As the semester began to wind to a close, I started looking through all the photos I had taken throughout the semester so I could compile some of my best works into a photo portfolio. Between Yellowstone, Washington D.C., Maine, New York and Moscow, I had plenty of photos to go through. But, how to separate the good ones from the ones that I had taken for sheer touristy reasons?
Most of it ended up coming down to the composition of the photo. Where was the subject placed in the photo? Was it in the center? If so, the photo probably did not last long in the vast list of possibilities. Along those lines came questions such as: What is the viewpoint in the photo? Is it interesting? As a viewer, do my eyes move to all parts of a photo or do they quickly get drawn to the center and remain there? Another common question I would ask myself was, what would it look like if I cropped the photo here? Does that improve the composition? Should it be put in with the other possibilities?
After sifting through my many photos, I had a list of around 50 unedited photos that were all possibilities for my portfolio. At this point, I turned to my faculty evaluator, Mr. Shipley, to help me decide which photos should be included and what sort of editing I should do to the photos. We discussed each photo individually, talking through what could be done to edit each and where its potential came from. After this discussion, I made the suggested edits on some of the photos and compiled around the best 20 into a final portfolio, some of which are included below.
This, in my opinion, was one of the most rewarding experiences of the semester. After having put in all the work, I could finally step back, analyze my photos, and realize how far I had progressed in the last few months.
~Rachel C.
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