Sunday Feature by Justin Dufrene
These are various photos taken around my small city of Lake Charles in southwest Louisiana, with exception of one from my recent trip to New York City. The majority of my photos are sunset and landscape shots. I didn’t get into taking photos until I started an Instagram. I’m sure there are plenty that can relate to that. Sometimes it seems like I’ve taken pictures of just about everything around my area, so I look forward to getting out to new places. I really enjoyed taking pics when I went to NYC and wish I had more opportunities to photograph in cities.
Bio
Born and raised in Louisiana. I love to travel, although I’m not able to do as much as I would like. I’m in the casino business, which is 24/7 365 so that can make it difficult sometimes. I’m new to photography and I didn’t start taking photos until I stumbled across Instagram. I’m glad that I did because as I have gotten older I had really forgotten how much I like getting out into nature, or just appreciating the scenery around me. Typically I get bored of things after awhile and I find something else to move on to. So it should be interesting to see how long snapping pics survives…
What are your thoughts about mobile photography?
I think its amazing how far these camera’s have come in such a short time. We are able to capture so many things now that we would’ve missed just a short time ago.
Explain your photo and editing style
I suppose I don’t really have a certain style, but I do attempt to try and catch things from vantage points other than eye level. A lot of times I find myself taking shots from low angles. When it comes to editing, you could say I take a ‘less is more’ approach. I don’t do much to it other than slight adjustments to things like saturation, contrast, ambiance, etc. I rarely add other images into the photo. I just try to keep it simple. I also like reading through various quotes, so usually I will use one to attach to the photo.
What are your favorite apps?
My most used editing app is Snapseed, or the stock editing features on my HTC One. I also like TouchRetouch. It’s a great tool that allows you to remove unwanted images from your photo (which can be tricky sometimes). If I ever add anything into the photo, I use PicSay Pro. I rarely use the Instagram filters. Nothing personal, IG.
Editing process
This was taken with my HTC One. This photo is actually just someone’s front yard I passed by on a foggy morning. I have another angle of it posted where it appears to be a small gravel road headed to the middle of nowhere, which is really their driveway headed to their house (shh dont tell them, I didnt ask). I mentioned earlier that I rarely add anything into the photos. However on this photo, I did add my wife in after the fact. I cut her image from another photo using PicSay Pro, then added it. I then cut a piece of fog from the top of the photo to layer over her. Using my HTC One’s editing features, I changed it to black and white then added in a slight vignette. This is one of the few photos that didn’t go through Snapseed.