Photography has been a new passion of mine since I took a digital photography class last year. This new hobby was fueled by my camera that I got for my birthday, and a wonderful trip to Colorado that presented me with a myriad of experiences. I was very excited to get to do some more projects with photography in journalism and get some more inspiration. I hope you like my photos!
My nephew’s Rubix cube was a bit hard to position, but I really wanted to get a cool shot of its lines. Eventually, I placed it flat on the ground and laid right in front of it, surely an interesting image for anyone watching.An unexpected thing to find inspiration in, I realized my Sweetarts would make an interesting set up. After finally getting them in the lines that I wanted, I took photos from all different angles, until once again I decided that flat on the floor was the best option.A simple object that I see just about every day of my life, I wanted to see if i could make this lamp look cool. My initial goal was to get the lines of the lightbulb, but I settled for some cool lighting and interesting perspective.Chewey is an eight-year-old cocker spaniel-poodle mix, and quite the character. His unique underbite gives him such a cute face, and he’s always excited when I enter the room, ready to greet me like in this photo.
One of my friends, Marah Fuller ’19, was kind enough to do a couple silly jumps for me while doing a photoshoot, and I was lucky enough to catch a great facial expression.While arriving early to school one morning and watching the people pass by, I wanted to see if I could make it a little more interesting.One thing that everyone seemed to recognize about Luke was that he loved to read. In that spirit, he grabbed a favorite book from the library and sat down to “read”. He was extremely patient as I took twenty plus photos of him, trying to get the best angle.Luke and I went into the stairwell to get some better lighting from the sun during the portrait photo session, but I wanted to work with the sun itself. Luke stood directly in front of the window, and I moved around, trying to get the best silhouette. It was then that I realized that I could catch the sun in his glasses, resulting in a lovely shine.This photo was taken on one of the first floor women’s bathrooms of West High, in which a few of us (journalism students) turned the lights off and experimented with the flash in the mirror. I ended up liking the visual of the flash itself and the ghostly, bleak aura it created in the dark.Saying goodnight to my mom one night, I was reminded of her Himalayan salt lamp. I admired its fantastic colors and decided to experiment with the mirror behind it, and I was not disappointed. The color appeared brilliantly in the photos, and I liked the effect of me standing directly behind it. These lamps are said to have an “ionizing” effect and supposedly help you sleep, but rather it helped me get an awesome photo.This handsome fella is my Tanimbar blue tongue skink, Jarvis. Native to the Tanimbar islands near Indonesia, these omnivorous ground-dwelling lizards are known for having a bad attitude. But Jarvis, while rather impatient, has lost a lot of that aggression, and therefore, put up with me putting a camera in his face for a solid ten minutes.What many saw as a trivial ice storm, I took as a chance to take some cool photos of an underappreciated natural phenomenon. But I had to act fast, as it was still raining, and the ice would soon begin to melt in the awkward thirty-four degree weather. I ended up with this photo of the small icicles hanging off of our somewhat abandoned bird feeder.My new favorite bumper sticker, I wanted to see if I could distort its image while still being able to read it. Raygun, where I got it from, has all sorts of political and Iowa-related things from stickers to t-shirts to posters.This odd shape is a metal elk I got last year in Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado. I wanted to use its unique design to play with the light from the fireplace.While observing the student section and their incredibly loud antics, I realized that they were all uniformly standing on top of the seats. I found this extremely interesting as it seemed that they were completely organized. Managing to get up from my seat, I took a few pics of their feet (hopefully) without disturbing the masses.As I watched the players practice before the varsity game, I couldn’t help but notice that after every turn they took at the basket, they went back and high-fived all of their teammates. This teamwork and respect for each other fascinated me, and was apparent throughout the game, resulting in a West High victory of 74-50 against Prairie High.For some, this is the most obvious thing in world, for others, you might have no clue. This is the ligature and mouthpiece of my clarinet. If you look closely, you can my my fingerprints on the knobs where I tighten my reed. This year marks my fourth year playing the clarinet, and I am one of 17 in the West High Varsity Band.Watching a basketball game from the crowded bleachers of the pep band section has its challenges. While mostly unable to get up and move around, I realized that a resting trombone made an interesting frame for the ongoing action.West High number thirty, Connor McCaffrey ’17, zooms across the court. I was very impressed with his and his teammates’ coordination, they moved together flawlessly.I found this photo of Jarvis somewhat amusing, as I could tell that he was trying to back away from me with his small legs. This was towards the end of the photoshoot with him, and I was starting to get on his nerves.Loving to bask in the light, my beautiful corn snake Jobi is quite photogenic; her UVA heat lamp really makes her colors pop. These bright colored colubrids are native to the Southeast portion of the United States, in states like Georgia and Florida, and are among the most commonly kept snakes in captivity due to to their polymorphism and great temperaments.This odd looking reptile is my Kenyan sand boa, Pocket. Native to much of West Africa (yes, including Kenya) these boids love to burrow. While not as common, these snakes are also very popular as pets due to their reasonable size and incredible colors; and Pocket is no exception. Her orange and deep brown contrast beautifully, and at over a year old, shes only about ten inches long.This sweet face belongs to my twelve-year-old schnauzer-poodle mix, Riley. While Riley has been going through a lot of health issues lately, we’ve been doing our best to make sure he’s as happy as he can be; and he’s certainly as cute as he can be.While making food for Jarvis (yes, I make him his own food) I realized that the butternut squash I had cut was condensing water on the end. Immediately fascinated, I took pictures of the droplets at all different angles, trying to do the shapes and colors some justice in the fading evening light.
