Dynamic Photo and the hue compressor to have more brightness in the foreground. I played around with the different features and decided to use the smoothing feature to make it look almost like a painting.

5/25/2011 – 1:08 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/3.5 * 1/3200 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT

"No more waiting" * My original of the photo was obviously really dark and you could hardly notice the chair. I did, however, like this effect so I decided not to brighten it up too much when I took it into Dynamic Photo. I increased the brightness a little and worked with the color equalizer to bring more color in the window. It created a simple light on the seat of the chair that I really liked. Then I took it into photo shop and lighten it up a little more.

MacroAbstract@Bannack

"Hitting a Brick Wall" * 5/25/2011 – 12:47 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/5.6 * 1/2500 sec * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * When I took the bottle shot, I wanted to get a cool angle. The blur was great even though the aperture wasn't at it's highest. The boardwalk helped with the alignment and the lighting was decent because there was a large tree blocking a lot of the sun, but not bringing shadows. Later, I shot the brick was from the Mead Hotel and knew I could use them together. I dragged it on top of the bottle, decreased the opacity and started trying different blending modes and decided to stick with overlay.

ReverseShallowDepth@Bannack

"A day in the life of..." * 5/25/2011 – 12:02 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/3.5 * 1/800 sec * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I really like the reflection of the fence in the window. I wanted to try a side angle to see if I could bring more depth as I focused on the house instead of the fence. I increased the saturation and it added a rust to the window frames and increased the greens in the grass.

"A day in the life of..." * 5/25/2011 – 12:01 PM *Bannack, Montana * f/3.5 * 1/1250 sec * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I had to be at this angle for the picture that I wanted or else you could see my reflection in the window. I took it into photoshop and added saturation to see the greens. I matched the saturation levels from the picture above.

"Temptation" * 5/25/2011 – 12:40 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/3.5 * 1/3200 sec * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT* This is my hand I took a picture of. I wasn't getting an amazing shots of just the door knobs so I thought adding another object to have a reverse shallow depth would make it more "fascinating". I focused on the door knobs and it blurred my hand. There is a slight angle to it to bring personality.

"Temptation" * 5/25/2011 – 12:39 PM * Bannack, Montana * f/3.5 * 1/3200 sec * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT* This is my hand I took a picture of. I wasn't getting an amazing shots of just the door knobs so I thought adding another object to have a reverse shallow depth would make it more "fascinating". There is a slight angle to it to bring personality. I took it into photoshop and added more nail polish to my thumb because I had a lot peeling off and that was all the editing I did.

ActionBlur&Freeze@Bannack

"Jumping Evolution" * 5/24/2011 – 11:52 AM * Bannack, Montanta * f/20 * 1/250 sec * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * This shot was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I set my camera on shutter priority and took 2 sets of 2 pictures. Obviously, you can tell a difference because of the people int he background but I still wanted to merge them together. I changed it to black and white and increased the greens so the grass would appear lighter and it would be easier to see his shadow.

"Dave the Ghost" * 5/24/2011 – 11:09 AM * Bannack, Montana: Mead Hotel * f/9 * 5.0 sec * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I used a tripod to set this up so I could have my shutter open longer. It took a couple tries to figure out what shutter speed worked best. For edits I took it into CR and decreased the exposure and then took it into photoshop and increased the saturation to make the walls more yellow but masked out Dave.

Portraits@Bannack

"Waiting" * 5/24/2011 – 11:21 AM * Bannack, Montana: Saloon * f/4.5 * 1/1000 sec * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I used the lighting for the window to light the left side of her face and there was a pretty think shadow on her right. I took it into CR and brought up the exposure but increased the blacks to keep the background darker. Then brought her into photoshop and did cosmetic editing with burning and dodging her eyes, eyebrows and hair. Then used the paint tool to smooth out her face as well as the healing tool. She had a hair tie on her hand so I stamped that out, too. I liked the color of her shirt so I increased the saturation and then masked out her face so she didn't look too bronze.

"Content" * 5/24/2011 – 11:27 AM * Bannack, Montana: Saloon * f/4.5 * 1/125 sec * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I had hit sitting in a chair close to the window with the light coming in. I only made a few healing edits with photoshop on this one because I really like the lighting. It makes him look relaxed and very natural. I like the symmetry that the light is creating, as well.

Portraits

Head Shot: "Are you really there?" * 5/18/2011 – 6:39 PM * Rexburg, Idaho * 1/8 sec * f/4.0 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Jeremy was getting ready for bed and I was just about to leave the room and I saw him looking up. I knelt down and got the shot! His face had a red rash on it and I thought, hey, this is a baby, so I smoothed out his skin using the paint brush and gave him baby smooth skin.
Fun Fact: I asked him to act like he was sleeping at one point and he covered his eyes with his hands. I laughed and so he took them off and then squeezed his eyes really tight. It didn't look very natural. (Also-he likes identical to his dad who teaches Political Science on campus.)

Head Shot: "Meet Kaylee" * 5/20/2011 – 10:11 AM * 1/3200 sec * f/4.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * We found this bench and I really liked it but everything behind it wasn't very appealing so I thought I would get it as a head shot. I really like how the colors in her shirt match very well. I had her sit more towards the middle of the bench to get some of the bench in. She had a few blemishes so I cleared those up but I used the paintbrush to smooth her skin out. I also used the dodge tool to lighten up the white in her eyes.
Fun Fact: Kaylee was my last companion on my mission. I thought she may struggle and giggle too much in this photo shoot but she was an amazing model and I was so impressed.

Side Composition: "Picnic Time" * 5/20/2011 – 9:50 AM * Rexburg, Idaho * 1/4000 sec * f/4.5 *  Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * This picture turned out really good. It was a little too bright at first to I had my assistant use the reflector to block some of the light. All I had to do was adjust the exposure and then I used the adjustment brush in camera raw to whiten her teeth.

Fun Fact: Right as we were getting up after taking the pictures, the sprinklers went off! Just our luck.

Full Body: "Steps of the Tabernacle" * 5/20/2011 – 10:01 AM * Rexburg, Idaho * 1/4000 sec * f/3.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I took a few shots to catch this angle. The lighting wasn't the greatest and we were having a hard time reflecting light with all the gray around so I had to lighten it up in camera raw and I increased the colors in the effects palette and used an adjustment brush to increase the exposure of her undershirt because it started to look gray. Then, added a a very visible vignette.
Fun Fact: I love the positioning of her feet. She did it because she was embarrassed of them because they didn't match her and then she started laughing and I got this shot.

Group Activity: "It's bedtime, kids..." 5/18/2011 – 6:29 PM* Rexburg, Idaho * 1/80 sec * f/3.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * This shot happened right as Mom was telling the kids it's time to brush their teeth and get ready for bed. There was so much interaction, I didn't know which picture to choose! Also, since there was a lot of movement, I caught a lot of blur. I added another layer of gaussian blur to and a mask increase the focus on Mom and Ruth and then smoothed out their faces using the paint brush.
Fun Fact: Ruth is a born to be model! Any time her mom would tell her to do something for the camera, she would do it right away.

Group Posed: "Prayer Time" *  5/18/2011 – 6:36 PM * 1/25 sec * f/4.0 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I didn't get as much blur to the background of this image so I turned it black and white so the audience could focus more on the central image. Also, there was a piece of paper hanging that interfered with the picture too much so I used content aware to get rid of it.
Fun Fact: After saying this prayer, Mom turned to me and said, "it feels like we do a lot of praying around here." Such a great family.

Natural Work Environment: "Story Time" * 5/18/2011 – 6:34 PM * Rexburg, Idaho * 1/15 sec * f/4.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I caught Ruth getting a book for her mom to read to her before she went to bed. I thought I would make it back and white and mask out the books so it would show how books are magical to children and it is part of their 'natural work environment.'
Fun fact: Ruth fell asleep so quickly, Mom didn't even read her the book she picked out.

This photo shoot will be one of my greatest memories. Afterward--I felt like I didn't get the greatest shots but I learned a lot about motherhood and about having a family and I guess that is what I needed to get out of it. This is a righteous family.