Portfolio Reflection

   Unlike many other entrants, I was not born with a camera clutched by my hands, nor have I received any extensive training on the techniques and nuances of photography. Instead, my experience this past year as a new photographer was one of discomfort, growth and eventually passion. 
    My name is Benjamin Stein, and I am currently one of the Editors-in-Chief of Palo Alto High School’s newspaper, The Campanile. After a semester of contributing stories to the paper, I eventually joined as a staff writer during the second semester of this (my junior) year. This was also about the time when I was asked to take my first photo for the paper. With no prior experience with photography and only the basic knowledge of what button on the camera to hit when I want to take a picture, I was sent to take a portrait of our school principal the day he announced his retirement. 
    To me, journalism has always been about telling stories. I spend hours conducting interviews that some of my peers could finish in less than five minutes, simply because I want to gain a full understanding of ideas, experiences and perspectives of the person I am interviewing. I took this same mentality with my when I entered the principal’s office. I wanted to tell the story of his time as principal: relatively brief, for the most part respected, but also clouded by the chaos of Title IX issues that rocked the Palo Alto Unified School District only three years ago.
     I certainly overstayed my welcome as I photographed him for around 15 minutes (likely 14 minutes more than the length of time he expected it to take), but I was lucky I did so as only one of the pictures was remotely usable. Amid a sea of overexposed, out of focus garbage was one photo that captured exactly what I wanted to portray. A balance between highlights and shadows, illuminating one side of the face and clouding the other. 
    That picture was the start. I began to actively seek out photo assignments and look for visual ways to tell stories. I watched a few YouTube videos to familiarize myself with the basic functions of the camera, and I now am comfortable with the basics of shutter speed and aperture. Yet even today, technique is still an afterthought as I chase bigger and more important stories. From photographing scenes of daily life during COVID-19 to capturing the emotions of Black Lives Matter protests, my primary goal is to seek out and tell the stories of normal people doing unique and extraordinary things. 
    Now more than ever, the future is uncertain. Regardless of what the world has in store for us, I hope to continue capturing meaningful images that document people, events, and the stories that surround all of us.