Dendrology

Ok, so I've been doing this leaf collection for my biology class....and I happened to have some leaves as a result. Therefore, I took some pictures of them.

 Don't ask me what kind of leaves these are......I think they're poinsettias, I could be wrong. They weren't actually part of my collection, just a casualty of my camera as I was walking by...

I really love the super-macro mode on my camera, if you haven't noticed by now.....I'm going to try to take some more photos like this of different plants, so be on the lookout for that in the future. Oh! I should do it in the fall when all the leaves start changing color. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

As always, these are slightly edited, so here are the originals in my picasa album.

Another Sunset

Here's a sunset to make up for my lack of postage the past 3 days.

Sunsets seem to be a recurring theme of mine....Along with flowers. Oh well. As usual, this photo is slightly edited, and there's a more edited version in my picasa album here, but I'm not sure which I like better. I think for this particular one, the colors are more interesting in the less extreme version, and it stays true to reality at least a little better.

The symmetry of this shot is one of my favorite parts (it's a river, not a lake). I even did a painting from there once.

Anywho, tomorrow I'll have a way more interesting post, with some brand new photos.

Pretty Pictures - The Set

So, I found the rest of the set from my post Pretty Flowers, and here it is for your viewing pleasure!

Blogger's picture uploader and the interface for putting pictures in here FAILS. Let's see if this looks as bad as it is.

EDIT: Yep, that's pretty bad.
EDIT: Ok, they're fixed. Apparently dragging one pixel too far sends them flying across the screen....
EDIT: Why do they look so bad again???????? I quit...I'll fix it later.
EDIT: They're fixed now.......

Here's the rest of the set, in my picasa album

Enjoy!

Even More Flowers

This post contains more flowers, so let's get right to it.

I took this picture in early June of this year, with my Fujifilm Finepix S2800HD. Super-macro mode of course; that camera is amazing at super-macro.

They look like they're miniature satellites.....All turned towards the sun to collect as much energy as they can before nightfall. Seriously, one of the things that always amazes me about plants is how they can move to collect sunlight. They're pretty impressive.

Anyways, once again with this picture I've upped the Contrast and played with the color a little bit, you can check out the original here.

Always Winter

This next photo is one of my favorites....so much so that I actually printed it out, and it stayed on my desk for a few months. This is an icicle hanging from my roof, clearly with the sunrise behind it.

I believe I took this picture in early January of this year....

So, I've discovered lots of different effects and adjustments in the course of my experimenting with photography. I think the most effective one that I've used (in my opinion) is just simple Contrast. I increased the contrast a little before uploading this picture, and I think I've greatly improved it.... What do you think? Is it too extreme? Does lots of contrast make artsy photos? In this particular situation I'm going to defend my case by saying that the extra contrast brings out both the color in the sky, and the depth in the icicles. The original is the one I had printed out on my desk, and I loved the picture that way, but now I really like the added contrast.

Below are three versions of the picture, the original, the post, and the one I thought I wanted to post, but changed my mind because the colors were too extreme.

Extreme

Original

Medium

The difference is much more subtle when they're lined up next to each other....whatever, you get the point.

Addressing some of the comments I've received, I use both a GFM 10MP digital point-and-shoot camera and a Fujifilm Finepix S2800HD (14MP, also a point and shoot). Now of course I would love to have a DSLR someday, but I think that you can make some great art with just a point-and-shoot. I've discovered that my previous background in the fine arts--in particular having a good eye for composition--is way more important than having fancy equipment.

In conclusion,
Good photography = aesthetically pleasing subject + good composition + lots of extra contrast?
 

The Setting Sun

Wow, I really don't have much to say about this one..... The sunset says it all.

Full Size

Once again, I took this picture with my old GFM brand 10MP camera....sometimes I think it takes better pictures than my Fujifilm Finepix S2800HD. Oh well...

At some point in time in the near future, I'll start posting all the other photos that go along with each of these posts....whenever I get some time.

A picture says a thousand words, so I end this post with 1091 words.

Pretty Flowers

Here's some pretty flowers! They're daisies--there's a whole field of them behind my house.

Full Size

And as I was writing this, a song came on the TV that went "Pick another daisy, pick another daisy in the meantime. Pick another daisy, pick another daisy in the spring time." Weird. It was some sort of alternative rock sounding song.

I just looked it up, and it's Daisy by The Nadas. Interesting song.....

Anywho, not much else to say about this picture.

Copyright Infringement

Sorry for the delay in posting new stuff....I've been half on vacation, half catching up with my real life. So, here's something cool. This picture was taken in Beijing, China, at the Ming Tombs (which are surprisingly uninteresting compared to the rest of the ancient stuff). Yes, I know this is Coca-Cola; if you've never been to China, Coke really pushes their stuff over there..... The streets are just lined with coke vendors, every 20 feet or so.

Either way, the Coke propaganda is always interesting to look at. This is the surface of a picnic table at a souvenir stand at the Ming Tombs. There is clearly a hole for an umbrella in the middle....not utilized at the time. I really like how this one turned out, the gross texture and the random light spots make it very interesting to look at. Oh yeah, I really like the Chinese characters for Coca-Cola too.... There's just something....catchy (?)...about how they look.

Full Size                            If you think that's awesome, you should see Chinese Mountain Dew.

So, clearly I don't represent the Coca-Cola company, and Coca-Cola is probably TM and Copyright the Coca-cola company. Most likely the Chinese version is too. Unfortunately, I cropped the copyright statement off the edge of the picture for artistic reasons. It was in Chinese anyway, so....whatever.

That's all.