westsidestory iowa city west high school
2901 melrose ave.
iowa city, IA 52246
wsspaper.com
FEBRUARY 2014
Pages 4-7: Framing Pages 8-9: Lines Pages 10-15: Shutter speed, aperture, ISO Pages 16-19: Perspective Pages 20-23: Portraiture Pages 24-27: Light Pages 28-35: Free form for more coverage go to wsspaper.com
2 FEBRUARY 2014
photo Adventure photos by Eugenia Chen
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Framing. My sister crouches on the stairs and looks between the weather-beaten wooden railing. We are behind the house on the stairway leading up to our wooden porch. In the summer, the vines of Chinese melons twist around the wooden bars. In the background, you can see the last little bit of prairie in our neighborhood edged by the last bit of forest. Hidden in the trees is a small creek where the deer go to drink water.
4 FEBRUARY 2014
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Framing. When baking banana bread, pecans are a must. I was making a chocolate swirled banana bread with chocolate chips and pecans when I noticed how the nuts were scattered across my chopping board. Using framing, I put a heart in the middle of the scattering of nuts on the edges.
6 FEBRUARY 2014
Outside our house are five or six pine trees in a row. Each one is a slightly different color. On this particular tree were a bunch of little pine cones. This pine cone was perfectly situated in the middle of a few branches and the light hit it just right.
FEBRUARY 2014 7
Top Left: We have a wooden swing hanging from the porch in our backyard. The perpendicular lines of the seat and the armrest made the perfect picture. Bottom Left: My mom loves growing plants and our house is filled with them. This plant is growing in the corner of the kitchen. The leaves and stems make cool lines. Right: We have a bookshelf filled with baking and gardening books in our living room. When the light hits them just right, the golden book glows.
8 FEBRUARY 2014
Lines. FEBRUARY 2014 9
In our entryway is a black bowl filled with roasted coffee beans. We roast the beans every once in a while to fill our house with a yummy coffee scent. The room was really dark so using a slow shutter speed allowed the beans to show the different variations of color.
10 FEBRUARY 2014
This picture is of my sister playing the violin. She is showing off her third-finger vibrato as she plays her piece. The shutter speed was put shower as to get the blurred effect of the moving hand. But, when going too slow, the whole picture was a blur.
Shutter Speed. FEBRUARY 2014 11
Aperture. Below is a picture of some dried-out flowers in our backyard. There is a small area of prairie left in our neighborhood that is disappearing with the development of new houses. This is a prairie flower that died and dried out before it could form its seeds. Another part of the picture is the low aperture that creates the blurry background.
12 FEBRUARY 2014
Above is a picture of a glass salt shaker in our kitchen. The light from above our counter makes a glow on the wood counter. There is also highlighted parts on the glass and the metal top from the light. The aperture was set really low to make the background blurry and look like there is a glow coming from behind the shaker.
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14 FEBRUARY 2014
Iso. Left: These are dried-out flowers in our backyard in the small expanse of prairie that is left in our neighborhood. These stalks stand more than seven feet tall. It is really light outside, so the ISO was set at 100. Above: The best kind of banana bread is the kind with a swirl of chocolate batter and chocolate chips. It was really dark in our kitchen, so a high ISO was used to get a lighter photo.
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16 FEBRUARY 2014
My sister is sitting on a porch swing hanging in our backyard. She looks at the ground while the light hits the top of her hair. The background is a blurred view of the snow on the yellowing grass. This picture was taken up close so that her head is the focus of the photo. The perspective is from higher looking down because she is sitting lower than the camera.
Perspective. FEBRUARY 2014 17
Left: You would never guess that the picture with the snowflakes was taken of a trash can. This setting for this photo is right outside the auditorium of the high school. The snowflakes are clumped around the rim while some single snowflakes have fallen to the side. The perspective is looking down on the snowflakes. Right: My sister is playing violin in our living room. The photo is taken from the back-side of the violin looking up towards her other hand. You can see her left hand with her second-finger on the D string. In the background is her right hand holding her bow as she plays.
18 FEBRUARY 2014
Perspective. FEBRUARY 2014 19
Portraiture. My sister sits on the front steps to our house. She rests her head on her hand as she smiles at the camera. In the background is our front door with a pink doormat. There is traces of snow on the ground. On the left are the tendrils of a hibernating plant.
20 FEBRUARY 2014
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22 FEBRUARY 2014
Portraiture. My friend Shanthi poses at West High School. She leans against a stone wall with the light coming from the doors at the end of the wall. She also poses with a violin; looking down at her hand while she plays.
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Light. The light hits the violin, making the wooden varnish show up as a white glow. The light shines from underneath and above the violin as well, illuminating the violin in halo of light. Some parts of the violin retain the orange-brown color, providing a contrast from the stark white.
24 FEBRUARY 2014
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Light. Above: The white orchid is lit up by the sunlight streaming through the window in the background. The petals look white with the light coming from behind them. But inside the middle of the orchid are pink lines and yellow coloring that are shaded by a petal covering. Right: A houseplant resting on a metal stand is illuminated by the sunlight. The little hairs on the leaves are shown in the contrast of the lit plant and the dark background. The petals look neon green in the light.
26 FEBRUARY 2014
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Free Form. Making banana bread requires nice, ripe bananas. These bananas are the perfect stage for baking them into a perfect bread. The bananas are lined up on a cutting board, ready to be mashed. The photo focuses on the first banana, with the rest of the picture blurred to create a hazy effect.
28 FEBRUARY 2014
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Free Form. My sister dips her hand in a bowl of flour, holding her hands our for the photo. The flour is nestled between her two hands. You can see the flour sticking to her fingertips, showing the swirl of her unique fingerprint.
30 FEBRUARY 2014
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Free Form. Below, my dad measures out flour in a metal, one-cup measure. He then uses the back end of the knife to push the excess flour back into the bag. The flour collects behind the knife and then falls off the end of the measuring cup.
32 FEBRUARY 2014
The melted chocolate is swirled into the banana bread batter to create a chocolate batter. The chocolate batter is then swirled with the regular batter to create a marbled effect. In the photo is a pink spatula with a drizzle of chocolate that didn’t make it into the bowl. The batter is highlighted with little spots of light from the lamp above.
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34 FEBRUARY 2014
Free Form. The finished chocolate swirled banana bread rests on a wooden chopping board. You can see the traces of chocolate chips and nuts dotted throughout the bread; pure deliciousness!
FEBRUARY 2014 35