Update of the last forever

 Just a bunch of cotton in a field in the middle of Thatcher, Arizona. Warm, fluffy, white, snow-like fields that go on forever. Beautiful. Just an unedited snapshot taken through a window as we drove back home.

 I made my family stop on our journey to Arizona just so I could take this picture. I literally hiked up a hill on the side of a highway and try to take this photo as quickly as possible as to not keep my family waiting. I wanted this particular shot because first of all the cactus that I used as a focal point was the perfect typical cactus. Second it was overlooking Roosevelt lake, and that with the clouds made a lovely background. I added the sepia tones and the colored cactus to draw more focus onto the cactus and give the photo that vintage-western look.

 Arizona sunset. I took this while attending a family party held at Thatcher park. The sunset just happened to be absolutely stunning and I had my camera so I walked over to the lovely tree and took a picture. I like how the tree kind of helps frame the sunset and add texture without taking away and of the color or focus. No-edit :)

 A note from a dear friend. I wanted it to focus on the word 'smile' and have the heart in the frame as well so I folded the note slightly, held it up to a light, and snapped the shot. Simple.

 Piano shots are common, but I wanted one of my own. I used the sheet music of 'Claire De Lune' and had my brother hold the music against the piano while I focused the perfect shot.

This would be my flute displayed across the song 'Andalouse'. It was difficult to get the angle and portions of the flute right to make it recognizable as a flute while still keeping an interesting perspective. I wish I would've used less sunlight and more artificial light (which is opposite of what I normally say) because I liked the coloring of the piano photo, which used all artificial light, compared to the all natural lit flute photo. But yeah, it is what it is.

13,14,15

 Is it strange that I find tree bark intriguing? Yeah, a little bit... but that's okay because photography is all about expressing your unique self, and my unique self happens to be obsessed with trees. This is a picture of a tree trunk, but I took it at kind of a strange angle. I stood on my tippy-toes and took the picture focusing straight down the tree. I'll be honest, I couldn't even see into the viewing screen when I took this, so I'm glad it turned out. I left the picture facing horizontally (landscape) because it is at a weird angle and by rotating the photo it was as if you were trying to look up a tree that was focused at the top. (That probably makes no sense)  But I really like this photo and the way it focused on the bark with its light and dark colors showing the dimension. Yep.

 Water, one of my favorite things to photograph, also one of the hardest things to photograph. Water can be tricky because of the way it refracts the light. I like how in this picture the water closest to the camera was in the shade and so the water slowly gets lighter as you look farther out into the water. This was taken at a cute little park near my house.  I will sit by this water for hours :)

 Self portrait. It's a total guessing game. It can be a challenge to hold the camera in front of your own face and try to get a decent looking picture. This one turned out all right, but only after many failing attempts before. The tree makes a nice background, and I think the hint of my blue sweater made my eyes look a little bit bluer than usual. It's kinda strange to try to analyze a picture of myself, but yeah it's an okay picture.

8,9,10,11,12

 I haven't done many people photos, but here are a few that kinda turned out. This is my wonderful friend Mckell Hatch, she is gorgeous! We went on a lovely little walk on this path and I made her pose for some pictures. I like this one with the sun on her golden blonde hair. The fence winds along this path and helps create great linear-eye-appealing dimensions.

 I also made her stand on this old wooden fence for what seemed like an eternity. But I couldn't give up an opportunity like this when the sun was perfectly setting and she happened to be wearing the perfect boots.

 The focus was really good on this one. Mckell is obviously the focal point and having the flowers in the right corner unfocused helps draw your eye over to Mckell. The sepia color is just a nice little touch. 

 More boots and fences, if you couldn't tell I really enjoy them. The flower filled field was a perfect backdrop. The lighting couldn't have been more perfect.

 This was a graffiti covered brick wall. I love perspective photos as such. I used the sun brightness to wash out the whole background so the focus was simply on the wall and Mckell.

Once again, boots, flowers, fences- perfection. The setting sun gave us enough light but not so much that it washed out the colors, prime.

4,5,6,7

These pictures kinda all go together, so here they are:

 This is probably one of my favorite landscape pictures I've taken. It's focal point is that bright red tree in the almost center of the photo. The pathway naturally directs your eye up to the tree. The mountains are a beautiful backdrop and I love having natural sunlight in photos. All the neutral colors make the red tree stand out. I took this photo up at Lambert park in Alpine. It's a beautiful park and right now the changing autumn leaves create a spectacular view.

 This is obviously the same location as the picture above with a few small changes. I cut out the full sun in the viewing frame therefore causing less exposure so the colors weren't as strongly contrasted. I also took out the tree on the side and so the camera focused a little better. And then that would be my little brother and cousin walking along (aren't they so adorable?) So the two pictures are different yet similar, which one do you like better?  

 The bright red tree in the photo above? Yep, this is the same tree, just a different view. I love the color so much and taking the photo from underneath the tree creates some cool lines. These photos can be hard because there is not focus point. I tried to create some shape with the larger branches being in the right bottom corner, but it might have been nice to have had at least a small part of the main trunk included as well.

Wildflowers are another one of my favorite photo subjects. The focus on the flowers was pretty solid except for the one on the far left corner that wouldn't focus because it was turned the other way. The background has a partially dead tree in it, which isn't the best back ground, but it helps create that more wild, natural look.

3

Less is sometimes more. It's simple, my best friend and I put our hands together to form a heart, turned, so our shadow was perfectly placed on the ground, and *click* there it is. Silhouettes make for neat photos. Black and White is one way to enhance the silhouettes. It's not perfectly focused, definitely something that I need to work on, and I'm sure a million people have taken similar photos before, but it's unique cause it's mine and I love lovey-heart pictures :)

2

These are actually my feet, and I also personally took the picture. Skill, I know ;)

This may sound a little weird, but I took this picture of my feet while sitting on my bed, so as you can see, perspective is everything. But really, I love this photo for lots of reasons. The contrast between the black background and everything else being gray is intriguing. Black and white is always great when you have light colors on dark backdrops. The shoes being of center creates some negative space on the right side which adds a more modern feel. The camera wasn't perfectly focused, and you can see that as the lines are somewhat blurred...but that's just something more to look for next time.

1

This was taken on the floor of a nice little meadow in AF canyon. What makes it unique is the contrasting light. The focus of the picture is on the one piece of grass that extends into the light creating a dark focal point whereas most pictures have the focal point lighter and the surrounding areas darker, having this opposite lighting creates a unique compelling photo. I also used the focus setting on my camera to help create the central focus point. It's simple and I like it.