It was the night of Grammy’s as Selena walked across the red carpet. Mikey and Selena made eye contact, as he stepped out of his brand new Corvette. Selena immediately turned to manager and said, “that is THE Mikey Barnes.” Mikey noticed her as well, seeing as he has posters of her all over his room, he played it cool though. He never believed in love at first sight prior, but the tingling in his stomach and fingers, he knew it was something this time. He approached her and said, “roses are red, violets are blue, I want to kiss you, right now.” They ultimately fell in love and ditched the Grammy’s and sat at taco bell all night and talked.

Nicole! That’s how it all started. A simple message was all it took for them to meetup one weekday in early February. By this point they have only messaged each other, both anxious to meet for the first time and no idea how their first date will go down. “Hey”, they both said when they met. Quiet at first, they both started to get comfortable around each other and start to learn a little more about the other. When they reached downtown they didn’t really know what to do, after all neither of them expected to get this far anyways. He suggested that they go to a corner store and get milkshakes. Frozen desserts in the winter? What was he thinking? Small talk ranges wildly from topic to topic. She’s a cat person, while he’s a dog person. They reach the bottom of their drinks and it’s coming to an end. Walking back neither of them wanted it to end. They walk by her dorm and she doesn’t leave. In fact, neither did either of them. They managed to walk across all of campus and reach his car at the parking garage while talking, smiling, and laughing all the way there. They get in the car, a clean white 80’s sports car. Finding songs that someone may like is difficult, let alone if you just met. Taking a shot in the dark he chose an album to play. The first song they listened to together was Father John Misty’s When You’re Smiling and Astride Me. Not knowing where to go he just started driving to a pond nearby. There they hung out and he mostly talked about fishing and how cool it is and why it isn’t boring.  I guess they weren’t boring together and for just about a year now they still ride around in that 80’s sports car, hangout by the pond, and go get milkshakes in the winter. Based on a true story.

That is the background of this photo. This was taken before we went to go see Key and Peele save a cool cat named Keanu. Coincidentally we drove that same white 300zx and I remember almost running out gas on the way to the movie theater.  I also exposed her to one of my favorite songs which also turns out she likes a lot too, Skylar Spence – Fall Harder.  This was a pretty nice assignment and helped me remember a fun time I had and just how far we have come.

This is Matt and Nicole and here is their story. It all begins one night when Nicole’s best friend asked her to go to a hockey game. Her friend’s boyfriend was going and he was bringing his friend also who was a guy. So kinda like a double date but it wasn’t really a date since they didn’t know each other. Nicole had just gotten out of a really bad relationship and wasn’t looking for anything at all. Matt was indifferent; he wasn’t necessarily looking for something but didn’t mind if anything came to be. They met and immediately they both felt a click. Nicole didn’t want to feel it but she couldn’t deny there was something there, even upon the first meeting. Matt didn’t know what to expect when he first met Nicole, but when he laid eyes on her he was enamored. He just couldn’t stop looking at her the whole time. They exchanged numbers and talked for a few days before Matt asked her to go out on a date. He took her out to dinner and it was wonderful for both of them. Their first date was at IHOP and they stayed there for a whopping 4 hours just talking and getting to know each other. That’s just what happens when you click. Matt took her out on dates a few times every week and finally, he asked her to be his girlfriend. Nicole went out to his car and there was a HUGE stuffed animal in the front seat with a sign that said “will you be my girlfriend?” She of course said yes. They were a great couple. Finally, 3 years later, he proposed and they are living happily together with 1 cat waiting to get married in May. 

Both of their smiles in this picture show that they are obviously in love. Matt is not a guy who smiles all the time, but he smiles for Nicole. He is holding her tight, like she is his whole world, and she is holding him firmly to show she trusts him and that he is her rock. The bright lighting around them enhances the romantic emotion in the picture. As soon as I saw this picture I knew it was a great picture to use because of the photography itself as well as the body language of both individuals. 

It was a dark and stormy night. Annabella Smith, spy extraordinaire, had received a mysterious note the day before to meet at a busy street corner at midnight. A taxi pulled up and the back window rolled down.

“Get in, doll,” said the man. His lit cigarette smoke swirled and obscured his face. But she already knew who it was. It had been a long time, but she knew that voice anywhere, and there was only one person she let talk to her that way.

She got in on the other side and the taxi took off.

“Are we being followed?” she asked.

“Always,” he said.

“You have a lot of nerve showing up after all this time,” Annabella said. She couldn’t tell if she wanted to kiss him or slap him in the face. So she slapped him anyway.

“I probably deserved that,” he said, and he placed something in her hand. It was an open envelope. She pulled out a dossier and a telegram.

“I think you’ve been looking for these?” he said. She nodded. “Listen, someone is after you. You need to get out of the city. If you don’t, by this time tomorrow, you’ll be dead.”

After all this time, he still wanted to help. But why?

“I just need one thing in return.”

To be continued…?

Anil and Meena have been childhood friends and lived side by side all of their lives.  It seemed like destiny that they would end up together.  But it wasn’t until high school that they both realized it.  Anil came from a family a big family family, 5 siblings in total.  He himself was very funny and outspoken and up for anything at any time.  Meena only had one older sister but they were bestfriends.  Despite always being around one another it took them the most cliche moment ever, being each others date for homecoming.  They both figured that it would be funny to go all out, and go on an official date before arriving.  Once they got to the dance they barely sat down, they goofed off for hours, sharing all of their dancemoves with friends.  However, once Meena dropped Anil off at home she didn’t give him a chance to move and quickly kissed his cheek and watched as he blushed profusely and left him with “we should do this more often.”  Anil was so stunned but nodded with a huge smile.  10 years have passed and they now live in Phoenix, Arizona, where Anil sells his art and Meena dances for a well known company.  They hope to have kids soon.

She’d been waiting for her boyfriend to show for over two hours, with no phone-call or text to settle her emotions. Long-distance puts strain on relationships near universally, but the three months she’d been away at her new job seemed to promote an unsettling indifferent in her boyfriend’s actions. Normally, she’d have fled the scene at the hour mark, but it was their first anniversary together, an event she was hoping to celebrate at the bar they first met at. Suddenly, just as she’s lifting her head from her phone, an immaculately-groomed stranger appears and sits across from her.

He begins asking her about her dress, whether she had purchased it from ‘Starlite’ (A high-end clothing retailer, though not with any locations in driving distance). After confusingly correcting the mistake, she watches him ramble on about the dress’s similarity to designs he’d helped select for the store’s new fall collection, and charmingly note that she wore it more appropriately than any of the model stock-photos with the piece that he’d seen. After signalling to a waiter and ordering a water with lemon, he flashes her a simple grin. Just as he was coxing out of her a description of her professional involvement as an overseas realtor, she hears a projected cough off to her side.

Wearing a hoodie and jeans, her boyfriend raises an eyebrow before stating that he must be interrupting. Just as she processes what the metallic tone of his voice implies, her boyfriend his already making his way out through the bar’s exit. She gives her stranger a panicked nod which he reciprocates, as she races after him. Outside, her eyes flicker toward a distant figure obscured by the evening rainstorm climbing into a black SUV. Running through the soaked lot, she reaches the driver’s window just as the car starts. Tapping the window adamantly, she thinks she sees him roll his eyes before driving off. Shocked still, she eventually makes her way back to the restaurant.

Hesitantly reentering and approaching the nearest restroom, she looks to her table to see the stranger signing a paper before giving it to a retreating waiter. They meet eyes, before she waves him over before using the restroom to dry herself off slightly. After reemerging, she politely thanks him before pulling up her purse, at which point the stranger gently stops his hand over top her wrist. He muses, “It was my treat… I just couldn’t watch two gloomy rain clouds in an evening if I didn’t have to.” After a pause, she attempts to give him a hug, but bangs their foreheads together in her rush of adrenaline. Looking up, she sees him let out an uncharacteristically high giggle and outstretch his arms – before she pulls herself into him assuredly.

This visual assignment instructed me to choose or take a photograph a photograph of two people clearly in love, then use it to describe a story with a point of view about the romance in some way. I decided to use the chemistry between the characters of the movie “Crazy, Stupid, Love” as my inspiration for a fictional story which ends with the photograph being shown above. I wanted a couple who’s photograph had an interesting element to it, and immediately thought of how the female protagonist had searched out the male character in the film to embrace him sopping wet (Even as relatively unfamiliar strangers). This made me think of creating a strangers-meeting storyline, and I was excited to somehow figure out how to justify her appearance.

In creating the story, I also noted that the man was dressed quite fashionably. This made me think of his career being within the fashion industry. I also thought of having her get into a confrontation with someone, as rain is a symbol of rebirth/baptism often within literature, and is often correlated with emotionally volatile moments in life. From there, I simply wrote of a meeting between two strangers before introducing the conflict and then settling it and any loose ends between our two story’s leads.

I view this assignment as a creative success. I was impressed with my own ability to flesh out the narrative and then complete the story-lines as quickly as I did, and I found that I justified the image details within the photo while layering additional emotional weight to it. It was also amusing to me that the story ends with the photo shown, and I felt proud in that creative choice. I’d view this assignment as average in difficulty, since the creation of a story took fairly long for me to tweak to my own satisfaction.

These are my two friends; Brick and Yak. This is the story of their story.

Brick was a cute blonde who frequently saw Yak and gave him shy sideways smiles. Yak was not a cute blonde and never knew what to say to Brick in passing.

Brick and Yak had mutual friends that often hung out and went to events around campus, but they never found themselves together in close proximity.

One day, a group of Yak’s friends and a group of Brick’s friends decided to go watch a local  University of Martha Welsh field hockey game together. This was their moment in destiny.

The two groups were approaching a place to sit, and Yak grew increasingly nervous; he was walking near Brick but desperately wanted to sit next to her finally. It just so happened that as Brick was sitting down, Yak’s friend, being the jerk that he was, tripped him! The result of Yak’s fall would land him directly next to Brick.

As he came crashing down, Brick was looked on astonishingly and made sure he was okay after his fall. At that moment, Yak knew exactly what to say: “I’m much better now that I’m by your side.” BOOM. HOOK LINE AND SINKER. Just like that, fate was set. The look Brick gave Yak just after he said his killer line is what I miraculously captured, being amplified by a supremely stunning sunset. Picturesque destiny in a photograph.

I remember the day like it was yesterday. It was another time, a better time by many measures. But I know I made the right choice to leave it all behind. Most people don’t know what agents like me have given up to be a part of something greater than ourselves. To participate in the larger mission, you have to lose your entire identity on a regular basis.

I had a life before I decided to begin my training. I had a wife, kids, and a cushy job. But something was missing. I wanted to make the world a better place, but all I was doing was running numbers for a soulless corporation. I was saving people a lot of money, but I knew it wasn’t being used to do anything that I valued.

This was the last day that I enjoyed with Jane before I left. I knew I couldn’t tell her anything, but I wanted one last memory to take with me forever – one last piece of my identity that I could never lose. We went on a picnic near the pond, and everything seemed perfect. I remember Jane’s smile, her laugh, the way her eyes sparkled, and the comfort of her voice. It was the calm before the storm.

Every day I think about how my choices must have impacted my wife and kids. I know it was a selfish choice, but I truly believe I’m making a bigger difference now than I ever could have in my past life. I hope that one day I can meet her again and explain everything to them, and that they would understand – but I know that’s not likely. I’m just glad I have a memory that anchors me and reminds me that I’m still human.

The couple stood on their front porch step to say goodbye. A normal couple thing to do for sure. It starts with standing at each others doorsteps for dates after dates, until finally they are standing at their own front doorstep for their own home.  Just as Alice and Jack were doing right now. Standing on the front wooden porch of their own home. However until most goodbyes this one was more emotional. It was not a goodbye to go to the store or on a trip, but a send off to battle. Jack dressed to leave for country and Alice to see her solider out the door. An occasion where both lean in together to say goodbye with as much heart as they are able. Also Bobby their precious cat was there. Seated between the pair unknowingly watching the emotional moment between the couple. Incapable of realizing the importance of the moment he was in. However Bobby, like most cats, was a good distraction and sometimes a good distraction is needed  in moments of uncertainty and strong concern. As Bobby stared up at the couple lovingly looking at one another they broke their glance to appreciate their silly cat. Making a moment of lightheartedness into the moment of sadness.

One Shot Assignment

Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop

My grandparents have always been my idols. The way that they loved one another and cared for one another. My mom-mom passed away a few years ago and my pop-pop misses her dearly. They were the sweet Ukrainian couple that fell in love. Religion is important to them and they raised all five of their children as Byzantine-Catholic and that has carried on down to me. They both grew up during the time of the great depression so they both have been through a lot growing up, but when they met, they never let anything stop them. They were always working hard to provide for their family and would do anything for one another. I hope my marriage is half as strong as theirs was. I am so happy I was brought up witnessing their love. Now, I can never say I don’t know what love is because they were it.