Portrait Assignment

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec

This is Joelle, and I wanted to capture her "ninja" face.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/4.5 Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec

My second picture of Joelle and I wanted to show everyone how she tries to hold back her smile!

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/9.0 Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec

This is Anna and I loved the way her hair looked.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec

This is one of my favorite pictures because I took it spontaneously and captured Anna naturally.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/30 sec

 This Francais and I loved how intense the black of her hair and make up was.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/30 sec

I loved how this picture turned out because it gives out a poetic vibe.

ISO: 800 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/20 sec

I wanted to capture Ellen's natural smile.

ISO: 800 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/20 sec

This is Ellen and I loved how she looks so comfortable in front of the camera.

ISO: 800 Aperture: f/4.5 Shutter Speed: 1/13 sec

This is Kaitlynn and she's being such a bad kid.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/50 sec

This is Lizzy's cute smile.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/25 sec

I chose this picture because it catches her personality very well!

ISO: 800 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/13 sec

This is Tasha's face.

ISO: 800 Aperture: f/4.5 Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec

I liked how this photo makes Tasha look very strong.

ISO: 100 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec

I wanted to capture Kelsey's coolness!

ISO:100 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec

This is Kelsey's natural smile, and with this I wanted to end a fantastic year in photography and welcome summer.

Architecture Assignment Self-Critique

I felt that I did a good job in this assignment. For example, capturing unique locations and moments. I didn’t exactly plan on using unknown places and things but they turned out really well. It is a very different process shooting the city rather than nature. Some of my strengths in this assignment was looking for unique angles. I didn’t want the same framing in every other photo or even the same angle, and I felt that I did a good job searching for that exact view. I also noticed that you have to react a lot quicker to take photos in the city as opposed to nature. There’s so many moments that only happen once and as a photographer you need to be ready and keep an eye out, like I did with the street photo of the couple. I think I did a good job on capturing moments like that. Another thing I liked about my project was the natural “feel” I received from it. When I took street photos, especially the portraits, I wanted to look and feel natural. When I took Pierre’s photo I asked him for his picture and instead of asking him to pose I just let him play his guitar because it expressed who he was through the photo. I wanted people to get to know him simply by looking at the photo. Another one of my strengths was the editing process. I could’ve done a lot more with the editing, but I didn’t want to over do it. Portland is beautiful and didn’t need much editing. I felt that if I edited too much it’d be like overly airbrushing a model that’s already naturally beautiful. I kept my editing decent and just right.

Theres many things that I could improve on like, straightening, editing, and cropping. I felt that all those problems came from how I took the photo. Next time I go out to shoot I'm going to make sure and take it exactly how I want so that editing will come easier. For example, the reflection photo I shot had this weird tree branch hanging from the top and when I tried cropping it on Lightroom it didn't fit well. I could easily fix that by noticing those little details while I'm shooting. Another difference I noticed between the architecture and nature assignment was straightening. Architecture is so much harder to straighten. I think its because of the fact that theres so many lines out in the city that they could easily confuse you when shooting or editing. When I go shoot in the city again I would bring a tripod or even use the structures around me to keep the camera steady.

I loved this assignment! I love Portland so much and the fact that this project allowed me to spend so much time in the city was awesome. I had a lot of fun with it and really enjoyed this project. I liked the fact that this project took me to new places in Portland and I got to know the city more. The "My Choice" photo, I had no idea that place even existed until I got to wonder around! I also loved taking the streets because you can express so much through a photo. I got to know Portland a lot more and got to feel the spirit. I also loved spending my time experimenting with the camera, loved it!

Thursday Thoughts

April 11th, 2013

What we did during that we is we practiced with shooting portraits. Sometimes portraits look a lot easier to take than it actually is. I didn't know how much went into taking a portrait photo. We learned about the triangle that you should make when you pose someone. I didn't even know that existed! Theres also other things you have to keep in mind. You have to see the person you're going to photograph and see what their best features are and bring them out. Always do your best make them look good in the photo because you want to gain their trust. There is also a lot of thought that goes into the portrait because a story or experience can be told through a portrait. I do like taking portrait photos because theres so many things you can do with them including props and environment. Lighting is a huge factor in portraits because you can create many effects with it. I'm excited to see whats next!

Architecture Assignment

  ISO: 400 Aperture: f/20 Shutter Speed: 1/30 Sec

Location: N Steel Bridge Portland, OR 97212

3/3/13 1:53 pm

I really loved this photo as well because it shows a lot of different buildings.It shows the variety of strcutures and colors that are used in Portland.

ISO: 200 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec

Location: SW Vista Ave & SW Market St Dr Portland, OR

3/31/13 2:20 pm

We walked up to this really big bridge to see this view of Portland. It was a little hard to capture the city because I felt the trees were distracting, but other than that I really loved how it turned out.

  ISO: 400 Aperture: f/9.0 Shutter Speed: 1/15 Sec

Location: In between Eastbank Esplanade & SE Taylor Street Portland, OR

3/9/13 about 6:00 pm

At this photo I watched as the sun set and I found out it takes ALOT of patience. It's really nice and I had quite a few options to choose from.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/14 Shutter Speed: 1/160 Sec

Location: SW 2nd Ave & SW Stark St Portland, OR

3/23/13 11:31 pm

I loved this! It was tricky trying to straighten the building just because it wouldn't really line up from the angle I shot this. The faded colors of the figures with a little hard to edit as well, but I liked it.

  ISO: 400 Aperture: f/22 Shutter Speed: 1/30 Sec

Location: NW Glisan Street Ramp Portland, OR 97209

3/3/13 1:47 pm

I liked this photo because theres a lot of things happening and there could be symbolism behind it too. It was something quick I saw and wouldn't have normally notice.

 ISO: 200 Aperture: f/6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Sec

Location: In between SW Hathorne Bridge & Eastbank Esplanade Portland, OR

3/9/13 about 4:28 pm

I really liked what this said. I don't really understand it completely but I'm sure the meaning behind must be quite inspiring.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/200 Sec

Location: Cameron's Books and Magazines 336 SW 3rd Ave Portland, OR 97204

3/24/13 12:37 pm

I liked how I shot this photo because theres a lot of bright colors as there are faded pastel like colors. I only had to bring up the brightness but it was an easy photo to edit.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/1000 Sec

Location: SW Akney St & SW Naito Pwky Portland, OR

3/23/13 11:50 am

I liked how the reflection was used in this picture because I didn't really notice it until I payed more attention to the details and I thought it wasn't too difficult to edit. I just had to be careful with my blacks.

ISO: 200 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/400 Sec

Location: SW 1st Ave & SW Ash St Portland, OR

3/31/13 1:00 pm

The only problem I had with editing this photo was that the trees and the building wouldn't coordinate because the light is hitting them differently. I still liked how they turned out.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/1000 Sec

Location: SW Akeny St & SW 2nd Ave Portland, OR

3/24/13 12:12 pm

This is Pierre. When I asked him for a picture he said yes, and I just let him play his guitar because it showed who he was and I wanted to capture him. It was VERY hard choosing between black & white or color.

ISO: 200 Aperture: f/5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Sec

Location: On the Max Portland, OR

3/31/13 2:33 pm

My brother and our friend were just goofing off when I asked them to pose for me, but I really enjoyed what they came up with. The only trouble with this photo was acting quick to capture it since we were moving in the max.

 ISO: 800 Aperture: f/6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/1250 Sec

Location: OMSI 1945 SE Water Ave, Portland, OR 97214 & Eastbank Esplanade

3/9/13 about 4:10 pm

This is one of my favorite candids just because it looks so natural. It represents everyday Portland.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/400 Sec

Location: SW Akeny St & SW 2nd Ave Portland, OR

3/2/13 12:26 pm

This is one of my candids and its my favorite candid! I walked around the corner and saw them hugging and thought, "this would be a nice photo!" and took a picture. I liked how I framed it and kept it clear.

ISO: 200 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 0.5 Sec

Location: Washington Park Max Station SW Knight Blvd at the Oregon Zoo Portland, OR

3/31/13 1:53 pm

I chose this as "My Choice" because I liked how different this photo was from all the rest. Even though its blurry I liked how it came out. This was also a place I didn't know about before!

ISO: 200 Aperture: f/5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/200 Sec

Location: SW Vista Ave & SW Market Dr Portland, OR

3/31/13 2:08 pm

I chose this photo because the design on the house is so pretty! The weird sun spots in the picture actually kind of went with the colors, and straightening was also a little hard on this picture.

  ISO: 400 Aperture: f/29 Shutter Speed: 1/30 Sec

Location: N Steel Bridge Portland, OR 97212

3/3/13 1:51 pm

I really liked this photo because I felt I mostly got everything in focus. I love how I have the two different bridges in the picture as well and it contrasts the different structures

ISO: 200 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/640 Sec

Location: SW 1st Ave & SW Oak St Portland, OR

3/31/13 1:07 pm

The problem I had with this photo was finding the location of where I had took it! I found it and it was all better, but I felt like the trees are a distracting. Either way I still like this photo.

 ISO: 200 Aperture: f/6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/500 Sec

Location: Marquam Bridge Portland, OR & Eastbank Esplanade

3/9/13 about 3:40 pm

I really liked this photo because I tried to get a different view on the bridge. Most of the time we just look at the outside of the bridge but we never notice how its structured inside. I wanted to capture this and see how the bridge really is in and outside.

 ISO: 800 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Sec

Location:OMSI 1945 SE Water Ave, Portland, OR 97214

3/9/13 about 3:30 pm

The different colors in the photos really catch my eye. I also liked the different shapes that are present here.

ISO: 400 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Sec

Location: SW Akeny St & NW Naito Pkwy Portland, OR

3/24/13 12:17 pm

I love how this photo has a "retro" feel to it and how theres a lot of textures to be found in one place. I felt it would look good in black & white because you din't see many of these styles anymore.

Thrusday Thoughts

March 21st, 2013

This whole project was really fun! I love the city, I love photography, and I love Lightroom and this project brought it all together. I loved how it challenged me to search the city and experience it more. Kind of like always having a best friend but something comes along and challenges to look deeper and get to know your best friend even more. That's how this project affected me. I'm really happy the weather was super nice the two weekends I went out to Portland. I also go to experience a sunset in the city. I've seen sunsets at the beach and in my backyard, but when I got to witness the sunset in Portland and actually had the chance to capture it, it was beautiful.
My process was fairly natural and easy. I hated the fact that I kept looking at my paper to see what photos I needed to take so I just decided to be spontaneous with it. I took a lot of photos and just clicked away at anything that caught my eye. When I edited I noticed that I didn't want to bring out as much color as when I was doing the Nature Assignment. This project had me want to bring out most of the emotions from the city rather than the colors. Cropping was a main factor and straightening was too. Straightening was a little harder for this assignment because I found out the bridges aren't straight! Everything is pretty much on its own level. I really liked this assignment and I hope to improve even more!

Architecture Assignment

 ISO: 400 Aperture: f/9.0 Shutter Speed: 1/15 Sec

Location: In between Eastbank Esplanade & SE Taylor Street Portland, OR

3/9/13 about 6:00 pm

At this photo I watched as the sun set and I found out it takes ALOT of patience. It's really nice and I had quite a few options to choose from.

 ISO: 200 Aperture: f/6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/500 Sec

Location: In between SW Hathorne Bridge & Eastbank Esplanade Portland, OR

3/9/13 about 4:30 pm

I wanted to use this as an Urban picture because I wouldn't have noticed that graffiti any time before. I feel that sometimes we need to take the time to just look around.

 ISO: 200 Aperture: f/6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Sec

Location: In between SW Hathorne Bridge & Eastbank Esplanade Portland, OR

3/9/13 about 4:28 pm

I really liked what this said. I don't really understand it completely but I'm sure the meaning behind must be quite inspiring.

 ISO: 400 Aperture: f/22 Shutter Speed: 1/30 Sec

Location: NW Glisan Street Ramp Portland, OR 97209

3/3/13 1:47 pm

I liked this photo because theres a lot of things happening and there could be symbolism behind it too. It was something quick I saw and wouldn't have normally notice.

 ISO: 800 Aperture: f/9.0 Shutter Speed: 1/125 Sec

Location: Eastbank Esplanade & SE Taylor St Portland, OR 97214

3/9/13 about 5:30 pm

I choose to use this photo because I took it from a different angle that I took my other candids from. I also liked how the colors blended well together.

 ISO: 800 Aperture: f/6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/1250 Sec

Location: OMSI 1945 SE Water Ave, Portland, OR 97214 & Eastbank Esplanade

3/9/13 about 4:10 pm

This is one of my favorite candids just because it looks so natural. It represents everyday Portland.

 ISO: 400 Aperture: f/29 Shutter Speed: 1/30 Sec

Location: N Steel Bridge Portland, OR 97212

3/3/13 1:51 pm

I really liked this photo because I felt I mostly got everything in focus. I love how I have the two different bridges in the picture as well and it contrasts the different structures.

 ISO: 400 Aperture: f/20 Shutter Speed: 1/30 Sec

Location: N Steel Bridge Portland, OR 97212

3/3/13 1:53 pm

I really loved this photo as well because it shows a lot of different buildings.It shows the variety of strcutures and colors that are used in Portland.

 ISO: 800 Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Sec

Location:OMSI 1945 SE Water Ave, Portland, OR 97214

3/9/13 about 3:30 pm

The different colors in the photos really catch my eye. I also liked the different shapes that are present here.

ISO: 200 Aperture: f/6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/500 Sec

Location: Marquam Bridge Portland, OR & Eastbank Esplanade

3/9/13 about 3:40 pm

I really liked this photo because I tried to get a different view on the bridge. Most of the time we just look at the outside of the bridge but we never notice how its structured inside. I wanted to capture this and see how the bridge really is in and outside.

Wednesday Summary

March 13th, 2013

Today in photography I got to edit my Portland photos! I started off choosing which cityscape pictures I wanted to use and began cropping and straightening some as well. I chose this one picture for  cityscape and I experimented on what "feel" I wanted the photo to have. I moved the exposure but I felt that it didn't do much. Instead, I moved the shadows and highlights and that made a bigger difference to the photo than exposure did. I also feel that clarity helped a lot as well. For my candids I still have a lot of decisions to make! I have a lot of candids and I'm deciding which I want to use. That's how I spent my Wednesday in photography class.

Thursday Thoughts

February 28th, 2013

We're just working on editing pictures on Lightroom right now and I feel like I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable with the exposure and the photo temperature. I got to edit John's tattoo picture and made it more exposed and I also edited some photos we took inside the room and practiced editing the photo temperature on that too. I noticed in the photos we took inside that they looked really yellowish and I adjusted the temperature and they looked a little bluer. I'm beginning to understand how all this works! Here are the photographs I edited:

  Joelle took this photo; John's tattoo

 Anna took this photo; An abandoned sign in the parking lot

 I took this photo; Our reflection using a water puddle

I took this photo; Anna embracing her creative mind

Thursday Thoughts

February 21st, 2013

We just received our next assignment in photography, Architecture & Urban. I'm pretty excited for this project because we get to go shoot out in the city and I love the city! Mr. Long explained to us the different requirements and he told us, in detail, what he wants us to do. We get to shoot so many different things and even people, strangers too. I'm thinking about shooting at Downtown Portland and Downtown Gresham too because the feel of the cities are similar in a way. I like how small Gresham is, making it feel like a close community, and the space of Portland will give me tons of possibilities. This week we also learned about architecture, urban, cityscape, and street categories. I'm mostly excited to shoot urban just because every city is different. They're like the city's tattoos, you can find so many things hidden and every city has a different mark. That's all I have for now.

Thursday Thoughts

February 14th, 2013

This week was a pretty hands on week in our class. We got to do group exercises and they were pretty fun! Today we went out on a class trip to Starbucks and we got to shoot along the way. We met a cool guy named John, and he had interesting stories to tell. He also had a tattoo on his right arm of a cartoon and Joelle got a picture of it. He was a photographer as well and conversed with us and talked about what he likes to shoot. I thought this walk was a good way to apply what we're learning in class into the "real" world. It puts what we know into actions, which, in my opinion, is a much more fun way to learn. I'm starting to understand the histogram on Lightroom more and about architectural photographing. I also learned a special thing today, sometimes not all strangers are bad. We have so much to discover and experience.

Shooting Exercise and Edit - Architectural

February 13th, 2013
I went to shoot photos with Anna for our exercise and I feel like we did pretty well! We decided to go out infront and take a photo of whatever caught our eye. The first thing we saw was a firetruck. Then, we started wondering off to the gates of the school and see what we could find. We found a lot of stuff we weren't aware of and we also started looking a closer look at everyday things. We shot a great variety of photos. We came inside and started to import all the photos by clicking import, selecting our photos, renaming them, and making sure they were on copy. Then, we chose what photos we wanted to edit and we began. I always start by cropping and straightening. I move on to checking exposure and contrast. I work on the shadows and highlights and always keep on looking at the histogram and see the movements fo it. I always finish my editing process by adjusting specific colors and how much they stand out (if they're in color). That's what I did for this exercise!

 Anna took this photo near the parking lot.

 Anna took this photo towards the corner of the parking lot

I took this photo along the fence and it was already like this.