Class Blog — Foothill Photography

It all started when…

I took my very first photography class at Foothill High School. I sat down at my computer wide eyed and ready to begin my journey to become a photographer, to show the world what I saw through my own personal lens. After my first project I was hooked on the medium and took the class for the second time my senior year and after I graduated, I couldn’t wait to learn more! I then attended the California State University of Sacramento to get my BA in Photography. There I thrived! I had the opportunity to learn about the history of photography, alternate processing and classic film photography. Those four years flew by way too fast, but my journey to becoming an artist was far from over. Soon after college, I found my new home at Studio One Photography where I learned real world applications, modern use of artificial lighting and so much more that I could fill an entire book. The studio’s main focus was high school senior portraits, so it was there that I was able to interact with thousands of students each year. From the time I started working at the studio, I was also coaching Foothill’s color guard. The hours were long and as much as I loved teaching the students, my heart was pulled back to my photography career. After my time ended working with the marching band I found myself with a void in my heart and soon realized that I missed seeing my student’s successes, joy and growth. At that moment I enrolled at National University to get my single subject in Art while obtaining my Masters in Education. During the school year of 2019-2020 I began my journey as an educator where my passion for photography was born, Foothill High School. I am now teaching in the same classroom where my career as a photographer began. I hope that my class can become a safe haven for students to be creative, ask questions, and grow both as an artist and as a human.

who i am as a teacher & learner

Who I am as a student says a lot about how my class is taught. Here are a couple styles that you can expect to see when taking my photography class.

I am an overwhelmingly visual learner!
- As a photography is all about learning HOW to see the world and the beautiful ways that light illuminates to beauty in our world. Without being able to see and capture light, there is no art of photography.
- In this class we will look at copious amounts of photographs from our past, our present and our student photographers to analyze composition, content, lighting design and concept.
- in the words of Annie Lebovitz, “It takes years to understand how to see.” By the end of this class, students will have started their journey to strengthen their photographic eye!
I am both an active and reflective learner
- These traits will serve an artist well, in this class we will have many studio projects which means students will have many occasions to use a DSLR camera as well as strobe lighting to get a hands on education in the medium. There are some many different application to the art that the only way to learn is by doing!
- Self reflection will be a large part of the course. Students artists will have their own personal class notebook to track their personal growth through class projects. Students are expected to reflect on what skills they are strongest in and what they would like to grow more in.