Oldies but Goodies

I really did plan on taking a picture this week, but somehow it never happened.  I was sitting in the Atherton Lobby at 8:00pm, and I thought to myself, "Crap. I didn't take any pictures this week..."  I could have very easily done something about it, there are enough photographic opportunities waiting inside.  Now it's midnight, and I still haven't taken a picture.  Rather than taking some joke picture that I'm not ever proud of, I'm going to share some of my old favorites with you.  These pictures were taken back in the day.  I bought my camera junior year of high school.  I would come home practically everyday and just take pictures of anything.  I would get up early on the weekends just to take pictures.  College has pretty much sucked the creativity out of my soul. Well, that's a little over dramatic.  I just hate this weather.  It isn't pretty and it makes me cranky.

Here is one picture that I love, but I don't know why

I still remember the day I took this picture.  I was a junior, and I was sitting at the computer in my basement.  I had actually just finished uploading some pictures, and I'm sure I was wasting time on facebook.  I looked out onto the patio and I saw the leaves laying there all dried up.  I guess I really liked the colors, so I grabbed my camera and took the picture.  It was definitely taken out of boredom, but I ended up really liking it.  I think that happens a lot with the pictures I take.

This picture is probably one of my all time favorites:

I took this picture three days after I got my camera.  It was a Saturday morning, and there was a lot of dew. The thing I like best about this picture is the depth of field.  Depth of field is just a fancy way of saying that not everything is in focus, which adds depth to the picture.  Only some of the dew drops are in focus, and the nail is just slightly out of focus.  Playing with the focus always makes a picture more interesting.  I took roughly ten pictures of this railing, and each time I focused on a different section.  This happened to be my favorite.

Next week I'm going to make time and take pictures like I used to.  It may be out of boredom, or perhaps I'll experiment with some more concepts of photography.  I just know that I need to find the time to take pictures again.

Uhhh What Is This?

Like I've been saying all semester, this week has sucked.  My Intro to Africa class is murdering me.  I want to drop it, but I'm not allowed.  I am just so sick of it sucking up all of my time and creativity. 

This week's photography adventures should have started when the weather was nice earlier in the week, but I was too busy procrastinating a paper and doing Spanish homework.  I wish I would've had my camera with me this morning during our group meeting.  One of the ducks from the pond was right outside of the Hub, but sadly I don't carry my camera with me all the time.

Once I finished my last Spanish assignment for the week I grabbed my camera and ran outside.  The sun was beginning to set, and I knew I didn't have much time.  This week I wanted to take a picture of something that had some texture, but I couldn't find anything that caught my eye.  In my frustration to find something that I actually liked to take a picture of, I took a few pictures of random things.  This one was my favorite:

What is this a picture of?  I wish it was something amazing, but this is actually just a picture of marble with cracks in it.  I raised the contrast of the picture to make it look more interesting.  The original was nowhere near as interesting.  I showed this picture to my friends and asked them what they thought it was.  At first they said "uhhh what is this?" I told them to guess.  They thought it was a picture of tree shadows, and then they thought it was a picture of a leaf.  I like that is is really weird and obscure.  When you look at it you have to think about what it could be.  I almost feel bad that I told you guys what it is, but I know that I'm the type of person that would want to know eventually. 

I really hope that the weather gets warmer and the flowers bloom soon.  I have a really great idea for a picture, but the flowers need to bloom first.  Until then, I will continue taking pictures of whatever I stumble across.

The Rule of Thirds

My photo this week is pretty boring.  Although this weather has been beautiful, I've had no idea what I want to take pictures of right now.  I am just waiting for the leaves to come back on the trees.  Hopefully, the leaves will restore my creativity.  The truth is, I don't care how sunny it is, if the trees don't have leaves I still feel like everything is dull and boring.  The picture I took this week isn't spectacular in anyway.  I just really like the colors.

It is just a simple shot of the "Pennsylvania State University" sign out on Atherton Street by the Nittany Lion Inn.  The sun was starting to set, and I really liked the light that it cast on the sign.

Since this has been dull for the most part, I figured I'd take the time to talk about one of my favorite photography concepts.

The Rule of Thirds

Following the rule of thirds is essential to taking great photos.  The concept is that people find pictures that are separated into three different sections of color or texture to be the most pleasing to the eye.  Essentially, if you draw a tic-tac-toe grid on the picture, you should see that each vertical section is different from the others, and that each horizontal section is different from the others. 

I took this picture at the Alhombra Palace in Spain.  It is a great example of the rule of thirds.  Here is the same picture, but with a grid on it.

You can see that the top horizontal section is all sky, the middle is part of the palace, and the bottom section is all water and reflection.  Two of the vertical sections are the same, but because they aren't next to each other this picture still follows the rule.

While it is good to follow the rule of thirds, it is fun to break it too!  Here is a picture I took during snowpocalypse last year:

This picture was taken inside of my car, after I spent an hour shoveling it out of the snow.  The snow was on my windshield still, and I thought it looked really cool.  This picture doesn't follow the rule of thirds, but I still like it.  I think the triangulate pattern is what makes it pleasing to the eye.

I really hope next week isn't so dull!

The Longest Week of my Life

I know last week I was complaining about how crazy it was, but this week has been ten times worse.  It sounds terrible, but I really didn't have a lot of time to put into taking pictures this week. I spent all week working on the three papers that I have to turn in today, studying for my Spanish exam (also today), and completing Spanish homework (due at 11:59 Thursday night).  If you haven't noticed by now, I am a pretty big procrastinator.  I love procrastinating, and this week I wasn't able to do it.  For the first time in my life I had papers written, revised, and ready to go before 2:30am the morning they are due.  Although I didn't procrastinate my papers, I still had quite a lot of Spanish I needed to work on last night.  Between working on homework, completing a study guide, and trying to memorize over 300 vocabulary words I found time to take a few pictures.

I went to the Grandfather Clock Lounge in Atheron and quickly snapped a few pictures of the piano with my camera.  The lighting was pretty atrocious in there so my pictures didn't turn out exactly they way I wanted.  I hate using the flash on my camera.  It is so bright and just annoying, but I had no choice but to use it last night.

I can't say that I am especially proud of this picture, but I do enjoy the reflection of the keys.  I need to figure out something with the glare coming from my flash though.  I think taking the picture during the day when there is actually sunlight coming through the windows will solve all of my problems.  I also think I am going to edit this picture and see what happens.  I just need the time to get it all done.  I am so excited for Spring Break.  It will give me the time to mess around with this picture, and sleep too!