Category: Story Telling

This is a photo that I took when my family and I went up to Aptos for the long weekend. More specifically, this was taken the night we went for a Sunset walk on the beach. This particular photo felt like an apt choice for the prompt because not only were we asked to capture a picture of a sunset, but also to do so creatively. I chose to have the actual setting sun (or at least the area where it had disappeared beneath the horizon) to be out of frame, implying it’s location only through the vivid streaks of yellow and orange. Typically, when I see photos of sunsets, they are centered on the sun itself. In this photo, I wanted to focus more on the effect the sunset has on the colors of the sky, and how they sort of dissipate the further you get from the sun, creating this lovely gradient of vibrancy. Similarly, in order to balance out the strength of the colors in the sunset, I kept the sandy beach a relatively desaturated purplish-gray. This provides both the top and the bottom of the photo with the visual weight needed to counter the other side.

I captured this photo at a basketball game at MVHS. This prompt was all about telling a story, which is why I chose to utilize a shallow depth of field. I really wanted to reflect the crowd fading into the background, and the focus being solely on the action at hand as the player approached the net to take the shot. At least for me, there has always been this moment when I’m playing sports where everything but the ball in front of me (I play soccer) fades away, and time seems to slow down. That is the emotion, and the story, I was attempting to convey in this shot: the period of decision that the player is undergoing as he approaches the net.

This photo was taken in my family’s dining room, of the cabinet we use to store our most “important” (at least in the sentimental sense) china and glasses. The pastel cups and teapots are my parents wedding china, accompanied by an assortment of wine glasses and other pottery that holds emotional importance to us. I chose to photograph this as my faceless self-portrait because it is a visual representation of my family, which is a massive part of who I am. Within this cabinet, numerous milestones in my- and our overall family’s- history are represented, creating a visual testament to my story. From my parent’s wedding, to my “special teacup” from when I was was younger (visible in the bottom right corner), every object within this frame holds significance in regards to my identity.