For my photo essay, I chose four pictures from an area in my neighborhood, Woodlake. In the evenings, I can walk through the neighborhood across the street and down a footpath into this serene marina.

The first set of images were taken on a very calm day. In the manipulation of the picture, I changed the hue and gave the image an antique feel. In doing this, it achieves an almost timeless quality. Could this photo have been taken thirty or forty years ago? I then used the smuding tool and instantly a storm moved in. The trees are now in motion, bending with the wind. Even the ripples on the water are much more pronounced and disturbed.

The second set of images are of what I jokingly call the ‘canoe parking area’, a housing area with rows upon rows of canoes, kayaks and small john boats. I cropped this picture and then altered the perspective of it, which put the canoes in motion. There is now a visual pull to the canoes cutting through imaginary water. The long, sleek lines of the canoes are contrasted by the soft, bushiness of the trees behind them, which are also now in motion.

In the third set, while I liked the image, it seemed a bit dull somehow. I altered this by adjusting the brightness, intensity, and contrast. This gave the sky an ethereal quality, bringing out the contrast of the treeline. The boats are now at a point on the horizon line, which is hard to distinguish land from water.

The last set of images are actually the left side of the third set from above. While I love the serenity of the setting sun’s reflection on the water, I felt it took away from the rest of the information on land. So I cropped the picture, thus slightly elongating it and taking away that reflection. I then pulled up the brightness which now gives the viewer more insight into the detail of the dock shop and walkway.