As someone with a lot of anxiety, getting out and taking photos is very difficult. Because of Wahawk Insider, I have slowly been overcoming my fear and now carry my camera almost everywhere I go.
One thing about our program is that we do have very limited equipment. With that being said, all photos I have taken have been from my own personal camera I was gifted by my father my junior year of high school.
One thing about our program is that we do have very limited equipment. With that being said, all photos I have taken have been from my own personal camera I was gifted by my father my junior year of high school.
JEA Partner Project
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While at the JEA Partner Project, I learned a lot about being a photojournalist. This is something I was looking forward to for weeks leading up to the event.
Being able to grow so drastically from before to after the partner project was something that I truly would not change for the world.  A photo of my notes from the first day of the JEA Partner Project
What did I learn?
During our time with the JEA Partners, the learning never stopped. Not in a "my teacher won't stop talking" sort of learning, but the "I feel like a different person after this" type of learning. All of my time, like a few of my peers, was spent with Kyle Carter, someone who reignited my lost passion for taking pictures. I learned so many key skills I never thought that I needed, one of those being Photoshop, which we will dive into more later on. |
Throughout the weekend of the partner project, I learned a lot about the meaning behind taking pictures. All photos should be able to tell a story, and with that, I realized that you can truly find stories in any aspect of life. It is crucial to capture not only the good (celebrations, wins) but also the things that are not as happy (losses, defeats). Life is full of both, any person should know that, but as a journalist, my job is to capture life.
Writing Captions
Captioning our photos properly was something we never thought was a problem, until our site critique during the JEA Partner Project.
Michelle Balmeo, president of the Oregon Journalism Education Association, reminded us that captions should be able to summarize everything happening in a picture, the way that Yearbook does it.
Following the Wahawk Yearbook's caption policy is something we truly should have been doing since day one. The yearbook policy is as follows:
Michelle Balmeo, president of the Oregon Journalism Education Association, reminded us that captions should be able to summarize everything happening in a picture, the way that Yearbook does it.
Following the Wahawk Yearbook's caption policy is something we truly should have been doing since day one. The yearbook policy is as follows:
- Attention getter
- Basic information - present tense
- Complimentary information - past tense
- Optional: Direct quote
Photoshop - Journalistic Editing
Promoting My Work SCRL is a purpose-built social media design tool, used and loved by millions of creatives.
- SCRL.com
Promoting my own photography has never been easy. Trying to get people to see and acknowledge my work is hard, but I know that growing takes time and patience!
Promoting myself has never come easily. Even though my dad was an amazing radio host, I never really had the talent to tell people about the work I was doing. I always find myself putting everyone else first. At the JEA Partner Project, Mr. Carter told me that it's not selfish to promote what you are doing, and now because of that, I am not scared to put my work out there. The process for posting my pictures on Instagram is simple. Take, edit, compile, post. Compiling pictures is something I think is so fun. Finding images that are similar, and images that are polar opposites and smashing them all into one post using an app called SCRL is so much fun to me, and probably would take the title of my second favorite part of the posting process. |
Posting Process
SportsI have never been a huge sports fan. I am the type of girl that loves to be on the stage preforming some form of art.
However, this year as I started to photograph Girls Wrestling, I realized that there was always something happening. Even if it seems like a small moment, there is always something "photo-worthy." PeopleAs I have said before, getting out and taking photos is not easy for me. Given the fact that I have no prior experience behind a camera and my very full schedule, getting to school events is very difficult.
With that being said, I like photographing small, yet powerful moments of people around school. Whether that is at a school sanctioned event, pep rallies, or even events that impact my community, I will always aim my lens towards the unseen moments of West High. While there are people who love the camera, my camera loves the people that just are. These moments, the raw and natural moments, are the ones I love to capture. |
What Does it Mean to be Pretty - EditorialThis was the first photography zone I entered myself in. For my article "What Does it Mean to be Pretty," my adviser said that it would be a great opportunity for an editorial photoshoot.
We started this process by looking through Pintrest for some inspiration photos, which is where we ended up finding a lot of moments from the Barbie movie. This set me up for success. These raw, unedited photos were meant to show off the raw and unedited beauty of people that often get looked over. PerformersTo put this simply, I love preforming, which means I love photographing those who are like me. These photos, although not school related, are of performers I have seen that completly encapsulated my attention the moment they started doing what they love.
Capturing performers is not easy as they are typically always doing something. Despite the movement, they have the most beautiful sense of connection to the art they are sharing with the world. |
Using Pictures to Escalate a Story
The Wahawk Insider loves to include photography elements into our stories. Whether it be a photo gallery or an inline photo, we love using pictures to help tell a story.
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One of the biggest ways we use pictures in our stories is by incorporating photo galleries, which are groups of photos, as I used above, to show off the work of our publication and yearbook teams.
These galleries allow for easy access to pictures taken by staffers, but also allows for their work to be shown off to more than just the team members. |
Organization
In order to allow for the most organization between Yearbook and Insider, we use a program called SmugMug. This program allows us to import as many photos into galleries, which are sorted into folders breaking the year up into seasons, which then gets broken down into specific events taken by staffers.
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On the main page of SmugMug, you can see the years we have been using it. Originally, we were using google photos, but because of changes with our schools code, we can no longer share pictures through google.
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After you choose the year and season, you are then directed to the galleries for different "key topics" of the separate folders.
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Inside these folders, you can find galleries put together by different staffers, allowing you to know exactly who to credit.
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Finally, you can open a folder and see all the pictures uploaded by a staffer, and download them to use.
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The one thing we stress the hardest within our program is crediting your photographers. If a photo was taken by anyone other than you, you should always ask permission before sharing.
Photo Fluency
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Working with limited equipment is very difficult for us, given that we have two programs filled with passionate students, but only 4 cameras.
Teaching students how to take good photos is very difficult because we don't have the required materials to teach each staffer how to take photos. The best way I have found to teach staffers how to use equipment professionally is by creating sets of "quick tips." I use this method to allow quick and concise information for the most common questions I am asked as the Editor-in-Chief. |
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