final project for FAS 226 by Curtis VanEpps

1. Final Portfolio by Curtis VanEpps

2. Pitcher warm up

3. Pitcher warm up This photo was taken on Memorial Day weekend and is of my niece, the catcher, as she warms up the starting pitcher. The image is special to me because of the captured motion of the ball at the top of her extension. The photo shows many different levels of intensity of competition as well. The second baseman is waiting for the throw down. I used the sport setting with ISO 400 on a Coolpix 4800 camera.

4. Inviting bench

5. Inviting bench This photograph was taken on a trip to shoot the Monadnock Mountain range on a perfect late spring morning. I was meandering along when I looked to my left and spotted an inviting place to let the dogs out to have a comfort break. While they were occupied I snapped a couple of shots at the reflection in the water and the waterfall. Having just started the course I really hadn’t considered visualization techniques or had a lot of practice adjusting the camera settings. On the way back to the car I noticed the bench and looked through the view finder to see a nice image and used the scenic view setting on auto ISO speed. I enjoy this image as it reminds me to take time to enjoy the finer and simpler things and places in life and that important places and things often will wait for you to have time for them.

6. Past trees, future field

7. Past trees, future field This photograph was done to emulate one of my favorite artists Ansel Adams as it seemed a setting his eye might have lingered upon as well. I used black and white to accentuate the contrast and felt color would detract from the simple message the image was speaking to me. The freshly seeded field behind the dead row of trees was enhanced by the wonderful shadows creeping towards me. I cropped the image and adjusted the curve and light effects in Photoshop. The trees were kept in the center of the frame to add symmetry to the image as well.

8. Photo shoot companion

9. Photo shoot companion This photograph really captures my boxer Dempsey's personality and dedication to his owner. I really like how the image shows his soft, sensitive eyes and expressive face. All dogs for sure are happy when around their owner but he really wears his feelings on his face. He had been watching me across the road take a few shots and eagerly awaited my return and concern as I crossed the road again. He is fiercely loyal and protective but warms up to people quickly once I have accepted them into the circle. The light was a little too bright so I used the Photoshop enhancement tools and curve to bring the colors back to normal, cropped it and adjusted the sharpness.

10. Still life

11. Still life My wife really likes black eyed Susan's and was having a bad day one winter so I created this vase of paper flowers with help from the Michael’s Craft store staff to make her smile. It sits on her dresser in the bedroom along with a memorial candle representing our loved ones traveling ahead of us. I added the butterfly for some added color and to help brighten my wife’s mood whenever she lays eyes on it. This was taken on auto setting with white balance set to incandescent to avoid the orange look. I cropped it and adjusted the colors to balance out the yellow walls to the yellow flowers and to add some depth.

12. Lone pine awaiting storm

13. Lone pine awaiting storm I was out in week three if memory serves looking for a panoramic vista to use for our project that week and was walking along the edge of the local water reservoir when the weather took a noticeable turn for the worse. I went to the waters edge to see if I could capture the cool looking clouds as they quickly enveloped and covered the sun and found this lone pine tree way out past all others on a little peninsula. I used the view finder to focus on the tree then panned out away leaving it on the edge of view but still the focus of the shot. I really like the composition of the sky and the depth of field with the one tree set in front of the forest.

14. Third times a charm

15. Third times a charm I golf every week with my buddy Andrew shown here very intent on making this par putt on a difficult par three. I cropped the image and used a sephia technique in Photoshop as well as adjusted lighting and contrast to give the photo an old time look. The funny thing was this was his third attempt at making the same putt and I have each one on film! I liked the way the image captures his expression, the movement of the club and ball and the framing of the shot behind the pin and flag.

16. Dream sky

17. Dream sky This was the final project and done after I had some experience utilizing Photoshop tools of selection and layering. I added in some visual affects including opacity, masking and blurring to create the appearance of an actual ‘sun’flower and gentle daisy rain in the left lower corner. The background was a wonderful sunset I captured after a real nasty storm. I just wanted to do a project that spoke of peace and light hearted things of nature in the wake of all the devastation of our environment continuing at the Gulf due to BP greed.

18. Wind turbine and friend

19. Wind turbine and friend I was heading once again to a place I thought might have some action shots for the weeks shoot sheet – the dog track at Seacoast. When I arrived there and found no dogs just simulcasting the day seemed a loss. I decided to head to the beach and see if there were some people playing volleyball or possibly some birds. I noticed this windmill on top of a power line pole and transformer so I turned around. What I found was a cool scene with the big turbine hooked up to a live transformer with a little activation wind speed indicator on an adjoining pole. I took the shot into an interesting fog bank with my focus on the turbine panning back to include the wind speed indicator. I cropped the image, selected the various images of the turbine at different places and used opacity and fill with layers to create the effect of showing the motion. I also adjusted the color to add some interest to the background.

20. Eye in the sky

21. Eye in the sky Ok I am a sucker for a great scene or sunset and this one was simply breathtaking. The challenge was my inability to capture it for some unknown technical reason or user error. I tried at least five different camera settings starting with ones that I normally use for sunsets but could not get any sharpness to the image. I decided that the colors of the sunset and interesting eye in the clouds to work on it anyway. I softened the image and used curve to accent the bright blue of the eye and amazing yellow and orange of the sunset. The resulting image is very beautiful even if out of focus.