A Portrait of Dana

When I was asked to create a portrait for this assignment, I had originally planned to use one of my suitemates as a subject. Since I live with seven girls in a suite, I figured finding a subject would be easy. I ended up finding a perfect subject in Dana Zhang, one of my good friends from high school. She is originally from a suburb outside of Beijing, China (her real name is Peng Zhang). She is one of my best friends and has been since my junior year of high school. So, when I asked her if I could photograph her for my class, she happily accepted.

We were at a concert, so I only had the chance to take a few shots. The lighting at the concert (due to the huge overhead lights at the Bridgestone Arena) did prove challenging to work with, but I felt like the flash helped some. The shot I chose was not the shot I expected to be "the one," but it's the most interesting. I chose to tilt my camera at an angle, and the shot came out extremely well. I also love the close-up of Dana because you can see the sheer excitement in her eyes. This concert was Dana's first, so she was absolutely ecstatic. I was so happy to capture that in her face and in the shot. I also had intended to make this picture black and white, but I like it much better in color because you really can see the excitement that was felt by one of my best friends.