From the Classroom: Digital Photography Portfolio by JiaJia Fu ‘22

This trimester, I took Digital Photography for the first time. We spent the trimester learning about the technical and artistic mechanisms behind photography. We then put our newly-learned skills and mindsets to work throughout the weeks to go out during class to take photos, following a theme which we're interested in. Our work culminated in a portfolio - 5 photos to tell a story through what we've learned about photography. This is mine, which describes my experiences with a family of swans growing up at a lake near my house.

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Rockland State Park is a place I’ve been visiting all my life - I remember countless strolls with my parents around the park’s placid glacial lake, nestled in the wooly Appalachian mountains. We visited mostly for the exercise, watching the honking flocks of Canadian geese and occasionally, excitedly spotting a swan couple bobbing in the distance. 

But a couple months ago, our usual round-the-lake walk was interrupted with a pleasant surprise - a family of swans - 2 snowy, elegant parents with their 5 grey, patchy offspring. They nonchalantly glided through the water and shuffled on to shore, right in front of the cluster of trees I was crouching behind. Touting my camera, I inched closer as they began eagerly grooming and stretching. 

Initially untrusting my presence, the children shot suspicious glances in between preens, with the wary mother hissing a warning if I moved too abruptly. But as we returned for weekly walks and visited the family in their usual grove weekend after weekend, they grew accustomed to my intrusions, and allowed me to witness their most warm, vulnerable, and intimate moments. As the weeks went by, I got the opportunity to watch and capture them growing up, physically - as they got bigger and their feathers gradually turned white - and emotionally, as they dared to venture farther from their parents, flap their wings, and prepare for their independent lives ahead.