Update
I was recently accepted into the Ohio University School of Visual Communication, my top choice school because of this program, and I am one step closer to pursuing a career in photojournalism in the future. I am so proud of how far I have come as a photographer and am so excited to improve my skills in the coming years at college. The following pictures are the portfolio I presented to VisCom at my interview a few weeks ago. Since I am interested in photojournalism, these photos are more documentary and most feature people. Many of these photos are from my experiences in theatre because it is something I spend so much of my time doing and something I have grown to love to photograph. Others are from my winter break trip to Key West, Florida where I tried to capture the "island time" vibe of the people that live and work on the island, and also captured many photos of my own family, more sentimental pieces of mine. Other images are from a service program I participate in called "Run the Race". It's located in the Hilltop of Columbus and I go down weekly with a local church group to spend time with kids from the area to try to show them that they are loved and to break the cycle of crime and violence starting with the youth. These images were my attempt to show the compassion given to these children by the volunteers and the joy and innocence that these kids hold, even though they are not being raised in the best of situations. I am very proud of this portfolio and what I can say about it, how I feel about it and how it affects me, because I feel like that is a crucial part of success in photojournalism. However, when looking at these pictures, I still see a lot of flaws that I need to work on. Specifically, patience to look for the right moment and focusing on the overall composition of the image. In college, I hope to grow in my experience and skill as a photographer, no matter where I choose to attend.
