I attempted to take photos this week, however it was very rainy and bipolar throughout the day when I would have liked to go on a photoshoot. Mrs. Malak gave me an idea for taking photos at night time with a bright light to get a different feel for nature, but last night it poured on and off. So I could not take photos; I will try again tonight but I won't have access to Blogger tomorrow if the rain lets up. Instead I have been playing around with Photoshop from photos from last week.
     I really do enjoy this plant (below) and the shape of the end of each little branch. I think it has very interesting texture. I also liked how it has a much darker feel after I boosted the contrast in Photoshop. The only downside to this plant is since the branches are quite thin, my camera has a hard time focusing on the up close branches, due to all the space in between. I would like to keep trying to get it to focus on the closer branches, because I think this photo is very different than my others and would be a nice change.

 

 

     I again boosted the contrast making the branch itself richer in color and making the background appear darker. I think it draws the eye in to the lighter subject in the foreground versus overseeing the background first. I took photos of the pine trees around my house, but they had the dark green needles; I didn't think it added anything special to the foto. It just seemed too plain. I took photos at the school last week and came across this pine tree, but with genuinely light needles. I enjoy this much better because it's not a forest green like most other plants or trees in nature.

 

 

     I cropped this photo because it was blurry around one corner and took away from the image. I also used brightness and contrast to help get a bigger feeling through the image. I like how the stem goes from one side of the photo to another, it serves as a guide for your eye and where to look along the photo. Although I don't think this will stay in my concentration series, because I already have a couple leaf photos to choose from and I do want variety in my series.

 

 



I continued to take new photos and experiment with different lightings (time of day) for the photos. I did not like most of them because of how it looked like poor quality to me. It would be sunny during the day, and by the time I get out of school the sun would start hiding behind the clouds, which was pretty upsetting. There was a slight breeze so it took me longer than usual to take a macro image. It was slightly frustrating because as I was focusing on a focal point of my object, the breeze would pick up again, and interrupt the main focus. Although I did my best to work with and around the weather.
I enjoy the rather plain picture of the tall grass, it has a feel of a rush of waves crashing on the shore because of the movement of the grass itself. I don't think I'll keep it in my concentration series because in my opinion it's not as strong as some of my other work.
Over the weekend and for next week, my plan is to continue taking photos. I'm hoping the sun will come out to play and maybe stay for a while, at least long enough for me to get some good lighting on my images. I will also work in Photoshop further editing my photographs.

So far, these are my photos that I think are concentration series ready. As you know I'm doing an abstract view on nature and it's been really fun and interesting. Some I'm really happy about that catch my eye and some I can improve on with better lighting or bolder, captivating fotos. While I finish my concentration series, editing and shooting I have to keep all of that in mind to make for some really cool photos. I'm excited to see how I will wrap up my concentration series.