Enlight21

Author: Victor Wan | Category: Entertainment | Date: 02-19-2020

Photoshoots are events that I have been holding since the beginning of 2019. As I continued to polish my skills in photography since 2017, I felt that holding these photoshoots with my friends is the next step forward to support my passion for photography. 

One day in high school, two close friends and I were chatting about school life and our consistent struggles both academically and in extracurriculars. I brought up an issue about how I'm not challenging myself enough in photography, and I was struggling to devise new approaches or come up with new ideas to become more creative with my shots. One of my friends, who was very photogenic on social media, explained that his posts were too monotone and unprofessional. At that moment, an idea popped up in my head. I explained to them that since I had trouble finding new ways of taking photos, and my friends' posts aren't professional enough, we agreed upon hosting a proper photoshoot at Stanford University.

Before we started the photoshoot, we agreed that I would be the portrait photographer(since I had all the camera gear and experience) while my friends would be the models. I planned a map of all the locations where we would take photos. Then, we hopped on our bikes and visited the various spots I selected, such as the Bamboo Forest, McMurtry Building, and Knight business Center. while my friends posed in various positions with smoldering, handsome looks, I snapped distance shots, close-ups, top-downs, and other focal lengths and angles; some images looked absolutely stunning, while others appeared blurry or strange. While snapping photos, my friends and I sometimes laughed at some of the photos we took, since we were fooling around in some of the images. We knew we had a very entertaining time together that day at Stanford.

Throughout the photoshoot, I realized that aside from just snapping new portraits for my friends, the photoshoot brought my friends and me closer together. During some shoots, or in between shooting locations, we chatted about our lives, such as what we've been up to the past summer, where we visited, sometimes even what personal struggles we had faced in the past few school years at Paly. I was given the opportunity to learn and understand my friends' personalities. I truly believe that holding these photoshoots not only drives my passion for photography, but it also allows me to strengthen the bond among my two closest childhood friends. to seek this opportunity more often in the future, I have planned more photoshoots in different cities with other friends of mine to expect similar positive outcomes.

About: Victor Wan