The state of happiness

Arieliz Burgos, Contributor

Photo of Arieliz holding up her cat.
Arieliz is in a candid shot and shares mixed emotions on her face.
This is the first sunset photo. This was taken on a Tuesday afternoon.
This is the second photo relating to the sun. This photo is a sunrise taken on a Wednesday morning.
This is the third photo relating to the sun. This photo contains a sunset at Riverbank Park on a Wednesday evening.
This is Arieliz’s volleyball team. The photo takes place on a field on a sunny day.

State of Happiness

This photo gallery reflects the idea of state of happiness. The idea of happiness can be very broad for people. However, when I think about this, I think further than just smiling. There’s a purpose behind the things that make you happy. I believe it’s important for someone to have something to make them have joy. Having joy leads people to do better things. In my personal experience, there was a time where I lost myself. I became antisocial, and I even stopped doing my classwork. To get through that I started doing things I enjoyed. For example, volleyball came into my life and ever since that, volleyball became one of the things that automatically made me happy. I also decided to start hanging out with friends and soon I was back to my happy self. Based on my experience I think living without happiness makes things have less purpose and will just make yourself give up. Therefore through this photo gallery I want viewers to take in how much purpose being happy has. 

For my first photo I chose to show something that brings out the happy side of me. In that photo, I am holding up my cat while smiling. What inspired me to get this idea was the fact that my cat does make me happy. My cat has his own personality that always makes me laugh and adore him. I always seem to have joy when he is around me. This photo was taken in my bedroom before I went to school. After the photograph was taken, I decided to make the photo look brighter. Making the photo look brighter added to the aspect of making the photo have an upbringing mood. 

For my second photo, the inspiration was emotional reactions. When this photo was taken felt hungry, and I was initially confused because nothing inspired me on what idea my photograph should show. I was honestly pleased with how this photo came out. In the photo I appear to be upset but have the slightest smirk. This photo came out more as a candid photo. The smirk came from the photographer. She made me laugh when I wasn’t feeling the greatest. This contributes to my overall theme because it shows another factor to someone’s happiness, the people who are present in your life. Even when your feeling down there’s gonna be something that makes you feel better. 

I chose my photojournalism photos to represent my third photo. In similarity, all of my photos share the idea of satisfaction through the sky. The photos all show the sun setting or rising depending on the time of day it was. The sky has a beautiful appearance when the sun is out. I enjoy looking at sunsets, they give me a calm feeling. As I took each photo I lowered the brightness which brought our warm tone colors that the sun made into the sky. I would like the viewer to take in the fact that things can make you feel complete and make you smile you just have to look at things that might not be so obvious. The first photo was taken was taken in the afternoon after leaving the 181st train station. The second photo was taken on Wednesday morning, and the final photo was taken Wednesday evening. The difference in the time of day really added to the outcome of each photo. 

For my last photo, I chose a photo of my volleyball team. As said previously volleyball is something that I enjoy in my life. I never thought I would play volleyball but when I was exposed to it, I discovered that it would be something that I want to stay in my life. Volleyball is fun to play and helped get through the times that I struggle. In the photo all the team members have a silly expression. I believe that this photo is special just because everyone has a sort of personality trait in it. Looking at this photo makes me smile and means a lot to me and who I am.