Sarah Criswell Crit 2 Color/Passion

Crit two is done and I am sad to see it go. I had a lot more fun this go around without the worry of if I was doing the right thing on the right day at the right time. I found myself shooting a lot more frequently this go around with fewer subjects, opposed to last time when I would block out time to shoot and try and force things. I guess that comes with experience.
I still used my Samsung Galaxy S5 which I have come to love, thanks to this course. I find that if I need to use app for anything the one I really like the most is Snapseed. It is very user friendly and lets me really play with the color, especially black and white. I like a deeper dark tone on my black and whites and I feel like I can get that with snapseed.  Here is some information on my two pictures that tied for POW.

First we have my little friend. Well actually its an empty cicada shell left attached to the side of a deck. My girlfriend actually spotted it and said, "you should take a picture of that". I'm not a big bug person but I thought it fit in the "non cliche" group so I went for it. I started shooting straight on at first and it looked like a bug on a piece of wood, not really exciting Then when I moved to the side I realized that I was able to actually see right through the little bugger. It had rained all day that day, poured buckets actually. I think that helped with my background. The glowing of the string lights reflected nicely off the surrounding. I like up close shots with good focus and I think I got that with the cicada but I was able to get the background as well. You could tell that the world was going on around this little shell, no one probably even knew it was there. I used my stock camera on my Samsung Galaxy S5 for this. Nothing else. I took about 25+ shots before I got what I was happy with. 

I wanted to just include this picture also. This is almost my favorite. I know that it is grainy and I couldn't seem to get it to focus well, I am sure that has to do with me using my "reverse" camera on my Samsung Galaxy S5. Although the picture is not perfection, the message I wanted to send I did. My profile on the left looks "normal" the faces you see in the mirror are reflections of struggles I have inside my brain with myself on almost a daily basis. Sometimes confident, sometimes scared or nervous. Things are not always what they appear from the outside. People are the same way. I felt this picture portrayed that well.