Up until my junior year of high school, Scot Scoop, a national award-winning website, did not have a specific photojournalist role. I changed that.

 

My journey began at the beginning of my sophomore year. I joined the journalism program at my school and signed up to write articles about sports, as that was what piqued my interest as an athlete. The moment I wrote my first beat, I fell in love with the photography that accompanied my writing. I continued covering sports games around my school, and I took pride in the improvement I saw in my beats. I was especially proud of the increasing quality of my pictures, and I began wishing for a new way to express my passion for photography. I believed that pictures had the power to tell a story by themselves, and I no longer wanted to write an article to publish my photos.

 

It was impossible to accomplish my goal until I forged my own path during my junior year. After many discussions with my advisor, we finally created a new position for me within the program, and I became the first official photojournalist for Scot Scoop. After earning this new role, I immediately immersed myself in everything I could to ensure I made a real difference. As I developed my skills as a photojournalist, I worked with my advisor to maximize the quality of my photo beats while also advocating that we should expand upon the new position we had built. Eventually, we agreed that I should become a photo editor for the program, and with that, I would oversee several new photojournalists.

 

While I was excited to take on this new role, I was anxious about balancing my time between mentoring peers and designating enough time for personal improvement. However, I had faith in my ability to learn and I was ready for the challenge; more importantly, I was ready to prove myself. I spent countless hours photographing any event I had time to attend, moved outside of my comfort zone to experiment with new techniques, and used what I learned to not only refine my own skills but also to refine our organization’s photography program. I shared my knowledge with other photojournalists by giving them pointers and advice and helped our entire program by giving presentations while simultaneously helping with any questions they had about photography. In addition, I continued to work with my advisor to refine the rubric and improve the look of the website. Throughout the semester and my journey as a photo editor, I have learned a lot about the camera and photography and, more importantly, how to be a leader.

 

As does every artist who aspires to be the best possible, I continue to refine my photography by experimenting with my camera settings, trying out creative shot angles, and taking pictures in more diverse environments. Now, I feel that my high-quality galleries of 10-20 photos have the power to convey a message much stronger than if I were to use just my words. My love for sports led me on an amazing journey to discovering my passion for photography. The long process of learning basic camera skills to becoming the photo editor for Scot Scoop brought many challenges that I am glad to have faced. Not only have they pushed me as a person, but they allowed me to pave a path for other journalists like myself to grow as photographers.