Photography For East West College Of The Healing Arts

October 30, 2019

Throughout 2019, I’ve been creating photos for East West College of the Healing Arts, located in Portland, Oregon. They’re a massage therapy school that have been around for almost 50 years. They have an intensive 800 hour program that prepares students for their Oregon massage license and a career in massage. This summer, East West College took the giant step of changing locations within Portland, so these photos have functioned to educate everyone on the move, show off the new space, and also demonstrate what things look like on a normal day at the school.

The 1515 Building and Vicinity

In two separate instances, I photographed East West College’s new location and vicinity. They’re now located inside in the 1515 Building in SW Portland, which is walking distance from many iconic Portland buildings and also Portland State University.

This part of town is quite pretty overall and has a lot to offer students outside the classroom.

Inside East West College

Later in August, I photographed students, faculty, and the new interior space to demonstrate what things looked like on a normal day at school. East West College had also scheduled a promotional video shoot on the same day as this photo shoot, so when I arrived it was quite a production! There was a small crew, makeup artist, and about 15 students and faculty that served as talent for both photography and video. I worked around the video schedule, which seems to always be more demanding and time-consuming than photography.

My gear setup was very minimal, consisting of a camera, a couple flashes, an umbrella, and a small light stand. Being I was on a tight schedule, I had to work quickly and efficiently. I kept my lighting as clean and simple as possible, relying mostly on bouncing a flash off walls and ceilings to help clean things up. Overall, my goal was to make it look like “normal” environmental light for the entire shoot. (Goal mostly achieved, especially on the very first photo of this post!) Library

Here’s a couple photos of the school’s library and study room:

Above, I photographed a small group of students engaged in a study session.

Student Lockers and Hallways

I also photographed the student locker area, trying my best to recreate a normal scene in this part of the school. I directed one student to read at her locker while I had two other students trying a new massage technique they had learned in class.

Overall, I made sure during the entire shoot to keep people moving and participating, rather than just posing. Photos can easily look unnatural and overly staged if things are too static. I think the photo above looks very natural, imo.

East West College also has very interesting and inviting seating throughout their hallways. It’s a nice place to catch up on studying and have a conversation between classes:

Classroom Video Shoot

Inside one of the larger classrooms, the video crew was set up and filming a lecture in progress. During this time I was allowed to take photos as well, while doing my best to stay out of their way. Needless to say, I photographed inside the classroom with the available light only! Flash and video are not friends. It was pretty fun to observe the video crew at work and the lecture complete with skeleton.

Above, I stood off to the side while photographing the lecture in order to stay out of the way of the video production. I ended up with a nice angle of the students following along with the demonstration. Conclusion

I’ve enjoyed creating photos this year for East West College of the Healing Arts and their new home in SW Portland. When I’m able to successfully tell the story of an individual or company with images I’ve created, it feels pretty good.

-Chris