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There are two parts that I enjoy the most in photography, and the first consists of an active sense of discovery. It's seeing the unexpected and capturing that or experimenting with new ideas, only for it to not work on occasion. However, when it does work, then it's as if you stepped in to El Dorado with a metaphorical nugget that others would have wished they had found themselves.
The other is also giving the space to collaborate with other people on camera. I always like to ask the subject what they have in mind for their pictures to get a sense of what they are seeing and I, then, consider how I can bring that idea to fruition. On top of that, I'm also flexible in proposing ideas that might enhance or change their initial concept into something they might enjoy.
In the case of the Fall Internship program for PACE at San Francisco University, we decided to have an extensive photoshoot that essentially embodied these two principles. Regarding the internship, it actually is a semester long Asian American studies class, conducted by the core members of the Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor, a student run organization, in which much of the dynamics of Pilipinx culture is taught over a course of 10 weeks. It was an enlightening and influential class, and I met incredible friends out of the whole experience. Towards the end of the semester, we all had the intention to put together a yearbook and I was tasked to take the photos for our group of over twenty "interns".
Not knowing of any locations that would look good for the shoot, I thought of the parking garage on campus in which the walls are mostly white, with a gritty edge to it, while sporting a decent amount of light. After meeting there, we began taking photos, and as you can see on the photos I liked the most below, much of the individual personalities came out in each of their portraits.
Seriously, everyone looked so cool. There a nice blend of high contrast lighting, which gave a nice emotional depth for each of the interns that went up one after the other. I was a little intimidated since everyone in class looked like they could have been a model, and here was dorky old me, behind the camera. Don't let any of them tell you differently. To me, it's true.
How.
How did they get so cool?