How to Capture Your Campus

Photo: Jessica Anderson

When you think of campus, it is rarely with the sprawling, candy coated imagery of a festival ground in mind. No matter how we filter it, it's difficult to come back from the fantasy of Bonaroo snaps and back to the reality of pictures from your local Starbucks window. It's just a fact that campuses lack the caption worthy scenery that you want to post to Instagram. I, too, had this problem on my campus. I am naturally creative and always wanting to show what I can do behind and in front of a camera, however the bleak concrete of my university usually puts a damper on this. It took a lot of exploring and awkward encounters (people will undoubtedly stare at you no matter how secluded you think you're location is), but here's how I was able to turn concrete spaces into creative snapshots.

If you're going to be making the most of your environment, you might as well step it up in your wardrobe. Now I know my outfits don't seem to follow this, but I took a different step from what I usually throw on for my Accounting class. So throw on some hoops and heels before you go searching for your next place. If dressing up isn't quite your thing, go for a daring make-up look. Clearly I'm not stopping by the cafe, with this liner but make-up can make for a cute break from your scenic pictures of your dog and classic selfies.

We're not going to pretend that Instagram is self-less -unless we're talking business, but that's a whole other post- so let's show who's the center of attention. Sometimes it's hard to find the right place to snap due to a busy background but if you happen to find that all lines in the photos lead to you, use it! You won't have to try hard to catch the attention of all your followers scrolling down their feed because everything is literally pointing towards where they should double tap.

Photoshop gets a bad rep when it comes to social media. I'm not encouraging you to edit your body, though if you do that's your prerogative, just to add to photos that you think could be interesting with a little help. I find the easiest way to add simple edits like the one below is to download an app like PicsArt or Afterlight if you're willing to splurge. There are sections in the app where you can add simple shapes and erase parts you don't want to get the halo effect I created. It's so easy and there are so many tutorials on how to do more. I might even post a few personal ones, so look out for that post!

all styling by Brianna Mckissack-Martin

Have fun creating, I promise it's easier than it looks! Best of luck.

x

Brianna

Outfit 1 - similar items

Pants: H&M Wide-cut Paper-bag Pants

Shoes: Public Desire Tess Yellow Block Heeled Sandals

Top: Pretty Little Thing Basic Black Jersey Bandeau Top

Earrings: BaubleBar Mini Penelope Hoop Earrings

Outfit 2 - similar items

Skirt: LuLus Vacay Bae Black and White Striped Wrap Maxi Skirt

Shoes: Steve Madden Landen Ankle Strap Sandal