By Lauren Mittleman
Features Editor
Junior Mason McEwen started taking photos about a year ago but has already gained lots of attention for his passion.
While passionate about many different types of photography, McEwen spends most of his time on landscapes and nature settings but plans to try portrait photography.
“So far, long exposure shots are my favorite. It makes the picture look soft and peaceful and not too harsh,” McEwen said. “Long exposure is when you leave the shutter open for a selected amount of time, and the light that hits the sensor gets smoothed out.”
McEwen is currently using a Canon eos rebel t3i and a tripod to take his photos. He uses various filters that block out light to allow for long exposure pictures without them being overexposed.
“I like to take pictures anywhere I can, but I don’t have a ton of freedom by myself to travel, so when my family goes on vacation, I plan where and what types of photos I want to take there,” McEwen said. “My favorite thing about photography is when I look at a picture, it takes me back to the moment that I took it and brings back memories. Especially looking back at vacation photos, I love remembering the stress-free time I had there.”
Recently, McEwen started working on a project with juniors Jonathon Ro and Bhavin Patel called SBC, South Bay Captures. They created SBC to take photos together and get ideas for future projects from each other.
“As soon as I get an idea, or (Ro) or (Patel) get an idea, we go as SBC to take the photos together,” McEwen said. “SBC is a company we’re working on currently to sell and collaborate with people to capture amazing moments.”
So far, the three juniors have started to build a website where they are going to sell prints on canvases, photo paper, or metal, all of which comes with the option of having a frame and are available in any size.
“Once our website is set up, we will begin running our Instagram account, hopefully in a month or two,” McEwen said. “We are all super excited to get this whole thing running!”
They will also be selling clothing with their logo, which is almost done, and in the future plan to team up with local organizations to capture moments for them during their events.
“We also hope to add people to our team to help us take photos and give them an opportunity to get their work out there through our brand,” McEwen said.
McEwen has just started this endeavor, so he does not have work displayed in very many places yet. One of his goals is to have SBC’s photos in a gallery to gain more recognition and to sell some work.
“We just began entering contests at school and taking as many opportunities as possible to show off our work,” McEwen said.
“We’ve entered in things like the Reflections Art Contest, and set up a booth at [Mira Costa’s] Art Night, which got us some starting money for the company. We will also be attending the next Art Night to sell more work.”
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