A Photo-filled Weekend

Last weekend was full of photography.

My sister needed to go to Downtown Champaign on Saturday to photograph the Champaign-Urbana Pride Parade for the Illio Yearbook, so we decided to make an adventure out of it.

We took the bus downtown and had lunch at a restaurant called Destihl, which is also a brewery. We had never heard of it before, but it sounded good from what we found online the night before. I had the beer battered fish and chips, which seemed like a good choice since the restaurant is also a brewery. I'm no food critic, but I enjoyed the fish and chips, and the potato wedges were probably the best ones I ever had.

Near the end of our meal (if you follow me on Twitter, you may already know this), a little girl who was eating there with her family was out in the aisle and one of her shoes ended up on our table. It almost landed in my sister's mac and cheese. I flinched at it. She said, 'Oops. Sorry' as I returned her shoe to her. Then she ran away. That has nothing to do with my photography adventures from that weekend, but it was worth telling. I seriously have no clue what the little girl was doing or why she was walking around by herself.

Oh, and I guess she had crayons too because after I gave her shoe back, I found a pack of crayons in my purse after she left with her family.

Anyway, after finishing lunch, my sister and I just walked around downtown, taking pictures of cool sculptures, buildings and walls, trying to see if we could find anything for future assignments in our photography class. 

A wall covered in spray-painted art

We also found a cool brick wall to take portraits in front of.

A portrait I took of my sister

A portrait my sister took of me

After walking around for an hour or so, we headed to a bakery called Cream & Flutter. My sister and I have passed by it a few times on the bus, so we knew we wanted to try it if we ever got a chance to because we love cupcakes. 

Dark chocolate cupcake from Cream & Flutter

They don't have a large variety of cupcakes to choose from, so we ended up getting the red velvet and dark chocolate cupcakes. Both were good. Neither of them were super sweet, so if you like cupcakes, but don't like too much sugar, Cream & Flutter is the place for you.

Red velvet cupcake from Cream & Flutter

After trying Cream & Flutter's cupcakes, we walked around some more and waited for the parade to begin. Once the parade begun, my sister took some pictures for Illio while I just stood by her and watched the short parade.

The next day involved even more picture taking, specifically for me. The second assignment for my photography class was involved taking effective group pictures, so I met up with some new friends to help me and my sister out. 

We went to the Engineering Quad and spent around an hour having a mini photo-shoot. Leading up to the shoot, I looked up a bunch of poses for my new friends to do. Some of my favorite shots are picture below.

I loved the photo-shoot from last Sunday. It reminded me of why I love photography. It was a lot of fun, and it was something I had never done before. I felt like a "real" photographer, telling the ladies where to go and how to pose, even if I didn't have any professional equipment other than a DSLR. Working with them was great. They were very cooperative and awesome models!

My other photography and the rest of my assignments for my MDIA 390 photography class can be found on my online portfolio.