Going into photo 100 my knowledge on photography was pretty limited. I did not really know what the terminology meant or how a DSLR camera worked. I took a lot of pictures with my cell phone around where I grew up and did not really have any specific strategy for taking said photos so I never ended up with any “good” shots. I also really didn't have a good place to take pictures. After learning how many photographers over the years have taken their pictures and learning how to utilize a lot more features of a camera I have taken much better photos. Editing and changing around my photos has become much easier than it did before this semester. I had some prior knowledge of Photoshop, but that knowledge wasn't tailored for photography and more for graphic design. This semester has taught me a lot and this portfolio is a testament to that. 

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When deciding on what I wanted to do in my portfolio I came to the conclusion that I wanted it to be taken outside, as I really enjoy working with natural light. And with that, decision came about to take all of my photos in the Wintergreen Gorge. Within this overall goal I tried to take pictures of both the land and the water. Taking pictures of both of these things allowed me to utilize different things we have learned. With the water I took many pictures with both fast and slow shutter speed to get a good variation and feel to the pictures that gave the pictures of sense of motion. With the land I took both up close and larger stage photos to give the portfolio more diversity. I tried to get emotion into these pictures as well, with some of them coming out a lot more ominous than initially anticipated, but in all they still look pretty good. 

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The hardest and most difficult part of all of this was definitely coming up with a solid game plan on what I wanted it all to be about.  I think in the end it really did come around, but for awhile I was incredibly lost on a topic. I think nature is a good starting point for someone like me as it provides ample opportunity to utilize many things that we learned throughout the semester. Troubleshooting that actual photography was not much of an issue. The practice I got this semester in both the taking picture aspect and the Photoshop editing aspect were pretty smooth other than some HDR hiccups with my PC. I was also going to try and do some cool light art in my portfolio but could not really think of a good way to incorporate it into the overall look of the portfolio. Alongside the fact that I didn't have a good way to being lights to the Gorge and so on. I just want to thank you for visiting my website and portfolio for photo 100 and I hope you enjoy my photography!