I was initially intimidated when I found out that we had about two hours to shoot photos with given themes that we didn’t know about until that day. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find photos that fulfilled the requirements and then having to edit and submit them. However, when I went out and started shooting after having received the requirements, I felt somewhat underwhelmed.

I wandered around campus looking for photos that could fall under the options that I was most interested in from the assignment – studying on campus, “a slice of life,” and campus maintenance. I wandered around and couldn’t immediately see any maintenance happening to buildings, garden beds, etc., so I figured I hit the hot spots of studying and busy work without going to the library where the sound of my camera could be distracting.

I found Kim Masser slinging coffee at The Underground Coffeehouse on WWU’s campus. I had met her before and she waved a hello, but quickly went back to maneuvering her way around the coffee bar, so I proceeded to take photos of her doing what she does best.

After photographing Kim, I made my way around the coffeehouse to find a few people studying, and sought out those who were working beside windows that offered lots of interesting background patterns and shapes. I snapped what I thought were decent photos, but it wasn’t until I went to edit them that I found the subject, Elizabeth Walsh, was out of focus. I learned from this always to double and triple check shots before being so confident that they worked!