Hi! I’m Walter. For the past three months I’ve been the Advancement Intern here at The Conservation Foundation. You might have seen me at various events during the summer. My primary role was to take pictures of events. As my time wraps up at TCF, I’m proud to share with you some of my favorite photos I took throughout the summer. I’ll share with you a little about the editing process and actually show you the before and after of editing my photos. With that said, I hope you enjoy and take a moment to appreciate a little bit of my work.
Green Guardians at McDonald Farm - June 1st
Green Guardians is a program that teaches high schoolers about green careers, growing food, and skills to care for the environment. This program is done in collaboration with Heart Haven OutReach (H2O). I selected this photo to share with you because I feel it captures a great moment and shows genuine human emotion which is something photographers always try to capture. As you can see from my photo edits, I changed the photo somewhat to focus more on the subject doing the hosing and cropping out the out of focus person in the process. Additionally, I adjusted the vibrance of the photo to make it look brighter and greener, rather than dull and dark. This photo was definitely one of my favorites from this summer.
Dickson-Murst Garden Planting Day - June 4th
This photo was from Garden Planting Day at Dickson-Murst Farm where volunteers helped to plant a new garden for The Conservation Foundation. Normally a lot of photographers try to avoid taking non–candid photos so they can show more “in the moment” scenes, however this group of volunteers from Whole Foods showed great enthusiasm to having their photo taken and I thought it was a great moment to include in this blog. To edit this photo I decided to make it darker, so it doesn’t look overly bright, especially with the background reflecting so much light. I also darkened the vibrance a little, so the whites of their shirts look less glaring. Additionally, I cropped out a lot of the space on the left, so the photo focus is completely on the trio.
Music on the Farm - June 14th
This photo was from McDonald Farm’s June Music on the Farm Event which hosted the Bree Gordon Band. Music on the Farm is a family friendly event that allows families to come and enjoy the nature here at McDonald Farm while also enjoying some food trucks and the option to make donations to help our organization continue to help make a difference in conservation. This photo focuses on local painter Maria Ananieva who I thought was a great subject for a photo. In some ways it is ironic for an artist to take a photo of another artist but seeing someone else at work in a similar but different medium made it the perfect photo for this blog. To make the photo appear livelier, I brightened the colors which before appeared too lifeless, not at all capturing the mood of the event. I also cropped the photo to make it focus more on Maria, while keeping the green background filled with people.
Dickson-Murst Farm Camp Animal Day - June 24th
This photo was taken at the Dickson-Murst Farm Camp in June. The farm camp is an educational summer camp designed to teach late elementary students about a variety of subjects. These subjects include where food comes from, how farmers shape the land, history of life on the farm, and the future of farming. This photo comes from animal day where the kids saw a variety of animals such as chickens, sheep, and a horse. Afterwards, they took a break to play outdoors. This photo captures a moment of one of the camp counselors making chalk drawings with some of the campers. I thought this was a great moment that shows the importance of community and play. I think it also invokes a sense of nostalgia back to a time when we adults used to make chalk drawings with our friends on the playground. To edit this photo, I decided to make it less bright as I found the brightness of the original image to be overbearing. As such, I toned down the whites and highlights of the image but upped the vibrance to make it look more colorful. I also cropped it slightly to use leading lines to help bring attention to the three subjects of the photo.
Mars Corporate Volunteer Day - June 25th
This photo was of a member of a Mars Corporate volunteer group that came to McDonald farm. The reason I chose this photo was because it is a pretty good example of telling a story without words being needed. Those are the kinds of photographs that we photographers try to chase after. As you can see the man is clearly wearing a Mars shirt which tells us who he is associated with or something he supports or is a part of. And although the veggies are blurred because the focus of the image is on him, we can clearly see he is working or doing something outside. His face is expressive as someone just told him something he found amusing. Lastly, the image almost has its own frame with the hoses hanging off the ceiling, almost creating a border to the image. I contemplated using a different photo for the blog but ultimately chose this one because he was one of my favorite subjects due to his expressiveness. To edit this one, I made it brighter and more vibrant while cropping it to form the frame like illusion that the hoses create and to focus more on him.
Chervon Corporate Volunteer Day - July 8th
This photo was taken at the Chervon Corporate volunteer event. The reason I chose this photo was because the subject consistently had a very positive attitude despite the sweltering heat and physical labor of having to pull a wheelbarrow of mulch to and from the spot where it was to be deposited. I wasn’t even doing a physical job and found myself roasting in the ninety-degree weather so to see someone managing to maintain a positive and likeable personality despite that was both inspiring and great to see. I remember this subject taking the time to talk with me for a little bit about my internship. There were a few contenders for the photo to represent this event, but I felt this one represents the value of hard work and a strong spirit during tough conditions. I cropped the original photo to focus more on the subject as he makes his way back to the mulch pile. I also made the photo a bit darker to make it more realistic looking as the light makes the original too bright in my opinion.
Tall Tails Early Elementary Summer Camp - July 10th
This photo comes from The Conservation Foundation’s Nature on the Farm Camp, this one in particular feature some of the early elementary campers in a group photo. Summer camp at McDonald Farm is designed to be educational, fun, and engage youth in outdoor activities where they can enjoy the fresh air and greenery of the farm. Here we have a photo of some happy campers after completing an activity. Although this photo is not candid, I can’t help but think it is a great representation of the friends we make as children. We were all kids once, and I think for many of us we attended similar camps of one type or another. That is why I chose this photo because I think it’s very important to ensure the next generation are able to enjoy the outdoors and have fun like we once did. As for editing, I cropped the image to make it focus on the group of campers and exclude other subjects who were not fully in frame. Additionally, I made the colors more saturated to make the image more vivid.
Finders Keeper’s Early Elementary Summer Camp - July 22nd
This photo also comes from one of The Conservation Foundation’s early elementary summer camps. I chose this photo because I thought it was a great moment between a camper and one of the counselors taking a look at some of the vegetables growing in the children’s garden at McDonald Farm. I made the colors a little brighter in the edited version as well as attempted to minimize the brightness to make it look better. I also cropped the photo to make the focus solely on the moment between the camp counselor and the child.
Conservation@Work Gardens - July 22nd
This image is from the Conservation@Work Gardens here on McDonald Farm. While this photo wasn’t taken at an event, it features the garden right outside of the Main Office building here at the farm. The edits I made to this were simple as I mostly just made it look more vibrant and colorful. I chose this image as an example of mobile phone edits. Everyone can take photos and edit them to look better as fancy equipment is not needed for that.
“Real” Reel Recording - August 19th
You might know Lea from her educational video series across our social media platforms here at the foundation. Have you ever wondered how she films her videos? I did. I was fortunate enough for her to show me her process while I did a photoshoot during the creation of her latest reel on three Eastern US trees that handle partial shade. I chose this photo taken during filming to show you a moment of her work. As you can see from my photos, I edited the original image to look brighter while making the light on her shirt appear more natural. The original image appears too dark, and I personally find the lighting on her shirt distracting due to the dark background of the trees. Additionally, a very important part of color correcting is paying attention to the way a person’s complexion appears. In this instance, the original image has her skin too dark, where in the edited photo her skin appears livelier and brighter, capturing better her passionate spirit when it comes to educating and the sharing of environmental knowledge.
You can watch The Conservation Foundation’s short educational videos on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my photo blog and learn a little about my work and why I made the edits that I did. I hope that you found some enjoyment from this! It was a great pleasure to be able to work here at The Conservation Foundation, and I will sincerely miss the culture, natural environment, and all my coworkers. Until next time!
-Walter
Keep up with Walter’s photography by following him on Instagram @bulldozierphotography.