Blog #2

Over Labor Day weekend my family and I, along with 10 other families, went to Pokagon State Park.  The 12 pictures I took are all taken in different places around the camp site.  I started by walking around looking for something interesting to take pictures of. This first picture is, obviously, of a tree.  I took the picture looking directly up into the branches.

My next picture is similar but slightly different. I wanted to try taking pictures of a tree in a new location, from a different angle, and looking at a new perspective. In this photo I decided to focus more on the leaves.  I took it from an angle that would give a good look at the water behind it.

In my third picture i decided to do something similar to what I did in my last picture, but once again I added a little more detail to the photo.  This time not only did i make sure to get the water but i found a bush with red berries on it. Also in this picture there are a lot more shadows in comparison to the last one. I also found it interesting that two very similar pictures could look so completely different. 

Here I got a more broad view of the beach area. You can see more bushes and trees.  This photo is just to give the overall idea of what and where the last 2 pictures were taken.

My next picture I took focused more on the water and the beach. It is once again taken at a new angle and perspective.  I zoomed in more on the ground rather than trying to get a big overall view of the lake. The foam in the picture seems to almost catch the motion of the water as it washes up onto the shore. 

This photo focuses on the beach, or rather the shells you find on the beach. With this picture I got in close and personal with the ground. I arranged the shells in a way I thought would look interesting.  I then had to make sure my shutter speed and macro settings were set correctly.  I then got really close to the ground and snapped the picture. It was a more difficult process than the first pictures but I believe the creativity in it makes it better.

After taking the shell picture I decided it was time to move off in a different direction. I wanted to try my skill at getting a good fire picture. I had to once again make sure all of my settings were correct before taking these pictures. I had to focus on my shutter and aperture settings because I did not want my picture coming out too dark or too light.

My next fire picture I decided to try from a slightly different angle and with a little darker look. I like this picture because it has a much higher color contrast than the first one.

My last fire picture has the added bonus of the hot dogs. They seem to make the whole picture more casual and relatable. I really like this picture because of the shadows throughout the whole image.

My last area of focus was on the water and sunset. It was something that I had overlooked but once seen at a different time of day it was beautiful.

Here is another photo of the sunset as the sun went down a little more.

In the last picture you can see the sunset in it's richest colors. The pictures also seems to be a conclusion to the weekend, it shows the day ending.  The people in the photo also show the real meaning behind the whole overall theme of Group Camp.  Which is a chance to be with your friends and connect. 

Overall, what I learned from this experiment was to focus on a certain topic in an overall theme, and then to look at that topic from different perspectives. It is also important in writing to pay attention to detail and try to make it interesting to your audience.