Ashton
Black and white view up a steel staircase

Photography

Photography Selection

selections

A curated set of photographs exploring composition, light, and everyday spatial geometry.

Coursework from 2025: the photo series The Life of a Graphic Design Student, studies in challenging lighting, composition and studio photography, and a magazine cover.

Photography portfolio overview: a magazine cover and spreads on composition, lighting and student life
Morning Beginnings, 9:00 AM: in black and white, a student in headphones works on a laptop, the patterned sweater left in colour Ideas in Progress, 11:00 AM: a student works on a design at a computer in the print studio, past a screen-printing press with red handles
Design in Discussion, 1:00 PM: an instructor points at a page grid on a large screen From Screen to Print, 3:00 PM: an instructor opens a printer, its handles and guides picked out in blue

The Life of a Graphic Design Student

Shot between October 16 and November 4, 2025, this series follows the rhythm of a single day, from morning to afternoon. Each moment also stands for a stage of growth, from students learning and creating to instructors guiding and producing.

9:00 AM, Morning Beginnings. 11:00 AM, Ideas in Progress. 1:00 PM, Design in Discussion. 3:00 PM, From Screen to Print.

A small tree house with a red metal roof and a birdbath on a lawn at blue hour, the window lit warm under a cloudy indigo sky

Lighting

A blue-hour study of a small tree house and a birdbath in a residential area near Cambrian College, Sudbury, taken on September 23, 2025, at 7:21 p.m.

The aim was to keep the soft indigo of the sky while the lit window adds some warmth. A 0.6-second exposure at f/22 and ISO 50, on a tripod, kept detail in the sky, and two portable LED lights lifted the shadows on the trunk and the birdbath. In editing, colour balance brought back the gradient between warm and cool tones.

A red maple leaf among other red leaves, with one yellow leaf in the corner A row of white sheet ghosts on a lawn, leading toward a brick house with Halloween decorations on the steps

Composition

Two studies from October 23, 2025. In the first, selective focus and depth of field pick one red maple leaf out of a frame full of leaves, with no artificial background. In the second, a row of ghost decorations forms leading lines from the foreground toward the house, with a shallow depth of field.

A blue Riso-printed accordion zine about screen printing standing open on a white cloth, with steps, a timeline and the title Screen Printing

Studio

A product shot of my Riso-printed zine on screen printing, on a white cloth base under warm strobe light. Four lights were set up: a key light on the right, a fill on the left with a reflector at its base, one overhead and an angled highlight from the front right, balanced to the ivory tone of the paper.

Magazine cover in the style of National Geographic, titled Pictures of Ontario, over a winter view of snowy forest with industrial buildings in the distance
Portfolio spread titled Challenging Lighting, with the tree house photograph, camera settings and text Portfolio spread titled Composition, with the maple leaf and ghost photographs, camera settings and text

Editorial

A magazine cover in the style of National Geographic, “Pictures of Ontario”, made as a course exercise for AFP1135, a digital photography course, in April 2025.

Beside it, two spreads from the photography portfolio that holds the studies above: Challenging Lighting and Composition.

The tree house in flat daylight under a grey sky The tree house at dusk, the sky still light and the window starting to glow
The tree house as a dark silhouette against a pale sunset sky The tree house after sunset, the window and the birdbath lit by small lights under a dark blue sky
The college photo studio: softboxes on booms over a white sweep with the zine on it, a gold reflector, stools and a tripod

Process

The tree house was photographed over several evenings. These frames come from two of them, September 22 and 23, 2025, taken in the same window around sunset.

The last photo shows the studio set-up for the zine shoot.