The STEP project I participated in was the Total Photography trip that took place in Oregon and Washington. During the duration of this trip, our group of 12 students traveled to many places in Oregon and Washington to learn, practice, and hone our photography skills. In addition, we later learned to edit these pictures in a variety of ways that enhanced aspects of the images or created an intended perspective.

The main realizations I had during this trip primarily related to my sense of self, my abilities, and my place in the world. For my sense of self, I realized that I was much more capable of handling stressful circumstances and traveling to unfamiliar places on my own without needing to rely on others for confirmation. I also realized that I was able to set aside my fears and try out new things that I never would have thought about attempting before. For my abilities, I learned that I was capable of understanding and implementing different artistic methods and frames in order to create shots that were unique to myself and how I wanted to share the scenes I was viewing. And finally, for my place in the world, as we traveled to all of these amazing locations that were mostly grand in scale I had this realization of just how large the world was outside of the very confined towns and cities where I have spent my life, and how momentary my life appears compared to these structures that have existed for hundreds of years.

There were many memorable moments during the trip that contributed towards the changes I expressed earlier, but among those are a select few that shine brighter than the rest. First, seeing the ocean for the first time. Of course I’ve seen it in movies and pictures but before my trip, I had never been anywhere near a large body of water. So, when we finally made it to the west coast and suddenly everything was just water in all directions for as long as I could see, there was some sort of new connection in my mind that I can’t fully explain beyond just understanding how small I was compared to the world. 

Second, the night after our first day of taking pictures at the Japanese Garden in Oregon. Half of the time, I was wandering around trying to find interesting shots and googling camera settings for specific types of landscapes, and the other half was taking the same picture over and over again while minutely adjusting one setting at a time and taking at least 5-15 pictures of the same thing. Looking back on my images that night, I noticed how over the course of the day, with some assistance from both of my mentors, my pictures got better and more unique compared to the ones I took on my phone from the same locations. It made me realize my improvement in real time, and was a source of encouragement that I was capable of capturing good images. 

Third, our last day as a group where we set up a presentation of our favorite images and each person presented and talked about their thoughts and intentions behind each picture. This sticks out in my mind because it felt like everyone was connecting with each other in a way that couldn’t be replicated with those who were not on the trip. There were pictures of the same general location, but the angles, colors, and feel of the images were vastly different, which was one of the main goals of the trip, to grow and learn our own style. I feel like everyone accomplished this, and it was nice to see our mentors proud of the progress we all made over the course of a week.

This trip was very important in teaching me things about myself, both as a learning experience as well as being a test for pushing beyond my mental and physical limits if I wanted to get the full experience. My mindset about how I view myself and my priorities in life have changed in response to this amazing experience, and is one that I will remember and apply those teachings to other areas of my life. I’ve learned how important it is to simply slow down and take time for myself and that sometimes you will mess up, but in the grand order of things there will always be another opportunity that will arise to meet you if you are patient and willing to put the effort in.