Susannah Portfolio

This photo was taken during a Lunar New Year Celebration held at the University of Maryland and was part of my second photo assignment. We had talked about looking for unique angles in class, and one of the photos that we studied was an overhead shot. I had never seen. A photo with that composition, and I was excited to try it myself. I also wanted to find a way to showcase the food at the event which was a central part of the celebration. Thankfully, the building had a second story staircase that looked down onto the main lobby, allowing me to capture this shot from this height. It was a good lesson in using your environment to your advantage.    

This photo is from a Valentine’s Day themed salsa class hosted by the Maryland Latin Dance Club. I like the composition and patterns in this photo, the way that their arms form the same angle and the dancers in the background form a diagonal line. Once I observed the choreography, I started looking for a way to take a photo like this one that captured the movement of the dance. I positioned myself in front of the line of dancers and experimented with different angles and different heights (ended up standing on a chair) while taking photos continuously. I had to comb through several photos in post before deciding on this shot, but it was worth it. This photo taught me the importance of patience during a shoot when you’re trying to capture a strong moment.

This photo was taken as part of our light assignment which ended up being one of the most challenging yet fulfilling tasks of the semester. I had always been afraid of shooting at night and dealing with the challenge of grain, but shooting with bright lights taught me that I can utilize extreme light and darkness to create a stark contrast. As well, I again had to wait in the cold for someone to walk by and be framed by the building like I envisioned.

Also part of the light assignment, this photo utilized the silhouette technique which contrasts a light background with dark shadows. This photo was taken at the Pulse exhibit earlier this fall at the Hirschhorn museum which played with light and color, providing a perfect environment for the assignment. I was very proud of the shadowy figured I created, but in critique I learned as well that I could have improved the photo by waiting until all of the figures had distinct, separate outlines. 

This photo of Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski was part of my outside photo assignment when I covered his lecture and cooking demonstration put on by SEE for The Diamondback. Even though we were told not to photograph the backs of heads, I chose to intentionally break this rule because I liked the way that the two subjects were outlined by the stage lights against the black background. Outside of composition, I learned to be a bit bolder as a photographer during this shoot. Usually during SEE events, they only allow photos during the first five minutes of the show, but the active cooking demonstration happened in the second half. During the show, I was able to talk the crew into letting me take more photos around the stage to get the more active shot.

This photo, part of the emotion series, was difficult in subject and in lighting. It was taken at a candlelight vigil where all of the candles blew out in the first few moments. I had to wait to take photos until the students were walking under street or building lights, and even then, I tried to be sparing with my shooting to avoid the constant click of a shutter during a prayerful, solemn event honoring those who were dealing with the challenges of immigration. I had to balance my journalistic responsibility to document and share the event with human respect and kindness.  

This photo was also part of the emotion series and provided the same challenges in subject and lighting. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to capture moments of reverence and prayer without coming off as disrespectful. To capture this photo of these students in prayer, I distanced myself from the group to muffle the sound of the shutter and perfected my framing and focus before taking a smaller number of shots.  

I took this photo at Union Station for the street photography assignment. I arrived about an hour early for my train and wandered around the front of the station, looking for interesting characters and framing. In this photo as well, I neglected to include a face, but I chose to focus on the action of the seed falling and the reaction of the birds. As well, she was a very quiet person who blended into her background, so I found it appropriate to keep her as an anonymous/ominous figure. It seemed that she fed the birds regularly and carried a substantial amount of seeds in her purse which allowed me a good amount of time to walk around and attempt to capture different perspectives of her and the birds and different stages of the feeding action. Out of the photos I took, this one captured the best moment with the best rule of thirds.

This photo was part the same street assignment but taken earlier on in my journey at the Fort Totten metro station. As with earlier photos, this framing was one that I had in mind ahead of time and attempted at other stations from other angles, with this being the best result. I attempted to use a quick shutter to capture the motion of the metro in still, but the biggest challenge was compensating for a dark subject set against a bright background. Lighting and editing this image forced me to be more creative in difficult lighting situations.

This photo was taken again as part of the street assignment, but at Hudson Yards in New York. The misty sky that day made for a nice back drop, and I tried to photograph other visitors on the other side of the exhibit. Photographing moving subjects from such a great distance forces you to work very quickly and very precisely to make sure that the photo is well-lit, well-composed, and in focus. I took several photos of this woman, adjusting and perfecting my settings as I went along. I wanted to ensure that I captured the moment with the best lighting that would leave the least to do in post. When I found my desired settings, I also played with the angle until I found this tilted one that I thought fit the whimsical mood of her dance pose.