And now, the end is near...

Me, Emily and Allison from a impromptu photo shoot the other night

So these last few days have been a crazy blur. We had class on Monday and Tuesday, and then Wednesday and Thursday were free for working on our projects.

We had been told that we weren't supposed to have a clear idea of our final project until this week, and they really aren't too clear about the details either. They give us all of these directions and guidelines, but then tell one or all of us to basically do whatever we want.

Luckily, I got my idea this weekend when we were in Amsterdam. By Tuesday, I had almost 200 candid photos of people to choose from. I narrowed it down to 50, then to 27.

Then I brainstormed first impressions and clues from the photos. I asked questions about what was happening or what the person was thinking, and then I developed their story. From the 27, I picked the best 11 and chose a sentence of their story to put with their picture.

Using Photoshop, I added the text to the picture -- keeping in mind the font, orientation, size and color. Finally, I constructed the project into an accordion-style book. This way, I can show it as a book, or I can stretch it out to show all of the photos at once...

I had to walk back and forth to the HEMA like 6 times today to get my pictures printed! And it was HOT... (like 80). But I really like the way it turned out...

This is a stitched together photo, but here it is... (It's actually missing one of the pictures, somehow!)


Tomorrow morning, each of us will present our final projects to the group. We supposedly have 12 minutes, but nobody knows for sure what we should talk about. I'm basically going to say all of the things I said here.

Tomorrow will also be the last time we're in the Central building where our classes are held... It's really sad that everything is coming to a close so quickly...

There is a big festival going on in Leiden this weekend. (We decided it's a going away party for us.) So we're probably going to check that out this weekend. We also might make it back to Amsterdam one last time before everyone leaves...

I have some more "random thoughts," but I think I'll save those for another night... I need to get my rest for my big day tomorrow! I also have lists of things I'll miss in the Netherlands and things I'll appreciate about the U.S. I'll share those later too!

Goodnight everyone!

Here are some pictures from a photo shoot the other night with Allison and Emily... the night after the fog pictures...

UmbrellaHarry Potter...

Magical