Project Four-Select an Assignment

Title – Orange-A-Glowing
Tags- Orange glow, butterfly, Callaway Garden & Digital Photography Class

For this assignment, we had many options to choose from.  I have an excellent picture on humor that I took and have included it on my web site, but I chose to use this butterfly picture for this particular assignment.  Why I chose this picture is I love the sharp focus on the butterfly and the softer focus elsewhere.  The details on the butterfly just pop and I enhanced the colors to be more vibrant.    It is not easy to take a picture of a butterfly since they fly so quickly.  I felt fortunate to have had this opportunity to take this picture with such a clear and sharp focus on the butterfly.

This assignment had value to me because it gave me the opportunity to try many different types of pictures.  I had a very difficult time choosing from the assignment options because I tried many different options.  In particular, this picture had value to me because I was able to work in Photoshop Elements and enhance the colors (saturation and hue) and the sharpness.  I intentionally blurred the background.  I tried many different variations of this picture and enjoyed learning some of the tools that Photoshop Elements offers.   The one area where I wish I could have improved upon is the leaf to the left of the foreground.  It is more blurred than I wanted it to be, but it still works in the overall picture.  

I chose the title and tags to describe the photograph and for easy reference in searching for the picture in the future.  I exceeded on all the comments I made for my peers as I gave detailed comments and constructive feedback.   I enjoyed having the opportunity to look at my classmates’ pictures and learned a lot from seeing their photos because this was a select an assignment, and it was interesting to see what people chose to do.
I believe I could use this type of photograph in an educational setting on a lesson on symmetry.  If you look carefully at the leaves, you can draw a line down the middle and the veins on the different sides of the leaves are symmetrical.  In math class, we have used MIRAs before which are geometric tools that are reflective like a mirror, but also transparent.  The MIRAs show symmetry.  It would be cool to use a MIRA on this photograph and others to show how there is symmetry in nature.