Photo copyright Ashlee Outsen
I enjoy walking around the beautiful city of Flagstaff that I live in. I love the beauty of nature and everything that it inspires. I find that I can really disconnect from the world and relax from everything that life holds. This image was a spur of the moment decision. I was actually taking a picture of my fiancée, and saw the way the sun set through the weeds. I choose to snap this photograph and capture this ethereal feel that the sunset was creating.
I have an old Nikon D3100 and the lens that I have on my camera is originally from a film Nikon. It’s so old it doesn’t even have auto focus. But, this lens allows me to appreciate the work that goes into photography and it also helps me to take the perfect image, because I will stop and think through the photograph and take the needed time in order to create an image like this one. It’s just a standard 18-55mm lens. In order to account for the large amount of sun that was coming through the lens, I had a small aperture of around F 5.6 and a fairly quick shutter speed of 1/140. My ISO was set at 100.
For post processing, I always bump up the clarity. I love crisp image where you can practically jump into the photograph! I also like black and white image more than color. It is partially because of my personality. I like things in life black and white, yes or no. But, this image was so warm that I decided that it needed to have slight color brought into it. It’s just warm enough so you can get that feel of sun after winter. It’s as if it almost rejuvenates your soul. That’s the effect that I wanted this image to have. I wanted you to be able to look at it and just image how warm the sun felt on this day. I want you to be able to get lost in this image and forget about the world for just a second. Think about all of the wonderful things that have happened in your life instead of the bad.
That’s what I like my images to do. To allow the viewer to stop and catch their breath from the mundane day to day life and drift off into a fairytale and enjoy that moment, if just for a minute.
About the Photographer:
Hi! My name is Ashlee Outsen and I am a student at Northern Arizona University. I am majoring in Graphic design and minoring in photography. I have always been interested in the aspect of telling a story without using words. It gives people the opportunity to experience the photograph on their own rather then the entire story literally being spelled out before them. Photography has been a hobby for about 7 years now. That being said, I focus on landscape because it makes my heart happy.
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!