Blog- November 2nd: Yellowstone National Park

I just wanted to use this blog post to share some of my unedited photos from the weekend in Yellowstone National Park.  I want to put these on here unedited first, so that once I edit them, I can see the difference between the photos.  Throughout the trip, I used a variety of lenses to take these shots.  The 2 most commonly used lenses for my photos were my person lens, a 18-55mm lens, and the 400 mm lens that the class was sharing.  It was amazing how much closer detail the 400mm lens could get! I was able to get some amazing shots of a swan, as well as some of the Tetons Mountain Range. 
The trip was very fun! I believe that we had the best group that we possibly could have for this trip. Everyone had such a great attitude the whole time, along with some of the best humor that I've been around in awhile...especially in the party van! 
I wanted to use this blog post to comment about the trip so it is always here to look back on.  Here are some of the RAW, unedited pictures that I shot.

Blog~ October 26th

Photographing in Yellowstone

http://www.sunset.com/travel/rockies/yellowstone-national-park-attractions#grand-prismatic-spring-midway-geyser-basin-yellowstone

Since we will be in Yellowstone this weekend, I found it most fitting to do a blog post regarding some of the site in Yellowstone National Park.  Weather or not we will stop at these places is unknown, but it never hurts to get excited about the beauty that we will be seeing on this weekend expedition!

The hot springs are always a must.  I know that beautiful pictures can be taken and edited from these hot spot areas. The colors are so vivid, making a powerful image for the viewing eye.  Another powerful image to capture is the waterfall.  There are many amazing waterfalls in Yellowstone, but this article, in particular, points out the upper and lower falls.  I have been to these locations in the past, and I would love to take some photos this time around.  Another place that the article points out specifically is Yellowstone Lake.  We do not have any beautiful lakes in Billings, such as this one (Ponds and Lake Elmo don't cut it).  I would like to try and get some reflection photos sometime in Yellowstone Lake if it is calm enough.  

Looking at the images on this article are exciting to visualize simply because I know I will get to see some of this beauty this weekend. I  was just scrolling, and this article caught my attention.  i am glad I went through it.  I feel like when one lives so close to Yellowstone Park, it's access is easily taken advantage of.  I am excited to go this weekend.  :)

Share 2 and Critique~ October 23rd, 2017

Week 8- Photographing Elephants in Kenya

https://www.outdoorphotographer.com/on-location/featured-stories/photographing-kitenden-wildlife-corridor/

I chose this article for this week's blog post because it was one of the first articles on Outdoor Photographer, and for the midterm presentation, our group is going to Africa!  We have our 2 safaris selected for our trip, and this article proposed a feeling of excitement to photograph the wildlife in Africa.  This article goes into detail about all of the specific locations that elephants, in particular, can be found in Kenya.  One of our safaris that we selected is located in the national park in Kenya.  We would most likely be seeing elephants as well as many other animals in their natural habitats.

This article is helpful while planning our trip because it talks about the vehicles in Africa and the best techniques for photographing with certain tripods from either inside or outside the vehicle.  The author also points out that it is best to photograph in these areas in May and November.  Our trip takes place in March, for other reasons, but it is pretty close to May. The airport that is generally used is mentioned in this article, as well as most lodges in general for places to stay.

I am glad I saw this article in the middle of working on the midterm project because it was useful for gaining ideas for our own trip.  The author has great tips and suggestions that are backed up in other articles as well.

Share 2 & Critique (#2)

Rocky Mountain College- Fall Colors

Beartooth Pass-2017

Week 7- First Edit

For this week's blog post, I am sharing my first edit from Light room.  I took this picture outside of my house one night and I used it last week for my share 2 and critique, but it was unedited for that.  I chose to share this picture again this week because I wanted to compare the 2 images (edited and unedited) and see what else I could potentially do to improve this image, or see if I should just leave it how it is now. I used the editing presets that we went over in class last week, as well as added some of my own adjustments depending on what looked best for this image.  I also tilted the image just slightly to adjust my horizon line. I did this to make the viewer more comfortable instead of uneasy with a slightly tilted horizon line.  I also used the paintbrush to clone out some impurities on the flower pedals.  I think this is the only part that I struggled with.  I will probably go back and clean up my cloning job a bit.  Also, I forgot to mention that the first thing I did was crop my image so that it had a better frame.  This got rid of some of the junk around the edges that I did not want in my shot.  Overall, I am happy with the edited version of my image!