Photography Final - La Vida en Costa Rica

Photos to be graded

This photography project has probably been one of my favorites. I've had to get out of my comfort zone (do you know how awkward it is to creepily take photos of people? Even with their permission?), practice my point and shoot skills, and tweak with my camera settings to get the perfect shot. Capturing emotions, moments, reality, and the natural beauty that is human beings, this world, and the culture I live in has been a challenge, an endeavor, and it has payed off. I hope you enjoy my work and get a glimpse inside the Costa Rican lifestyle. The challenges I faced in this project were unfavorable lighting, backgrounds, and bad coloring occasionally. Doing my best to capture movement with no blur and good focus was also very hard. The title of my project is entitled "Vida en Costa Rica" (life in Costa Rica. There's your Spanish lesson for the day). The messages I am portraying with this project is the diversity of our world. I have only captured part of the culture here, and I have only captured one country. But contrast it to the United States. Do you see now? We are all different. Let us embrace those differences and create something magnificent -- unity.

The title of this image is "The Three Ninos." It was taken in El Mojon, Costa Rica. The editing was Lighting, coloring, and clarity. It demonstrates candid, lifestyle, and movement. 

There are several aspects of this photo I would like to point out. The first one is the high energy of the kids is evident. The kids here are always scampering around, climbing over things, and messing around with each other. The second is the shoes. Two of the kids are wearing flip flops, which illustrates the casual lifestyle of the people here. The other is wearing soccer shoes. Ticos love soccer. They love sports and bonding with each other through them. 

The name of this photo is called "The Fruit Man". It was taken in El Mojon, Costa Rica. The editing done was lighting, color, and clarity. The photography concepts demonstrated are lifestyle, candid, movement, and color. 

This photo represents the thousands of small businesses everywhere, set up either in their garage or even their living room to support their family. They can be anything from small stores (kind of like 7/11s), mechanic shops, and fruit stands. Costa Ricans are hard working people. This man is older, yet he still comes out every day and works. In the United States, most people would be retired by this age. 

This photo is called Goat-like Manners. It was taken in El Mojon, Costa Rica. The editing done was lighting, color, and clarity. The concepts demonstrated are lighting, background, and portraits (yes, I consider this a portrait). 

Especially in the rural areas, there are tons of animals. Anything from cows, to turtles, to goats. You can often find them grazing out in pastures, like we see here. I love this part about Costa Rica, because Ticos will utilize what they've been given and make the best out of everything. They connect with nature and partake in the blessings of it.

This photo is called The Things You Do. It was taken in El Mojon, Costa Rica. The editing done was lighting, color, and clarity. It demonstrates color, lighting, and still life. 

This photo shows you the resourcefulness of the people here. Most of them don't have dryers, and even washing machines are a rarity, so you are constantly seeing women washing and hanging clothes. Even our family does it. 

This photo is called The Majestic. It was taken in El Mojon, Costa Rica. The editing done was color, lighting, clarity, and cropping. The photography concepts it demonstrates are framing, symmetry, color, and lighting.

Guys. The trees here are freaking awesome. Huge. There are so many of them. They can be single trees like this one you see, or there can be thousands of them entangled in the jungle. Another thing--the cows. They're everywhere in fields just like this one. 

This photo is called Casual Smiles. It was taken in El Mojon, Costa Rica. The editing done was lighting, color, and clarity. The photography concepts demonstrated are lighting, candid, and movement.

Ticos love to hang with one another. They're always talking on the street, just outside their house, on the curb. They are a very connected people. They also have beautiful smiles :).

This photo is called The Casual Biker. It was taken in Esparza, Costa Rica. The editing done was lighting, color, and clarity. The photography concepts demonstrated are lighting, color, and movement.

Ticos are very casual people. And resourceful. And tan. Because of the expensiveness of cars, many people use bikes. And like I said, they're very casual. If we saw a grown man biking down the street shirtless, we might feel inclined to lock our car doors. But not here. It's normal and acceptable. Ticos treat life as an adventure, not a schedule. 

This photo is called The Cross in the Sky. It was taken in Esparza, Costa Rica. The editing done was lighting, color, and clarity. The photography concepts it demonstrates are background, color, and lighting. 

In the middle of every town square, there is a church. Costa Ricans are a very God fearing people. They are humble and acknowledge God in their everyday life. 

This photo is called The Motorcycle Man. It was taken in Esparza, Costa Rica. The editing done was lighting, color, and clarity. The photography concepts demonstrated are lighting and movement. 

If Ticos can't afford a car, they will afford a motorcycle. You will always see two (or more, I've seen 5) people on a motorcycle at a time as they make the best of their circumstances. 

This photo is called "Good Vibes". Why? Because good vibes. It was taken in El Mojon, Costa Rica. The editing done was color, lighting, and clarity. It demonstrates color, lighting, background, and a little bit of macro. 

This photo is meant to demonstrate the bounty of nature here. Flowers just like this one will spring up on the side of the road in plenty, in fields, and sometimes in the middle of the road. The details on this flower are interesting, and I would like to point some of them out. This flower is in half light, half darkness. There is always good in life, and always bad. Light and dark. Yin and Yang. However, life keeps going. And something beautiful always comes out of it.

Photos that will not be graded but deserve to be shown. 

Unless you like one of these better than the "to be graded" ones. Then feel free to switch them out. 

Project: Photo Manipulation

Before:

After:

1. This photo is called "Hawaii in Costa Rica", because this flower and the rocks remind me of Hawaii.

2. Mira Mar, Costa Rica.

3. This photo demonstrates photo manipulation (more realistic/stunning). I edited this photo on VSCO. I put on the Preset of G3 (6 levels), decreased the exposure by 1, increased the contrast and saturation, made the details a little more sharp, and cropped it. 

Before:

After:

1. I call this photo "Wayside Flowers."

2. El Mojon, Costa Rica.

3. This photo represents photo manipulation (too good to be true/unrealistic). The editing I did on this was done in VSCO. I used the preset of HB2 (12 levels), decreased the exposure by 3, took up the contrast to 6, increased the clarity by 8, and sharpen by 9. Looking at this photo just kills me. It's too fake. 

Before:

After:

1. I call this photo Beachside View.
2. Puntarenas, Costa Rica.
3. This photo represents photo manipulation: photoshop. I photoshopped my sister's head and added it in somewhere. See if you can find it. Hehe.

Project: Candid Photos

1. Free Spirit

2. El Mojon, Costa Rica

3. This picture represents a candid photo. 

1. Spider Woman
2. El Mojon, Costa Rica
3. This photo demonstrates a candid photo.

1. Benson

2. El Mojon, Costa Rica

3. This photo represents candid shots. The story behind this is that my brother, Benson, was building something with rocks and sticks and it got knocked down by the wind. He looked up at me with this face and I had to capture it. It was completely in the moment and not staged at all. Kids crack me up. 

Project: Still Life and Movement

1. A Stark Contrast
2. El Mojon, Costa Rica
3. This photo demonstrates still life. I picked this pink flower in my backyard, then hung up a black sheet on the floor, and placed the flower on it. It also demonstrates good color, asymmetry, and symmetry (you can almost cut the flower in half vertically or horizontally).

1. The Black Butterfly
2. El Mojon, Costa Rica
3. This demonstrates a still picture of movement.

1. A Swinging Monkey

2. El Mojon, Costa Rica

3. This demonstrates movement. This monkey was swinging down from the branch to grab some leaves while I was out shooting earlier yesterday. 

Portraits and Landscapes

1. A Child's Joy
2. Playa Puntarenas, Costa Rica (Puntarenas Beach)
3. This demonstrates a good portrait, angles, lighting, and asymmetry. This is a good portrait because it's a candid, and you can feel the laughter and personality in this photo. This photo was actually taken from a lower angle. My sister, Zoe, is very small (like really really really small), so to make her seem like an average sized child, I took it at a lower angle. Not necessarily because I want to warp your perception of her, but because I wanted to play around with them. This demonstrates good lighting because even though it's black and white, the lighting is not directly in her face causing harsh shadows, even though this was taken at noon. This demonstrates asymmetry because the subject is off center and is telling a story.

1. A Peaceful Vista
2. Mira Mar, Costa Rica
3. This demonstrates  good landscape. There is not one particular subject, there is good color contrast, RoT, and good lighting. There is only a little bit of editing done, only because my camera doesn't do this scenery justice.

1. Wishful thinking
2. El Mojon, Costa Rica
3. This demonstrates a good portrait with good landscape. It also demonstrates asymmetry. 

Experiments in Lighting

1. Jungle Sunrise (taken at 5:30 am)
2. El Mojon, Costa Rica
3. This picture demonstrates good lighting. It's soft, cool, and not too harsh. It also demonstrates a bit of rule of thirds.

1. Rainless Sky (taken at 1:14 pm)

2. El Mojon, Costa Rica

3. This photo demonstrates bad lighting, because it's too harsh. It kind of hurts my eyes and makes it hard to pick out details. 

1. Radiant Sky (taken at 5:16 pm)

2. El Mojon, Costa Rica

3. This photo demonstrates good lighting. The colors and light are warm (with a hint of cool in the blue sky), and it's very pleasing and relaxing. 

1. Giants in the Sky (can you guys tell I like the sky?)

2. El Mojon, Costa Rica

3. This photo demonstrates bad lighting. It's too harsh, and makes the colors in the photo look very dingy and bland. It's too highlighted that it makes it hard to focus. However, it also demonstrates RoT.

1. Wonders Upon Wonders
2. Mira Mor, Costa Rica
3. This photo demonstrates good lighting (not too much, not too little; gives good highlights and provides contrast). It also demonstrates color, background, and asymmetry.

Midterm Project: Best Picture Ever!

1. Children's play
2. El Mojon, Costa Rica
3. This photo uses color, background, balance,and rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is the green grass, then the shoes/socks, then the rest of the leg. The background is the space between the two subjects and the greenery in the back, and the color is the red on green and black on green. The color of the Children's legs also gives the entire photo a nice warm feel. It is balanced because there is equal on both sides.

1. Rising Above

2. Volcan Arenal, Costa Rica

3. This photo demonstrates framing, rule of thirds,color, and leading lines. The leading lines are the trees directly in front of the volcano (vertical, which gives the feeling of strength and dignity). The Rule of Thirds is the meadow/trees, the Volcano, and then the sky and clouds. The framing is the clouds framing the volcano around it. The color is the green, blue and white, all cool colors with no warm, giving off a strong/relaxed emotion. 

1. The Hippie Life
2. El Mojon, Costa Rica
3. This photo uses Pattern, Lighting, Color, and Asymmetry. The blue, purple, green, and black colors and very pleasing to the eye (mostly warm with the occasional cool, mostly the blue). The pattern is pretty obvious, with the peace sign interrupting it. The peace sign is also asymmetry, which tells something. The story here is that the peace sign is actually a photobomb, but I loved it XD.