Meow Meow Meow

Tools used: dodge, burn, blur, sharpen, invert, enhance filter, cartoon filter, smudge, color hue and saturation edit, and a few others I'm somehow forgetting. 

Sorry this isn't a slide show :/ I couldn't figure out how to do that. 

Below each photo is a caption of sorts, capturing the purpose of the editing. I'd love feedback on how the editing works to enhance my point.  

 I love food....or as he says it "MREEEOWWW"

 "La la la off to shenanigans with Smoothie"

 "I am intense and mean, run away from me"

 "Outside this window is a beautiful world away from Smoothie"

 "RAWR it is scary outside, you should stay inside"

 "Mommy I"m scared of the outside too"

"Love me?" 

 "eww mom, not that much love"

 "Maybe I should sneak outside, it can be beautiful, look at all that personal space"

self explanatory

Portraits

One of the real challenges for me was that I felt the background was distracting. I wanted the first one to capture my Vermont tattoo in all its beauty but I couldn't help but feel the background was always detracting from the main focus. The other 3 of my sister came more naturally as I feel she is very comfortable in front of the camera. My favorite is the second one of her where she is attacking the flower. It shows how silly she is and the background is simple enough that I feel all focus can be on her.

Photostory Preview

I really love these cats. I want to show how their interactions are so dynamic and yet so random. This is just the start

 Don't mind me, just eatin' some food

Whelp, time to go bother Smoothie

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM

Oops, maybe not, what's outside

I'm a bird!

Something along these lines. I haven't worked it out perfectly haha :)

Cloning, Painting, and Text

Cloning

Before:

After:

I sued the cloning tool to remove the boats from the background. It went a lot better than I expected! I think it leaves more attention for the main sailboat.

Text

Before:

 After:

I added very simple text that I felt really clarified what Smoothie

was thinking as she noticed my cat in her room

Paint

Before:

 After:

 Using the paint brush I was able to remove the black section of the background which really makes the fierce yawn the only part of this picture. The rest is literally nothing but bright white light. 

Filters

Original:

 With cartoon and softglow filters

 For this photo. I applied the cartoon filter first and liked how it changed mostly the trees but I wanted to do something with the intense blue sky. When I chose the softglow filter I felt like it adequately pulled the sky into the background and let the trees stand out more.  

Original:

 Wing blown and burned:

For this one, I chose to use the wind filter. I thought it was cool how it made the flowers seem to be moving. I used the burn tool to darken the background a little, letting the focus be on the moving flowers. 

Dodge and Burn

I really liked using the Burn tool. I found darkening

 the picture, and having it look natural, much 

easier than the dodge tool.

Original:

 Burned:

I mostly burned the bee (making it look darker) and around the flower, I used the dodge tool a little on the flower to make it look thinner as lighter seemed to show through it more.

2 Color/Lighting adjusted photos

 I call this one demon kitty. I highlighting just his eyes and used the "auto color enhance." I also did this to his ears. I thought it really brought out his evil side. I also messed around with the saturation/hue of the grass in the background so that it seems as though the color gets more unnatural as it gets closer to my mischievous little kitty. 

This was a fairly simple edit but I actually kinda like how it came out. I increased the brightness of the overall photo slightly and then severely increased the contrast. The result really brings out the outline of my brother and gives a cool split to the photo. Kind of a yin and yang effect, kind of. 

Photoshop

I had some trouble trying to figure out the GIMP program. It's unlike any photoshop program I've used before. It took me quite some time to even get just the spider transferred. I couldn't figure out how to blur the edges of it very well so that it looked more smooth. Any tips? Any advice I looked up confused me further :/

Here are the originals

Landscape

Sorry I'm delayed in posting these!

 This was taken at a field near my school. I really like how the clouds have this glow as they near the trees. The colors came out really vivid and I love it. The clouds are at a diagonal while the horizon is fairly straight across. I think the different directions give the photo something interesting. 

 This photo was taken near the Winooski river with the mill in the background. I like how the water is flowing so powerfully on the left side as nature would have it but then there is this ugly thing on the side from the mill that shows how much the Winooski river has been made disgusting by our industry. Also, I feel as though the rule of thirds worked out with the water/trees/sky being three layers to the photo. 

 This photo was taken downtown near the water front. I like how the trees along the bottom block out any human activity down below so this view looks like it could be on some island somewhere with no one else around. 

Not sure what prompted this photo (also near waterfront) but I really like how it came out. The water in the fountain is doing it's on squiggly thing while the rest of the photo is clearly standing still. I also found it cool that I was able to capture a near all blue sky on the top with crisp white clouds only in the middle. 

Rule of Thirds

**Big thanks again to my sister for letting me use her camera!

The two photos here I found to be interesting. The one above is with my subject centered with an all clear blue sky. The one below has my subject in the top thirds line with some clouds floating by in the background. I found that these two pictures were different in many ways. While the backgrounds are obviously different (even though both the sky), I think the one below gives the impression of the bird being higher since it is higher in the photo. 

 The above photo has the sailboat on the left thirds line which I like because it gives me the impression that the boat was sailing away, thus, giving it motion. Below, the sailboat is centered. I like this photo as well because the subject is clear, however, other sailboats snuck into the background which, for me, distracted from the main subject. This also felt like I was taking a photo of a sailboat left stuck with no wind in its' sail.

 In the above photo we see my brother, while out on his boat,centered with the beach and some trees as his background. The sun is on his face and the subject of this photo is extremely clear/defined. Below, my brother is on the beach with some trees, a small cliff and the sun setting in the background. This composition really speaks to me (as my sister says). My brother is on the right thirds line. I like how this one has some really interesting natural lighting. I found this photo interesting, as well, because it is split into thirds with the sun as the left, the trees/cliff center, and my brother on the right. I really enjoy how this breaks up the photo but still focuses on the main subject when you look at the photo as a whole. 

Framing

**Big thanks again to my sister for letting me use her camera!

While at my brother's, right on Lake Champlain, in the islands....

 I like how this one has the glow around the binoculars, almost framing them. You can see the subject of the photo both in the binoculars and in the surroundings. I found this shot fascinating because the lighting is so intense and the sailboats are really focused on. I don't feel as though this is a super effective "framing" shot per say but I found it to have a framing aspect to it. 

 I found this one to be similar to the last but it only had the framing of the sailboat through the binoculars with no surrounding distractions from the focus.

 When I first saw my brothers window and this wooden sign it called to me. I like how the sun whites out the background on this one and the main focus of the picture being on the bottom is almost like using a rule of thirds style. 

 Same subject but my sister suggested I center the sign. I like how clear the sign came out. I find this picture interesting because there is also clear framing of Lake Champlain in the background whereas the first one had a washed out background. 

 I found this picture captured, through the leaves, the reflectiveness of the water as the sun was getting lower. It really gave the water some texture and the framing focuses one's eyes on the brightest part of the water.

While this picture seems to be of the person, I really like how there is a reflection of the cliff in the binoculars. I feel like, although the cliff is not clearly focused/framed, it is still a beautiful way of capturing it even though it is not directly pointed at it.