The Pacific Northwest is a vast, diverse geographic region. The highest peak in the area is Mount Rainier, in the Washington Cascades, at 14,410 feet high. Surrounding the mountain are meadows of wildflowers, colorful ocean tidepools and ancient forests. In preparation for Earth Week, the photography club took a field trip the Olympic National Park to capture the beauty of the local environment.
Several presentation boards of student projects were displayed in the cafeteria throughout Earth Week to raise awareness of the finer photography at Bellevue College, as well as serve as a visual representation of the environment the school strives to preserve.
The photography club has a following that fluctuates every quarter, but most weeks it has 20-30 active, artistic participants. Meetings and field trips are great places for photography students to share techniques and tips. “The students themselves voted through the process and they decided on the Olympic National Park, the reason being that they thought they could take nature inspired shots,” said Chad White, a photography instructor at BC.
The pieces in the gallery were carefully chosen to best represent the beauty of the Olympic National Park and to exhibit the best work of students. “It was an editing procedure in which all of the students needed to organize all of their work, they needed to edit in tems of making their photos look good. We only selected two or three of the very best photos from each person,” said White, in regards to photo selection for the gallery.
White further elaborated on the academic and emotional benefits from being a student photographer. “It’s about visual communication. Even if you are a business major, accounting major, or if you want to get in the NBA, its very important that you understand visual communication and how that plays a part in our context and our part in society. It’s an unconscious system so we raise awareness of visual communication, which plays a part on how we read things and how we interpret things and how we respond.”
Photography club meetings are weekly on Fridays from 1-2 p.m. and include outside field trip opportunities.
