Cole Handerhan Photography Portfolio

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...

    Here is a look at several shots I took this week for class. I tried to highlight a few of my passions and hobbies: nature, fly fishing, and my dog. I think it will be interesting to use my dog as a consistent subject throughout the course and apply different techniques and tactics to portraits of her each week. It will challenge me to be creative and produce new, unique images from the same subject. The pictures of my dog were all taken around my home and edited with increased definition and contrast to really make her fur and patterning stand out. I also included one nature scene this week; I hope to take more photos out on the stream in the future. I am especially interested in playing with slow shutter speeds and moving water as well as the post production process that follows. More to come!