The largest criticisms I've been getting in the photography class I'm taking this semester have been: my subjects are not having enough fun and my photos are too "artsy-fartsy".

  

So this week on Thursday (February 26) I did a shoot where I would attempt to make fun photos that I still enjoyed the aesthetic of (aka "artsy-fartsy").

 

 I conceived the idea to throw paint on my subjects last week during class while looking at a photo one of my classmates took of two subjects with a geometric art piece being projected on them with a classroom projector. I loved the colors and became inspired to use color in my next shoot.

 

My friends Nicole Bianco and Brandon Cotter were willing subjects and very tolerant of my desire to have paint thrown all over them.

 

Ryan Wolf assisted me by helping set up and helping throw paint. Nicole and Brandon took turns throwing paint at each other. Nicole loved having to opportunity to get paint in Brandon's hair. Brandon was ridiculously aggressive. At first he kept failing to get paint on her face, and then got it all in her eyes. 

I guess it was good that the paint was non-toxic washable finger-paint.

Overall it was a lot of fun, and some really cool photos came out of the mix. 

I marked this as volume one because I hope to do more throwing of paint onto my friends.

Thanks for checking out the post, and I hope you enjoy the photos. Keep an eye out for more paint splatter photos in the future.

I've been taking a new photography class, Specialized Journalistic Photography, this semester that's really been pushing my limits a lot with my photography. While I haven't been terribly proud of all of the assignments I've worked on so far, this photoshoot I did on February 6, 2015 resulted in some pretty interesting photos. 

Avalon Tolbert (above) has been a large help so far with my photos, and has been a frequent model for my shoots in the past month. 

We went out to the Unified Training Center in Gainesville for the photos that have murals for the backdrop and the Thomas Center in Gainesville for the shots with natural backgrounds. 

I think the photos turned out well because we had a lot of fun while shooting them. My boyfriend Ryan (the other subject in these portraits) insisted on dressing up as Friar Tuck (a character he had been portraying the weekend earlier at the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire on the living chessboard).

This class has made me look at light a new way. I've had to learn how to not only use a flash, but be conscious of using available light, and bouncing both artificial and natural light, to get the look that I want with my photos.