1. Rebecca Dickinson
Mrs. Corbett
AP Literature
9 April 2012
Senior Project Speech
Sophomore year I expressed an interest in photography after I began yearbook. I was
always borrowing the yearbook camera and taking it around the school to see what I could take
pictures of. At home I would ask my parents about the possibility of me getting my own camera.
At Target I would spend half an hour looking at and judging the different models. After a
semester of this my parents gave me my very own Nikon D3000 for Christmas. My camera
quickly became one of my most prized possessions and to this day I still take it everywhere I go.
My research paper was written on photography while also focusing on the career of
photojournalism. Photojournalists, like journalists, tell a story on something that has a great
impact on people’s lives, but mostly through pictures instead of words. This is where
photography comes in. I chose this project because I get bored with things really easily. I try new
hobbies but normally they do not fit me. However, I love my camera and I love taking pictures.
It is one of the only hobbies I have never become tired of. Pictures mean that someone can relive
a great memory or moment over and over, and as long as the photograph survives, the memory
will as well. This is why for my project I chose to create the senior slideshow. I thought it is the
perfect way to help seniors remember their final high school year through pictures, just like
photojournalists tell a story through their pictures.
My project facilitator and I share a love of photography. Born in India, Kalpana Kuttaiah
has managed to travel all over the world. Mrs. Kuttaiah works with my father at Perkins + Will,

2. an architectural firm. She compiles pictures of all the buildings they have designed and publishes
books for the entire company. Like me, Mrs. Kuttaiah always has her camera. She says that a
photograph is “more than a picture of a place.” It “provides a framework and context for
personal knowledge and inspiration.” Mrs. Kuttaiah’s adventures are all documented in her very
own books of photography, the most recent of which is Photonomad. After showing me some of
her beautifully designed postcards that feature her photographs from different locations, Mrs.
Kuttaiah told me that as a photographer I would have to do something to make the slideshow
stand out as my own creation. She said that it should have some form of signature that shows it
was created by me. When I first began the project I had no idea how to do this and make this
year’s slideshow different than the ones from previous years.
Creating the slideshow was more difficult than I originally anticipated. I was allowed to
use any of my pictures, along with all of yearbook’s pictures. I also wanted to make this
slideshow unique compared to the ones in the past. After meeting with my facilitator and giving
it much thought, I decided that to make it stand out the slideshow would portray the year
chronologically. Instead of just putting the pictures into a random order, I was going to recreate
the year starting with Day One. Therefore, the slideshow is broken down into four different
sections; August to October, November to December, January to March, and April to May.
Because I wanted to make sure this was a slideshow people would actually enjoy, I created
surveys for students to complete so I would know what type of music they wanted to hear on the
slideshow. Also, for important school events I would get a quote from someone and put it with
their picture at the event.
Before I began the slideshow I asked for a list of all the seniors in the school. This helped
me keep track of who was in the slideshow and how many times they were in it. One of my far-

3. reaching goals was getting every senior onto the slideshow at least one time. The steps towards
creating the slideshow involved going through all the yearbook pictures and separating them into
groups based on what month they were taken in, and then subgroups of whatever event they were
taken during. For example in the October folder there would be a group of pictures for just the
Senior Field Trip. This had to be done over a course of weeks because there were thousands of
yearbook pictures to go through, and because I wanted to improve my photography skills as well
I would look for the best and most creative pictures. As I was doing this I was also going out
during lunches and before and after school so I could take group pictures of seniors. Since the
slideshow was going to be in chronological order, picking out pictures was an ongoing process
and was done throughout the year, not just in one sitting.
The next set of steps involved putting the pictures into Windows Movie Maker, which
was slightly easier since they were already organized by month so that involved putting them
into the movie and then adding in transitions between the four sections. It was also during this
period that I created and distributed the surveys so I would have a better idea of what music
people wanted to hear. Also, whenever I would use a really good picture I would go and find the
subject of the picture and ask him for a quote. This way people are not just watching pictures of
themselves on screen, they are able to read their own thoughts and experiences. The final steps
were putting in the music and burning the slideshow to a DVD. However, there were a few
problems encountered before the final steps could be taken.
At the beginning of the year I was completely inexperienced with Windows Movie
Maker, the program the slideshow is created in. To become more familiar with the technology I
became the editor of every video project that was assigned throughout the first few months of
school. The solo editing was a lot of extra work, but it did help prepare me for creating the final

4. slideshow product because I now knew how to use the program. A second problem I encountered
was putting every senior in the slideshow. Although I would have loved to do that, many seniors
did not want their picture taken, and I was unable to find a picture of them in yearbook’s photo
library. Also, I had problems with placing music into the slideshow. iTunes music would not
upload into Movie Maker. I researched the problem online until I figured out how to convert the
iTunes songs into a format supported by Movie Maker. Despite these obstacles, I think the senior
slideshow turned out well.
Through the course of the project I learned a great deal about myself that helped me make
improvements that will benefit me in college. Working on the year-long project helped me learn
to manage my time well. I was working on the slideshow as well as doing all my other
schoolwork for the year. I can now plan how to use my time on different tasks in a more efficient
manner. During the project I also improved in talking to people I do not know. Normally I am
shy around new people, but since my meetings with my project facilitator, talking to other
students, and calling the yearbook photographer I think I have improved. Having to meet and ask
them questions put me out of my comfort zone. I really enjoyed making the slideshow because of
the work with photography, but I would rather continue on with photography being a hobby
instead of a career. I have looked up classes at the college I am attending next year and they have
photography classes and a photography club that I plan on joining. Overall this was good
experience because I did learn about myself and what it takes to be a photojournalist. Thank you
for your time.