Photography
Atlanta at Night, 2018
When I joined the staff two years ago, with a prior interest in photography, I naturally gravitated towards photojournalism. Of course, like most things in life, it was not what I expected. I wasn’t assigned to the sidelines of football games and pep rallies. Instead, I was placed on stories about Chinese restaurants, female mechanics, and coronavirus. It’s not the average high school photojournalism experience. Nevertheless, I have pushed myself to consistently bring creative and insightful photography to each of my assignments. Even though COVID-19, I have adapted to still safely provide graphics for several in-print and online stories. For example, when the online editor didn’t have a photo for a standardized testing story, I found every prep book in my house and had in my house and had a photoshoot on my dining room table.
Unfortunately, with COVID-19, I was not able to shoot at any sports games in my time with The Emery. I was scheduled to shoot spring sports in the 2019-2020 school year but they were canceled due to COVID-19 safety protocols within my district. Additionally, after discussing with my parents who have preexisting conditions, they were not comfortable shooting at games this year. Hopefully, in college, when things go back to normal, I will be able to focus more time on sports photography.
My Impact on The Emery's Photojournalism
Before I arrived, The Huron Emery lacked a real photojournalism culture. Many of the photos used in our publication were blurry and out of focus. Now, as EIC, I have worked to incorporate photojournalism into our paper. First, I integrated photo education within our curriculum and summer boot camp. I have taught lessons on operating a camera, writing captions, photo composition, and editing. Additionally, we are encouraging people to use DSLR over iPhone cameras. By using DSLRs, we are able to increase the overall quality of images.
This was a presentation I gave to both the editors and staff that goes through step-by-step how to create a photo story, specifically with limited resources in the pandemic.