All over West Seattle, there are terrific summer youth programs – and we’re thrilled that one of them will be presenting participants’ work here on WSB. The summer photojournalism program at Delridge Community Center is working with WSB again this year; you will see some of their work soon, but first, they wanted to introduce themselves!

My name is Fizan Rao, and I am a high school student currently taking part in the RecTech Photojournalism Summer Internship program at Delridge Community Center. I’m writing to introduce the program to the West Seattle community on behalf of the ten teens who are taking part in the internship. This is the second year for the Photojournalism Program at Delridge.

Photojournalism tells a story using a combination of photography and journalism, and the internship provides teens with training in both. So far, we’ve been introduced to the basics of good photography and different ways of using composition, lighting, and background to make a good photograph. We’re learning how to capture and tell a story visually, how to use Adobe Photoshop to edit our photos for publication, and how to write stories and journal about our experience.

In the first two weeks of the program we have been introduced to great photography through slide shows and excellent speakers, like Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Jerry Gay and West Seattle Blog Editor Tracy. Now we’re out looking for stories in West Seattle and the surrounding area. We are planning a weekly feature interviewing interesting people who live in West Seattle as well as covering local events. If you have an event that you think we should cover, or know of someone interesting that we might like to interview, please let us know at rectechinterns@gmail.com. We look forward to publishing our work on the West Seattle Blog in the weeks to come.

Fizan Rao