Following the congregation of numerous clubs and organizations at the club fair, where club leaders shared information with prospective members, some new clubs attracted the attention of many. One of these new clubs was the Photography Club with more students signed up than any other club this school year.

“Even though [the Photography Club] had eighty sign-ups, we’re not expecting all eighty to actually show up,” Photography Club Secretary senior Jake Moser said. “We would be happy if even half of the people that signed up actually showed up.”

The Photography Club focuses on all aspects of photography and aims to teach its members how interesting photography can be, and its depth from photographing techniques to developing film.

“I think people should join to learn, enjoy and experience the world of photography,” Photography Club President senior Jasper Scherz said. “Over the summer, I personally got into developing my own film and thought it was really interesting.”

The adviser of the club, and new chemistry teacher, Courtland Ferreria-Douglas feels that WHS lacks the bonds that could make a tighter knit community and hopes that Photography Club can fill that hole by adding a touch of flavor around the school. Photography Club aims to personalize WHS by posting members’ photographs around the school and highlighting the small things in life.

“Honestly, right now WHS is a good community and supportive too, but sometimes it feels like students are kind of disconnected,” Scherz said. “I have a vision that the Photography Club can make WHS a better place by giving students a personal connection to the school through the pictures we plan to post around the [buildings].”

The club is low commitment and will meet every Monday after school for about an hour.

“We also are writing up a schedule plan so that members of the club know what to expect each day and what to learn,” Photography Club Vice President senior Keita Williams said. “But anyone can feel free to stop by and come check us out.”

During the first half of each meeting, leaders will go over photography lessons covering a variety of topics from angles to lighting. In the latter half of each meeting, members will put their new skills into action and take pictures around the WHS campus.

“There’s a lot more to photography than people think, and I want to teach people that join the skills they need to improve,” Scherz said.

To make the club more exciting, the leaders decided to implement weekly competitions: students will submit their best photo of the week and the club will vote on each week’s winner. The winning shot will then be posted on the club’s Instagram page run by Social Media Manager senior David Arenas.

“After discussing about it with the other founders of the club, we decided to make weekly competitions a thing,” Arenas said. “We thought that [weekly competitions] would help spice things up.”

The leaders of the Photography Club believe that photography is the perfect hobby for high school students to take up because of how accessible and applicable it can be in a person’s everyday life.

“I think the best part about photography is that you can pretty much use it everywhere,” Scherz said. “Technology is really advanced these days, so you don’t even need to have a nice camera to take pictures. You can just use your phone and still take some really nice [photos].”

With a crowd of new members to please and a reputation to establish, the leaders of photography are ready to step up to the challenge of creating a new club worthy of the attention that it’s garnered.

“We already have many fun activities in line that members can look forward to,” Williams said.