Photo Editing Fun

I think we can all agree that this week has been an absolute fiasco.  I didn't have enough time to take any pictures this week.  I was extremely bummed.  The only free time I had was when my Crim 100 class was canceled on Tuesday.  I love that class, so I was somewhat upset.  I know, a college student upset that a class was canceled, crazy, right?  Well I spent an hour sitting in the Hub waiting for my friend to join me for lunch.  During that time I edited some photos, and because I didn't have time to take any new pictures I was forced to select things that were already on my computer.

I took this picture last summer:

My friends and I spent almost all summer jamming out to The Beatles, so it only seemed fitting that we included "Hey Jude" in our road art.  This picture was taken more for the sake of memory than for art.  While I was sitting in the Hub I decided to play around with the contrast of the photo to make it more interesting:

 

In this image, the psychedelic colors within the letters and the peace sign are more vibrant.  I love increasing the contrast in photos to make the colors stronger, but I have been changing the contrast in my pictures since the 8th grade.  It isn't exactly creative for me anymore.  I searched around on my photo editing software and found a "threshold" tool under the "colors" tab.  I honestly have no idea what it does, but I know that messing around with its settings makes your pictures look really awesome: 

I really love the way it made the peace sign look! 

Last week I mentioned that I couldn't wait to take pictures at THON.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen.  As I was boarding the Blue Loop at 4:00 am Sunday, I realized that my camera was still sitting on my desk.  Turning around and running back to my dorm was outrageously tempting, but I was already running late.  I had to rely on my roommate to take pictures for me. I took her photos and then added some of my own editing to jazz things up:

 

 

Changing the threshold setting is probably my new favorite way to edit photos.  It makes the pictures unique and interesting to look out.  It definitely gives a wacky feel to the pictures that wouldn't be appropriate for all images, but I think it worked out well this time!

The Apple of My Eye

The weather this week was beautiful, yet my picture this week was taken inside.  Unfortunately, I spent much of the week indoors studying and writing papers.  I obviously lead the most exciting life ever.  I have been so busy this week so I've only been able to tackle one project at a time.  When the weather was nice on Tuesday, I wasn't even thinking about snapping a photo for Thursday night.  The next thing I know, it's cloudy.

On Wednesday it was cloudy by the time I could take pictures, but I went on a walk with my camera anyway.  I was looking for anything that had texture.  I absolutely love pictures with a lot of texture, but I haven't taken any thus far.  I wandered between buildings looking for interesting brick patterns, and after a half hour of searching I stumbled upon what I was looking for.  I adjusted my ISO and my shutter speed, picked the perfect zoom, and hit the button.  Nothing happened.  I started to freak out, thinking that my camera was broken.  It wasn't.  My battery was dead, and I didn't have a memory card in my camera.  Whoops.

I went out Thursday after lunch and tried to get a picture of the ducks swimming in the pond outside of The Hintz Alumni Center.  I got one picture of the ducks swimming in the half frozen pond, when an old woman came up from behind me with a bag of cheerios.  The ducks took one look at the bag and headed for the grass.  Apparently the, "Don't Feed The Ducks," sign doesn't apply to everyone.  I went back to the pond after my Intro to Africa class, but the ducks were nowhere to be found. 


Around 6:00 pm I was starting to get anxious about finding the right subject for an indoor photo.  I went to my SHRA meeting, and found the perfect thing to photograph.  Today we had our secret valentine exchange and I was given this little guy:

I can not wait for THON this weekend!  I hope to get some amazing pictures!

A Change in the Challenge

Generally, I love taking pictures, but this is beginning to feel like a job.  It is hard forcing myself into being creative.  It sounds weird, but I have to be in the right mood to go out on a picture taking adventure.  Last weekend I was too tired and stressed out to be creative, and even though the light was perfect Sunday morning I could not get out of bed.

I must confess, I pushed photography out of my mind completely for most of this week.  I only started thinking about it today while I was sitting in my Intro to Contemporary Africa class.  I was staring out the window, like I usually do in that class because, well, it's boring, when suddenly I knew what I wanted to take a picture of.  Sure, I had a picture of Old Main already, but not a picture taken up close. 

The first picture I took wasn't exactly creative, sure, it looked nice, but I think everyone has taken this picture of Old Main:

 I like this picture, don't get me wrong.  The words, "Old Main" are in focus, you can see the pillars, and the sky is blue.  I played around with shots of the bell tower as well.  I was just upset at the lack of color in the photo.  It needed more.  I looked around for something with some color.  Because the leaves have fallen, I had to resort to something less traditional.  I spotted the the sundial and ventured over to it. I took this picture first:

I liked it, but then I decided to frame Old Main using the sundial:

I absolutely love this photo!  Just taking this picture was enough to put a huge grin on my face for the rest of the day.  I know I'm challenging myself to take pictures in the morning on weekends, but I think I have to change that.  I am challenging myself to take pictures and enjoy doing it, regardless of the time of day. 

I woke up Saturday morning, and for once it was to the sound of my own alarm.  However, it didn't make getting out of bed any easier.  I climbed down from my loft bed, tiptoed to the window, and peeked outside.  It was disgusting.  The sun was hiding behind thick clouds, and I was certain it wasn't going to come out that morning.  I was exhausted so I climbed back into bed, hoping I would have better luck on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning I woke up at 8:00am.  Once again the sun wasn't out, and I started to get frustrated.  When the sun finally came out I was stuck in a meeting.  I don't exactly have good luck.

Monday I started to panic.  The weather forecast for this week did not look promising.  I had a free moment around 3:30pm and rather than napping I grabbed my camera and went for a walk.  Generally, I at least have an idea of where I want to go to take pictures, but on Monday I was absolutely clueless.  I spent about an hour just wandering around looking for anything that looked remotely interesting to photograph.

I found these awesome icicles on the Palmer Museum, but there was no way to get a decent shot of them.  Depressed, I continued behind the Palmer to the Stuckeman Family Center.  After a quick google search, I found that Stuckeman is made almost entirely from recycled content, and these materials can be recycled again when the building is torn down.  That's awesome!  Anyway, the building's exterior is green, but when I snapped a photo it appeared gray:

I was really mad.  I wanted a picture of the building because it was an interesting green color.  I felt the picture looked boring without the strange color.  I left to take pictures elsewhere, but the sun was going down and the clouds had started to cover the sky.  The rest of my pictures were just as boring.

When I got back to my dorm I decided to play around with the picture of Stuckeman.  All I had to do was change the contrast, and suddenly I was happy with the picture:

Changing the contrast made the color differences more intense and made the picture slightly more interesting.  Usually, I don't like messing with my pictures, but in this case it was necessary.

Hopefully, I will have better luck this weekend!