Halloween Happiness

So I was trying to do a general research in Halloween in regards to costumes and most of the articles I read had bad connotations to them. The articles were mostly about how peoples costumes can be offensive to others, racist, or stereotypical or maybe even just flat out ridiculous. So for this assignment what I tried to do was look to for myself and see what kind of message I was getting from our BYU students and their costumes.

It Mary Poppins! I love and picked this photo because this was kind of an in the moment photo here of this woman from the backside. The rule of thirds is present here and we see that she is more on the left side of the photo. And then I saw the red bushes behind her and I felt that those colors went so well with what she was wearing. You can't see it too well but she had a red shirt underneath the white jacket there.

For the most part the message that I got was pretty positive. What I saw were students who wanted to have fun. They were having fun. I saw students who were happy with the work they put into their costumes. Students were looking forward to that one day where they can dress however they wanted without being criticized. Nerds can wear their Link costumes from the Legend of Zelda and feel awesome about it. Students who grew up loving superheroes could for that one day be their favorite hero. Sure some costumes can offensive but the intention I assure you is not a bad one. Just for one day people can be something that they're not, and that's not a bad thing. That is the message that I and these people are trying to send to the world.

 As far as composition of the photos I really didn't think about the composition of any of these photos while shooting. But some of them ended up showing good composition and im pretty proud of it. Please enjoy.

Again the rule of thirds is present here and I really liked how this one turned out as well. I put the zoom on the camera here and that created a blur in the background here to show a bit of a deep depth of field. It really makes you focus on the main guy in the photo. I loved that he wore that scarf because it really draws you to him even more. It even matches the fall-ish color scheme.

There was nothing too special here in this photo. She is put slightly to the right instead of right in the middle. And lets be honest, for those avatar the last airbender fans this is pretty dang awesome. Even if you don't know what it is just enjoy what an awesome costume she put together. You can tell that she put a lot of work into her costume and I can just see the happiness that it brought her. She probably become even happier when I wanted to take a picture of here. This is a good one.

Good ole Buddy the Elf! This is probably my favorite photo out of all the ones I took. It has good composition because the background is blurred, creating a depth and bring the focus more up front. Having people in the back and on the side kind of create a asymmetrical balance a little but. You can determine that for yourself if you want though. Finally, what a great smile this guy has. All of the elements I mentioned earlier combined with his smile draws you in and put all of the focus on him. Now that I look at it the green windows in the back brings a monochromatic color scheme to the photo and it matches nicely with Buddy's green jacket. There's even some bi-lateral symmetry on the windows as well. 
                                                                   

Apparently these dudes are from Monty Python...Never seen it so at first I didn't get it. But this photo helps me achieve what I was going for in this photo. And that was to convey a message that dressing up for Halloween is something that is completely fun and it brings joy and happiness.  If you weren't on campus that day you should've been because these guys were great. They were prancing around, making music, and singing. They had such an awesome effect on people and as I watched them I just saw so many students faces light up and become overjoyed. Many pointed and laughed. Many gave little smirks. Many others wanted to take pictures with them. It was just a testament to how the idea of Halloween makes people want to be or at least pretend for a day to be someone else. And that is not a bad thing at all.

Here are more photos for your viewing pleasure :D 

I took over 100 photos but I won't but them all on here haha

Interesting story here: These people don't even know each other but somehow they all dressed up as different characters from the same movie and found each other. Humanity!

~Eric Smith