I personally, was unhappy with the bagel shots that I got on the food shoot day. A couple days after that shoot, my mom brought home a very large bag of peppers. The lighting in my room was beautiful, so I put two and two together and decided to shoot some peppers. I cooked and salted them and arranged them in a specific layout on a very aesthetic wooden cutting board I made in the eighth grade. Of course, I wanted the largest aperture I could get, so I used the macro. In post, I took out some of the detail in the blacks to give the photo a more dreamy and soft feel. I also made it slightly more magenta, because the initial capture was a little too yellow for the style  wanted to portray.

This photo conveys a messages of escape. To get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and to find yourself in the serenity of the open space. You can step back and see the night sky and the congested cities from afar. This is created by spinning a lit whisk around your body and rotating so the long exposure results in a spherical orb of light. Edits include lighting up the ground more, increasing saturation, and cleaning excessive noise.

This photo is a single exposure aided with rapid flashes in quick succession. I swung my arms down from top to middle, and my partner standing behind me swung her arms down from middle to bottom. With five quick flashes, this results in me having 20 arms. I also edited in another portrait of me since the original was out of focus and slightly blurry.

This is a composite image of a large speaker and a multicolored image that my cousin painted.

The lyrics of the song are on the bottom on the little metal plate where formerly, the speaker brand name was imprinted. "And the speakers bleed love." This is interpreted in my picture by the leaking through of color and warmth from the middle speaker cone. I also gave the rest of the speaker a stone texture.

Portraits

 

This non-flash portrait is of Richard Kong. All of these portraits were taken under the parking lot structure at Sunvalley Mall. This particular picture shows Richard's positive and outgoing personality. He is "looking up" things.

In this picture, supermodel Richard shows his urban lifestyle. This is directly under a sunlight of the parking garage, throwing lots of diffused light onto Richard, while maintaining a dark background.

These two pictures are both the same concepts as the above portraits, just taken a little differently. This one also shows his ability to be serious.

Connecting to a Place

For this picture, I used the brush tool to make everything but the lamp black and white. I then enhanced the lamp and its glow with multiple brush enhancements and color adjustments. 

When I walked by these stairs, I saw a mix of both welcoming warmth and a "do not disturb the grumpy old man inside" kind of feeling. In fact, there is a private sign right in the middle of the stairs. To help communicate what I saw, I made everything black and white except the lamp on the wall. I also gave the lamp a happy and comforting glow.  

To be honest, I barely even retouched this picture. I enhanced the light a little bit and brightened up the shadows, but not much else. The natural light and shadows did most of the talking.

To me, this scene was reminiscent of of town friends and family. People get together and everyone knows each other. The lighting is perfect and the texture of the patio behind it work together well. The dimly lit bulbs can also represent the lost dreams of actors.

Clarity was increased. The window on the right had a lot of color reflections so I desaturated them. I also tried to perfectly center the door. Vignetting.

This picture summarizes the abandoned feeling that is Port Costa. Paint is terrible, doors are rotting, and 

colors are faded. Also, the lack of technology contributed to the old timey feel.

Clarity and sharpness was increased. I tried to crop the center bulge exactly in the middle because symmetry. I also saturated the blues in the window trim and brightened the shadows. It almost looks HDR.

As more of an abstract picture, this angle on the building could be interpreted as a positive look into the future of the pace. It also shows imperfections and dirty walls, but it shows it in a beautiful way.

Paper

This was transformed with a crumpled texture and backlit with a purple light. I increased clarity and vibrance, I also reduced shadows.

This is just simplcity and a focus on edges. It is emphasized with sideways light. I increased clarity and shadows. 

Carefully crumpled and placed near a window later in the day results in emphasized features and texture. Same as the others, I darkened that shadows and put more detail in the highlights. Clarity is also increased.