Kate Haugh

For my independent photography portfolio, I am intending to focus on taking photographs that show the connection or melding of synthetic/manmade objects and nature, landscapes, and people. I chose these subject matters because I have always been interested by how the world combines all the different aspects of humanity and nature. I also want to focus on people because it is a subject matter that I have previously tried to avoid. This will make it a challenge improve. Through this endeavor, I am going to explore color contrast, depth, and contrast. Some styles and editing techniques that I plan to incorporate are color enhancements and lighting contrasts.

1. For this body of work, I chose to focus on nature and some of its interactions with man made buildings. I tried to highlight this contrast by combining lake and fence, wires and branches, forests and houses. My work also morphed to have a large group of abstract images. This is seen in the editing and angles of leaves, branches, fire, and lights. I like abstract images because the subject matter is intriguing but also no judgement can be passed on the image because of a viewer's recollection of the object or people portrayed.

2&3. In my images I used the rule of thirds and lines to create movement in my pieces. A tree's branches or a rock path move the eye down the image. I used value in my images to give the objects and animals texture and depth. The point of view and angles of my images are constantly changing. In one week, I made have a close up image of a leaf and a landscape of a farm or from viewing the ground to looking into the clouds. Finally, I worked to emphasis colors to add to the abstract quality of the image and contrast the subject from the background.

4. Each theme is significant to me. I enjoy abstract images because it matches reality. A simple idea or belief is not the same in the imagination to reality and the truth may be different from what a person will expect. I also love the idea of blending nature with structures because as a child my family lived in the middle of the woods. Our house is an example of this scenario. Because of this, all of my images bring a sense of nostalgia.

5. I am particularly proud of my images that incorporate architecture because of the contrasting colors and forms created in the images. I wish I had gone to more places to photograph because sometimes the photographs seemed repetitive in subject matter. I tried to compensate for this by changing the compositions of the images.