This semester I’m taking a class on studio techniques and lighting taught by Kent Miller and Monday was our first time shooting in the studio. We each had to come up with a costume of sorts because we would be photographing our classmates as well as being photographed ourselves. I spent the entirety of the three weeks advance notice on this subject torturing myself on what I wanted to bring as my costume, what would represent me as a person. I could bring my longboard or my skateboard but I felt like I’m not so good at skating that I’d label myself as a skater. I also thought about bringing all my photo and video gear but I nixed that idea the quickest. I likened it to going to a culinary school and on the first day when the teacher asks you about yourself and you go, “well I like to cook.” Even though photojournalism is a huge part of who I am, I wanted to show a different aspect of me. An hour before class I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do until it just clicked. I’m a huge book nerd. I had my first Amazon account when I was 11 so that I could buy books and I have three bookcases in my bedroom spewing books all over. I stuffed as many as I could of those in my bag and headed off to class.

The last part of class is when we got to shoot and I saw my classmates pull out some really creative and cool ideas such as body paint, gas masks, and even a Stormtrooper. I started to low-key panic thinking I possibly missed the memo and I should have thought of an idea that was wearable, like the masks, so I tried to be one of the last to be photographed so that I could have time to set up. I ended up being paired up with this girl whose name I don’t yet know, but I was incredibly grateful because she had a really friendly smile and put me at ease. I was the model first so I dumped all my my books on the floor in the studio and stacked them as fast as I could and perched on that like a chair with my favorite Anne Bishop book in my hand then wondered the whole time if I had stacked the books to fast because they seemed super wobbly and I was really hoping I wouldn’t fall and make an idiot of myself. And Praise the Sun, I didn’t fall.

Now finally the photos. (Click images to enlarge).

We started by getting a full body shot, then medium, then a closeup. I shot each image at ISO 200 with and f-stop 18 and 1/160 shutter speed. For this particular assignment with my model I really thought that the close up was the best because the far shots distanced the model and made it harder to see the love and pride she has for Michigan.