There are many artists at Yorktown who create exceptional work that is not often highlighted. When tasked with choosing one of his exceptional Photography 1 or 2 students, Photography teacher Alan Beland responded without hesitation: “Elizabeth Powers.” He considers the sophomore an amazing student due to her exemplary work ethic throughout the year.

Powers is in Beland’s Photography 1 class and already has an outstanding portfolio. Powers has a passion for photography and plans to continue on to Photography 2 next year, as well as utilize her newly learned skills in the future.

“I like learning the [basic] skills … and learning how to use photoshop to do different things … like you can make images look better and how to change people’s hair color and eye color and there are a lot of neat things you can learn,” Powers said.

For Powers, it all started when she was signing up for courses. Her aunt is a photography teacher and is her inspiration for joining the class.

“My aunt is a photography teacher … and I wanted to see what the class is like,” Powers said.

When asked what her favorite photograph is, Powers began to talk about a picture which she captured of a butterfly. She was outside when she spotted the butterfly and frantically ran inside to get her camera and snap a picture of the beautiful creature. She was surprised to see the butterfly was still there when she came back outside.

“This picture of a butterfly … I still can’t believe I got it, the butterfly was just on the flower … it was a really neat picture,” Powers said.

Some of the most interesting parts of the class for Powers are the tutorials and learning new ways to manipulate her photos. Even though Powers loves completing the tutorials assigned to her and learning new skills, some of her pictures do not need editing, including the previously mentioned butterfly picture.

“I did the basic edits … but I did not do a tutorial or anything else with that one specifically,” Powers said.

When Powers is given a new assignment, the first place she looks to take pictures is in her neighborhood, where Powers can easily find a variety of scenery and items to capture.

“Usually when we get an assignment when we need to take lots of photos, I walk around and take pictures of things I think might be interesting, and I come home and go through the photos and pick out the best five,” Powers said.

Powers has a true passion for photography and plans to continue being involved in Yorktown’s photography department. She loves to share her personal flair with other people through photos and was honored to be the Sentry’s Artist of the Day.