Fairhaven Environmental Photography

  This isn't exactly the best "landscape" but I had too much fun with this not to use it. (I also didn't have a way to get the photo onto my computer this time so I had to take a phone picture of them) I think the photos are fine- they don't stand out as anything good but nothing's necessarily bad. The first photo could have been pointed upwards a little more, and I could have stepped forward to make the trees less prominent. This is just my balcony, which I wouldn't usually have chosen for the location, but I wasn't sure how quickly the atmosphere would change. The reason I chose these photos is because of the fog. I could barely see anything myself- the second photo is accurate to my vision at the time. I saw the vague outline of a nextdoor building, and maybe a little mountain, but that was it. This shot was adjusted to be as accurate to what I saw as possible. The second photo was what my camera could see when I adjusted things. It was almost off-p...

     For my spot, I chose Boulevard Park. I love this spot because it is beautiful in the evenings as the sun sets over Lummi Island and Mount Constitution. Here on the bay, it reminds me how close we are to the San Juans. The weather at the bay was cloudy, but the sun shined through the clouds and scattered the light across the sky. Though sunsets during clear skies are always nice, I think today's weather really captured the moody feeling of a cloudy winter day. I decided to try to make the vibe of the photos moody and dark, with splashes of light. I tried to keep the foreground dark in order to draw the eye to the sky, using leading lines with the coast in the second to frame the water and aim towards the landscape in the background. To me, the darkness of the landscape is a purposeful contrast against the colors of the cloudy sky. I tried with letting in more light, but ultimately it felt a little too washed out and less purposeful.       In my sec...

 I chose to focus on three photographs I took from our visit to Clayton Beach. I remember trying to work on framing these and figuring out what I wanted the photo to focus on. All three photographs are from the same spot, but all focus on different things in the foreground. I played around with my settings and the angle at which I was taking the photos. The first photo has plants focused in the foreground, with the waves and beach in the background. In the second, I have some of the plants, but also the tips of trees in the foreground, but the focus is on the beach. In the third, I have only one tree limb focused, with only the sky and ocean in the background. I think that for all of these, they could use more light, and if I had a tripod, I would have lowered the shutter speed, but it was very windy that day, so I didn't want to risk lowering it. I think that the photos would look better with more contrast between the sky and ocean, so either going again on a sunny day or boosting...

  For my location, I chose a spot that holds many memories for me. Each time the sunset draws us outside, my fellow residents of North Campus flock west as fast as we can to get an uninterrupted view of the sun and clouds over the water and mountains. The chase proves fruitful when we find ourselves with "For Handel" in the Performing Arts Center Plaza, or like tonight, on the stairs near the Viking Commons building. Today, the sun covered gloomy Bellingham in warmth and exited with a gentle sunset. All day, I watched the light move behind my computer screen at my job. When I was freed from my post, I raced to the stairs and caught the sky at 5pm. My two favorite photos from this shoot, the first one being ISO 640, f10, 1/250, and the second being ISO 5000, f6.3, 1/2000, show the beginning of the sunset with clouds over the mountains and Bellingham. I like the first photo for its focus on the sky's vibrance and the gentle coloring, and it's the one I prefer out of all...

  I like the colors in this image, but I would have liked it to be less blurry. I also would want to have a main focus of the image and follow the rule of thirds more closely. I chose this skyline because it is my view from campus before I go into my student Senate meetings. It is lovely seeing the colors of the sky and the lights of the city just before the sun sets. The foreground is dark and not as warm as I would have like.  I love the colors and the gradient. It is a darker image but I think it it looks nice. I would try to make the foreground less of a focus or try to use them the frame the land more. There is also the slightest cloud in the sky that irks me.  I took this picture before taking the one above it. I liked the hallway as a path in theory, but my execution of it was not as flattering as I'd like. the sign hanging from the ceiling is distracting from the skyline and I would have liked to use the hallway to frame the skyline a lot more intentionally. There...

  Both of the photos I chose were taken on our field trip to Tennant Lake. Although the conditions were quite cloudy for most of the day, I actually really enjoyed how some of my landscape photos came out later in the evening when the fog was starting to clear. I think the combination of the sunset and the weather conditions made for a really calm, gloomy atmosphere for the photographs. In the first photo, I was really focused on capturing the reflection of the sky in the water. I really like the way the sunlight is shining through the clouds and how this is reflected in the water creating a mirrored effect. I also really like the way the trees are fading into the fog in the background. However, I think I could have used a slower shutter speed and higher ISO to let a little more light into the photo since it is quite dark. I also think a more colorful sky would make the photo much more compelling, especially with the reflection in the water. Although the second photo is also quite ...

  My first photograph was taken at the Sehome Hill Arboretum fire tower. I like how the tree on the left creates depth against the mountains in the background. For my settings I used an Iso of 50, a shutter speed of 1/3205, with an aperture of 1.6. Although I cropped some of the trees out on the left, I wasn’t able to get an angle where the tree in the middle wasn’t obstructing the mountain view slightly. Besides the trees, I think that using a narrower aperture could help sharpen the trees and the mountains further, and possibly going later in the day could help decrease the amount of shadows that are seen on the closer trees below. The second photograph I took was taken at Marine View Park, to the right of the railroad tracks. I used an iso of 50, an aperture of 1.6 and a shutter speed of 1/60,000. I think the pile up of rocks on the left help frame the water and the islands in the background. I like how much water you can see, but the glare from the sun coming in from the righ...

This was taken from the tower at the Tennant Lake Fragrance Garden. I didn't exactly chose this location, but was brought here despite never having heard about this before. I chose this photo because when taking it off the camera for the first time, I was stunned by the warm, sepia-esc colors I managed to capture. This image hasn't been visually altered or cropped in any way and is the raw file I got straight off the camera. The reason everything is so warm is because I maxed out my white balance temperature and aimed this photo directly at the sun (hence why everything is so visually dark). I genuinely love this photo. As for a critique, what is probably the most glaring issue is the graininess of the photo. But honestly, I think it adds to the feeling of this image being more like a painting. If you zoom in on any part of the photo, you can see that its made up of many splotches of greens and reds that in my opinion adds to the painting feel. I enjoy the colors the most as I ...

  I got my landscape photos at Tennant Lake Park on the Field Trip. I chose to use these photos at this particular location was that I thought the thick fog and setting sun really added to the photos.  The lighting felt almost perfect for what I was trying to accomplish and am really happy with the unintentional almost grainy effect I got on the photos that was most likely due to the combination of the lighting and fog. With the photo of the lake itself I really liked how the background got blurrier and blurrier then further you went because of all the fog in the photo. The reflections off the water were another thing I’m quite happy with as I feel they greatly add to the picture. As for things I think I could improve with I feel like both the photos I got would have been greatly improved if I spent more time in those specific spots playing around with where I have the camera, ISO, shutter speed, and changed what the main focus of the photo is I could of gotten better pho...

I wasn't thrilled with the images I got at Tennant Lake yesterday, so I decided to take advantage of today's sunshine and have a lovely and slightly perilous walk up the hill to take some photos of Mount Baker. I waited until mid-afternoon, as I knew if the sun was still shining it would cast complimentary winter shadows on the mountain. Plus, I've always wanted to stop to take pics of it, but never have.  The sky cooperated; I took some pretty nice photos over the hills to the West of my neighbor's property with some hazy mountains visible on the skyline, but I really wanted to get a good walk in and the view of Baker was not far. I I ended up walking a bit further than I expected to, as the views of the mountain were obstructed by trees and power lines, but I didn't mind despite the fact that there are no sidewalks and a fairly high speed limit. It was a little sketchy - I doubt I'll walk along the road like that again - but it was a beautiful day with some go...

  I took both of these photos on our Thursday field trip to Tennant Lake. For the first photo I walked down the trail until I found a place with an opening and visible water to try to capture the reflected light of the trees. I like this symmetrical effect- the visible trees above the water and their reflected image below. In the bottom right corner there is a bit of the shore and shallows visible, and I think this gives the photo some depth and context. I don't like the lighting in this photo; the sky and water both feel too bright. In retrospect I should have tried changing the shutter speed or aperture to try to reduce the glare of the back-lit sun while not darkening the trees too much. I think the contrast of the light and dark is nice, but this photo feels too intense to where it becomes confusing to the eye.   The second photo was also taken walking down the trail, this time focused away from the water. I saw a Chickadee in a tree and was trying to get my camera to...

When looking for a landscape to photograph, a specific landmark caught my eye because of how the fog was rolling into the mountain before a storm. I chose the location because I saw how the fog was reacting to the mountain as it was covering half of it, and I knew it would look ominous. In Colorado where I am from, we do not get much heavy fog compared to Washington and its islands, and I thought it was fascinating. As it was raining, I pulled my Zoom lens out and clocked my first few images to adjust my shutter speed, aperture, Izo, and set my main settings to cloudy. I experimented with different shutter speeds to get my lighting correct and allowed my aperture to move around willingly, but the aperture settings did not go too high. My Izo was set to auto because I did not want my images to be grainy. The first photo was captured with a shutter speed of 1/125 and aperture of f4.0. It allowed the tree elements to pop more because of the lower amount of light being let into the shutter...

  I took these photos during a winter hike I took this week in place of our field trip ( I am absent ). In general I feel these photos are relatively good in terms of the scenery and landscape, but the major flaw I see is that the landscape itself carries these photos and is what makes them ‘good’ photos. My lens does not zoom, so trying to accurately capture what the mountains look like in the background and also capturing the colors of the sky behind them was difficult. The second photo I like a bit more, though I think that the details of the mountain ( Mt. Baker ). Are missed because the photo is more focused on the tree off to the side. If I had moved more into the snow in the center and shot the mountain with less of the tree in the right third of the image I think that I could have captured those details more, even without a zoom lens. This also means I would have had to increase my f stop because of the excess of bright whites around me. The third image I had focused too mu...

  Photo 1 - Shutterspeed - 1/10, ISO - 3200, F/16  Photo 2 - Shutterspeed - 1/250, ISO - 100, f/5.6 Photo 3 - Shutterspeed - 1/640, ISO - 3200, f/5.6 Photo 4 - Shutterspeed - 1/60, ISO - 160, f/5.6 I chose a few photos that stood out to me that I’ve taken over the past few weeks of field trips. I focused a lot on framing and the rule of thirds while taking these photos. I grew up near Seattle, so being near water and rain is very near and dear to my heart and the long awaited rain in fall following a hot summer is a welcome event for me as the rain makes me feel at home. I grew up near Lake Washington, and had a yearly tradition of visiting Lake Chelan at the end of summer, so Lakes have always been my favorite body of water. I find them to be incredibly relaxing, especially during the hot summers. I don’t think I’d ever choose to live in a landlocked state or somewhere far from water, as it helps flourish the plant life around it leading to such beautiful areas to discover.

             What is water? In a word: water is life. ʔəshəliʔ ti qʷuʔ . Along with "when the tide is out, the table is set," that is one of the main mantras that really defines life in the Pacific Northwest. For thousands of years, water has been a defining force in the lives of humans living here. The salmon live in water, as do other fish, and the seals, whales, shellfish, amphibians, and many birds, all the bounty of water. And other creatures rely on it for drinking and for keeping the lands green and healthy for grazing or for farming. Not only does it have the power of life, but also destruction. It brings floods, tsunamis, blizzards, hurricanes, and all manner of destruction.  It isn't only important to this region as well. Entire religions of the Old World, such as the Greco-Roman pantheon, were dominated by a god of rain. Even the Abrahamic god, long before being worshipped monotheistically, was Yahweh, a god of storms. The po...

When I think of water, I immediately think of the concept of life- which is what I imagine many others think of as well. If I remember correctly, it's the origin of life- and necessary to keep any living being functioning. Trying to think in a more personal sense, water to me is associated with cleanliness but also work. Remembering to take care of myself is work- drinking enough, showering, stuff like that. Cleaning dishes or rinsing other dirty things is hard work too, but it's satisfying, and water is central to that.   

  Growing up in the pacific northwest I have constantly been surrounded by water. I have always had a great appreciation and comfort to this fact. While many others hated days of nothing but rain, I always loved it, made me feel so comfortable. Everything hit better during a light rain the dirt would smell fresh, and the reflection in the puddles were always so mesmerizing. I love seeing days of showers in the forecast it brings such great excitement and happiness to see. It’s on my opinion reductive to call the wet days “bad weather” when it brings so many miracles and prosperity to the land, the region we reside in wouldn’t work without all this rain we see.