The transition from high school to college is a significant milestone in a student's life. This transition can be fraught with challenges, with one of the most prevalent being the "summer melt" phenomenon. Summer melt is the phenomenon where students who intend to enroll in college – who may have even made a deposit or attended a summer orientation – fail to matriculate in the fall, often due to various barriers encountered during the summer months. According to a study from Harvard University, the rates of summer melt range from 10 to 40% of college-intending students, meaning that hundreds of thousands of students are likely melting away over the summer.

As the year draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on all the interesting jobs and people I’ve gotten to work with this year. 2023 has been a unique journey – one filled with incredible opportunities, challenges, and growth. As a professional photographer, I have been fortunate to work with a diverse array of businesses and universities, each with its own distinct story to tell.

If you are involved in the business side of things for any sort of big business, non profit, or educational institution, then annual reports are nothing new to you. The yearly publication — whether produced in digital or print (or both!) — is a showcase of your institution.

One of the many reasons I love my job is because of the many ways that projects come together. My creativity often feeds off of the unpredictability of photo shoots — will the weather hold out? Will the subjects show? It’s a lot of nimble problem solving and thinking on my feet. It’s not unusual for me to be thinking about my next shot while I’m still clicking away at my current one.

The beginning of August means a new school year is a mere couple of weeks away. While a lot of people (myself included) don’t want to acknowledge the fact that summer even has an end — or that that end is coming nearer — it is nonetheless true. So, in the spirit of collaboration and sharing of insights from my side of the table, I thought I’d broach a topic that often can get overlooked in the summer malaise: the benefits of planning your fall content calendar.

GETTING STUDENTS ONBOARD FOR CAMPUS EVENTS CAN BE HARD. SHOWING GROWTH OPPORTUNITY THROUGH PREVIOUS EVENT PHOTOS AND STUNNING IMAGES CAN HELP INCREASE TRAFFIC.

This year I had the good fortune to experience a bunch of new schools first-hand. One of those schools was when I partnered with Abington Friends School to update their marketing photos. These are my favorite types of shoots to do because I basically get to be a fly on the wall as the school (mostly) goes about its normal day. Students go to class, teachers present their lessons, and I get to take photos of it all.