Photo copyright Garrett Creswell
I took this image last semester for a different photography class however it has been one of my favorite images that I have taken since I started my photography pursuit at NAU. The assignment for the class at the time was to take a split-tone photo, and I had always seen split-tone images as something with little movement and one general main point of focus. One afternoon I decided to head to downtown Flagstaff and to find something that would make a good prominent subject for a split-tone photo. I was walking around downtown for about 45 minutes or so trying to find a subject to shoot that would make a great photo. I had been there for sometime trying to find the perfect picture, I had taken about 40 photos at this point and nothing was really standing out to me until I noticed this clock. As I was walking down San Francisco street towards the clock I could see there were no cars coming for some time so I decided to stop and take a couple photos to see how they turned out. I took about 10 different photos from a couple of different angles, with varying F-stops aperture and ISO settings as well as having to wait a few different times for cars to go by between some of the photos. After moving on from this spot and looking back at the photos I had captured I saw this image, which really stood out to me because it seemed to be very calm with the least amount of background activity, which is exactly what I was trying to capture in this photo. One I started the post processing of the photo I decided to try and calm it down more by adding a sepia tone to the photo, because the bright vibrant colors seemed very active and too overpowering. The camera I used to capture the image was a Nikon D3200 DSLR with an 18 to 55 mm lens. The F-stop of the camera was at 20, with 1/30 of a second shutter speed, and a 320 ISO setting. This photo has been a favorite of mine for some time now and I’m not quite sure how to explain why but for whatever reason the photo just really stands out to me.
About the Photographer:
My name is Garrett Creswell and I haven’t been a photographer for very long. I recently became much more involved in college after taking my first photo class. Before coming to college all of my free time was spent playing sports so I didn’t really have the free time for photography. However my past in sports has had a huge impact on me as a photographer because I like to take pictures of sporting events and action sports such as snowboarding and eventually hope to take photos while sky diving. These subjects are a lot more interesting to me because I love being out photographing the things that I love to do in my free time. My goals are different from other photographers because I am just taking photos for the fun of photography not to try and make any money, my inspiration is all about the love for the subjects that I like to photograph not money or fame driven aspirations.
To read more about the Northern Arizona University “Behind the Image: Guest Blogger” project on our blog, please read the introduction at http://youcansleepwhenyouredead.com/wordpress/3rd-annual-northern-arizona-university-behind-the-image-guest-blogger-project/. Please take a minute to leave your insights and constructive comments in the Comment section below – the student would love to hear from you!