digital photo exhibit 2008

Students give a glimpse into their world through
digital photo exhibit

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and it is true that sometimes a photograph can tell a story without using words at all. Cal-Mum High School students studying digital photography in Kathy Allen’s class are telling their stories through a photography exhibit called Portraits of Ourselves and Our Worlds. The collection of portraits opened May 10 at the Big Springs Museum in Caledonia and runs through the month.

   The exhibit features the students’ portraits and a portrait of someone they believe they are like in some way. Some students featured a parent, grandparent or a friend. The collection of photographs and the accompanying biographies written by the students, tells their individual stories.

   The students say they really enjoy the digital photo class because it has taught them how to select a subject for their photos and how to capture the subtleties that exist with the camera lens

   "I learned that taking a photograph of a simple subject can be beautiful," Sadie Stoller commented. She is a sophomore who studies digital photography in the fall semester.

   "I like photography and wanted to be in the class. Now I see the lines and shapes in nature when I take a photo," Renee Bullard explained.

   Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Amke Hinrichs, admits that she initially signed up for the class because other students told her there would be a lot of field trips. She wanted to see as much of Western New York as possible during her year-long stay here so she took digital photo. After learning as much as she did about photography, the 17-year old says she loves the class and taking photographs. Amke has taken nearly 3,000 photographs while here in the Cal-Mum community this school year, which she will burn to CD and take back to Germany with her.

   The course covers the elements of good photography, how to properly use a digital camera, how to use a photograph in multi-media projects including webpages. The students use Adobe Photoshop Elements digital photo editing software to produce their images. This is the second year that Allen has taught digital photography and says the students are very enthused about the photos they take for class projects.

   The exhibit of Cal-Mum High School students digital photography portraits will be at the Big Springs Museum on Main Street in Caledonia throughout the month of May.