Final Cohesive Portfolio Idea

For my final cohesive portfolio for nature photography I am going to use all photos that are close-up and show detail of whatever the subject is.  On most of the trips I have taken very few scenic shots because after a while I find those to be repetitive or boring.  I have been using my telephoto lens for most of the photos I've taken and I've tried to get up close and personal with nature.  I have been playing with different angles, trying to get really low to the ground and not take too many straight down shots.  Below are some of the shots I am considering for my portfolio.

McConnells Mill

On Saturday February 18th we went to McConnells Mill for nature photography.  We went to two different places within the park, starting with Hell's Hollow.  This area of the park was perfect for doing long exposures on the many little and not so little waterfalls and the roaring river (stream? creek? one of the three).

After taking quite a few long exposure water pictures I ended up with one I really like.   I took other water photos that I liked, but I like the composition of this one, and what really draws me to this one is the leaf sticking up from the water.







After Hell's Hollow we drove to another park of the park where the actual mill was.  This area was really beautiful.  I spent time photographing a big waterfall.  For this trip I mainly focused on photographing around the water.

There were many little streams that I enjoyed taking photos by.  I liked being able to get really close to whatever I was photographing and capture how different things (i.e. pebbles, sand, leaves) interacted with the water.    

Trough Creek

The next trip for my Nature Photography class was Trough Creek, a three hour drive away from Pittsburgh.  It was snowing in the city and sure enough the park was lightly covered in a white blanket with snow falling pretty much the entire time we were there.  It was a beautiful and huge park and I was eager to explore.

 The reflections in the water were one thing that interested me while we were there, and I took a lot of pictures playing with the reflections.  One area had really clear water and really crisp reflections, and this spot made for the best photos.

Even though the constant snowfall was annoying me, I did like how it added to some of my pictures.  I tried not to photograph the traditional snowy-winter-forest scenes, and tried instead to capture other photographs in which the viewer could still tell that it was winter and snowing without being cliche.  

Raccoon Creek

Last Tuesday we went to the Frankfort Mineral Springs at Raccoon Creek State Park.  It was such a beautiful day to be able to escape the city, sunny and 55°, we could not have asked for better weather!
This trip I was focusing on two things: 1) How things were interacting with the water, and 2) Getting up close and personal with some of the nature (even my foot got up close and personal when I stepped through a pile of branches right into the creek, good thing I brought extra socks!!)

These first two pictures are examples of how I was paying attention to how things were interacting with the water, its coincidence that they are both leaves.  For the first photo I took about 20 of those until I got one that I was happy with.  There was a slight breeze allowing the leaves to blow and just barely graze the water.

In the second one I really like how not only did I capture the leaf in the water, but also the reflection of branches in the water as well.  

These are both photos that I used my telephoto lens for to zoom in on the details.  The first one is mushrooms (?) on a log.  There were bunches and bunches of these, and I took photos of several different varieties, and these were my favorite.  

The second one is moss (I took A LOT of moss pictures, it seemed to be the theme of the day).  This particular moss was on a roof of a small abandoned building along one of the trails.  I climbed on the not so stable or sturdy roof (didn't fall through, yay!) to get a good angle on this picture.  

And of course I had to take waterfall pictures!  This was my first attempt at using a slow shutter speed to photograph water, and I am not completely happy with how they turned out, but they aren't too bad!  I would have liked to get a different angle, but there were so many of us taking photographs of this waterfall at the same time, I did not want to get in the way of anyone else's photo.  

So I have this one, and I can't decide if I like it better in color or black and white.