Photography Challenge

Well, it's finally that time! My advanced photography class has started. AH! So super excited about it. 

Well, for the first weeks assignment we were given a list of 20 'subjects' for a photo, and we were to choose 10 and photograph them.

I texted one of my best friends, and we set up a date for a photo-shoot... And of course I had a theme in mind! I wanted to go for kind of a... 50's girl, waiting for her man to return from war. And I didn't exactly get that, but I'm really happy with what I did get :)
Anyways, here are the photos I'm submitting. I hope you enjoy them :)

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While we were walking through town, I fell in love with this location. I kind of have a thing for clock towers, I just love them (I'm not entirely sure why...), and we had our own mini-Big Ben here!
I took artistic liberties while editing, and I love what I came out with!

"Time"
Canon 10D, 18-55mm
1/50s -- f/3.5 -- ISO 400

This was the basis of my whole inspiration: a letter from a love in the war.

I don't know what I would do if the man I loved had to go and fight... I'm scared enough having my brother in the Marines (and SO proud... Semper Fi!).

"Handwriting"
Canon 10D, 50mm
1/40s -- f/1.8 -- ISO 400

I loved the combo of her nails, pants, clutch, and boot. Some girls can't pull off that many colors, but this girl can. I tell you, she could wear anything and it would work!

Also, the letter!!

"Bold Colors"
Canon 10D, 50mm
1/100s -- f/3.5 -- ISO 100

This photo holds so many meanings to me... When I took it, I wasn't sure whether I was going to use it for a faceless portrait, or of something in the distance. But I knew I was going to love it.

I'm not going to go into a whole rant about what this means to me, but I'll just say... I love my Church, and I love this Temple. For as long as I can remember, this has been one of my favorite buildings in the world. This is where I will get married (whenever that may be). This is where I will be sealed to the man I love for time and all eternity. So I told my friend to stand by the reflection pond, and look up at the Temple. I wanted to show a longing, and hope. She's holding the letter behind her back (it's kind of hard to see), and she's looking at where she will be someday with the man who wrote it.

"From a Distance"
Canon 10D, 18-55mm
1/60s -- f/4.5 -- ISO 100

Okay, okay, before you go all gung-ho and grab your pitchforks to tell me that this isn't a photo of luxury, let me explain... To me, this photo shows luxury for two main reasons.

1) The location. I love lamp posts, and they just seem so old-fashioned and classy to me. The building was gorgeous, and the landscaping beautiful. In movies, it's the type of building you see high-class people living in (in the Victorian Era/ish).

2) The edit. To me, it's very clean, very chic, very elegant, and very classic.

"Luxury"
Canon 10D, 50mm
1/125s -- f/2.2 -- ISO 200

As I said at the top, I was going for kind of an old-fashioned feel. While not all of them came out entirely like that, I had a vision in my head when I snapped this photo... and this is what it was. Perhaps not exactly, but pretty darn close! Once I had the black and white coloring I wanted, I added a texture on several different blending modes, varied the opacity, played with layer masks, etc... Until I got this. And I love it!

"Faceless Portrait"
Canon 10D, 50mm
1/40s -- f/1.8 -- ISO 400

This photo makes my jaw drop. Not to toot my own horn or anything... I just wonder how I was blessed with such gorgeous friends! Everything about her is so classic, elegant, and beautiful. She's one of the sweetest, most amazing girls I know, inside and out. And I think that's part of why I love this photo... you're not just seeing her outer beauty, but you can see her inner beauty shining out.

"Smile"
Canon 10D, 50mm
1/40s -- f/1.8 -- ISO 400

This part of the shoot was actually very personal to me... I made the letter for our shoot myself, but I wasn't sure what to do for the envelope. So, I decided I would just grab an envelope from one of my cards/letters and use that.
This is actually the envelope to a birthday card (which is still inside) my Daddy sent to me from Japan in 2006. He was travelling on business and was unable to make it home for my birthday. He sent us all postcards from there, but this was so special to me, and still is.

"A Memory"
Canon 10D, 50mm
1/60s -- f/1.8 -- ISO 200

This photo was so tricky to get. I knew that I wanted to get a silhouette, and I tried to all day long. But, it was so overcast that there wasn't enough backlighting to get one. I had officially given up, when I turned around and saw the perfect location. We were standing under the roof of an entry-way to a building, and the lights from the city were enough to allow me to take this. This was maybe 5 minutes before the sun went down completely, it was so dark. I'm seriously surprised at how perfect the lighting is!

"Shadows"
Canon 10D, 50mm
1/60s -- f/1.8 -- ISO 200

And finally... This might be one of my favorites, but it's hard for me to pick. To me, this one just screams old-fashioned beauty, don't you think?? She looks like a classic movie star, like Audrey Hepburn (not that she looks like Audrey, she's just my reference). The black and white was the perfect fit for this photo, and I love it! Plus, she got the exact expression I wanted her to have... A mixture of sadness, love, hope, and longing. It kind of breaks my heart, honestly, the expression + looking out the window + letter from a sweetheart in the military... Agh. (Yes, I'm a serious hopeless romantic).

"Glass"
Canon 10D, 50mm
1/60s -- f/2 -- ISO 200

Thank you so much for being my model Jenesse, you're beautiful and perfectly wonderful!