Author: Olivia Edwards

Its been a busy week. I’ve gotten a lot done. I start my mornings at my Dad’s office and then head to school in the after noons. In the mornings I’ve been helping my dad paint the upstairs of his office because he’s redecorating it and he doesn’t have time to paint it, so I have been doing that. In the afternoons at school I have been working on QR codes for the trail near the creek which is really cool because I’ve never done anything like that. I take a picture of a plant or a tree and then I upload it to Dr. Urbano’s website and then make a QR code using another website. I also have been organizing pictures on the schools drive from years ago. I go through each picture and I rename them with who ever is in it. I have another week of doing this and then I’m done with my senior project!

Today was my last full day at Shaw Nature Reserve. Today was pretty cool because I shadowed a volunteer photographer and she gave me tips and tricks to try when I’m out taking pictures alone next time. She was really nice and really helpful. Tomorrow is the Plant Sale which is where they sell a bunch of plants to the public and they want me to come and take pictures of it for a few hours tomorrow! It will be really cool to see the outcome of all the people!

Here are some pictures I got from the last two weeks.

This week has been crazy busy. (In a good way!) I have been taking pictures like crazy and its really great! Monday was awesome because Mike, (a worker at the Reserve), and I went out and we put photo points in different areas of the reserve. A photo point is when you put a steak in the ground and then take pictures from North, East, South, and West every few months or so and then you compare the differences in everything that the pictures reveal. Its really cool. Yesterday Mr. Woodberry told me to go out and take pictures of this really cool overnight education center on the Reserve and it was so peaceful and it was really really cool. Today I did my own photography around the reserve and explored on different hikes.

Tuesday I started work at Shaw’s Nature Reserve. It’s awesome and I love it so much. Mr. Woodberry has a whole schedule for me for the next week, which is great because Its non-stop picture taking. On Tuesday Morning when I got there I was introduced to the staff. After that I went on a Wild Flower hike with one of the staff members and a group of people. It was cool because I took a lot of pictures. In the afternoon on Tuesday I spent about an hour by my self just taking pictures of the Wild Flower garden and it was so beautiful. I embraced everything that I was surrounded by and it was really great!

This is a picture I took while I was sitting on a rock in the Wild Flower Garden.

This week I started photography at Photogenics in Washington, Mo. I love it. I have learned so many different ways to take pictures. I learned what all the settings were, which is good because I didn’t know how or when to use a lot of them. I am only doing this for a week and then next week I start my photography at Shaw’s Nature Reserve, which I’m really excited for too.

This picture is one I took last week at school.

Today is Tuesday, April 12. Today was the second to last day at Frick’s. Its gone by really fast. Today I helped Ellory with the Frick’s Website. I looked it over and gave her an idea that she might use when they update the website. Tomorrow is my last day at Frick’s. I’m really glad I got the opportunity to shadow a company like this. I have learned so much and can’t wait to share it soon.

My senior project has not really turned out the way I thought it was going too. The person I’m shadowing with Marketing right now has cut all my days in half which leaves me with nothing to do in the afternoons. I talked to Mrs. Douglass, and Dr. Hurwitz today because I need something to do in the afternoons. The outcome of the meeting today was good, because I am going to be coming back to school for the next week and volunteering in the lower school classrooms while taking pictures of the students while they work. The reason I am going to take pictures while I volunteer in the lower school is because, I talked with Mrs. Hahn to see if she had any thoughts about what I could do in these next few days, and she said that I could help her by taking  pictures of the students while they work. I also have to think of other ideas for the last two weeks of the senior project because my plan with Dr. Urbano won’t work for an entire day. One thing that I have already learned from this experience is that organization is everything!!!

Today is Tuesday and its the start of my second week at Frick’s. This week is more planned out then last week, which is nice because I like to know whats happening. A big thing in Washington is Baconfest which is were a lot of vendors that sell bacon attend, and people can go sample it. One of the tasks that Ellory gave me was to brainstorm some ideas on how to “market” Baconfest. Today I asked if they had ever promoted anything a video slideshow and she said that they never have before, so now I’m in charge of that and its really exciting because thats something I know how to do. I think it will be up on the Facebook page so that’s pretty exciting too.

This picture is from yesterday when I started my project with Dr. Urbano, he taught me how to use the big microscope. I use that to look at the flowers that I gather around the school. 

This morning I worked at Frick’s and all I did was sit in meetings and it wasn’t very fun because I didn’t understand any of it. This week was cut short because the person I am shadowing had an emergency out of town meeting. So this afternoon I came to school and I have started work with Dr. Urbano, which is finding different flowers around the outside of the school and then taking pictures of them. I will be doing that the next two days.