A contest-winning photo can look “just beautiful” until you hear what it cost to make it. We’re joined by Kate, one of the very first students to take our Kids and Cameras workshop, and now a high school senior shooting photojournalism for her school district while preparing to study mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas.

Kate walks us through how she first learned photography, why in-person help made ISO, aperture, and shutter speed finally click, and what changed when she won a mirrorless camera in our Emotions In Nature contest. The heart of the conversation is the story behind her winning image: a frog rising above the water, captured right after she left a behavioral hospital while navigating PTSD. She explains how photography became a coping mechanism, a way to slow down, notice her surroundings, and give her emotions somewhere honest to go. We also talk about the power of pairing an artist statement with an image so the story is not lost.

From there we get practical about growth: shifting from nature photography into candid photos of people, school events, parades, and even car meets, plus what makes mirrorless cameras feel so freeing in everyday life. We dig into photojournalism as documenting history, the pressure to “pick a niche,” and why seeing someone’s raw misses can be more motivating than scrolling their perfect Instagram grid.

Subscribe to Kids and Cameras on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, share this with a young photographer in your life, and leave a review. What’s one photo you took that means more than it looks like at first glance?