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Each year around the holidays, I head to Longwood Gardens to take photos and explore. The gardens and greenhouse are always spectacularly decorated for the holiday season. Early this morning, I drove down to take pictures before the crowds showed up. Here are a few pictures I took in the greenhouse, my personal favourite part of the gardens.
Over break from school, I headed out to take pictures of the sunset at Beavertail Lighthouse in Jamestown, Rhode Island. While taking these photos, I tried to experiment with a few things. Recently I have been trying to take more vertical pictures versus my typical horizontal images. Every time I get the opportunity, I incorporate reflections into my photos to add another sense of depth. While editing these pictures, I mainly focused on the tones and tints in the images.
This weekend, a small group of students from my school headed over to Lakota Wolf Preserve to see and take pictures of the wolves, bobcats, and foxes. It's a bit of an uphill walk from the parking lot to get to the preserve, but the experience is so worth it. Seeing animals with such an aggressive stigma in such an up-close and intimate setting is fascinating. Contrary to folklore, wolves are not naturally aggressive towards humans. In fact, just like house pets, the wolves were beyond excited to receive treats and pats from the preserve owners. Taking pictures was challenging due to the fences in between us and the animals, but they proved to be worth the extra effort. The preserve not only does good by rescuing these animals and providing them with the most natural life they can while in captivity, but also by allowing others to see and experience these animals in a setting so special.
Yesterday, my school's AP photography classes took a trip to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eastern State is an abandoned prison that makes for some rather edgy and eerie pictures. We first went on a quick tour and then spent a few hours exploring and taking photos. Both from the prison bars and the dilapidated nature of the building, sunlight was always flowing in through cracks and crevices that provided for some really cool portrait lighting. Shooting in low exposure allowed for a more contrasted photo that incorporated the dark, creepy aesthetic of the prison. Because Eastern State is so different from any place I've ever taken pictures, it was really fun to experiment with lighting, angles, and filling the frame.
This past week, my friends and I have been walking around campus practicing portraiture. Backlighting is one of my biggest tricks for shooting portraits. Backlight lights up the hair and features of the subject while also enhancing the bokeh and colours in the background, adding many layers of visual interest.
The Narragansett Bay is home to many sailors and boaters alike. Each day and night, ships big and small pass through the estuary on their way to the many islands around and throughout. Last night, my friend and fellow photographer Stuart (http://www.wemplephoto.com) and I set out in search of photo opportunities as the sun set. Pictured are a schooner out for a sunset cruise, a two 12-metres sailing swiftly upwind, a lone nacra with a bold red spinnaker, a moth gliding over the water on its foils, three 12-metres in a perfect line with the early moon, a vivid sail reflection in front of the Newport Bridge, and two 12-metres seconds before crossing tacks.
8 of us, made up of family and friends, spent the last week in Whitefish, Montana. The week was packed full with laughs, adventures, bonfires, long drives, and good times. We started off the week by going white water rafting with Montana Raft Company down through the rapids of Flathead River. Throughout the week we drove around the entirety of Glacier National Park, taking in the view of the mountains and lakes. We went on a hike to Avalanche Lake, and after 2 miles of up and down treks, finally arrived at the stunning waterfalls that run down the mountainside. On rainy days we went bowling and explored the town of Whitefish. For breakfast on Friday, we made a trip to Amazing Crepes for yummy crepes that were nothing short of amazing. After a long week of endeavours and staying up much past the 9:30 sunset, we set off for home on Saturday morning.
One thing that I am known for is my colour-organised Instagram feed. (@lydia.rich) I am often asked, "How do you make everything in your feed match?" Well, in this post, I'll explain how I am able to maintain a theme that flows from not only one colour to another, but each post to the others.
The first step is to determine which colour or filter will be the easiest for you to continuously use and shoot. Depending on where you live and the kinds of photos you take, this could mean that a certain colour is more prevalent in your surroundings, or that a certain filter tends to work best for your photos.
If you want to assemble a theme based on a certain filter, all you have to do is make sure that each of your photos is being edited through the same process with the same effects applied to each.
If you want to assemble a theme based on a certain colour, you must keep this theme in mind when shooting. For me, the colour of my theme typically depends on the season, as I predominantly shoot outside. During the summer, my theme is typically blue, yellow during autumn, white during winter, and green during spring.
The key to getting a balanced, flowing feed is having a separate account where you predetermine what your feed is going to look like. This account can either be public for the opinion of friends, or private as to avoid spoiling the photos you are planning to post. This both allows you to easily see if a photo matches your feed before actually posting it, and to establish a queue of photos to post in the days to come.
If you want to change your theme, don't just post a photo that is completely different from the one before it. Make sure that the colours or filters slowly transition into another, such as from blue to green or black and white to colour. Shoot or edit so that there is a larger piece of the new theme colour in each colour you post. I achieved this when switching themes by taking horizon pictures where the ground is green and the sky is blue. This allowed me to eventually post photos that are completely instead of partially blue.
My final tip for keeping an organised and coordinated colour theme is to pay attention to how you edit your photos. Similarly to how you'd watch your editing habits with a filtered theme, you must make sure that the way you are editing your photos doesn't make the tone or temperature of the colour contrast with your other photos.
Organising and curating a theme is much like putting a puzzle together; you must observe and make sure it fits in place with the surrounding pieces. Sure, it's a little more work than just posting your desired photo; but not only is it aesthetically pleasing, it is also rewarding to see all of your work form a body of art that can be shared with the world.
This past Wednesday, a large group of art students from my school went on a day trip to New York City to visit the Met and MoMA.
The original plan was to leave early in the morning and visit the Metropolitan Museum first, but due to miscommunications with the bus, we ended up only having time for lunch and taking pictures. Myself and four of my friends who are also photo students went to Three Guys Diner for lunch.
After lunch, we walked into Central Park to take pictures for our upcoming shutter speed assignment. We saw everything from an incredible music group under Bethesda Terrace to a man making bubbles the size of elephants. We witnessed photoshoots of all kinds, whether they were maternity, marriage, or engagement photos. We were only in New York City for a short period of time, but made the most of it by exploring what we could and taking as many pictures as possible.
Can't Miss:
For the last week of my spring break, my family and I went down to Florida to visit with grandparents and friends.
For the first few days, we spent time in Palm Beach and Delray with family. The Thursday after we arrived, we headed to the Surfside Diner on the island of Palm Beach for lunch and delicious milkshakes.
On Friday, we went to the Everglades for an airboat tour with Captain Mike, who had given us tours in the past. We saw many alligators, waterlilies, and a wide variety of birds.
On Saturday, we drove down for 4 hours to Key West to meet friends. Saturday night, we walked down to Mallory Square to watch the amazing street performers. On Mallory Square at sunset, you can find everything from crazy frenchmen with cats jumping through fire to guys simultaneously juggling torches and daggers on unicycles. From Mallory Square, we walked to the Rooftop Café where we enjoyed our dinner watching the end of the sunset.
Sunday was spent biking around the streets of Key West, exploring some of our favourite stores from past trips and discovering new places to visit in the future. We had lunch at Turtle Kraals and stopped at La Crêperie for dessert. On the way home, we biked and piked up dinner from Eaton Street Seafood Market and the island's best, meringue-overloaded key lime pie from the bakery at Blue Heaven.
On this trip I found these great places/ways to compose photos:
Can't Miss:
