Caught a camera pointed your way in class recently? Don’t worry, you weren’t being spied on! Mrs. Carrick’s Photo 2 students were on a creative mission to capture everyday moments to tell the story of daily life at North Penn High School.
A large group of Photo 2 students went around North Penn classrooms and photographed moments that can tell a story with the help of a caption.
Karli Buera: Karli visited Mr. Boucher’s blood analysis lab and Ms. Panaski’s Unified PE class in the Aux Gym. Karli chose to use a photo she got from the blood analysis lab as her final copy.
“The biggest challenge for me was that class was always going on and you can’t just get every shot you want…but this assignment did help me learn how to notice special moments and photograph them,” Buera explained.
Haley Moylan: Haley visited the same classes as Karli, however she went in the opposite order and instead chose her final photo as one from the Unified PE class.
“Awkwardness of the situation was really the hardest challenge for me, especially if you wanna get a good, close angle. I got better at the interaction aspect [thanks to this assignment] and that helped get rid of the awkwardness,” Moylan said.
Isabella Dickman: Isabella photographed Mr. Werner’s animation course as well as Ms. Wallace’s food science class.
Isabella preferred a photograph she got of a student in Mr. Werner’s animation class.
“The hardest thing for me was to really find the right moment to photograph. You don’t really know who wants their photo taken or if they feel comfortable with you photographing them. [This assignment] forces you to branch out a little which is good for me as a photographer,” Dickman claimed.
Mohammed Khan: Mohammed went a different route and visited Mr. Bauman’s astronomy class in the planetarium. However, the lighting there made it very difficult to get a compositionally good photo. He went around this obstacle by capturing the construction workers and their working life outside of the classrooms.
“The hardest thing about this assignment for me was taking pictures of people I don’t know, but also trying to get photos in the planetarium was difficult. It got to a point where I thought, ‘you’re here already, might as well get your photographing out of the way and don’t be anxious,’” Khan explained.
Kat Panachyda: Kat went out and photographed Mr. Young’s physics class and Mr. Galuchie’s Latin IV honors class.
Panachyda ultimately decided her best photo was one she got of a group of students in Mr. Young’s class.
“It did feel a little weird to take photos and get up close to people who you aren’t really familiar with, but getting over the awkwardness was a big lesson from this assignment… [this assignment] helped me learn to look at ordinary things in a different way too,” Panachyda said.
Marcel Swyter: Marcel took on the challenge of photographing in the planetarium, however, he faced the same issues as Mohammed. He ended up choosing a picture he got from Mr. Werner’s animation class. Although his photo is a similar idea to Isabella’s, he gives us a whole new perspective.
“Getting into the mood of the classroom and kinda just inserting yourself in a place where you feel like you don’t belong was difficult…over time I learned that people are kinda chill and they don’t really care too much about being photographed,” Swyter shared.
Noel Stahlecker: Noel photographed Mr. Wilson’s economics class and Mr. Manero’s English class. He decided his
display photo would be one he got of a student doing group work in Mr. Wilson’s class.
“There were a lot of parts of this assignment that were very uncomfortable for me, but I think that is the most important thing. I learned that people are very accepting of photos and this was a fun experience for me trying something new,” Stahlecker said.
All of these photography students faced similar challenges in their efforts, however, they all overcame them in different ways. In the end these young photographers were given the opportunity to try something new and develop their photography skills in a spontaneous way.
