Happiness is...

For my final photo project in my photojournalism class, I decided to have my theme revolve around what makes people happy. I came up with the idea to have the people I photograph hold a sign or have a sign near them that fills in the blank for "Happiness is ____." I had some friends get so creative and their photos turned out so good! It was a lot of fun! My teacher and classmates really liked my creative idea.

The best part about this photo project was that behind each photo is a story. For a majority of my photos, each of my friends came up with their own ideas of what made them happy and we worked around that. I love that for most of my photos, my friends helped me come up with a saying to fill in the blank and it totally matched them! I'll put the photos on here and describe what I mean.

I started out with a self-portrait... I figured since I was the one wanting to know what made others happy, it fit the theme :)



My roommate loves staying active and healthy. I believe she is going to have a major dealing with it as well. And because she is active and healthy, we came up with "having self-confidence" on her sign.


My friend Jennifer was so great and offered to let me take photos of her two cute daughters. This is Lettie eating one of her favorite treats, frozen blueberries!


Danielle loves music! We got creative and taped the letters "music" to the keys on the piano!


One of my favorite photos... One of my best roommates of all time, Jess, and her boyfriend Wil! This just makes me happy every time I look at this photo!


Whenever I think of Tim, I think of baseball and the Cardinals. So his photo fits him perfectly! I wanted to re-take this photo, because it's a tad blurry and the C is covered up in Cardinals, but the stadium lights don't turn on anymore! So it was too dark. But I love the setup of this photo, and the stadium light in the background coming in as well.


Erin is the best! She came up with the idea to write what makes her happy in the frosting she used to decorate the cupcakes. She was so prepared and creative! I just had to shoot the photo! Thanks Erin!


Alyssa was the same as Erin when it came to being prepared and creative! Alyssa said the swings make her happy, and she came up with a deeper saying to go along with her photo. I think it is a good message for us all to remember, especially when we are stressed and busy!


Jess helped me out again. She loves her little brother, and I don't blame her because he is so cute and funny!


Vanessa is probably the most diligent people I know! She has her goals set and will work as hard as she has to in order to get there! She is in the nursing program, which is not easy to get into here at BYU-Idaho. She works hard to maintain good grades and is just amazing. Her sign fits her perfectly!


Another one of my favorites! Jennifer's daughter, Liza, seriously is adorable! Jen came up with the idea to dress her up as a princess, which is something Liza loves to do. I took pictures of Liza just sitting and smiling, but I liked this shot the most! She was talking about something... I don't remember what! But it made for a really cute photo!


My old roommate, Mary-Beth, is one of the most talented people ever! She cooks, she knits, she draws and paints... Basically, she does it all! My roommates nicknamed her "Mother Beth" last fall. Drawing makes her happy, so we went to the Spori Building where the art majors reside, and were trying to come up with where to take an artistic photo. We found a chalkboard and she decided to draw on it for her photo. I thought it was neat!


I had an idea to take a photo of Holly and Bentlee, with a sign saying "Being a mom", but Brad became my subject instead! I chose this photo just for Brad. He liked the tree being in there!


I wanted a church-related photo, because really the gospel is what brings true happiness in the end! But the people I wanted to shoot for the photo were unavailable, and I wanted to go to the Rexburg temple and have it be in the background of my photo, but this one of my roommate Danielle works!


I loved doing this photo project. It showed me that we need to do whatever it takes to just be happy, in the good times and bad. I know I talked about this a little bit in my last blog post, but now my last blog post makes more sense having these photos!

So just smile, and never forget how blessed you truly are :)