There isn’t a lot to do around Principia College. We live along the Mississippi River along the bluffs, so you have to drive a significant amount of miles before you get to the nearest Target, let alone anywhere else. But about fifteen minutes to the right of the college is a small town called Grafton. It’s cute and quaint and they have about three different ice cream stores you can choose from.
The weather in the Midwest is also quite an interesting experience. For instance, this weekend the weather was in the 70’s but today it snowed and tomorrow is supposed to be around freezing weather. But come Friday, we’re supposed to be back to the warmth again. So you really never know where you’re going to be and have to keep both your summer and winter wardrobe ready at all times.
The 11th of February was one of the nicer days where, after weeks of colder weather – it was finally in the 50’s and getting warmer throughout the day. We had plans to go out and do something, but last minute decided against going up to the city. And so now there were five girls all done up with nowhere to go. So with the nice weather, we decided to drive down to Grafton and I could clock in some more pictures for my portfolio.
Amanda is my roommate, and she’s a really sweet girl. She, Anna and I all were on the same freshmen hall our freshmen fall, so we all have known each other since the beginning. Cassie is also the sweetest, and lives around the corner from Amanda and I, so we grabbed her on our way out. And Sally is Anna’s friend from camp that was up to get some photos taken.
We started down by the river and it was quite a blue day. The water was a murky dark blue and the sky was multiple other shades of blue to go with it. There were seagulls flying all over, and so they made an interesting backdrop as the girls all perched along the rocks. So when it got to editing these pictures, I decided to tint the photos a bit bluer than they originally were. I liked the idea of this mid-weather day between the cold and the warm where everything was a different shade of blue or gray except for us. I really wanted to focus on faces as well, so I made sure to sharpen the faces and get the best expressions that were personal to each girl’s personality.
And since we were in Grafton, of course we had to stop for ice cream. The shop we stopped at – the only one out of three that was open – had the cute little neon sign out front with the bright lights and big ice cream cone. These lights, mixed with the overcast prime lighting, really brought out the contrasting colors and I accentuated those as best I could. These are my favorite photos that turned out. I really enjoyed how the pinkish glow reflected off the girls and their ice cream.
On our way out we found a fun wall that we stopped to get some headshots at, because fun walls should never be passed up. It was fun to subdue the colors in the background, which were still very present in the picture, but focus on the girls more. These pictures were more fun than anything else because we were all hopped up on a sugar high, but regardless they turned out pretty nicely.