Senior Retrospective: Alma Fleeman, Photographer

When I was choosing classes for my freshman year I knew that I wanted to do journalism. The subject is just very interesting, learning how to bring news to the school fascinated me. The first year was really fun. We learned the basics of journalism and got to practice writing our own stories. I decided that for my sophomore year I wanted to take photojournalism instead of immediately going into newspaper.

I think this was the best decision for me because I discovered a passion for taking photos. We had so many fun projects in photojournalism and it was one of my favorite classes. I gained a lot of experience from this class as taking photos turned into something that I really wanted to do for newspaper. I realized that I enjoyed taking photos a lot more than writing stories.

Junior year I joined newspaper. I did a healthy mix of stories and photos. I was definitely more exclusive to photos though. While I was happy to write stories I was more happy to take photos, so they made me the main photographer. I got to go to a lot of cool events just to take photos; such as, the plays, the musical, international night, and the pep rallies. I got a lot of inspiration from working on this and felt like I was doing something important.

Senior year I returned to newspaper. I made it my goal this year to work mainly with photography and less with the stories. Writing stories didn’t give me as much joy as photos did. I believed that it was easier for me to capture a moment through photos than it was through writing stories. So, senior year, I was the main photographer along with the photo editor. This year I got to help choose photos if it wasn’t possible for me to take them. This offered me a lot of experience and problem-solving skills.

Newspaper gave me so much delight and I’m so glad that it was a part of my life. I made so many friends and was taught by one of the best teachers in this school, Mrs. Whaley. This class really has shaped my life and taught me so much. While we became stressed at times, the payoff of getting everything posted and everything finally done was worth it.