This first set of photos is of a old oak tree in Barton Nature Area. I chose this composition because the light coming through the leaves accentuated the fall colors of the trees. I took the first image from the side of the tree so that it was not backlit by the sun, and you could see its details more clearly, giving it a sense of depth. I also used the first image to turn into a painting using the water paper filter. In the second image, I gave a wider view of the things surrounding the tree so that you could see the whole landscape.
The second set of photos is of the Huron River, off a bridge near Bird Hills. In the first image, I chose the composition to highlight the reflections of the clouds in the river by having the river and sky take up most of the image. In both photos, the foreground is the river, the mid-ground is the trees, and the background is the sky. In the second photo, I increased the saturation in order to put emphasis on the fall colors of the trees. If I had taken these photos again, I would have shot them at an earlier time of the day so the composition was not backlit by the sun.
This location is again in Barton Nature Area, on one of the trails near the dam. It caught my eye because of how the light was coming through the colorful leaves, and the contrast between the bright canopy and the dark undergrowth. I also liked how the leaves appeared to be glowing from the sun's light, but weren't back lit by anything. I chose to turn the first image into a painting because I thought it was a better balanced and more complete photo. One challenge I had was trying not to show the trail in the pictures that went around the tree, which I accomplished by having the foreground dark enough that you couldn't make it out.
These photos were taken off the side of the trail in Barton Nature Area. There was a nice meadow area there there with good lighting. It caught my eye because of how the tall grasses seemed to create a gradient up to the sky. In the first image I used the rule of thirds to place the grasses and trees in the first third, and have the sky taking up the remaining two thirds. In the second image I took a close up of the tall grass to show some of its finer details.
These photos were taken in Kuebler Langford Park, off a trail looking towards a creek. The location caught my attention because of the light filtering through the leaves of the trees and the shadows and spots of light on the ground. One challenge I had when taking these photos was not getting hikers or bikers in the background of the photo, so I had to wait at the location until there was no one around. I experimented with varying the warmth and saturation levels of different colors in both of the photos. In the first image I went with a orange tint, and in the second I slightly decreased the warmth to give it a more lush feeling.