Jenn Huls Photography

Landscapes

I am learning there is an art to each type of photography and those who are really into photographing landscapes are really particular about it. After failing miserably on my free study challenge entry for October, I decided I needed a little more practice taking and editing landscapes. There really is an art to it, and I had fun practicing some techniques I learned this week.

It also happened that two of my challenge entries involved landscapes this week I will start out with those.

This first picture is my entry for the "reflections without a mirror" challenge. I was nervous about entering it, especially after bombing on my last landscape entry. But one of my mentors on DPC assured me that it would do well, and so far it has. Not as well as some of my other shots have done, but well enough to encourage me to do more.

Title:

Sunset Reflections

This next one is also a challenge entry. It is doing really well. For awhile there I thought I was going to break my record and get the highest score I have received so far. But it has dropped a little in the last few days. Oh well, it is still doing really well, and I should get a top 10 out of it, and if I am really lucky there is still a chance for a ribbon or an honorable mention.

This challenge was called "off centered subject" I had an idea to have one of my girls trying to catch snow with their tongue but it just never snowed hard enough this week to try it. So I went with this instead. I really love her look in this one. In case you are wondering what she is looking at, it is the cows in a pasture next to us.

Title:

"Winter is Coming..."

This is the version I almost entered. I really liked it but you can really get knocked down for over processing and I chickened out at the last minute.

The next few, are ones I am thinking of entering for my November Free Study entry. In case you are wondering what Free Study is, it is once a month and you can enter any picture you want that you took that month. Everybody saves their best photo's for it and the competition is fierce. Those who win free studies are the really accomplished seasoned photographers. So I really don't have a chance at winning, but I would like to try and get a good score.

This one I took when I was taking the photo's of Sydnie in the field. The sun decided to peak out of the clouds and I got some really neat shots:

This is one I took when I was by the lake getting my reflection shots. I was walking along the lake and stumbled across this cool old structure. The clouds really were doing some cool things behind it, and I got some great shots.

Here is another from my photo shoot with Sydnie. I decided to take some pictures of the cows in the Field across from us. I like this one, but it really isn't my favorite of the three.

My sister and her family came for the weekend. They have not ever had a family portrait taken. Her husband is anti family portrait. My brother is requesting a family picture of everyone this year for Christmas. So she talked him into going outside our house just before they went to church to just take a family "snapshot" We were so rushed I only got a few shots. I had to merge a few to get a decent smile on everyone.

Snapshot or not I just couldn't live with that background. So I decided to use my editing skills and give them a little better background. I used one of the shots I took with Sydnie that had a blank background and merged them together. I thought it turned out kind of fun. Who needs to go on location anymore? You can just find a picture of your favorite background and stick yourself in it, sounds like a good idea to me.

On a side note the results came in on two previous challenges I entered. The triptych the one with my three girls merged together was disqualified, which was actually a lucky break for me since it wasn't doing well.

The Orange and Blue Complimentary colors did really well. I got 7th place out of 100 entries! That means I was on the front page with all the ribbon winners. It's been exciting doing so well in the last few challenges I have entered. I'm sure it won't last, so I will enjoy it while I can.