Sharpened pencils taped to my fingers to form deadly claws which would probably just fall off if I actually used them…
Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/526, F4.7, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2006-01-26T17:25:59-05, 2006-01-26_17h25m59
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A deciduous tree in the winter at night in the moonlight.
Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/1, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO200, 2005-12-16T02:24:47-05, 2005-12-16_02h24m47
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A sunrise from December of 2005. I had to get up early that day to take my ACT college entrance exam which I got a composite score of 28/36 on. In two weeks I will finally finish my A.A. degree.
Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/137, F2.8, 5.8mm, ISO64, 2005-12-10T07:10:24-05, 2005-12-10_07h10m24
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2009-12-20 Update: I now believe Jesus Christ is my personal savior, but what I’ve written below still has merit.
… or I’ll cross you right back! Not really, but that’s the best title I can think of for this photo. It’s a church at sunrise, with the ever-wonderful cross towering above.
I edited this in Adobe Camera Raw 4.0 exclusively. Here are the settings I used:
I thought about going for cool, bluish tones in the sky, but the golden yellows work better. As you can see, I added contrast and blackness too, to make sure the cross and building really is a silhouette.
I don’t subscribe to Christianity myself, but I see it as a largely good force in this world. People are (ideally) more generous, forgiving, and loving because of the Bible. 80% of people are like that. The other 20% use religion as an oppressive weapon. If they’re high up in the church, they stomp on other people and shun their non church-going friends. They don’t help those in need at all, yet continue asking for donations to line their pockets.
Every field has people like this. Christianity is supposed to be better, because it aspires to higher, Jesus-like perfection, but it isn’t because not everyone will reach Jesus-like levels. In theory, it could happen in this life, but in reality it won’t. It can only happen in an afterlife of some sort, where the bad ones are relegated to Hell or eternal death.
I don’t like Christianity when it brings people down. This isn’t entirely the religion’s fault; these people aren’t willing to go far on their own. But they leave important parts of their life up to the “decision” of God rather than taking …
A pair of shoes, dangling from a power line. This line sweeps down across the road rather than being level. I thought the shoes made a nice silhouette, though I wasn’t considering that at the time. The blue sky is quite visible in the original. In Adobe Camera Raw, I pushed the contrast slider all the way to the right, which made the image look like this. I didn’t have to white out the background at all, since it was the brightest part.
Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1000, F4.5, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-07-10T19:31:07-04, 20080710-233107rxt
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Raindrops falling off my hand, with the high-contrast black and white effect I love. It’s my hand; I held it up so the rain water would run off it, managing the camera with the other hand (as I’m so good at). Since the sun was behind my, it made my hand a black silhouette. These droplets represent life, because hands and the human touch is the essence of life.
I added a touch of contrast, and removed the little bit of color that was there. This one was great out of camera. 1600 ISO speed, but there isn’t much noise for some reason. (Maybe because it was cool out?).
Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/3200, F3.5, 18mm, ISO1600, 2007-08-31T15:47:26-04, 2007-08-31_19h47m26
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The only remaining twig, fighting the last battle against the incoming storm clouds. All the other ones have been washed away, or struck by lightning or something. I ripped this plant life off a bush of some sort in our yard (it’s a jungle out there), because it has a nice shape and pattern of leaves. It fit the bright space in the sky well, so I held it up with one hand while snapping the shot with the other.
It was a bit bluish out; I found the image worked better in black and white. I added a lot of contrast to push the branch to black and the bright parts of the sky to near white, then darkened the dark clouds to add punch. It was late, so I under-exposed to gain a fast enough shutter speed, and because I knew I wouldn’t need shadow detail anyway. That’s why the original image is dark.
Buy a 4*6 copy for $0.95 (USA only). Lustre finish. After adding, go to your shopping cart.
Canon PowerShot A620, 1/100, F2.8, 7.3mm, ISO100, 2007-05-13T19:56:32-04, 2007-05-13_23h56m32
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.
A palm tree at dusk. Shot this while walking around the campus on break from my class in precalculus algebra. The patterns of darkness between the clouds caught my eye, so I walked far enough away so the palm tree was in the middle of the bright patch.
I went for cooler tones with this one, and added contrast without having the dark clouds go all the way black. Nothing fancy here.
Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/2000, F4.5, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-06-04T19:04:19-04, 20080604-230419rxt
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A stately orange sunset in my yard is the backdrop for silhouetted leaves of an American sycamore tree. Some of the leaves have been chewed by bugs; as you can see on the left. This only adds to the beauty, of course. 
There are even some raindrops on the leaves, left over from the storms earlier that day. I didn’t notice those till way after the shoot. This is the best of the Leafy Sunset series, trailing fifteen months after the fifth entry.
Initially, I underexposed to keep the sunset’s highlights from being clipped in the red channel, knowing that the leaves would be pure black anyway. I finished this up in editing, by bringing up the colors without any clipping, and I made a shift from red to burnt orange, which I find more appealing. The edited colors also print more faithfully.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/40, F3.5, 18mm, ISO200, 2007-08-31T19:52:43-04, 2007-08-31_23h52m43
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.
More of the Leafy Sunset series.
An orange and yellow sunset, framed by the silhouettes of evergreen leaves. This is from my back yard; the trees and power lines represent the fast pace of life in the modern neighborhood. 
I brightened up parts, added color, and made the gray leaves black.
Fujifilm FinePix A360, 1/667, F4.7, 17.4mm, ISO64, 2006-02-18T18:02:56-04, 2006-02-18_18h02m56
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.
More of the Leafy Sunset series.
