Shade of Dawn - Portfolio

**ShadeOfDawn** · January 8th, 2006, 01:05 AM

If you guys think this has too many pictures and is excessive just tell me and i will consider scrapping the whole thing.

I have decided that i'm going to make a portfolio of my Work. I will try to keep it in Chronological order so than any progress i make can be seen visually. Some of these photos go back to last year around September, none are older. I am a 17 year old grade 12 high school student in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I am currently applying to 5 universities for Science, and one for Photography (Ryerson University and mostly to see if i'll get in seeing as the school is highly selective - I also want to keep my options open). I will update this first post with new images as i take them so as to not bump the thread. Many of you have seen all of these before, but new ones will come. This will be an extremely long line of Photographs so watch out! 56K beware!!! in fact Cable/DSL users beware!

These were all taken with my school's camera - The Panasonic DMC-FZ10 a 4.0 megapixel camera with 12x optical zoom (35-420mm) and a Leica lens.

I later discovered that the camera had a HDTV function which essentially took widescreen pictures. I enjoyed this a lot and only used it with that camera from that point on.

(P.S. this post was formatted for my monitor and resolution, so if the arrangement looks odd blame computers)

The forum only allows me to post 30 images and i have exceeded that, so im going to continue in the next post.

**xvfinkvx** · January 8th, 2006, 01:22 AM

it looks vary nice man

**ShadeOfDawn** · January 8th, 2006, 01:30 AM

My photos continued:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These Photos are taken with my camera the Canon 20D once i got it.

**ShadeOfDawn** · January 8th, 2006, 01:46 AM

Even more of my Photos:

More photos from my new camera.

**ShadeOfDawn** · January 8th, 2006, 01:58 AM

Even more!!

**ShadeOfDawn** · January 8th, 2006, 02:05 AM

Still more (final one for now)

**Alday.J** · January 8th, 2006, 08:00 PM

Man, it's awesome ! Even if I pity the poor 56k users !!!

I can tell you that I love your technical skills. Contrast, saturation, focus, point of view, diversity... Can't crit, really ! Just love ! Geez, you're only 17 ?!?

I can't wait to see what you be able to do in a few years. Keep it up, folks !
Julien ALDAY.

**claudeEGYPT** · January 8th, 2006, 09:44 PM

Your Entire History In One Page..! I admire your work Shade o' Dawn. I think we share the same technical eyes, we may have different ways of putting that on camera, but i think there are many similarities between us. Very Nice

Claude

**ShadeOfDawn** · January 8th, 2006, 10:04 PM

hah hah Thank you very much Julien! Its nice to read comments like that =)

and thank you as well Claude. I'm not fully sure what you mean when you say we share the same technical eyes, but have different ways of putting it on camera - but i'll take that as a compliment!! =)

This thread is going to kill my badnwidth limit at photobucket VERY quickly - i dont know what to do about that heh. its at 94% now and i have another two weeks till it refreshes. Should i shut the page down then?

**Alday.J** · January 8th, 2006, 10:18 PM

Haaa, bandwitch, the worst ennemy of modern artists !
I suggest you to open another count at another web-provider and then alternate between the two ! It's tricky, I know...

Cheers ShadeOfDawn !
Julien.

**ShadeOfDawn** · January 8th, 2006, 10:40 PM

I've found a simple solution - i just made another Photobucket account and changed one character in my username - now im uploading all my photos there via URL which takes literally like a second (can do 8 at a time very easily) and then this thread can use that photobucket - unfortunately it takes a bit of time to copy over 100 URLs individually so i'll have to continue this later when i have less hw to do heh

thanks for the suggestion Alday!

**kacklon** · January 9th, 2006, 06:33 AM

Im very impressed! Wonderful composition. The colours in some of these photos are simply breathtaking. Really nice work! Looking forward to seeing more from you.

**Khshayathiya** · January 10th, 2006, 07:05 AM

Hi there, Shade!

Feels good to look at such exquisite imagery.

How importand do you think the camera is to a photographer? Can it guide his work, bend his artistic destiny? What I mean is - has the fact that your camera posesses such a powerful macro prompted you to take all the beautiful close-ups or has your desire to take beautiful close-ups prompted you to use this camera?

Hmmm... Bad English... It made perfect sense in my head, but as I write this down, it seems to become a bit foggy...

Never mind - just know you have an admirer in me...

**ShadeOfDawn** · January 10th, 2006, 06:01 PM

i think that the camera is EXTREMELY important. My photography took off once i was given access to a good camera, and then i just used it a lot and developed my skills, grew a lot and i would like to think that im still getting better.

I do not however think that the camera prompted my photography interests. I was always interested in Macro photography and just couldnt achieve the same photographs before. I got a Macro lens for my camera because thats the thing i like best with Photography. I want to experiment more with people and landscapes but i want a wide angle lens for that. I also want to do more with animals but i need a better zoom lens to get close enough to the animals. So to put it shortly - The camera definately influences your photographs and how you grow and develop, but the camera was not what promtped me to take Macro shots - it was my interest in they way things look and my desire to take Macro shots that prompted me to attain a camera with a Macro lens.

Thank you and Kacklon for your inspiring and great compliments! =)

edit: and you you additionally for giving me the topic that i am going to use for my essay when applying to a university for Photography:

does the camera shape the photographer or the photographer shape the used camera?

**Morbid** · January 10th, 2006, 06:53 PM

Thats a lot of photos! Very inspiring when they're all in one place like this.

I was wondering why your bandwidth was exceeded in the other thread... now I know

Doesn't your ISP or school give you some web space you can use?

**Alday.J** · January 10th, 2006, 09:35 PM

Check your thread again and again.

You're a monster, I love you ! Really one of the best set of pics I see here on CA. Hope that you'll post some new pics soon. Cheers.
Julien.

**stine** · January 13th, 2006, 05:04 AM

i'm impressed over and over again. the fire-alarm is by far my favourite. don't know why exactly, because the other one's are brilliant, too. i like it when you look for those little disturbing moments in nature like "feast" for example or that spider-pictures. but your cityscape-pictures are amazing, too. over all a great portfolio and a lot to look and learn here... thanks!

**Morbid** · January 13th, 2006, 09:47 AM

Quantity is no substitute for quality, but when theres both quantity and quality then something happens. Impression = quantity * quality, or smtn like that.

Now I want to seem some non-macro shots from you! Keep it up!

**Josiahh** · January 22nd, 2006, 12:05 AM

Hey shade of dawn is there a way to see your images on photobucket? All I see are numerous little squares saying "photobucket.com bandwidth exceeded" and tons of comments saying how amazing your pictures are, I'm missing out!

**ShadeOfDawn** · January 22nd, 2006, 03:27 AM

Thank you everyone! unfortunately for a second time my bandwidth has been exceeded by this thread! I really need to get a server for myself heh heh. My school does not give me a hosting space, however i believe that i could find a way to use my school's servers to host online, unfortunately it'd be a lot of work resizing all my pictures instead of having photobucket do that.

Thank you Julien! unfortunately recently i've been pretty busy/getting sick so i havent been taking many photographs, but i hope to take a trip to the zoo soon for some nice animal pictures! probably next weekend so look out for those.

When i was taking that fire alarm picture i was thinking its kind of interesting, but i dont really like it. I knew though when taking it that others would really like it - not sure why though heh. thanks! and i hope to see things like Feast when summer comes here again so i can really get up close with my macro lens. come on summer! i got what i wanted out of winter (a snowflake) and now i need to go find some insects/bugs!

I'd love to take some non-macro shots, but i find that for me a picture without blur in it somewhere is kind of boring (not all the time, just a lot of it - they seem plain without blur - well there are lots of exceptions so maybe i should just delete this heh) but i do hope to get a wide angle lens and a long zoom lens eventually to open up other non-macro types of photography such as landscapes, more cityscapes, animal photography and portraiture (im going to experiment with potrature with my macro lens - nice background blur)

if you go here --> http://photobucket.com/albums/f227/Shade18 you can see them all i believe (i made the gallery public now), but its hard and annoying to view them in there, plus they look better on the forum.

if you click on my name and go to my profile, go into my history and you can find all the threads started by me - all of these images are in the threads, you'll just have to look through a few threads - i'd reccomend doing it that way.

Thanks once again for all the great kind words everyon! (i think im going to have to make two or three accounts for this to split the bandwidth so it can last 2-3 times longer)

**Josiahh** · January 22nd, 2006, 03:46 AM

Hey, awesome photos. I love all the shots where you've captured the beads of water on different surfaces. The color is so vivid in these shots too, and awesome eye for composition. lol and I agree, the fire alarm is okay, but it seems to be lacking something. Really great stuff though, I look forward to seeing more!

**JustinBeckett** · February 8th, 2006, 02:33 AM

Impressive work!

**Madmanxtra** · February 8th, 2006, 07:33 PM

amazing pictures i find myself looking at your photos over and over

**ShadeOfDawn** · April 11th, 2006, 12:20 AM

You want to see more Josiahh? ok well here's some more. I thought it was about time to update this with my other ones that i've shown on the forum. I have been extremely busy with Uni apps and school work and most of all Yearbook. I havent had as much time to take pictures or post as i'd like to.

If any of you are very bored and want to help me out, i need to select 12 photographs from my entire body of work to represent me as a photographer for my application to a highly selective photography school in Canada (1000 apply, and 60 are accepted). I'd need to show a wide range of skill (so not only macro heh) with various subjects. If anyone wants to help it would be appreciated. Thanks

on with the 'new' pics:

------------------------------Fire series------------------------------

------------------------------Electricity Series------------------------------

------------------------------Trip to the Zoo Series------------------------------

Thank you for your viewing time and continued comments.

**Jive Turkey** · April 11th, 2006, 02:06 AM

Shade of Dawn, the photo that you've saved as 'bridge2', is the original photo in a high resolution? I really like the feeling in that picture. For some reason it reminds me of waking up early for Baseball tournaments when I was little. I'd love to see it cropped tight against that drop of water though. So its taking up about 1/4 of the frame....maybe even more. I think it would be a killer shot

**stine** · April 11th, 2006, 02:07 AM

hi shade! well, i wish you all the best for your application, sounds tough, but i'm sure you'll do fine!
here's my 2 cents for your "big 12" (although i'm not bored...) -- well, if it was me, i would probably make some sort of a calendar and pick one photo that i think represents each month. well, maybe that's a stupid idea, but i always look for certain motivation kicks and a starting point...

the only problem i see with your stuff (and that's because i mostly see it a lot more in MY stuff) is the lack of variety. or better: the IMPRESSION of it. you have everything in your portfolio, but the macros are just overwhelming.
so (sad as it is) i guess i would only take 4 or 5 macros.

and here's my rough selection:
your cat's eye (the one you posted in the animal-challenge)
the almond sweets (because it shows you take your camera outside and "aren't afraid to use it", haha)
the snow flake (probably the last one you posted on january 8th)
last one i can't decide between the crocodile's eye or the last tiger portrait...
one of the "fahrenheit"-project
one flower shot
"filling up" with portraits, architecture, landscapes etc.

sorry for being vague on the last ones, but i think in the end it's such an individual choice...
so, again: best of luck and don'r forget to have fun with it (yeah, i'm not really worried about that...)

cheers

stine

**Jive Turkey** · April 11th, 2006, 02:10 AM

Hey Shade of Dawn, just notice that you said you're applying to school in Canada...I think I remember you saying you're in the Toronto area at one point....what school are you applying to? I just got accepted into the Applied Photography program at Sheridan. They have a very similar applicant to acceptance ratio....you wouldnt happen to be applying there too?

**ShadeOfDawn** · April 11th, 2006, 08:38 AM

naw sorry, im a university guy. I'm applying to Ryerson. Thanks a ton for your input Stine! its always valuable. And yeah i know i cant fill with macro heh heh, thats my biggest problem methinks.

Yes the one called bridge (2) is high res. Its 4.2 MP. So its fairly large and certainly croppable.

Hmm i just noticed i didnt put the picture of my cat that you're talking about in here - i'll have to fix that when im not late for school heh heh. Thanks again both of you!

**Jive Turkey** · April 11th, 2006, 09:30 AM

You shouldnt limit yourself by saying 'I'm a university man' or whatever. I dont mean that in an offensive tone, so please dont take it that way. I've done the university thing (in a different field) and am going back for photography. I looked into Ryerson too, but I didnt think the program was for me. You'll end up with a fine arts degree, but as far as practical learning goes, I dont think you can beat Sheridan. They're miles ahead in digital technology. Ryerson seems to be a lot more art history. If thats what you're into, then by all means, but you shouldnt look down at the colleges for arts programs. And right now, you're not an anything man, so keep your options open.....just my two cents

**ShadeOfDawn** · April 11th, 2006, 07:38 PM

oh i dont plan on attending Ryerson, i just want to get in because its exclusive. I want to go to Western for Astronomy and Astrophysics (and i got in). In that respect i say im a university guy. I plan to continue Photography outside of class (and even inside class in UWO), but it wont be a major focus area inside class for me. Later i might find that i want to go back and do some graphic design or film or photography or even 3D rendering, but initially i want to start in something relatively safe like Science heh. Plus im extremely interested in Astronomy. Ialready got into UWO btw! Thats why i 'look down' on colleges. I know that for fine arts college is completely the way to go.