Link is a three week internship experience for all Juniors at Animas High school. It allows students to explore different careers and helps students start to decide what they might want as a potential career.
For my internship, I got the amazing opportunity to work with Candace Cross, a professional photographer that works in Durango, Colorado. Candace focuses on many different aspects of photography, from family photo shoots, to baby showers, to weddings, all while keeping her photos artistically pleasing and realistic. To start off my internship, Candace lent me her Nikon D750 and taught me how to use manual which requires the adjustment of settings depending on the lighting during the shoot. After going over all of the settings, Candace sent me off to do my own photo shoot with my dad and sister. I'll admit, I did struggle at first with the settings because I couldn't get the lighting just right. It was either too light or too dark. However, once I got the hang of it, I found it to be very enjoyable. After looking through all of the photos and pulling the ones I liked the most, then taught me how to edit photos in Adobe Light Room. She showed me how to create a beautiful photo with the right amount of exposure, and contrast. After the first week of internships, we decided to fly to Charleston, South Carolina where we did a styled shoot. I'll have to admit, this was a very exciting experience for me. We collaborated with Tiger Lily Florists and Allure Bridals for the flowers and the wedding dress and we had two beautiful models that we could not have done this without. We met our models around 5:00 pm for the shoot and went to a beautiful park in Charleston and photographed them under the greenery. We then went to some of the beautiful older houses and photographed them in front of the architecture. Last, but not least we went to The Battery, a stretch of sidewalk along the ocean and took pictures. Although, the models were not actually getting married, it was a very neat experience and it made me look forward to having the opportunity to possibly shoot my own wedding someday.
Reflection
I think one of the most valuable things coming into link was the experience I had already had with photography. Although it was not professional experience, I had taken personal time to learn about contrast and exposure and how to edit photos to look realistic. However, the editing prior to my internship was always on my phone. The most valuable thing I learned during link was how to edit photos on a Mac. This is very different then editing photos on a phone and it takes precision and patience. I learned a lot of important things through challenges. For example, as discussed above, at the beginning of my internship I struggled with adjusting the lighting for my first photo shoot. I found myself frustrated and wanting to quit but I took some deep breaths and kept trying until I figured it out. It's very important to have patience even when you fail. If you were to just give up you would never succeed, and that is one of the most important things I learned while facing challenges during my internship. Although I do not believe that photography is something I will choose for a future career, this internship allowed me to become more confident in the search for a future career.