Funny enough, Bianca and I were complete strangers around two weeks ago, and yet here we are, taking pictures. Of all places to meet, too, we met at an orientation for our jobs at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, due to a small-talk comment. But, with the world being as small as it is, it turns out we both know my roommate and that she and him are co-workers.

It turns out she needed some professional portraits done for her applications to med schools, and me being a photographer, I offered to take them. After deciding that Biodesign itself would make a good backdrop, here we are. I originally planned to take these photos in the warmth of the evening sun during the golden hour. However, clouds blanketed the sky, unsurprising considering that for the past week we've had some pretty serious monsoon weather, including several haboobs, Luckily, there was still plenty of light, so we went to the sunny side of the building to take these portraits.

Since she also needed a passport-style photo, we headed indoors to find a plain background. Also, it being summer in Arizona with added humidity, the AC was a nice treat. But, with all of those TV displays, we couldn't help but take a few extra pictures.

We definitely went inside at the right time because as we took pictures and talked, the winds outside picked up to monsoon levels, with trees flailing wildly in the wind. So, at that point we decided it was probably a good time to end the photoshoot, until we walked back around the building. Since the wind was calm for brief periods of time before picking back up, I thought the back of the Biodesign building would make an excellent backdrop, and in between spats of wind, we took some more pictures. At least the wind was blowing the right way ("fluffing up" her hair as opposed to throwing it onto her face).

After randomly noticing another cool looking backdrop of the path that leads to a sculpture, we talked some more before heading on with the rest of our evenings, with the world ever so smaller.

On a Tuesday night (I took these last week), my roommate asked if it was possible to take portrait shots of him so that he can upload a profile picture for his research lab he is working with, which he needed by Friday. Luckily, thanks to me changing my major back to mechanical engineering, allowing me to drop a class, I had plenty of free time, so we decided to take pictures the next day by Old Main in the evening. He needed a close up head shot for the profile picture, so we knocked that out first. We decided the plants by Old Main would make for a good backdrop, especially because the green would contrast the colors of his suit and the light from the setting sun. I offered to Photoshop out his bandaids that he forgot to remove, but he said to leave them, so that's what I did.

Just to make sure he had a variety of professional photos to use in the future, I took some more photos of him in different poses. The fountain makes for a good backdrop, although at this time it's shaded from the sun. However, it causes the plants and Old Main in the background to be highlighted. I didn't try it at the time, but I wish there was a way to use a lower shutter speed to make the water behind the fountain look more "flowey". I probably could achieve this by combining multiple shots, but since we were on a bit of a time crunch I didn't try doing this. Maybe some other time in the future, perhaps?

Lastly, I decided to get some shots at angles and that showed more of his full body so that he would have more variety with the photos he has. I felt these images came out well by using Old Main as the background.

I edited his favorites that night so he would have the pictures immediately, and then I worked on the rest over the course of the week. I'm definitely glad he asked me to do this, since I've been looking to do some more portrait shots, also with male subjects to show that hey, I can take pictures of guys, too.