Composition

Subject/Background

I wanted to take a photo of one of the snow-covered branches from a tree near my apartment. As I was looking for a way to take the picture, I found this particular branch sticking out further from the others. This helped because I was able to place it over a different background. From any other angle, the background would have had similar branches, making this particular one hard to spot.

In Photoshop, I brightened the colors to make the snow look whiter and brighter, hopefully bringing attention to itself.

Balance

In this one, I feel like the street and the snow balance each other out. However, I don't think this would work as well if there weren't footprints in the snow. The street is so dark in contrast to the snow that it sort of has a gravitational pull to it. But the footprints in the snow add an interesting element to that side of the photo, and I think it gives it some weight.

In Photoshop, I made the contrast harsher so the footprints wouldn't blend in as much with the snow.

Point of View

I really wanted to take a picture of the snow-covered trees. There are a couple rows of them on campus. I could have taken the photo from the side, but I don't think it would have been as dramatic. By moving to the center of the street, I hope I caught the feeling of actually walking or driving through that passageway in a manner that photographing from the sidelines couldn't have.

In Photoshop, I cropped it slightly to make it portrait and give a sense of the height of the trees. I also set the contrast up very high to make the details in the trees pop out more.