High School Photography

Halfway through my senior year of high school, I decided to drop French and take up Photography. Many of my friends were taking photo, and it seemed like a fun way to ride out the end of high school with minimal work. I was also taking yearbook class that year and had learned early on that a camera in hand was as good as, and oftentimes better than, a hall pass.

I had so much fun that I also took Photo in college, and discovered that it was a lot harder than high school made it out to be. I could never get the film to develop correctly on my own, and in college I could no longer depend on my friends to do it for me. My borrowed camera had a broken light meter, so I never got the exposure quite right. Most of the assignments were about nature and since I worked when I wasn't in school, I didn't quite have the time to drive out to the countryside to take photos of cows. I didn't do as well in the college class.

I wish I had stuck with it though, it was a lot of fun and I'm not terrible at it. And now if I want access to a dark room, financial aid won't cover it.

Here are a couple of my favourite high school photo class works:

The assignment was patterns or something. All I know is that the photo teacher liked this one so much, he made me submit it to a photo show. Sure, it was just at a bank, but in Concord, CA that's probably about as prestigious as it gets.

The assignment was shadows. This isn't the one I ultimately turned in - I thought it was too obvious what the shadows were shadowing, but over the years I've decided that I really like this one.

And the requisite Murray photo. Printed in reverse.