Wildly Grown

These pictures are just some pictures I randomly took. They are all pictures of flowers and I think they are back to good quality.

These are wildflowers I took at a park right before I went for a run.

This is the photoshopped version of the first picture. I changed the exposure, contrast, vibrance, sharpness, and the highlights. Honestly, there isn't much of a difference between the two.

This is the same two wildflowers as in the picture above. Whats different about this picture is the focus in it. The focus in this one is on the flower behind. When you first saw this picture, did you think, "why is the picture a bit blurry?". Then, when you looked around the picture, did you think, "hey, this is how it is supposed to be."? Everytime I look at this picture, I rerealize that this is how the picture is supposed to be. 

This is the photoshopped version. I changed the exposure, highlights, contrast, vibrance, shadows, and the sharpness. All of this reduces the background light and makes the flower pop out. 

These are the same wildflowers, but this is a group of them.

This is the photoshopped version. I cropped the picture, changed the contrast, highlights, shadows, and sharpness. 

There is a running story corporated with this picture too. I was running while it was raining. And it was raining mildly. Nothing too harsh or too light. So, I just ran a mile and the rain was really getting to me. After a mile, I was well soaked. My hair was wet, my sweatshirt was soaked through, and even my socks were getting soggy. I thought, "This is enough running for today". As I was going for a cool down and I passed this flower. It looked so delicate because the rain droplets were clinging onto it tightly. I took like 10 pictures (there was trouble getting the flower to focus in the rain) and I was trying hard not to keep my Ipod out for too long. (It was still raining and I was afraid my iPod could get "ruined" from the rain.) Out of the ten pictures I took,  I think this was about the best I got. 

Honestly, even after taking more than 10 pictures, I wasn't satisfied. I was very satisfied after I photoshopped it. And this is what it looks like after I photoshopped it. The main thing was changing the temperature. The temperature adds some warm color to the picture. I also changed the contrast, shadows, and the sharpness. 

Visible Masses of Condensed Water Vapor

What are Visible Masses of Condensed Water Vapor?....... Think about it... Well, if you guessed clouds, you are correct!

Over the past week, the clouds were just stunning! There were so beautiful. They were in the coolest formations, went through some really colors, and the sun peeked in and out of them. So, I just captured some amateur pictures. 

These were some cumulonimbus clouds... (Storm clouds). It was going to rain that day, and the sun was about to peek through for about the last time before it rained. 

I took this at a park. It was actually raining then. And the clouds were very cool looking. They were wispy while it was raining. 

These were storm clouds too. These are special becuase it was sunny that day, so the sunlight gave the clouds a reddish/purpleish color. They had some color to it, instead of just all heavy gray clouds.

These were the same clouds as in the picture above. Usually, the sun is hidden by the big storm clouds, but this time, the cumulonimbus clouds were more spaced out, so the sun kept peeking in and out. 

This was a very interesting time. The clouds were covering the sun almost completely except for that one spot in the sky. And the sunbeams were only going through one big gap and another small one. 

This was also similar to the picture right above. The clouds were barely covering the sun. 

This was a very very cool array of clouds. So, these clouds were first of all in a blanketed formation. They pretty much covered up that western area. (It is western because the sun is setting there.) Also, the sun going down gives the clouds a gift of colors. It is like the clouds and the sun are creating a very beautiful painting. I really do like this picture, but then I also don't like it. I do not like the way I took it. I did take it in a car, but I wish there could've been a better setting at the bottom. Like a lake or something. Not cars or telephone poles. If this were a lake, then the cloud arrangement would be reflected onto the water. Then, it would have been twice as pretty! :D

These were one if the coolest pictures I've taken of clouds. This was at an outlet mall and the clouds were just stunning. There was a gorgeous sunset behind the two powerplants. And the steam from the powerplants looked like clouds passing by. This was a very vibrant picture of the sky. I think the only thing I don't like is the  lamp post to the left of the powerplants. It distracts the scene. Also, I got a nice silhouette at the horizon level. That gives it a cool effect.

This one was the same thing but I took this a couple minutes before the previous one. This picture didn't quite get a sillhoutte. So, it doesn't look as nice becuase you can see the details of the lower half of the picture. It creates a bit of a distraction to the main scene.

Oranges?

Hey everyone! I have the most random and weirdest pictures. :)

So the story goes like this..... A Saturday morning, the weather was looking great. It was the first nice, warm day for spring. Since it was gorgeous outside, I made some orange juice to drink. After I made some for my family, I went to drink some outdoors. It was very very sunny and hot. Plus, the grass was starting to get greener. So I thought, hey, why not just take some pictures of these oranges since I have so many.They will symbolize the first great day of spring! And below are the pictures of the about-to-be-thrown-away oranges. (The orange juice was really yummy!) 

I took all of these pictures on my digital camera. None of these are photoshopped. My favorites were the last few. In all of these pictures, notice the amount of sunlight.That is what happens if you take pictures in the morning. There is just too much sunlight, and "light spots" get created on the oranges. (When the light is being reflected off of the orange.) It is called a light spot. 

This was a picture looking down at the oranges. There was just too much light, so you cant see a lot of detail on the orange.

These are the oranges at eye level. They are still arranged the same way, and the oranges are put off to the side of the picture for a reason. If they were just in the middle of the picture, it doesn't bring the reader as much attention. So, putting the object slightly off center will give the picture a slightly better look. (I realized the oranges are off to the side too much.)

This is what it would look like if the oranges were placed in the center of the picture. 

These are the same oranges zoomed out. And, they are slightly off center to the right. It is a more straightforward way of showing the oranges as the main object. 

I got bored of the same arrangements, so I scattered them in the grass. This is cool because you don't get any of other background. Like the trees and sky. Here, you just have the oranges and the grass, so there are less distractions.

This was a very cool picture I got the flower (it's a weed) to focus. The oranges then became a part of the background.

This was similar to the picture right above but it is zoomed in a little. (I took the picture zoomed in, I did not zoom in by photoshop or anything like that) Basically, same thing as above. The flower is in focus, rather than the oranges. 

This is also the same thing as the two above pictures. This one is zoomed in even more. You can see the flower clearly and in good detail. If you look past the flower, the oranges come into a blurry view. It is still a part of the background. Actually, if you think about it, it is a very very odd background. You have the flower as the main object, and then oranges in grass as your background. Very unusual... :) And also notice, I didn't place the flower off center. If I had, it would give the photo a more artistic view, and would want the viewer to look elsewhere too. 

Up in the Tree

This are pictures I took off the ground. Well, I took them in a tree! It was actually quite fun, climbing the tree, staying up there to take a handful of pictures, and then swinging back down! The leaves were just starting to grow on the tree, so you could see the buds growing. 

This one is my all time favorite. It is the bark of a tree. I like this one especially because all the details are clear and near the edge of the picture, its blurry. So, it gives a depth to the tree. It is actually very, very slightly photoshopped. I just wanted to sharpen it a bit more. This would be great as a background picture... :D

This is a leaf bud. This one is really cool because the buds are very clear and vibrant, while the background is blurry. 

Now, this is also a leaf bud, but the closest bud is blurry on purpose. I think I could have made this picture a bit more unique by, excluding some of the branches in the back, and making the background sharper. 

This was the tree I was "sitting" on. I was about 5 feet off the ground. I guess this picture just displays a different angle of the tree. It shows a top view of the trunk of the tree. 

This is also one of my favorites because I don't capture animals, insects, or people very often. Mostly because a better quality camera would be better and it takes a lot of time to get the perfect shot. So, this is a ladybug. Luckily, I got this picture right before it disappeared off to the side and flew away. :)

Color Combinations

I have noticed that I have only posted pictures that I took on a camera. So I have just included something different here. These are color schemes or combinations that have a slight effect on it. 

So this is the original. I created this on word document, but it would be easier to create on photoshop express too. 

This is the same picture as above, but there is a transparent layer of red on top. This red gives the picture some warmth, just like temperature in pictures. 

This is also the same picture as the original, but this has a transparent of blue. That gives the picture a cold feeling. 

All in all, this was something I just experimented with. In the future, I could put a layer of transparent color on a photo to just add an effect. Also, this just shows how much some color can affect a picture when taken with a camera. (Like the sun making the picture look warmer)

Photoshopping Into a Silhouette

So in these pictures, my goal was to make a silhouette. Since I was not able to capture it with the camera, I could transform it in adobe photoshop. Photoshop totally changed the entire picture into something brand new. The end picture was not what I imagined it to be, but it is a silhouette....and that is what I wanted.

Keep in mind that this is the original picture of a Lilly flower. 

This is a photoshopped version from the original picture. This one was photoshopped to make it look like the flower was in the light and the background was dark. Unfortunately, this picture looks unnatural. It looks as if it was taken with flash. 

Now, I tried photoshopping that original picture into a silhouette. It didn't work out because as I darkened the flower, the background would also darken too much. So, if I darkened the picture a bit more, the flower would be black, but the background would be too dark. 

I experimented with that picture, until I actually got a silhouette. But as you can see, the background got very dark as I decreased the exposure. Although, I did something different. I did decrease the exposure pretty low. Then it got to a point where the background was very dark. Then, I added shadows. The shadows made the Lilly flower even darker without changing the background color. I also changed the contrast level to brighten the background. A very small amount of vibrancy was added too to add color to the background.

Now, after I experimented some more, this is what I came up with. This is a real nice silhouette. The Lilly flower is nice and dark and the background is light enough. I just added a lot of shadow, contrast, highlight, and vibrancy. The shadows and contrast brought the flower to a dark state and the background to a lighter color. The highlight brightened the picture a bit. The vibrancy just added more of a blue shade to the background. Now, if you look in the back, it looks like there are stars, not clouds. This also proves just how much changing the lighting can change a picture. Compare the original picture to this one. There is a huge difference between the original and this picture.

Long Lost

Have you ever rediscovered pictures after months and months? These are all pictures I took six months ago. I rediscovered them and they are worth making a post out of. 

This is a flower bush. Notice how the front flowers are blurry but the farther flowers are clearer. That's the specialty of these pictures. 

This is the same flower bush as above but the color looks different. That would be because the lighting is set differently than the one above. Also notice how the flowers closer are clearer than the ones in the back. In the top, it looks like there is more temperature and the sun is shining on it more. In the one below, it looks like the temperature is taken away and the color of the flowers are brought out more.  

This is the back of a flower. The front if the flower was starting to wilt so I took the back of it. 

When I took this picture, I was lying on the grass. Some people don't realize it but to take some real good pictures, you have to change your position all around to get the right angle. The focus for this is to see the grass differently... at eye level.

This is a really cool flower. It has smaller yellow flowers on top of the main flower. This picture also looks like there is an old effect put into the picture. As if the colors are toned down and faded, but no effects were added.