Creative Portrait Assignment 3

The third Creative Portrait assignment was to photograph strangers showing joy or sadness. I really had no idea what I was going to photograph or where. The weather was nice so I decided to go to the park and take a walk in the woods to photograph nature which I love to do. I decided to walk this one trail I had never walked before in Mill Creek Park. There were people everywhere. I just started walking wondering what I was looking for. I thought about photographing couples. Relationships cause joy and sadness all the time. I stopped a friendly looking couple and got their photograph but didn't really have a focus other than trying to complete the assignment. I continued walking looking for friendly open people to talk to. So many people were having conversations which I hated to interrupt or had on headphones as they jogged and I was having trouble finding open people. An older man greeted me as he walked by me with his dog and I just stopped and asked to photograph him. Dogs always bring joy. I realized I had something here. I continued walking and looking for people with dogs. I realized that I wanted the dog to be the focus. I didn't care as much about the person as I did about the object of joy. I wanted the person in the photograph of course but I wanted A pet and it's owner, not someone walking their dog. Every person was willing to allow me to photograph them that I asked. I am really happy with the images I got.