It Was For a Class, I Promise

For my digital photography class this semester, I have to create a "New Realities" image that combines a few images, tweaks them, and come together to create one unreal image that looks realistic. 

Little-know fact about me: I have this absurd fetish with jumping pictures, as in, capturing people in the air. Hence, the reason I love this Lacoste clothing ad so much.

I love all their ads, really, but this one inspired me. I decided I wanted to recreate it in a way. I was going to take pictures of a bunch of different people dressed in brightly colored clothes jumping and put them all together in one picture.

Then I got lazy.

I wasn’t trying to be vain; I just didn't want to have to deal with finding willing models, finding a time that works to photograph them, telling them what to wear, how to jump, how their facial expressions should be, etc. It just sounded like too much work. So, I thought to myself, 'I can jump. I know what to wear and how I want the expressions to look, and I'm certainly willing.' So, I did it myself.

I dressed in some of the brightest colors I have, loaded up my camera and a tripod and searched for the ideal location. It was a rare sunny and warm (40 degrees. I'm serious. That was warm.) day in Rexburg, and I found a nicely-lit yellow wall at the Pinnacle Security building. I nonchalantly began setting up my tripod and focusing the camera and stuff while I'm sure everyone driving by was wondering what on Earth I was doing taking pictures of a blank wall.

Then when I was pretty confident nobody was looking, I moseyed over in front of the camera, clicked the button on my remote, waited...and jumped! I seriously felt like the world's biggest loser as I ran back to the camera to check. Shoot...too far to the right. So I did it again. Dang it, my eyes were closed.

This went on until I finally got all the camera settings right. Then it was time for a cool pose to use for my project. I clicked the button, jumped, and

"rip."

Yes, I ripped my pants. Have you ever done something so stupid that you embarrassed yourself? I’m pretty confident that nobody saw me, but in all reality there was probably some Pinnacle recruiter sitting at his desk watching the bouncing freak out his window and saying, “Hey Doug, check this out. What the heck is she doing?”

I guess it’s a good thing I only paid $3.98 for those jeans. They were my favorites though.

Just then, another car drove right through my shot, giving me some more strange looks. That’s when I said to myself, “Forget it!” I no longer cared that it was a nice background. It wasn’t worth my dignity. Once I snapped at least a satisfactory picture, I took off back home.

For this reason, the rest of my pictures take place in front of the nasty snow pile next to my apartment door. At least the passersby were polite enough to pretend to not stare as I leaped in front of that stupid tripod in my remaining six outfits. Sometimes I feel bad for my roommates who have to live with me. In the end though, I think I ended up with a few fun, project-worthy pictures…as well as sweet new facebook profile pic.