Through this project I want to learn the many different elements of photography. More specifically, I want to learn how many different small elements will affect the photographs I’m taking, whether that be lighting, backdrop, poses, or anything else that I may not think of without being educated on photography. 

Secondly, I want to learn how to edit photographs. I know that there are many editing styles, and I want to learn how each of those can affect a photo. Editing can change a photo completely to tell a different story and I’d like to learn how to properly do that. 

Lastly, I want to learn how a photographer with their own business gets customers, how they set up a time and place to do photo sessions, how to decide how much money to charge, and even how they interact with the customers when they are together in person. 

Since I was a young child, I’ve always been interested in photography in general. I’ve had many lower quality cameras, where I would do fake photoshoots with my younger sister, cousins, and friends just in my front yard. Through the years I continued to like photography, and I got a higher quality camera for Christmas during highschool. However, I’ve stopped doing photography as much because I’ve gotten more and more busy with school and having a job. 

Throughout my childhood and into recent years I’ve gone through many phases of being interested in taking photos of many different things, such as photos of nature, candid pictures of people, photos of architecture, and portraits. I’d like to explore more into the photography world to decide which types that I’d like to work more on and truly perfect. 

I am the person who will mainly benefit from this. The first way I will benefit is that I’m going to be making more time for doing something that I actually enjoy doing. This is very important because everyone should have their own way to escape and do something that they like to do. Another way I could possibly benefit from this is I could get money from it. Obviously right now my skill level isn’t good enough to charge people for me to take photos of them, but after I learn how to properly take photos as well as edit I will be able to ask for money. This will serve as a nice “side hustle” both in the near future and even as an extra job farther in the future on top of what I want to do as a career. 

Also, I believe that the people I am close to will benefit from this. Photographs are an amazing way to document memories, and they give people something to look back on and reminisce. As long as I’m taking photographs of the people I am close to, they’ll have something that they can look back on any time they want for the rest of their lives that serves as a refresher to their memories of “the good old days.”

Currently, I have no education on photography, practically anyone can snap a picture on their phone or camera, but there are many things that photographers know will affect the photograph itself. I will need to learn all of these things that affect a photograph, whether that be lighting, backdrop, the person’s pose, shadows, or other things I possibly haven’t even heard of yet. On top of that, I’ll also need to know how lenses and different cameras will affect a photograph. When my cousin took his senior photos, I know that the photographer had three different cameras with them, so I think it’ll be important to know how those different cameras affected his photos.

Editing photos is a very important part of photography, and currently I’m not sure where to start with that. Right now I just use an app on my phone called VSCO and the photo app that comes preinstalled on my windows computer at home. To learn about editing I’ll first need to know which editing apps are high quality, and then I’ll need to learn about the app itself, and how everything works.

Currently I have a few essential things that I’ll need to learn about photography. I have a nice camera, which will be helpful just to learn elements of how different cameras work. I also have a laptop at home, which I can use for editing.

There are a few resources that I have that will help me. I know a couple of different photographers that I can ask to teach me and be my mentor throughout the process of my learning. I know that practice makes perfect, and I’ll need people to take pictures of as well, and I believe a lot of my family members and friends would be willing to let me experiment different photography styles or methods with them. Lastly, if I ever need to know something about a specific software or camera that my mentor doesn’t know, I can always do research online.

My timeline will start very shortly. I will first have to ask the photographers that I know if they will help me with this process. I will then have various times within the next couple of months where I will meet up with my mentor, to watch them do photo sessions and I’ll ask any questions that I have. During those months I will also get together with family and friends to take photos of them, and I’ll spend my free time editing the photos I take so I can develop my skills. Then, I will make a final product of a senior year photo album.