Want to learn how to capture and edit pictures like a professional? Do you have a passion for both creativity and hands-on technical learning? If so, you should enroll in the Photography elective when selecting your classes for the upcoming school year.  

This course, offered to grades 10-12, explores the technical makeup of the Digital single-lens reflexive (DSLR) camera and dives into skills involving aperture, shutter speed, lens types, and lighting. Students are also introduced to the basics of Photoshop and learn how to use green screens.

The Photography elective is an experimental and exciting course in which students have the opportunity to elevate their photography skills beyond the classroom. One major project includes the Alphabet Soup assignment, where students look inside and outside the building for letters that occur naturally as they appear. Students also go on a texture scavenger hunt and learn about taking portraits by taking pictures of their peers around the school. Students also express their creativity during the final project involving green screen photography and video.

“It lets me express myself and expand my knowledge in one of my favorite things to do, which is to take pictures,” says a sophomore currently taking the course. 

When talking to Ms.Coen, the elective’s instructor, she stated, “Students of any kind would enjoy the class – they should want to take photos and learn about photography, but the products are flexible in what is produced, so students have freedom in how they take those photographs. If they find they like the class, they can do a semester or year-long independent study with me the following year, and we are hoping to add a second level to the course soon.”

Photography is a half-year elective worth 2.5 credits and does not require a prerequisite course.