By Kate Wallace
If you’re headed to the Good Earth Food Co-op soon, be sure to take a moment to check out the photos lining the wall in the café area. SCTCC Foundation Digital Photography students have taken over the space, along with the art case near door 6 on campus, showcasing their projects from this past semester.
Four students met with me on an April afternoon to talk about the class and the photo projects they worked on though the semester. Even though almost everyone has a camera as a part of their phone these days, students are ready to learn more about how the settings on a digital camera work along with learning about composition and different kinds of photography.
“I wanted to do something really fun, and I’ve been taking pictures for a while and like composition and colors,” said Petra Mickelson. “My uncle just gave me a camera, so I thought I’d take this class and see what a camera camera does instead of a phone.”
Part of the class is learning about exposure, aperture, and other settings that most camera phones do automatically. Getting different results from changing different settings was satisfying and one way that Kelsey Skold was able to see progress through the semester: “I have a camera and wanted to learn how to use it. Learning how to set it and changing the exposure, that definitely made my pictures better. Learning how to edit made my photos better, too,” she said.
Editing was a common favorite among all of the students. Chase Mansell mentioned that his favorite projects were the ones where you could do whatever you wanted didn’t have to follow set plans. Abby’s Siniger’s favorite was absolutely the project that was more about post-production in photography. She spent time on the photo, absolutely, but she really dug in on editing the photo afterward.
All students are working on their AA degree. Abby plans to further her education in computer science, with the hopes of studying abroad in a couple years. Kelsey is heading to law school after graduating from SCTCC next spring. Chase hopes to head to Florida or Texas after getting his generals at SCTCC to pursue an engineering career. Petra’s plan is to focus on a theater major after SCTCC.
What was interesting was how each of them saw how photography fit into their lives as a hobby that they would likely keep. Abby was excited to tie her photography into her plans for studying abroad— she said it was a skill she would be very happy to take with her to Europe to get better photos. Kelsey mentioned photography on the side as an option, and Chase said that it’s great to have a general skill that’s better than average.
Two sections of the Foundation Digital Photography class are offered Fall '22 as a Goal Area 6 class. Want to see the class in action? One of the projects they work on during the semester is street photography, where you may see students in various locations on campus taking photos of people. All the students said this was one of the more awkward projects for them, so if you’re willing to be a photography subject when you see students out with cameras, they will be very appreciative!
Abby, Chase, Kelsey, and Petra all recommend this class to anyone needing to fulfill an elective who has an interest in photography.
“It’s a lot more work than people think it is—the right composition and lighting are hard sometimes. But if you’re patient and you have a good creative flow, then I would say it’s a good hobby,” said Petra. “I like this class. It’s a good way to close out my time here.”
