One of the art electives that can be taken at Masco is the Photo I class, which allows students to understand the use of film cameras. 

  Many students enjoy the class because it is not like any other class they have taken, and find it fascinating.

  “I liked doing projects where you would go outside and take photos,” said freshman Emely Betancur.

  Most kids that take this unique class not just to earn required art credits, but because it offers lessons unlike anything else they have learned in a normal core class.

 “I like teaching this class because it introduces students to something they’ve never seen before, and something that they most likely will probably never see again because we are one of the few high schools in this area that still have a running film and darkroom program,” said teacher Joe Yutkins.

Students are influenced by a variety of factors to take Photo I. 

  “I watched 13 Reasons Why, and one of the characters takes tons of photos, and I saw him developing them and it looked really interesting. I liked the darkroom, so I took this class,” said freshman Maniya Kari.

  Lots of people love the new experience of trying new things in the elective.

 “The cameras are really interesting and you get to develop film,” said freshman Collin Hagerty.

  The darkroom is usually the most popular reason why students enjoy the class and is why they took the elective in the first place.

  “It’s cool how the chemicals and light can make these photos,” said freshman Teagan Miyazaki.

  One of the projects is taking photos of things outside and going into the darkroom to begin to understand and introduce how the camera works.

  “Snow is a very uninteresting thing to take a photo of, so it was cool to take a photo of it, and actually make it look cool depending on the angles and light,” said freshman Lydia Sterner.

  These winter photos were taken outside of the school building as an introduction on how to work the film cameras.

  “I enjoyed it because you got to capture the beauty of the winter,” said Kari.

  Yutkins  also runs the Photography II and III class, and they also do many other projects including using oil, water and food coloring, water balloons, and the Orbeez project. While these classes offer exciting experiences with non-digital photography, Yutkins also recognizes that in a decade or so, developing photos in high school may not be feasible. 

   “Probably in the next 10-15 years, it’s not even going to be able to be done anymore, because a lot of the equipment and a lot of the film and paper has gotten prohibitively expensive, less and less companies making it, and eventually they’re going to stop making it altogether I think.”

 Yutkins believes that many students  should take Photo I to experience new things, and thinks it teaches a lot in the curriculum.

  “It’s a unique experience that students will probably see for the first time, and this might be their last time,” said Yutkins.