I’m back again, fam! Today’s feature is Danica-2 years ago this month, I had a graduation photoshoot with her. I first knew of her from Lucille’s BBQ in Concord. She was working for my brother and when she found out Eureka! was going to open nearby, she left shortly after, just like I left from P.F. Chang’s. I didn’t see her that often at Eureka! because we had opposite schedules but would still hang out with her from time to time when us coworkers partied together. In her last semester, she approached me for graduation photos. She would be graduating from Cal State University East Bay in June- The main campus was located in Hayward, which was about 30 miles away from us. Fortunately, there was an extended location in Concord and closer for the both of us, so we decided to shoot there instead.
I have never been to this campus- so I had to scout the area a week prior to see what I was working with. The campus was small but had enough areas to make the shoot still feel special. As a small prop, I asked her to bring a sheet of white paper and red gift wrap string to use as a diploma. It was also hot this time of the year day- so I had to stick to a time schedule to figure out my camera settings for lighting.
Danica and I drove separately and she came across a big fire on the way to the campus…I took that extra time to discover a few more spots to use for the shoot- so on my end, that extra time worked out for me (I later discovered that the fire was near my old apartments but thankfully there were no casualties and injures). Once it was time to shoot, everything fell in to place pretty easily. She was fun to work with and glad she chose me to photoshoot for her special day! When we were shooting outside, students would randomly pass her and say congratulations- that put a big smile on her face, which benefited me to capture while shooting!
If you’ve made it this far and need a photo session in the future- Please let me know! Summer is just around the corner and can’t wait to get back to photography.
Bay Area- Hope you’re doing well up there- Can’t wait to visit again!