Jordyn Harrell, a senior English and Journalism major, rests in the nook of her dorm room after a busy morning running errands on August 28, 2022, in Dallas, Texas. (SMU/Jordyn Harrell)
I enjoy spending time in my room. It’s my safe haven, a space where I can recharge. The room may be small, but it is overflowing with personality. I wanted my room to mimic the sun: bright and full of life.
My favorite spot in my room is my reading nook—a small space between the end of my bed and the wall connected to my tiny kitchen. My reading nook pays homage to my younger self. The kid who would fold over a book in the smallest of spaces.
When I was really young, I would disappear into my mom’s closet, drag one of the heavy, green encyclopedias off the lower shelfs, and curl into her empty laundry basket. I didn’t care that I couldn’t understand majority of the words. I just spent my time admiring how the ink decorated the page and tracing over the lettering. It was comforting to pretend to know how to read. My love for books grew tenfold when I finally understood what all those lines and loops meant.
Though my reading nook fills me with warmth, it wasn’t the easiest spot to capture. I spent a lot of time adjusting the tripod. Once I settled on the angle I wanted to shoot from, I ran into another issue. Natural lighting. My window doesn’t get much light because it faces a beautiful parking garage. It also didn’t help that my reading nook is far from my window and hidden behind my bed frame. I had to shoot my photos earlier in the day.
I learned that better lighting came with large shadows and bright glares. After a few trials and error, I adjusted my aperture and shutter speed to get rid of the glare from the mirror and adjusted my position to create a smaller shadow. Making my pose look natural was quite hard, especially considering that I had to race across the room and get into position in 10 seconds flat.
This photo shoot taught me to give myself a lot of grace. This is the first time in a long time that I have used a DSLR (the last time being either my sophomore or junior year in high school). I am glad that I gave myself time to figure out the functions of the buttons. I am even more thankful that I decided on a space that I was most comfortable with because it was easier to laugh when I messed up.
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