Shoot!

This is me teaching at a JEA convention in
San Francisco in April 2013. Photo by Amanda Knight.

My name is Jess and I teach beginning and advanced photography at Orange Glen High School in Escondido, California. I have been teaching for six years and also advise the yearbook and newspaper at OGHS. The photography program started three years ago and it has been an exciting experience. I work hard to create projects that are fun and meaningful for students, while teaching them important skills that they can use outside of the classroom. I enjoy teaching because I like making connections with students and watching them fall in love with what they are learning.

I earned my Masters Degree in Education from UC San Diego in 2012. I got my teaching credential from SDSU in 2008 and my BA from SDSU in 2007. My degree is in journalism, with a minor in anthropology. I have been involved with scholastic journalism since I was in the eighth grade, when I joined my middle school yearbook staff. It was during my time on yearbook staff that I was introduced to darkroom photography and I have been addicted to taking pictures ever since.

I first fell in love with photography in the darkroom of my middle school. I was fascinated with the process of printing and developing pictures and became addicted to the craft. Throughout the rest of middle school, high school and in college, I could rarely be found without my camera. I quickly became more comfortable seeing the world through my viewfinder than actually experiencing things firsthand. As my experience and my exposure to technology progressed, I began to transfer my medium from film to digital and started learning the language of Adobe Photoshop. And while I am still a 35mm fan at heart, I appreciate the power and creativity that Photoshop facilitates.

My professional training in photography is minimal; much of what I know how to do is self-taught. The basics were taught to me in that same middle school darkroom, which doubled as classroom. From there, I’ve learned through trial and error, books and experience. As my knowledge has accumulated, my skill set has expanded and my perspectives have changed.

When I first started taking pictures, I loved the simplicity of landscapes. Growing up in Southern Oregon, surrounded by vibrant wildlife, I had millions of opportunities for great, scenic pictures. Moving to San Diego to further my education, I began studying journalism and started seeing another side to photography. As I learned more about storytelling with words, I realized that telling stories with pictures can be equally as powerful. I now love the layers that a photograph holds—the story behind the subject, the story that the photographer sees, the story that the composition or technique tells. As a photographer, as a teacher and as a journalist, what I appreciate most about photography is that the perspective and story changes with each new set of eyes that sees a photo.

This is a time lapse photo that I took from Normal Heights,
looking down into Mission Valley. Photo by Jessica Young.