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College, to be honest, was a bit of rollercoaster. That is, if you took out loans to specifically pay to ride the rollercoaster, and if you had taken six years to go through its tumultuous loops and spirals as opposed to your friends who did it in four, but it’s okay, it’s not a race. College, for the sake of another corny metaphor, is just a really expensive academic marathon.
That’s not to say that the experience wasn’t worth it. For the price of admission, I had met a lot of amazing, talented, and inspiring friends during my time at San Francisco State University. As such, when the moment came that, they too were close to stepping off the proverbial coaster of debt, I was more than happy to take their graduation photos the instant they had asked.
However, since everyone had differing schedules, it was sensible to line the shoot up in one conjoined weekend, but that also meant that time had to be divided amongst each of my friends. I chose to be mindful of how many locations we could use and how much time I spent with each person as the others waited. One of the challenges that came with taking their photos in the same location was coming up with ways to make their own photos unique, or at least, echoing a sense of their individual personality. Fortunately, everyone made the space their own and I made sure that my composition and framing would capture this essence. Whether if it was the drama of their poses from traditional Filipino folk dances, or even the candidness in their laughter, I wanted to place a distinctive marker on their personality, so that, even if they may be in the same location, their photos are still true to themselves.
It was nice to reunite with my college friends, and I’m so excited for the different directions their lives have taken them and where they will continue to go. (It would be nicer if we could pay off this debt, but such as it is.)