Cole Handerhan Photography Portfolio

  Mayfly Brown Trout Spey Casting For this week I tried to use filters to create a new yet still realistic image. I tried to work with the natural depth of field in the first two shots and use layers, masks, and filters to really make the subject pop out and get that "crispy" photo look. Lots of masking, feathering, and Gaussian blurs.  The last image I had a little more 'fun' with. I added a solar flare and adjusted the colors to the image. I also made my subject, Greg, pop out of the background a bit with some masking. If I was more skilled I would like to try and add a subtle blur the image, leaving only the water droplets in the foreground perfectly in focus. I tried several different ways to make my vision in my head come to life... unsuccessfully. It's definitely something I'm going to look into in the future and challenge myself to accomplish. 

Ready to Fish Millipede  Millie     This week my shots are more or less random. I took a closeup of my fly (think: lure) while walking into my fishing spot this week. Even though it was a spur-of-the-moment things I really liked how the shot turned out. I did a little editing to try and improve the shallow depth of field to make the fly and fishing rod stand out. Second, I found a millipede while walking and taking pictures in the woods. This little guy was on a mission, so I found it really hard to get a good shot. There is still quite a bit of motion blur in the legs, even after I tried to clean it up in photoshop. I think the light had a lot to do with it; it was getting dark, and I wasn't able to use a high enough shutter speed to freeze the action.  Last, of course, is a picture of Millie. We were at my parent's house, and as I was snacking she decided she wanted in on the action. I took the opportunity to work on my animal 'posing.' She was much more cooperativ...

Millie the German Shepard Before After For this week I decided to share a few of the pictures I touched up for this week's assignment that I think turned out nicely. First, it wouldn't be 'on brand' if I didn't include at least one picture of my dog every week; I really tried to 'clean up' her scraggly/wispy hair around her face and make her look really symmetrical in this image. I also played with the definition and contrast to make that fur pop out. If I had to go back and retouch this image again I would probably try and remove the buckle of her collar at the bottom of the frame. Now that I've noticed it, I can't unsee it!  The last two images are a before/after picture I took of a cicada and its nymphal shuck. For the second picture, I wanted to remove the shuck entirely. I thought this would be easy because of the shallow depth of field in the image, but things got a little tricky for me where the legs touched the leaf. Overall I think it turned...

(incorrectly exposed) Bird Feeder Millie (w/ motion blur)     I chose to post two outtakes from this week's HDR exercise that I found myself particularly frustrated with. Neither of these shots turned out like I wanted them to - even after a long time in post trying to save what was almost certainly user error during the shoot. The first image is of a bird feeder in my backyard. I was unable to save the crushing highlights that completely blew out the sky. This threw the whole image out of whack. I realize that sometimes it's okay to let the brightest points of the image stay blown out, but because of the way this shot was composted I simply couldn't leave it that way. The result is an oddly surrealist image that doesn't look anything like what I intended when I was framing up the shot.      The second picture is a bracketed exposure shot of my dog, Millie. She was laying in the yard watching me snap pictures, so I decided to snap one of her. However, the bracke...

Footprints in Snow Snow Day Light at the End of the Tunnel     I really tried to challenge myself with the edits for this week. I took some inspiration from our study of Ansel Adams and tried to convert landscape shots into BW imagery. You don't realize how much work goes into a Black and White image until you edit one yourself- it's way more work than I thought! I especially struggled with the two snow images; getting a proper exposure with adequate contrast was hard because of the overwhelming highlights in the snow.  I chose the third image because I thought its composition lent itself to BW conversion. The light through the tunnel contrasts well with the water in the foreground. I tried to also include lots of 'neutral' tones in the rocks to help the dynamic range of the image avoid just be two extremes of light and dark. 

Wilma Sun Bath Brown Trout Release For this week I decide the highlight the other fur baby in my life: my cat Wilma. She's not the easiest subject to photograph, but she managed to stay still long enough for me to snap a few portraits. In the first image I tried to keep the lighting and color very minimal, almost flat. I was really trying to play wit the definition and sharpness to get her fur to stand out. The second image turned out much better, helped by the backlight from the window catching all those stray hairs and making them stand out.  The third picture is an outtake from a recent fishing trip - you can see that the dorsal fin of the fish is in focus, but the tail and hand came out blurry. I tried to fix this in post-production - without much luck.  I think it turned out okay to post on a platform like Instagram, where the image stays fairly small and the lack of detail/sharpness can go unnoticed. However, this won't be a picture I plan on printing in poster size anyt...