Differences in brightness, hue, and saturation alter the emotions we perceive from an image. For example, take the two different shades of blue, one dark and one light, the darker shade of blue generally evokes the emotion of sadness or calmness. In contrast, the lighter shade of blue makes the emotion more happy or upbeat. For example, in my fourth picture I made sure to not only get the sand hills surrounding Toadstool, but also the storm front that was coming in over the horizon. I felt that in contrast to the light sand color of the hills, the shades of blue in the sky would peak interest. I noticed the change in the shade of blues from left side of my view to the right where the storms had originated. That change was something I wanted to capture, so I focused on to that portion of the landscape to document it. Also, in my eighth photo I altered the shot so that the rock formations framed the grass and brush in the foreground and opened up the background into the sky with one or two clouds spotted amongst the bright blue color. I then tried to mess with the saturation of the photo to enhance the greens, browns, and blues. In these photos I tried to bring about a cheerful and serene feeling to the audience. I did this by brightening the colors in some photos while in others making them seem more simple and basic. For the majority of the photos, I wanted each individual color to stand out. I felt it would bring about the feelings of awe and admiration for the landscape that I experienced while taking each image. The colors of each image, enhanced or natural, adds to the overall pathos to my essay. I intentionally avoided implementing dark color into my essay. I wanted my audience to experience an uplifted feeling. While I was on this trip observing each individual scene or landscape, I never felt any sadness or disgust with my surroundings. Instead, I felt inspired and in awe of how my surroundings became as intricate and detailed in their own way. The sharp contrast between city scenes and expansive non-materialistic landscape makes you think what it would have been like without all the skyscrapers, streets, and cars.
In order to shape, or direct, the audience’s view of my pictures I had to frame or crop out portions of my photos. And I kept in mind the aspects I wanted to appear in my photos to be noticed. I decided to keep my pictures from being too crowded with elements. For portions that distracted focus or were too busy, I cropped them out to focus on the portions that I felt were important. I gave each photo a focus and framed and cropped them to make those portions. In some cases, the different colors and shading influenced the visual hierarchy of the photo, more so than my cropping. In photo number five the color and placement of the brush and vegetation outline the ravine leading down from the top of the rocks. The shades of green and brown highlight this ravine drawing and causing it to be the first thing that grabs your eye. In the same manner there is less concentration of larger rocks towards the lower portion of the image, so as the focus travels towards the lower portion of the image there is less concentration of rocks and the scene is a little more simplistic. As I said earlier, for some of my pictures I made the colors more basic and slightly faded out to cause the scene to be more simplistic and basic than some of the others. My seventh photo shows little contrast in color. The trees have a less bright green and the valley past the bluffs in the foreground are almost blended in with the sky on the horizon. However, the road wrapping around the curves stands out in contrast with the brown.
1. A larger, more expansive view of the smaller toadstools at Toadstool Geological Park.
2. The wisps and curves of a cloud hanging above Toadstool Geological Park before a storm rolled through. 
3. Different colors of the rocks at the base of one of the dunes at Toadstool Geological Park.
4. Storm rolling over the dunes at Toadstool Geological Park.
5. Small ravine branching off a river bed in Toadstool Geological Park. 
6. Rock structure at the top of a bluff at Fort Robinson State Park.
7. Road wrapping around the curves of a bluff in Fort Robinson State Park leading to the valley bellow.
8. Rock formations outlining the curve of the large river bed in Toadstool Geological Park.
9. Large valley in on the edge of Fort Robinson in Fort Robinson, Nebraska.
10. Creek branching through Agate State National Park in western Nebraska.
In this photo essay I tried to form a sense of serenity and peacefulness. I took different portions of my trip this summer to four different parks in western Nebraska and put them into this photo essay. Each landscape, and the trip itself, reminded me of the simple beauty of nature and how some of the simplest things are in fact very complicated and intricate in their own way. Each rock and element work together to build the bluffs in Fort Robinson and Chadron State Parks. Each toadstool in Toadstool Geological Park was shaped by a shallow river that passed through the area. This river exposed fossils and the different levels of rock on the edges of the river bed. Through this photo essay I wanted to expose the natural beauty and impressive result of weathering, and just pure nature. Also the simplicity of landscape that still manages to awe and inspire people is viewed in my pictures. I tried to form a sense of pathos by trying to allow my audience and opportunity to relate to my pictures and get a deeper sense of meaning out of each tiny piece of the natural landscape located right here in Nebraska.
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