Bucketlist

In order to capture this photo, I had to climb a flight of stairs to reach the top of a building—thus I categorized it into the theme of height. The photo has lines (parking lines), form (cars), and pattern (parking lines and cars) as its main elements therefore creating repetition. I personally liked how some parts of the photo are lit by the sun while the other part is covered by a shadow which creates contrast. I took this photo because of its composition of ‘diagonals’ and ‘shoot-from-above’. 

For the settings I used, I had a low ISO because it is in a well-lit environment. I did not want to raise it anymore to avoid having unnecessary noise. I also had a fast shutter speed because I wanted to take a still photo. I did not touch the aperture since the current settings already have what I wanted. I took this photo from afar, and there is no need for background and foreground elements, so I do not think it matters as much, however, it does help with the lighting.

These apartment buildings are all over Japan’s residential areas and are a staple of a city’s architecture. I pass by these every day which is why this is my first idea upon seeing pattern as a theme of the activity. There is a sense of uniformity in all these apartments. The photo has lines (tubes), shapes, patterns (floors of the building), and color as its main elements. For principles, there is repetition (in the patterns). There are a lot of diagonals in this photo and I would also argue that the building fills the frame leaving little room for negative space. 

I did not want any unnecessary noise so I had a low ISO for the settings because it is in a well-lit environment. I also wanted a still photo hence the fast shutter speed. This was taken from afar as well and I had no intention of having a foreground and background, so I did not adjust the aperture anymore.

As I was walking home, I saw this lone restaurant with its lights on. The lights reflected on the street lines in front of it which was what captured my attention as I took this photo. The photo has lines (street lines), form (cars), pattern (street lines), and color (yellow) as its main elements. For principles, there are emphasis through contrast and repetition/rhythm. There is a leading line in this photo due to the street lines. It also follows the rule of thirds. 

For the settings used, I increased my ISO because of the low-light conditions to have more light (and to compensate for the fast shutter speed). Fast shutter speed also meant no motion blur and a darker image. I also had to adjust my aperture because I wanted the light from the restaurant to have a minimal glow. For this photo, I had to adjust all three to capture this kind of exposure.

Grape hyacinths (Muscari) is its name. Grapes (the fruit) usually come in autumn but this grape flower blooms in the spring. I took this photo while I was on the way to the market because its color and bulbous shape captured my attention. The photo has line (stem), form (flower), pattern (flowers), and color (purple and green) as its main elements. For principles, there is emphasis (on the flower) and repetition. The photo follows the rule of thirds and depth of field as its composition. 

For the settings used, I had a low ISO because it is in a well-lit environment. It is also to avoid any noise. I also had a fast shutter speed because I wanted to take a still photo since it was a little bit windy at that time. As for the aperture, I had a large aperture to have a shallow depth of field since I was taking a close-up photo. Because of this, the background is blurred and the flower is in focus.

I took this intentionally when I saw my mom walk across the room, against the well-lit shoji (windows). I asked her to pose for me as I took this photo. Shojis are common in traditional Japanese architecture especially found in doors, windows, and room dividers. It has a translucent sheet on a lattice frame. I made use of how the opaque light went through the sheets to create a silhouette. The photo has shape, pattern, and form as its main elements. As for the principles, there are contrast, emphasis, and repetition. I followed the rule of thirds for its composition. 

Since I was photographing indoors, I had to increase the ISO to get a properly exposed photo. I made sure that it was not too high so as to avoid unnecessary noise. To add more light, I also dropped the shutter speed, but not too slow because I was shooting this handheld. I no longer needed to adjust the aperture since I already achieved the exposure I wanted.