A Day at the Zoo

Finals are over.  I had a day off work and grabbed my camera and headed to the zoo.

I had my Nikon with the 55-200 lens.  

The lighting is a little dark on him, but I loved that he was sticking out his tongue.  

Monkeys are always a good shot.

I cropped him in a little and adjusted the hue of his beak to contrast the white and black.

It was awesome how geometrically the beak was parallel to his neck and his 

black tail feathers were just fluffy and out of control.

He was really close and everyone said he was gonna bite me.  Ha!

This was not manipulated at all.  Beautiful!  

Not all of the animals are out yet, but it was a good day to shoot.

Visual Grammer

Trying to determine where to place your subject can be difficult.  With the digital camera it is  easy enough to shoot hundreds of photos and pick out the best ones.  Having a plan ahead of time makes it easier.  My plan was to photograph some red bud trees before the flowers blew off.  I decided to have some fun in the process.  I did get some good shots of the red bud trees but I was distracted with trying some different shots of my daughter at different angles.

Taken at level view.

Taken at a low angle and converted to black and white.

Taken at a high level

These were fun to take.  We were on the bank of a stream.

I will post the shots of red buds a little later.

These Are Just Pretty

I love Spring.  All of the beautiful flowers are starting to bloom.  I didn't do much to these manipulate these.

Spring is Here

I should be working on my Power Point slides for class.  My yard has been blooming like crazy and I just wanted to share.  The hyacinths are going crazy right now and I wish my camera could capture the scent.

This picture was taken at 6:42pm on 3/21/12.  ISO 100, flash used and f 8.0.

This picture was taken at 3/21/12 at 6:41pm.  ISO 800, no flash and f 4.5.

I am still trying to grasp how all of these settings work together.  I was amazed at the difference in the two pictures as a result of the camera settings.

Margaret Bourke-White

I have never heard of this amazing photographer before studying for this project.  Upon searching for a photographer that I was wanted to explore, I knew that I wanted my subject to be a woman photographer.  I am enrolled in a Woman's Studies class and am interested and fascinated with the path woman have taken through history.  I also wanted to study a photographer who was socially conscious and took photos from a different time period.  I wanted my photographer to capture people and their life circumstances.  Margaret Bourke-White meets all of these criteria.

Margaret was a college graduate who started studying photography at a young age as a hobby.  After college she became more serious about her artwork.  Margaret was the first in many endeavors.   Margaret was the first photographer from the West who was allowed into the Soviet Industry.  As a war photographer, she was also allowed into the death camps in Buchenwald. 

Her journey into war photography was as a pioneer.   She was the first female photographer who was allowed to enter the combat zones during World War II.  

During the Depression, Margaret Bourke-White captured American history through her eyes.  The photographs show hunger and desperation and tell a story about people during one of the toughest times in our country's history.

Margaret Bourke-White did not limit her photography passion to people.  The composition shown in her photos is truly an art.  The patterns and layouts are amazing.  

I am excited to learn more about this fascinating woman who did not let her gender get in her way of pursuing her passion for photography.

Name

Here is my name.  This was a fun assignment and once I started looking for letters in the little details and big pictures I saw them everywhere!  My W is from the Mastadon at IPFW.  My E is from a bicycle rack in downtown Fort Wayne.  The N is a from a window cutout on a building downtown Fort Wayne.  I think it was originally a doorway.  The D is the top window at Baker Street.  The Y is a tree at the IPFW campus.  I tried to stay with a theme of large objects outside. All of the pictures were cropped and a couple were rotated.  I hope you can see it!

Outdoor Photo

Adjusted Mastadon

Original Mastadon

I took this picture of the IPFW Mastadon Monday, March 12, 2012.  The day was very gloomy and dreary when I snapped him.  I adjusted the brightness, saturation, contrast and color.  I was trying to bring out his texture.