Fairhaven Environmental Photography

  With the shooting of my photo for humans in the environment assignment it felt like everything came together so perfect for this shot. I was able to get on the same day as my black and white photo, that being the Thursday, February 25 th field trip to Clark’s point. The day and location was simply perfect for the assignment, the weather had the most beautiful overcast that really highlighted the subtle beauties of locations such as this and similar in the pacific northwest. Also having everyone in the class interacting with nature in the way of photography really just tied the bow on how perfect this day was for completing this assignment. While this photo was not staged or created exactly the way the assignment is laid out on canvas, I feel like it upholds the nature and premise of it well. In this photo I captured Tyler sitting on the rocks alone on the shore of Clarks Point presumably capturing shots of the gorgeous water and waves. I feel I captured a few feelings, emotion...

  To preface with this photo I unfortunately could not figure out how to get a black and white effect with the settings on my camera so I unfortunately had to use editing software to get a black and white photo. In terms of the actual photo itself I found myself quite happy with the fact that a random bird decided to be the perfect subject for a photo. Perfectly perched up on the random thing sticking up out of the water, the right place at the right time. Seems to be one of the beautiful things about photography, so many good photos in the most mundane stuff you wouldn’t think about. I feel like black and white was absolutely perfect for this photo, the bird and what it stands upon becomes a perfect shadow. Contrasting everything that is behind it. The sky is a perfect greyish white color to the black of our foreground and darker gray of the clouds. My main regret is that I had to use editing software for this photo rather than getting perfect settings on my camera. I think being ...

  My favorite is the middle photo. The one that depicts the textures and highlights the depth of the image. My images of the sky were not great when converting to black and white and there was not enough texture to make the edit look as good. With these photos I tried to get that texture dimension, away from direct sunlight. I know this is inside, but the glass and the tips from last classes in this environment produced wonderful results. 

  f/9 | 1/200 | ISO 200 Taking Flight  I really like this photo, but I might crop out or try to get rid of the water disturbance in the left of the photo. I wish I had a longer lens or was lower to the ground. It was difficult capturing the flight of a bird, but I am proud of this image, which is probably why I don't want to edit it yet. I like the reflection of the houses in the background. This image feels comforting to me. Safe, but free.  f/16 | 1/30 | ISO 5000 The Adopted Child of Kiv and Me If I was able to get a photo with a background that could let the colors of the foreground pop, that would be ideal. I would also experiment with closer up images or use the black jacket as a background so the colors don't blend so much. In hindsight, I could have cleaned the oyster (I'm not sure what it is) a bit more. I was unsure of what I was hoping to capture with this image since I just wanted to capture it. I like the layers it has, as if like a tree, each line represents ...

  Surprisingly, what I was trying to capture in this image was the colors of everything. The whole scene is a brilliant orange and I was trying to capture that quality. When thinking about this project, I decided to set my computer's visuals to grayscale and scroll through all the photos I had taken over this course when I stumbled across this photo. I was trying to capture the dark on light of the sky contrasted with the light on dark of the ground. This ended up working even better in black and white since it removed the hue information that made this contrast less obvious. Another thing I payed close attention to when taking this photo is the driftwood in the bottom left corner. I saw this sort of as a grounding point that allowed the person looking at the photo to judge the scale of the environment while also giving a concrete idea of perspective.

  Photo 1 - Shutterspeed - 1/500, ISO - 100, f/8 Photo 2 - Shutterspeed - 1/100, ISO - 800, f/8 I chose the first photo because the river acts as a great leading line for the photo, leading into the skyline and the clouds create a nice pattern that works well in black and white. When taking this photo, I wasn’t thinking about turning it black and white as much as the subject and composition of the photo using the river as the center focus leading out into the landscape. I decided to crop it in a way that has the river cross into the left third of the photo rather than how it was originally taken with the river in the center of the image for the sake of framing and making sure the entirety of the photo is taken up by something interesting to look at.  The second photo was taken with the hopes of getting a good picture of the seagull, as they were all moving around quite a lot, with the background pattern of the water to help it stand out. I also made sure the bushes in front we...

  Although this photo didn't capture as clear as I wanted it to, I really like that the water is soft in the black and white filter, and that the harbor seal's head is central amidst the patterns of the waves. Generally I was just trying to capture the seal itself, and wasn't paying any attention to the water or anything else. I was then happy when I looked at the image later when I realized how well its head contrasted with the simplicity of everything else, and that I had captured both of its eyes!  I also didn't apply much of a filter to this image.. The water was turning pretty black and white on the overcast day, and the seal's colors are normally b&w on its own. 

This sunset at Marine Park was so beautiful! I love how the setting sun is casting rays into the clouds and how it falls to define the layers of trees and mountains on the horizon, and I think it translates fairly well for the assignment. I used the photo app on iPhone to translate this one to black and white, tweaking settings like saturation, contrast, sharpness, gradient, and finally putting it through the monocolor filter once I was satisfied with the exaggerations I made with the color version.  Originally, I picked a sunset photo that was mostly water, but then I decided that the composition was unbalanced. This choice is much more visually stimulating with the clouds and the 50/50 split between the water and the rest of the scene.     ISO500  //  120mm  //  f13  //  1/1000s  Alas, I couldn't pick just one photo, because I really liked how this other one came out! I still haven't gotten the hang of getting things in focus cons...

  While the photo itself is very much not of the highest quality I feel a need to have this as my submission to the wildlife blog assignment. I don’t know what my shutter speed, ISO or any specific details of the settings on my blurry broken iPhone camera so unfortunately, I cannot tell any details regarding that. While I could have taken a picture of a duck, deer or some other creature that I see everyday walking through campus this felt so unique and lucky that I had to rush to get a picture of it. After getting food with my friend at Fairhaven dining hall I walked back to my dorm and right as I got to the entrance an owl of some sort (unsure of the species but fairly large) flew right over my head and then perched over on a nearby tree. I was able to capture these two very blurry at best photos of the owl before my phone had died. After a crowd of 5 Ish people gathered to see it, the owl flew right at us and right over my head again past my dorm. With the photo being incredibly ...

  Photo 1 - Dark Side of the Pond: Shutterspeed - 1/160, ISO - 3200, f/5.6 Photo 2 - Meeting a Friend: Shutterspeed - 1/200, ISO - 3200, f/5.6 Photo 3 - Coming Home: Shutterspeed - 1/200, ISO - 400, f/8 Photo 4 - Rising by Sunset: Shutterspeed - 1/200, ISO - 400, f/8 The most prominent issue I faced while trying to take these photos was being able to take a picture where the animal was clearly the subject of the image while being in focus. The next time I go out to take pictures with wild animals as the subject, I will definitely rent a zoom lens from ATUS. I’ve taken a lot of pictures of birds from a distance over the past few weeks, but they are either too far away with nothing else interesting in the background, or they aren’t the primary focus of the image. The photos I chose were when I had the best opportunities to get as close as possible to Mallard’s specifically, but unfortunately even those ones don’t have the Mallard’s as the primary focus. I still like the photos I chos...

                                                     When so a bird                                             flock of swans(seagulls)                                                                a day         The first photo was taken at a beach in Bellingham. I had a few things on my sensor, so I had to work around that when I was taking this photo. If I could, in a perfect scenario, I would have made the shutter speed longer and changed the white point to make the photo look less gloomy. The second photo was taken when our class was going in the caravan, and we c...

  These photos from our birding trip are a momentous accomplishment for me; I am so, so proud of them! That big lens did me very well. Not to be vain, but I truly have few critiques. These are some of the loveliest photos I've captured. I found consistent settings that worked really well, and high shutter speed is the key. The framing of my three swans and the common golden eyes are my favorite. This was the first time I've done much cropping on my photos. What a difference it makes! I could have played with multi-shot mode more, and wish I got more brightness on the owls face in the shot where it is resting.  We had such good luck birding and I have fallen in love with photographing them!! I will be venturing to do this on my own time a lot more. 

    I spent a lot of time at a river with my friend in high school. I look back on that time and think very fondly of it. We would walk around the banks, throw and hit rocks; eat, swim, and run by it we practically lived there. Sometimes I would stare at the water and admire how the water never stopped or got trapped, it just went on. The river was with me for a long time and I’m glad I’m able to keep a part of it with me. To me water is a way of life a teacher and a friend.

  Random Encounter She's a Little Shy Herding Snakes (for a good photo) Snake Pretzel He Posed for Me!

  Calamansi Ube Dalandan in morning's radiance Canon EOS M50m2 | ISO 1600 | f6.3 | 1/500s Calamansi Ube Dalandan, an allergy's nightmare Canon EOS M50m2 | ISO 2500 | f6.3 | 1/500s Calamansi Ube Dalandan sitting politely Canon EOS M50m2 | ISO 6400 | f6.3 | 1/500s Calamansi Ube Dalandan, my dear friend's American Blue Shorthair cat, prances around her Southeast Portland home with a cascading name often shortened affectionately to Cud. I was lucky to visit Cud recently, but in her vocal and skittish nature, she did not feel quite as lucky to have guests.  Cud speaks a language none of us can understand, and she's apprehensive to my bonding gestures, so trying to get her to be still and well-lit was a challenge. My friends and I coaxed her next to a window and into the sun, and I was able to capture some acceptable photos, even without a telephoto lens! I am proudest of the first photo in which you can see a brightly-lit green eye, but I could have reduced the ISO a bit. Th...

    Female Mallard Portrait, f/4.5, 1/400 sec, ISO-800 These ducks must have thought I had food on me. I own a 50 mm fixed lens and I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to get close enough to get good photos of animals, but that's less of a problem when they're less than 3 feet away from me. I like the composition of this photo, the quality of the light is nice, and you can see her eye despite it being in the shadow of her face. My main problem with this is that there is no movement or action. It very much feels like you're staring down a motionless duck that doesn't do anything.        Male Mallard Portrait, f/4.5, 1/4000 sec, ISO-800  I'm less proud of this photo. My entire photoshoot, I had my viewfinder calibrated wrong so most of my images ended up being out of focus. Many of the photos that I originally thought were out of focus ended up being the few that were actually usable. This image, once again has nice light quality and colors. But this ...