It was hard to decide which ones were my "best" two, but I believe that I did these pretty well. The first one is my coach, Mr. Beardsley, and one of EHS' most prestigious former runners, Louie Luchini. It was taken during our team's annual Mud Run during Cross Couuntry in the fall, which is what you see all over them and why they look messy. Despite the fact that there are only three layers on this one and two different filters, the simiplicity is what makes it good. The lines of the filters used on Beardsley and Louie are thin enough to show plenty of detail (mud, Adidas symbol, hair), yet they're dark and think enough to show contrast. Also, a cool color choice of blue gives the both of them a, well, "cool" effect based on their expressions. In addition, the green background does happen to be trees, even though it's not quite obvious, and even the simplicity of that makes for great landscape.
The second photo is of Drew Barkhouse, one of the top artists in our school. This one shows his personality quite well, especially if you know him. In the foreground are six spray paint cans, which spray paint has become one of his new favorite techniques for artwork. It's an interesting picture in that, Drew's expression gives an erie and intimidating effect, none of which are characteristics of him. Also, whatever single filter I used for this was awesome. It kept the shinyness of the cans, the respective colors, and it gave a huge shadow outline giving a hint of a background. And it's not all smooth-like either, there does seem to be some form of crosshatch that give another hint of detail on the cans and on Drew's face and hair.

Filter!

This is a picture of a section of the trophy case in the main lobby of the school in front of the office. I chose this part because it contains one of Ellsworth's most prestige track and field athletes ever, Robert Pendergist, and there is also an Ellsworth X-Country jersey in the photo as well. Off to both sides are objects that have to do with basketball, such as the trophy with the net at the base, the Tim Scott All-American plaque, the red plastic doll, and the purple trophy to the left. There is also a trophy-like figure of me in the center that obviously isn't in the actual case itself, Mrs. Chan thought it would be a nice tough though :). I attempted to use a variety of colors when filtering, while trying to keep appropriate colors for some objects such as the jersey, basketball trophy, and Tim Scott plaque. The filter that I used for "my" trophy does add a similar gleaming effect that you would see on a normal trophy. I also made sure to complete the photo by adding an effect to the glass shelf and the wooden wall behind all of the objects.
I think that the addition of Photoshop to our reservoir of digital art tools has been great, and it has certainly helped me in creating some good works of art. I'm learning a lot about the different techniques that we can use to make more sophisticated digital art pieces, which makes the class even more fun. Also, I think the usage of using our own photos as well as photos we find elsewhere has helped us to see what is considered a good photograph because of its compostition, line, color, value, etc.

Hershey Beagle!

Holaz! I normally don't take a whole lot of photos, so it took me forever to find one that was half decent at least. The dog in this picture is my beagle, Hershey, and it was taken this summer. I believe that it's a great photograph (or snapshot) because there is good composition, the brightness and colorfulness of the photo is pretty awesome, most of the picture is used up as positive space, a great deal of line is embedded all over it, and her position gives it an almost "senior photo" look.

As for compostition, there aren't a lot of indivdual elements in the picture; there's Hershey, the grass, the granite rock, and a pot on the upper left. However, all of those things (minus the pot) have a great amount of detail. There are hundreds of blades of grass in the background, which displays an ample amount of line, the rock has different neutral colors and values and its shape is interesting, and Hershey is just cute as can be in this picture! Her coat, eyes, stance, and expression are a huge part of what makes this a good photo. As I mentioned, 'twas a summer day, and the light was clearly shining since we can see a glare off of Hershey's fur and the bright green of the grass is quite vivid. Also, there really isn't much negative space because Hershey takes up most of the photo, and there are detailed objects in every part of the picture, too. And again, many senior photos these days are taken leaning against a tree or standing next to some object of nature, and since dogs don't really tend to smile in pictures (or at all), her look still shows what a pretty little lady she is.