And so it begins.

Today, a group of us went location scouting at the Riverside Event Center, formerly known as the Masonic Temple. We got a tour around 2 hours long of the entire building, and got to see multiple ballrooms as well as lots of other really interesting locations!

The event center is beyond beautiful. It's very vintage looking and elegant, yet classically timeless. It's one of those places where every time you go into a different room, you can't help but ooh and ahh and just look around with wonder. The light floods through the windows and creates this softness in every space. It's filled with long hallways, high ceilings, and old wooden doors.

The Photo Arts Club has secured the Riverside Event Center for one week in May to do what's called a "shootout." Basically, we take every piece of equipment we have in the photography program to a location, run all of the classes at that location, and do large production photo shoots for an entire week. It's a ton of work, coordination, and planning, but if it's successful, it could be such a wonderful experience to be a part of. It's a chance that as students, most of us won't be getting anywhere else.

My big assigned shoot is a prom shot. Until today, I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do with it or how I wanted it to look. Once I got to see all the different rooms in the event center, I immediately was able to form a whole image in my head of how I wanted everything to work! Twinkle lights, colors, glitter, balloons... once and idea seeds itself in my mind it grows like a bad weed. (In the best way.)

These are some of the scouting shots I took today as we toured around the building. Today was the first major step in planning shoots and getting us closer to making the shootout something amazing to work towards! I can't wait!