As a junior, I've made a lot of friends that will be graduating this year. And because of that, I decided to stay for the graduation ceremony a week after finals were over. Finals ended for me on Tuesday, and that left me with Wednesday through Saturday to figure out how to pack up my entire room, finish some internship paperwork, and meet with those who I needed to before the year was over. 

​

And to top it all off, I was suffering from a spider bit on the back of my neck the size of a golf ball giving me a constant headache and a fever. So when my fellow beach volleyball player and friend Noelle asked if I was willing to do a photo shoot for her after she had styled our other beach volleyball teammate and friend Makena, I was slightly hesitant. But I hadn't been out of my room since that morning, and I needed a break from packing so I agreed. Noelle is a pro beauty guru, but she and Makena are really great at doing things completely off track. So when I walked into Noelle's room to find Makena styled with feature eyebrows, I knew I was in for quite the experience. 

​

We decided on Radford, one of our art studios on campus, because it has great natural light and character-filled white walls. Makena's hair is very bright from the sun considering she's a Hawaii native and has spent the past semester along with us out on the beaches for volleyball. So with the white shirt, white background, and bright blonde hair it wasn't hard to get an aesthetic early on. 

​

A lot of the photography I've been focusing on lately has been mainly news oriented through my photojournalism class, and a lot of that has been landscape and full of multiple subjects. So with Makena, I decided to go straight for the portrait of shoulders up - most of the time just her face - and didn't worry about odd cropping. What I've learned about artsier photo shoots, is that anything can be considered correct as long as you stick to it. There isn't a direct composition you need to attain because just getting a picture of off-set lips can have a certain influence on a series. So I let myself relax more behind the lens, fever and all. 

​

Because Noelle was the stylist and she was looking over my shoulder, I ended up shooting not through the viewfinder, but on the screen. I have seen countless other photographers do this from time to time, and I have always struggled myself with looking through a viewfinder and having that bump against my glasses. Before I went on my abroad, I took many of my photos on the screen, but during the abroad I felt I could get quicker and better composed photos using the viewfinder. That being said, going back and using the screen, as well as an automatic focus, was a really nice touch because it highlighted certain characteristics of Makena that I don't know if I would have been able to focus on them myself. 

​

In all, the photos turned out very crisp and clear. I bumped up the exposure, blinding out the background so Makena was almost in a sort of white limbo. I don't usually mess with any sort of clarity, but I found that bumping it up to around 20+ touched her freckles and made her eyebrows, the stars of the shoot, more noticeable. I stayed far away from contrast and used highlight and the white and black balance feature to bring out the aspects of her face I thought brought the photo together the most. We worked with a lot of different faces and emotions, so it was nice to see them all come together at the end. I'm overall quite pleased with the shoot, as were Noelle and Makena. I look forward to seeing what crazy ideas they have planned next.