Virginia Colors

Living in Phoenix I didn’t realize how much I missed Fall colors. It helps that Virginia is beautiful…

Leah

Gone Shootin’ (pictures that is…)
-Jonas Studer

High Contrast

So I’m using the same cool technique I used a long time ago for a self-portrait (week #1 – all the wrong places, wow that was like a months worth of beard growing)

Model Portrait (before & after)

I attended a photography workshop recently and got the opportunity take some portraits. Here is one of the few shots I liked…

So here’s a list of what I did (in no particular order)

- Made the background white

-Turned up the saturation in her shirt

-Removed Blemishes/ Softened her face

- Brightened her eyes as well as making them a little more green

- Sharpened her eyes because the photo wasn’t “tack sharp”

- Made the lips a little bigger and little more red

I think that’s it. Did I go too far and is her face too soft?

Cactus Silhouette

Another Sunrise picture. My goal was to frame a cactus that was backlit by the sunrise. I didn’t know I was going to get such amazing skies that morning. Here is a couple others i kind of like…

Morning Storm

So for the past few weeks I’ve been on a mission to capture the sunrise in Phoenix. My goal is to create something good enough to hang in my apartment. I’ve learned a lot in the past few weeks but more than anything I was reminded that any success is built on many failures. So far I’ve gotten up early five times to shoot the sunrise.

1. South Mountain (Attempt 1) – Epic Fail! I was just getting there when the sun came up.
2. McDowell Mountain – Failure
3. South Mountain (Attempt 2) – I got a few decent pics
4. Fountain Park – I had an awesome time and definitely got some winners. Also I got an interesting mix of weird looks and good conversation from the morning walkers.
5. A desert location a few blocks from my Apartment – Also got some winners here. Setup took no time at all compared to my first outings.

I still want to try a few other places around Phoenix but I’m really wanting some cool skies to work with so I’m waiting for some more cloudy days. The last two times have had interesting skies but clouds are hard to come by in Phoenix most days.

So the photo you see above is definitely not the one that will eventually hang on my wall but it has me in it so it has to be a great photo. I was done shooting and was walking back to my car when I saw the bench and I had the idea to put myself a shot. So I setup my camera on the tripod and hit the time delay and ran over to the bench. It literally started to pour by the time I got back to the camera to check it out otherwise I think I would have reframed it a little and taken some more  shots (I don’t really like the right side of the photo much and yes I do know I could crop it).

Through the Windshield

I’m still working on some sunrise pictures so in the meantime here is a pic I took in my car after I got done shooting at South Mountain

Uh-oh

Leah playing in grandma’s garden