Over the past few days, I have been fervently searching for the topic that would serve to be the main focus for my magazine. In order to look further into my options, I decided that a photo shoot was in order or, more accurately, two photo shoots.
So what I did was that I took my camera out with me around my yard and neighborhood and took pictures of the kinds of things that I had been considering for my project. These included plants, spiders, and butterflies, all of which I got pictures of.
I really liked the way this photo came out, the composition of the light versus the dark with the Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio glaucus) on the bottom third. However, I'm not sure how well this photo would fit into the magazine; it's good by itself but perhaps it would not work well when combined with other elements.
The Zebra Longwing butterflies (Heliconius charitonia) were generally easier to photograph than the swallowtail (which flew really fast), but this picture was my favorite overall. The location of the butterfly on the top third implies the motion of the descent just as well as the unfocused wings.
With this picture, I began to explore the possibilities of putting a focus on plants. Pictured here is a flower from what I originally thought was clover, but I learned through research that it is actually Oxalis and is commonly confused with clover. If I decide to head forward in this direction, I would like to retake this picture or something of similar composition but changed in such a way that the background was comprised of green leaves instead of brown dying ones.
This picture is probably my favorite from the first photo shoot. This small yellow flower was one that I was familiar with, having seen it all the time where I live, but I never learned the name of it. From some quick research, I learned that the name of this weed is Asiatic Hawksbeard (Youngia japonica).
As I began with my second day of shooting, I decided to see if I could recapture the out-of-focus background that I found to have made the picture of the Hawksbeard so aesthetically pleasing. Although I wasn't able to accomplish that goal with this picture, I did like how this photo of Spanish Needle (Bidens bipinnata) turned out.
I don't really want to end with this picture, but I do feel that it is important to include it. This is a photo of a Star Spider (Gasteracantha cancriformis). I managed to find one of these while I walked around my neighborhood, and I took several pictures of it, of which this photo was the best. Still, the subject is out of focus. Perhaps it was the wind that made this picture hard to take, but I think I'll stay away from spider pictures in the future because they are so small.
Looking at all of the different pictures I was able to take, I am most in favor of those of the butterflies and the weed flowers. Perhaps a good direction to take with magazine would be to put a focus on those two subjects, although I feel that I now have a slight preference to the weeds. Regardless, these pictures came out better than I could've hoped, so I'm looking forward to more photo shoots in the future!
Citations:
"Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio Glaucus)." Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies, Caterpillars, Chrysalis Photos : Gardens With Wings. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.
"Florida Weed Identification." Florida Weed Identification. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.
"The Star Spider - Gasteracantha Cancriformis." The Star Spider - Gasteracantha Cancriformis. N.p., 23 Feb. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.
"Weeds." Garden Talk - Weeds. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.
"Weeds of the Southern United States." (1975): 10. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.
"Zebra Longwing - Heliconius Charitonia." Zebra Longwing - Heliconius Charitonia. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.
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