Landscape Endeavor

The Basis

Okee, let's get started. When I began doing this whole photography thing, I really loved doing that macro. The idea of seeing so much detail and then enlarging it and seeing the subject larger than life. As a chill person, I like heading to the mountains and capturing those little shrubs on the side of trails was pretty fantastic.

Eventually, I began zooming out and packing more into my compositions. I've always been an avid hiker and enjoyed the outdoors. I guess the reason why is because as an introvert, I enjoy time to myself and having any bit of time doing what I am passionate about is very important. As time passed, I began looking around, looking for a reason to go out. No longer was I confined to photographing flowers but I now the entire land is my playground. That is how I've moved onto landscape photography. Seeing those sunrises and sunsets on a mountaintop is what I live for, there is simply nothing else that drives me more. This is my passion, now it's my way of life.

What I think

This class this semester was just OK. I didn't feel like I got too far ahead of what I was capable of last semester, it is more of the countless hours I spent on YouTube looking at others' retouching workflows. Part of the time I spent was also for some inspirational Zen. I felt like I was plateauing and my photos weren't getting very far ahead. After some videos on landscape photography and to go out and explore, I too packed my gear and headed out.

Where I Stand Now

I am nowhere near the pros when it comes to photography but I definitely think I am more intuitive when it comes to composing an image. I don't look at images from an artistic point of view, I look it from a technological point of view. Depending on the look I want, I set the camera to the desired settings (no $h!t...). But here's the kicker, I imagine what I would want hanging on my wall and how it tells my story. You'll see a lot of my images include streaking clouds. This is because I am passionate of flight. Obviously planes fly within the clouds and the wispy clouds are as if they zoom past you as you zoom past them. The water? Well, water is a key ingredient to life and I am very amazed by microscopic life forms. The plants? Well, without plants, humans wouldn't be here would we? The thing about plants such as a flower is that they are self-sufficient. They are able to produce their own energy and recycle itself. That is my engineering goal: to make a modular device that is self-sufficient. Long story long, I look images in the way that tell my goals and the way things work. Cool huh? "How does the work show I've improved?" Look at them. Open them up next to semester one. You'll see there is more thought put into the photo and more RGB channeling to yield the highest dynamic range and the richest values on the sRGB scale; the ones that are less often seen because those are the colour that will catch your attention.

Where I Had Enough

The most challenging bits of these was finding locations. I have gone to my spot so many times that I could tell you what the image would look like from a point. I like xploring new spots so constantly going back to the same got boring after awhile but I think that only forced me to become more sophisticated in my process with retouch and color channeling.

Where I Couldn't Get Enough

I am most proud of being able to learn my way around Lightroom with a much greater sense of direction. Back in the day, I put everything that looks good onto an image when you do that, it doesn't look good. Now, I go for a look and continue my path with the tools that will give me that look or at least close to. Another reason to shoot RAW with a flat profile. To this day, I cannot tell you exactly how I've reached this point, trial and error I guess.

Where I Fall

I don't think I've tested my skills in this class very much. I mainly do what I know and then test the waters in a new sector once I get the chance. Yea that's the thing, I don't see anything as new, I see it as a form, a transfer. Same thing with energy, you don't have different "chunks" of energy, you have different forms of it. Photography is the same in every aspect, it's the forms that change. So you don't really learn anything new, you just apply previous knowledge to what you're doing now but accommodated to what the photo demands. I could do landscape photography and urban photography back to back because I know what the different shutter speeds do. A fast shutter speed means frozen movement and nothing looks interesting whereas a slow shutter speed captures movement and requires stationary objects to anchor the photo. The motion needs to bend around those objects in order to show any interest. Next year, I'll be down in Boston and I have a good to fair chance of making the photos in the same process as my landscapes: long exposure, vibrant colors. colors you rarely see, contrast. So with that said, my work doesn't show that I am learning, it shows I am applying previous knowledge just with higher standards. Same thing with riding a bike. Once you know how to take a picture, you'll apply it to getting the look you want no matter what kind of photography yous be doing.