The Tips for Better Photography page had some pretty basic yet insightful tips that I will definitely attempt to incorporate into my work.
“Get Pickier” helped me a lot after my photoblitz had ended. Usually, I take many photos that might be good and decide which to keep later. This time around however, I took at most three photos of a particular prompt and left it there. When I was going through my pictures to post later, I had a much easier time sorting through and choosing which made the final cut.
“Get Balanced” reminded me how to frame photos as I took them. I remember my finger hovering over the shutter release (well, the button on my phone) but then I saw where the objects in-frame were situated and that it could be better.
“Create depth” showed in just a couple of my photos, but in those it helped immensely. The blurring of the background gave a sense of mystery in what it actually looks like.
Other aspects were really interesting but hard to enact during my photoblitz due to my circumstances (lighting: it was a cloudy, rainy day; best lens: I had to use my phone). Nonetheless, I will definitely be bookmarking this page to look back to for help/inspiration!
On the Abandoned America website, I chose to look through The Cruikshank Poor House gallery.
I noticed the rule of thirds working perfectly in many of the photographs. My attention was draw to central points of the photo first, and then more and more external details revealed themselves to me as I continued to look. Contrast also worked well in the gallery, both within the individual pictures but also between them when viewing the gallery as a whole. For example: a bright, sunny outdoor scene depicting a horse has two pictures above it featuring lots of green, and three pictures to the side and below featuring dark, more neutral (even bland) colors. This worked to show the stark difference from the inside cold, emptiness versus the outside thriving, brightness. 
Matthew Christopher uses colors to his advantage: namely greens and blues, browns and greys. The greens and warm browns seem to be the sense of life occupying (even taking over) the abandoned location, with blues and greys retaining the desolate feeling of a once busy building now being quiet and uncared for. The last few images in the gallery depict open door, ending the gallery with the feeling of the building inviting both people and nature to come back inside.
Photoblitz time!!
I loved the challenged posed through the time restraint, as I am a person who NEEDS those boundaries in order to not overdo things and get too absorbed in them. Below, I will go image by image, but at the end of this post I will also have an Instagram slider.
- Can graffiti be beautiful? Let your photo make a statement.
This one was hard to find. At first, I only found a little splotch of color on a bridge, but it indistinct and I simply couldn’t spend all of my time attempting to frame it properly. Just before my time was up, however, I found this paint hand. I took it next to the path and the “NO-MOW ZONE / GROW ZONE” sign, and I believe this can sum itself up in the phrase “leave your mark.” I’d rather not interpret it any more than that, just so I’m not planting ideas but just provoking them.
- A fork in the road. Casting a ballot. Buying bread. Choices abound.Take a photo of a choice.
This one got me. At first, I passed some friends in the kitchen and took this photo:
But I also think my end-time photo can work for the prompt.
I stopped in the rain to write the time I finished my photoblitz on my hand and then held it up to the clock, only to realize either the clock was ahead a couple minutes or just the time it took me to write on my hand (while holding my umbrella steady and preventing getting soaked) changed the photo.
- Take a picture of a word or sign that represents the kind of day you’re having.
“I’ve Seen the Best of It” The title jumped out as me as I searched the shelves in my dorm’s parlor. I took this as one of my first in the photoblitz, but I just knew that it was going to describe the kind of day I was going to have. After taking all of the photos during my photoblitz, I had witnessed so much more of this Saturday than I would have had I stayed in my room all day. Walking with my rainboots, raincoat, and umbrella, I stayed mostly dry as I got to listen to all the sounds of water and the beauty in what could have been considered a dull day.
- Get closer and fill the frame.
I went on a small bridge on campus that had small holes for drainage. Some of them lead to metal underneath, but this one showed through to the ground. I took the photo before even remembering the prompt, so it worked out perfectly!
- Your favorite color.
Green has risen to the top spot of my favorite colors just within the past few months. I used to only think of green as bright and in-your-face or gross and muddy, but I’ve recently come to the realization that deep greens and creamy greens are absolutely gorgeous and calming to the eye. Because of this new way of seeing the color, you can imagine how good it makes me feel to see green all over the place in nature!
- Features a repeating pattern.
This photo is from the view I have every day I leave my dorm. My hall is gorgeous, and when I saw this prompt I knew immediately what picture I wanted to take.
- Make a photo dominated by your favourite colour and share it!
I don’t have to be asked twice to take a photo featuring my favorite color, but if I need to I gladly will! the greens here aren’t exactly my favorite, but the angle was interesting to not take. Strangely, the focus on this photo centered in the middle, with the edges all seeming to have a motion-blur about them. This probably has to do with the fact that it was raining, I was leaning over the edge of a bridge, and I was trying to not drop my phone.
I could have taken all of these photos and edited them to make them even better, but I don’t think that is part of the photoblitz assignment. This should be a quick photo session, an exercise more like, and once it’s over it’s over. I surely would like to do this again sometime and see just how different the products are!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfEUboDlhS3/?taken-by=katiehartraft/
