Embedded Files
A picture is worth a thousand words. Here are a few dozen.
JANUARY 2025 PHOTO ISSUE
For the 2025 photo issue of tjTODAY, we had a theme of lyrics. Each story's headline was a popular song lyric, and each spread told a story using just photos and captions. Here are two spreads that I contributed photos to.
Just keep swimming
The Jefferson Swim and Dive team overcomes individual struggles to just keep swimming
In a meet against Mount Vernon on Dec. 13, freshman Laura Prudis swims butterfly in the 200-meter individual medley. Prudis swims for both Jefferson and her club team, practicing every morning and afternoon. "In the mornings, club practices are from 4:45 to 6:30 a.m., and then adding high school practice on top of that, I've been way more tired," Prudis said.
Junior Jayden Yang swims backstroke in the 200-meter individual medley. "I plateaued a lot when I was swimming since I quit at one point," Yang said. "But this year I overcame that plateau. I ran a lot, I went to the gym and my friends motivated me."
Editing:
Before
After
At a meet against Thomas Edison High School on Dec. 6, junior Mandy Burkirk takes a breath while swimming butterfly in the 200-meter individual medley. Burkirk got a stress fracture on her shoulder during freshman year. "Ever since then, I've had a lot more shoulder problems," Burkirk said. "Because of that, I do physical therapy exercises and get cupping on my shoulders. I have to be more aware when I'm swimming because if my shoulder starts hurting, I need to take a step back."
Here are some more photos I took that didn't make the spread, but I loved:
Senior Ryan Wells sets up a dive in reverse ready position.
During the final lap of the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay, a Jefferson and Edison swimmer finish on the same stroke.
A Jefferson swimmer competes in a backstroke event, showcasing the progression of the stroke.
Reflection
This was my first time photographing swim, and I arrived at the meet half an hour early to figure out lighting, focus and lenses. After spending 25 of my 30 minutes before the meet began working on those settings, I had under five minutes to practice positions while the swimmers and divers warmed up. Then I took some diving warm-up pictures, which showcased the issues with the focus on the lens. I managed to fix it in the nick of time.
The photo of the Jefferson and Edison swimmers with the lined-up strokes was the most exciting one to take. Because it was a medley, three swimmers had already done their two laps, neck and neck the entire time. By the time the last swimmers were on their final stretch, every person in the stands was standing and cheering, people were crowding the edge of the pool and I could feel the energy. This photo captures how close the race truly was, to the point where none of the coaches were sure until the meet sheets were released.
Two divers warm up before the meet begins.
Birds of a feather, we should stick together
Through tough times, cliques of Jefferson students and teachers stick together and express their interests in unique ways
Oceanography and Geophysical Systems lab director Shawn Stickler and Geosystems teacher John Woodwell sit beside each other while eating soup. Stickler has been a member of soup club for approximately 14 years, meeting with fellow teachers every Friday to drink soup that one teacher cooks for the whole club. “I stayed because it is fun and you get great soup,” Stickler said. “In the middle of winter when it is cold and dark and you don’t want to leave home, you think, ‘Oh, well it’s soup club day.’ The heavens part, the lights shine and you’re like, ‘I can make it.’”
Stickler scoops soup into a mug. “We get to talk as teachers beyond just a team,” Sticker said. “And you get great soup. I love all of it.”
A bowl of Italian sausage and ravioli soup made by College & Career Specialist Kendel Gilchrest sits on a drawer in Woodwell’s room. “What happens at soup club stays at soup club,” Stickler said.
During lunch, senior Alex Bakalov and junior Samuel Payne, surrounded by other Latin students, complete the “Name 100 Women Challenge,” focusing on historical figures. Bakalov began sitting with the other Latin students during lunch in his freshman year after being drawn in by audible discussion while wandering the halls. The group stayed together through tumultuous times, including the loss of a teacher. “Because of low Latin involvement for that year, Magistra Conklin had to leave, so my sophomore year, the lunch lectures were more sporadic,” Bakalov said. “We naturally magnetize to each other—we stick together, we share interesting things. It has more to do with the Latin itself. We connect [through] the language. Even when we don't have lectures, we can all band together.”
Four seniors, Anisa Anjum, Alyson Granchi, Japneet Kaur and Dhwani Jain, discussed their history of sitting together for four years during lunch. From Turing Commons during freshman year to Einstein Commons during sophomore year to Hopper Commons during junior year, and finally, Tesla Commons during senior year, this friend group eats lunch in the commons that correspond with common classes that year—for example, eating lunch next to physics during junior year, when all four of them were taking physics. “We always sat in the commons that represented our grade,” Jain said. “Lunch is really what kept us together. We didn’t really have that many classes together, and we would talk to each other during lunch.”
Posing with two pieces she created, senior Zara Callahan displays a sketch of a raven eating an eyeball based on an Inktober prompt, as well as her interpretation of a poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, created for an English assignment. “I’ve always liked doing art, ever since elementary school,” Callahan said. “[At] the beginning of high school, I tried to draw figures more. Before then, in middle school, I drew a lot of dragons. Most of the characters I like have bird connotations, so I tried to get better at drawing birds.”
Callahan smiles down at her two drawings. Her interest in art first began as fanart. “I really liked ‘Marvel,’ so I would draw those characters as dragons,” Callahan said. “There was also this book series about dragons and I drew a lot of that.”
Junior Liv Livingston poses with a drawing of an ear covering theirs. The ear was a piece Livingston drew based on a reference photo. “When I do digital art, I prefer cartoons, and I can draw fanart for stuff like ‘Transformers,’” Livingston said. “But for studio, it’s more like learning the techniques of realism.”
Livingston holds up their sketchbook, with two four birds on the left page. Similar to Callahan, Livingston’s bird drawings help them with their character art. “The budgies were specifically because I have a friend who has pet budgies, and they love me,” Livingston said. “Wings are cool, and if I want to draw a character [who] has wings, I now know the anatomy of wings and how to draw them.”
Reflection
These photos at first glance don't appear to have anything to do with one another—soup club, art, lunch and Latin, and no birds despite the headline. The connection is in the stories, rather than the visuals. Each of these pictures shows a group of people who have stuck together through hardship or a person who stuck to a craft. The design of this story is what brought the birds into play.
When taking the photos for this spread, I had no clue where to begin. I grabbed a camera one day and just started roaming the halls during lunch. I got the photo of the Latin kids by just popping in the door frame quickly to set up the frame, check lighting and shoot; I got all three soup club photos before any of the teachers noticed I was there. The best photography comes when you capture the honesty of a situation without your presence being noticed—that's when the true magic happens.
HOMECOMING
As I've mentioned elsewhere in this portfolio, Homecoming Week is a busy week for TJ Media. We cover all five days of pep rallies and both blocks of MEX (dances put on by each grade level to compete for points) performances. Here are some highlights:
During a pep rally on Friday, Sept. 22, juniors Himanish Nallanagulagari and Sai Rangi jest and hold up “L’s” to the senior class during a class role call. “One reason [homecoming] was fun this year was because I felt like this year especially, the whole grade showed up,” Rangi said. “We were all together, and especially on the last day when we were all dressed in blue and had blue paint, it was fun to go head to head with the senior class. I thought that was cool because we were fighting, but it was kind of like a play fight.”
Junior Ella Tysse dances to ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls. “Even though I was only in half of it, I feel like that dance was the most polished and most fun to do,” Tysse said. “It also radiated such a powerful energy and I loved it.”
As the senior class performs their musical extravaganza (MEX) dance, senior Nikhil Nair cheers on the dancers. “It's nice to see everybody get together and have the same school spirit because we don't really see each other that much due to classes and senior year,” Nair said. “Homecoming is [a] week where everybody can go all out and teachers kind of made it easier for us. It’s a nice break away from the stress of the school year.”
Safety and Security Specialist Frank McNulty holds a sign that says, “Get hype or else,” for a role call during homecoming week. “There’s a pretty popular TikTok where a police officer holds a sign that says, ‘Get hype or go to jail,’ but we weren’t able to get that cleared by the police officer,” junior class president Akul Dixit said. “Also, the music we wanted to play while [Rem Turatbekov] was running down and doing a backflip unfortunately wasn’t loud enough, but someone in the crowd started to chant ‘fein’ since the song was by Travis Scott, and the crowd got hype, which was a blessing in disguise.”
As the most spirited class is announced during the pep rally on Wednesday, Sept. 20, junior Nehan Mohammed cheers with friends. “[Homecoming] is special to me because it gets all [of] the school together and just shows that we can have class spirit,” Mohammed said. “Especially this year, there was a lot of representation from all [the] classes. I feel like before, there hadn’t been as much for [the juniors] and I feel like it has been growing.”
As junior Jonathan French fights for a chair during the first round of musical chairs, senior Grayson Stotz steps in to determine the winner. “When each class had their HOCO prep assembly, I was chosen to play musical chairs. I won it for my class, and Kevin [Boakye], who got second, was my partner for the pep rally musical chairs,” French said. “I’m pretty happy we won, [considering] class of 2025 was the only class with their two contestants remaining with only two chairs left.”
During a dance to a mashup of “Wannabe” and “Vogue,” junior Mandy Huang, bottom middle, lifts her hands at the end, striking a pose with the other junior dancers. “At first, [MEX] was stressful because practices went by so quickly and it felt like I would never be able to memorize the choreography, but the choreographers were amazing,” Huang said. “When we were about halfway to Homecoming, turnout to practices was so low that one of our choreographers brought bomb pops to try and lure people back into MEX.”
Junior Sophia Guo performs with the dance team.
ACTIVITIES FAIR
I wrote a feature about all the unique things different clubs will do to recruit people to their stands during the activities fair. A photo gallery accompanied that article. Here are two of the photos:
In an attempt to draw attention to the TJ Unmaned Arial Vehicle (UAV) booth at the Activity Fair, senior Niels-Oliver DeChaine holds up a prototype of a plane. “That one an alumn made for fun,” DeChaine said. “Our actual plane is ten feet wide and 50 pounds, so it's a lot bigger than that one. It's just a plane we had just to show off.”
Senior crew captain June Anderson looks on as a student ergs during the Activity Fair. “Once you get one or two people on the ergs learning, people notice because it makes a little bit of noise,” Anderson said. “It's a fun thing for friends to do, and then out of those people, there's a pretty good amount that might actually be interested in the sport.”
BASKETBALL
In 2023, I was invited as a photographer at a college basketball game at George Mason University. While these photos never got published, some of them were featured on the girls basketball team's Instagram account and the experience was more than worth it. Here are some photos that I took.
This was a reel we posted on Instagram that documented our experience with the George Mason University girls basketball team.
PHONE PHOTOS
As fun as cameras can be, good photography at the end of the day tells a story that cannot be told with just words. Photos capture the emotions of a moment, the gravity of a situation in ways that require pages of words to convey. As such, I take it upon myself as a journalist to use my phone to capture photos when I am near a situation that can be captured. Here are a few highlights.
During my summer in Evanston, I attend the annual Fourth of July parade. Tasked with writing a color story feature article about the event, I quickly put together the assignment with the intention of spending the rest of the day enjoying my time and eating food. While watching the parade, I noticed one group would walk forward, and have people flipping over the audience to begin their performance every few blocks. I started walking alongisde their group, and ended up capturing these photos.
Following a pipe burst, and subsequent ceiling collapse and flooding yesterday, the hallway beside Newton Commons remains partially closed off on Jan. 24. “The leak [that] morning was fixed,” Director of Student Activities David Arthur said. “And then, probably around 11:15 a.m., the pipe completely broke, and that’s where [water] started coming down.”
Responding to the fire alarm, firefighters arrived at Jefferson early Tuesday morning to inspect a mechanical issue that arose. The issue was minor and school resumed as usual after students waited outside for around 20 minutes. “It was our very first class of the year other than the syllabus. And it was quite surprising,” math teacher Miranda Callahan said.
Police pull up to the scene of a crash on Braddock Road outside Jefferson this morning. “The accident blocked Braddock Road, which resulted in significant delays to the arrival of several of our students, staff and buses,” Jefferson’s communication support specialist Mike Roth said in an email to the Jefferson community.
These are three photos that I took on my phone during times of emergency within the school building. They are photos that tell the story of a situation that was relevant to the school and the corresponding tjTODAY audience.
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