With an emphasis  on teaching different facets of photography in their first semester meetings, the MVHS Photography Club plans to focus more on photo editing this semester. Photography Club also plans to host fundraisers and field trips for their club, as well as provide amenities for school events, like the photo booth they organized for this year’s Cure Cancer Cruise. The club struggled with a lack of member presence in the past couple of years — one of the reasons, according to sophomore and director of technology Mukta Uparkar, being that meetings did not have a filled agenda — but this year, that roadblock has been much less significant for them. 

Each club meeting consists of a Powerpoint, where members learn a certain photography skill, coupled with a demonstration. The club’s officers have had different experiences regarding photography before becoming a part of Photography Club, but all of them believe that joining the club has allowed them to improve their photography skills.

A major goal of the club this year is to increase member attendance, as well as to spread the passion that the officers have for the art form through their meetings. Junior and public relations manager Patrick Nguyen feels that being a part of Photography Club has given him opportunities to fine tune his photography assets and he feels the club is a way for someone to dive deeper into the visual art.

“I just really hope that we get more participation for the club and that people start to join and sort of spread this love for photography and visual representation,” Nguyen said. “It’s difficult to understand when you’re from an outside perspective, but as a photographer it’s a really good way for you to visually represent your emotions or how you’re feeling, and it’s like an outlet for you to let some of those emotions go.”

On top of its lunch meetings, the Photography Club has created more opportunities for its club involvement  by organizing club apparel and creating photography gigs at events like dances and field trips. Senior and vice president Surya Ramesh, who is in charge of club communications, has helped Photography Club receive bookings at events such as the annual Cure Cancer Cruise and leadership gatherings. After having been in the club since freshman year, Ramesh also would like to see more members present at meetings and describes how the club is trying to have more underclassmen join in order to ensure members for future years.

For the future, the officers hope to have the club take part in more field trips as another hands-on method of applying photography skills, which would give members more freedom regarding what they are photographing, according to Uparkar. Going to San Francisco is a field trip she hopes the club will accomplish this semester.

“[The members] get way more experience than they do just in the classroom sitting because we meet them once every two weeks and that too is just for 45 minutes, right?” Uparkar said. “It was kind of advertised that they would go to San Francisco and they thought it would be a super fun experience because it’s a bit more interesting than hiking.”

Another technique the officers would like to implement to ensure member presence at meetings is a stricter attendance policy, according to junior and president Michelle Wang.

“We have some instances where members aren’t showing up, like we need to hold them more accountable,” Wang said. “I just hope [the club] brings more awareness for people to see that there’s more to photography than just snapping a shutter button or taking a photo. […] I just hope people are more aware and are more interested in photography.”