story and photo by Lucas Wilcox, sixth grade, Fayston Elementary School
In his own words:
My name is Lucas and I love photography. This passion started last year when I heard about the Vermont Drinking Water Week photo contest. Mrs. Morse, a teacher in my class, brought in her camera and took me outside so I could take pictures of the stream and enter them into the contest. The focus was on clean drinking water. I ended up winning the contest and I’m very happy that I won.
My parents saw how much I like photography and I ended up getting a camera for Christmas. It’s a Canon Powershot SX510. The camera can take many different kinds of photos, including fish-eye, which makes the photo look round. It can zoom in really far even though you can’t change the lens. It also has a quick shutter speed. I print most of my photos at home, but when I want them glossy and in different sizes, I use Photo Garden, which is online. I can have the photos sent to me or I can pick them up on Dorset Street in Burlington.
I recently entered another youth photo contest. The category is environmental photos and I can enter up to 20 for this contest. So far I’ve taken pictures of the moon, which I titled “Moon From My Room.” I’ve also taken pictures of trees and sunsets and will choose some of these to enter into the contest.
I’ve done a lot of exploring and experimenting with my camera. Recently I had the idea of trying a technique that Mrs. Morse described to me, the Bulb Effect. This is when you keep the shutter open and wave a flashlight while taking a picture. I do this by putting my camera on manual, then I can turn it to multi selector, which will control my shutter speed. The outcome is really cool!
This is a perfect example of how you can find a passion that you never knew you had. My teacher told me about a contest and from there I have learned a lot and have grown as a photographer.
