New this year is advanced studio art, a digital photography and photojournalism class taught by photography teacher Kerri Blankenship.

The class has 28 students and is only open to those who are in advanced photography. Ms. Blankenship also teaches three Photography 1 classes and a Photography 2 class. Says Ms. Blankenship, “I think it’s important to understand how the camera works…before using a digital camera.”

As more photographers begin to shoot digital pictures, many people are replacing their film cameras with digital ones. Says Ms. Blankenship, “Film photography has become obsolete.”

The digital photography course and the regular photography course have the same projects and objectives. Instead of the darkroom and film, digital students use Photoshop and chips and memory cards.

Students begin by learning basic Photoshop techniques like editing images, and transferring knowledge from the 35mm cameras to digital ones. “Photoshop is like their digital darkroom,” adds Ms. Blankenship. Students also learn skills needed to be a photojournalist.

The challenge in digital photography is editing and sorting through more images on the computer than the 24 images on negatives. “I enjoy teaching this class,” says Ms. Blankenship. “I love learning new things and challenges.”

Although she teaches digital photography, she prefers film photography. “I like the hands-on feeling of working in the darkroom,” Ms. Blankenship adds. “It’s always fun to watch photos develop in the tray.”