Photography Club offers the power to capture moments allowing others to see the world from unique perspectives. It caters to Papio South’s diverse student body and offers experiences through design and visuals. The sponsor of the club is Dr. Mike Musil, and the club meets every first and third Thursday of the month in Musil’s classroom, D04.
Sophomore Adyson Brown, one of the club’s leaders, said her interest in photography developed naturally.
“It first started with a hawk in my backyard. I took a picture – it was perfect timing, because it had just caught another bird,” Brown said.
Brown described her favorite part of photography as “having the freedom to take pictures of practically anything and being able to be out in the wilderness.”
Sophomore Anastasia Allebach, another club leader, was first inspired by another photographer’s work.
“I had seen this lady taking photos for people, and she had some of her work downtown. Her work was beautiful, so I started [taking pictures] and eventually fell in love with it.”
That love led Allebach to Photography Club. Currently, there are about eight to 10 regular participants in the club.
Meetings have a standard setup. Half of the meeting is in the classroom, learning and discussing the topics for the day. The second half of the meeting is application, going out and applying what was learned, Musil explained.
“We’ve talked about how to not physically set up a photo, but visually set up photos and what to look for. We also share different ways to edit photos and enhance them,” Musil said.
“Some of the most memorable moments are when we go and take pictures. I love to see the pride a student will have with their photos and when they get to edit the photos, deciding which ones they truly love.”
As rewarding as photography can be, it can be even more fulfilling when there is the opportunity to share compositions with other photo fans. This is one of the many benefits to having a place where students can do what they’re interested in, while sharing and learning with others who have similar interests.
“It’s a free experience,” Brown said. “There are always new things to do – you have free rein to get creative.”
For people like Allebach, it’s an artform. “Through a lens you can see more than what a naked eye sees. It gives different aspects of the world the average person might not see,” Allebach said.
Despite the numerous qualities the Photography Club has to offer, there are many goals for the club’s future. Musil has many upcoming opportunities for the club.
“One of our goals is to try multimedia. We are having a National Geographic photographer from Spain Zoom with us sometime in the future,” Musil said.
Brown said the main short-term goal of the club was, “to get more people and get to go to more games and events. We go to practices all together. We have gone to powerlifting, basketball, and wrestling.”
Not only do you get a new experience, Allebach said, you get a new opportunity. “It’s better to try something new so you don’t regret not trying in the future.”
