Photo Story: Bloom

For this assignment I had to create a photo story. I visited the vegan restaurant Bloom multiple times over about a two week period to take photos.

Located on Cornwall Avenue, Bloom is the first and only vegan restaurant in Bellingham. Not only is Bloom vegan, it is also 100 percent organic and offers only raw foods; it features local ingredients and gluten-free foods, as well as a variety of superfoods. Almost everything on the menu is made fresh, including but not limited to, the hummus, guacamole, sauces and dressings. Customers can order soups, salads, wraps, quinoa (a type of grain) bowls, rice and bean bowls, smoothies, desserts, pizza, pasta and veggie burgers. Bloom is open every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Owner Justin Bilancieri, 31, drizzles a nori wrap with Bloom’s superfood dressing June 2. Bilancieri said the dressing is so healthy because it contains the superfoods spirulina, black sesame seed meal, flaxseed meal, turmeric and dill. The superfood dressing is served on the superfood salad, which comes with all the wraps and the [quinoa and Cajun] bowls.

Bethany Butler, 20, serves Bloom’s soup of the day, Spinach Vegetable, to first-time customer Philip Damon, 73 June 2. Butler is a vegetarian and has been working at Bloom for about five months. “I wanted to be a part of something helping the community, something positive, something with a vision,” she said. “It feels good [to be] serving people something healthy.”

Bilancieri prepares a sea veggie burger, named so because the patty contains kelp, a superfood containing many nutrients and minerals. Bloom offers three varieties of veggie burger, all of which are amongst the most recent additions to the menu. Bilancieri said he chose to add the veggie burgers as a way to include foods that more people would be familiar with. They are served raw, but can be heated if the customer asks. “It’s about half and half who eat it raw,” Bilancieri said. “People have been very receptive to [eating it] raw, which is nice. They seem to really like it.” Bilancieri says the Bloom burger has been the most recent favorite among customers.

Cynthia Spiriti (left), 54, enjoys lunch with friend Janet Schlenkerman, 54, on the afternoon of June 2. Spiriti, a vegan, said the two women take an Iyengar yoga class together at 8 Petals Yoga in downtown Bellingham. “We’ve been coming pretty regularly,” Spiriti said. “It’s great food; healthy food.”

Bilancieri has been a vegan for approximately seven years. He opened Bloom because he wanted to help increase the number of vegan options in Bellingham. “I had the desire to open the public’s mind to vegan ideas," Bilancieri said. "I wanted to give them the option because the town doesn’t have the option right now.” Bilancieri said the café is still a work in progress; he hopes to host a small film festival and nightly events, such as Wednesday open mic nights. “[Bloom is] slowly but surely growing,” Bilancieri said. “It’s still not a huge success by any means, but it’s getting busier.”

Photo Illustration

For this assignment I had to take a standalone or create a photo illustration. I chose to create a photo illustration showing the amount of calories, fat, carbohydrates and protein a young, fit male should consume in a 6-meal day. This was the only assignment we were allowed to use color for.


You are what you eat. Consuming enough calories and the right amount of nutrients is important for fueling a healthy, fit body. According to body building experts, 80 percent of body building is diet. A 25:45:30 ratio of healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and protein is recommended for effective weight loss and muscle gain.

Controlling Motion

For this assignment I had to control motion. I chose to try a panning shot, catching to car as a still image and blurring the background to show the motion.

Karl Helmgren, 62, has been participating in the Autocross, held by the Chuckanut Sports Car Club, since 2002. Helmgren said his son, Galen Helmgren, got him involved in racing. “I’d been interested in it for awhile, I just hadn’t taken the plunge,” Helmgren said. “Then [Galen] was old enough to drive and so we started doing it.” The father-son duo share the same car – a blue 2007 Subaru STI – but race individually. Karl Helmgren races as number 16; Galen Helmgren races as number 61. “It’s my car, but [Galen] always beats me by a lot,” Helmgren said. At the Autocross on May 1, Karl Helmgren’s best time was 64.526 seconds, while Galen Helmgren’s best time was 62.652 seconds.

Honest Emotion/Relationship

For this assignment I had to capture a moment of honest emotion and/or relationship. In this photo, I was able to subtly capture both.

Riley McCorkle, 21, clasps the shoulder of teammate Bryce Pollock, 21, while watching from the sidelines as their team, the One-Fifty Wonders, play a game of intramural dodge ball in Carver Gym May 5. McCorkle said the team started playing about two years ago because they thought it’d be goofy. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously out there,” McCorkle said. “If you’re being a bad sport playing dodge ball, you really need to take a good look at yourself, it’s a recess game.” Even so, McCorkle said they do win most of their games, and played second out of thirty teams last season. “We made it all the way to the playoffs and to the championship game, then lost in a heartbreaking defeat,” McCorkle said jokingly. The One-Fifty Wonders won their Wednesday night game.

Personality Portrait

For this assignment I had to shoot a personality or environmental portrait of someone.

Mylee Francisco has been dancing for 17 of her 23 years, but didn’t start belly dancing until she was 13 years old. “My mom was in a [belly dance] class before my hip hop class, so I had to wait and watch,” Francisco said. “I started to like it; I thought it was really cool.” Her mom told her she could do it, and she has been ever since.

Francisco said she had a lot of confidence from young age, belly dancing at her middle school and high school assemblies. “I had balls of steel,” she said. “I look back now and am like – whew – where’d that come from?"

Not only does Francisco dance, but she also makes her own costumes to perform in. She doesn’t like the current fashion of belly dancer costumes, which she said are incredibly tight-fitting and gaudy. “It’s like dancing in a platinum tube sock,” she said. Francisco said her own style is more subtle and classic, a 1960s, belly dancer meets James Bond look. The resources to create homemade costumes are vaster that they once were, she said. “Ten years ago [the costume] was like a bra with some ridiculous, gnarly-ass sequin from Jo-Anne’s.”

Francisco teaches classes at the Blue Moon Ballroom, located on Cornwall Avenue in downtown Bellingham. Her next class session begins May 10.

Icebreaker Assignment

For this assignment I had approach random people to take a nice mug shot and ask a question: "What would you never consume again and why?"

When 3-year-old Aida Ellsworth was asked what food she didn’t like to eat, she first said eggs and avocado. But according to her parents, those are two of her favorite foods. When asked again, she said salad. Why? “’Cause I don’t,” she said.

Dave Vaugns, 36, said he took a bite out of a deep-fried Twinkie at the Puyallup Fair a few years ago and would never do it again. “It was tasty, but some things are just wrong [to deep-fry],” Vaughns said. “As my friend proclaimed – ‘Yes, this will kill you.’”

Clarence Younge, 60, said he had a near fatal accident about seven years ago while eating at Cicchitti’s, a pizza shop in downtown Bellingham. “I was eating the cheese pizza, the sausage pizza; everything but the pineapple,” Younge said. Younge said he’s on medication and is on a bland diet, so he isn’t supposed to eat spicy foods like pizza. “It almost killed me,” he said. “I had to go to the hospital.”

Disposable Camera Assignment

For this assignment I had to find and shoot a picture with a disposable camera.

Bree Bachtel, 21, and Nico Gomez, 31, stop to pick up lunch at a hotdog stand located on 12th Street in Fairhaven. The owner of the stand, Cory Bakker, 40, offers all beef hotdogs, polish sausage and three varieties of veggie dogs at his stand. Bakker said his regular customers get the polish sausage with relish and mustard, while those from the East Coast make their dogs with just mustard – no ketchup. Though the polish sausage is the most popular, he said he does get business from vegetarians daily as well. “I get five to eight [veggie dog customers] a day,” Bakker said. “When I first started I didn’t have veggie dogs, but I’m in Fairhaven – I have to.”