Luke

Brittain’s

Portfolio

In the First Baptist Church on a chilly Dec. 16 evening, Orchestra and Chorus members alike filled the church’s auditorium with their music and singing. At the height of the excitement, the String Orchestra performed three separate pieces in concert: “Winter Milky Way”, “Bashana Habana” and the Christmas Singalong. One member of orchestra, Kayla Griffin (11), played the viola during the Winter Milky Way. Griffin said “We (the violas) played dramatic ambiance. We were the accompaniment to the melody.” After Winter Milky Way, the String Orchestra brought out a Hanukkah classic, Bashana Habana. This was one of two Hanukkah songs performed that night. Audrey Velendovich (12) played the violin during this piece. Velendovich said “First chair. first violin. I had the solo in Bashana Habana. It’s really hard to say sometimes.” It may have been hard to say, but they played the song with ease. During the Christmas Singalong, Carlee Leather (11) played in the outer ring of instruments. Leather said “I’m the first chair cello. You could say I’m the leader of the cellos. We played the deep background part.” As Christmas carols filled the air, the audience followed the familiar lyrics in their heads. In the finale, the chorus and orchestra joined together in a grand rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus. But one violinist had an unusual role among the per-formers. Rachel Patterson (12) said “ I played in the string orchestra but I was also in varsity chorale. I had to had to hand my instrument to somebody and go up to sing in the Hallelujah Chorus. It was a long night.” After the night was over, with timeless melodies stuck in their heads, everyone went home filled with Christmas spirit.

I had some difficulty with this copy. Originally, I planned to interview various orchestra members directly after the concert but they all seemed far more inter-ested in vacating the premises as quickly as possible. Thankfully, I was able to find and interview these orchestra members and gather quotes and other information, especially the spelling of “Bashana Habana.”

This was the night that I found out how hard it is to take pictures of concerts. I walked quickly around the overhang at the church, trying to get a good angle on the performance. A special difficulty was the tall railing encompassing the entire overhang. Eventually I crouched in the position where this photo was taken and I shot my best photos of that night.

The Orchestra shots were very fun to take. I found one of every instrument in the or-chestra and took a few pictures of each of them. I don’t really like taking portrait shots because it messes with my frame of reference, but the immense size of Cooper’s bass necessitated it. This turned out to be my best shot of any Orchestra member.

For Plant High Rowing Association, temperatures approaching 30 degrees awaited them at the Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The extreme change of temperature from Florida to Tennessee could only be described in the stoic words of Frank Kozel (12). Kozel said, “It was extremely cold and everyone was trying desperately to keep warm.”

Fleeing from the near frozen city of Chattanooga the rowers bedded down in their heated hotel rooms, bracing themselves for the trials of the next three days. On a chilly Friday morning, while most students just arrived at school, fleets of boats took to the Chattahoochee river to practice for the races of the next two days.

A day later, at seven in the morning on Saturday, the wind raged and howled as apprehensive rowers lined up in the hotel lobby to hear what would happen that day. After thirty minutes of rumors and frantic searching for weather reports, Head Coach Michael Moseley announced that races were suspended until 10, due to the nasty conditions outside. At 10, he said that half were indeed canceled and the rest were suspended until 4.

The rowers readied themselves for hours on the cold riverside, but none were prepared for monotonous hours of hotel fever. Soon though, they all found ways to occupy themselves until the next bite of news came. Jacob Lewis (12) and his friend Sean Ferris (12) found fortune in food. Jacob said, “They gave us the giant cooler full of snacks containing a ton of food. It was awesome.” The rest of the team bunkered down for movies and card games.

At four on the same Saturday, the continuing poor weather canceled all the remaining races for that day. The only boats that would race raced on Sunday. They were the two lightweight eights and a handful of singles. Of 111 rowers, only a few had the opportunity to race at Hooch.

On the last morning of the Head of the Hooch, the few boats racing lined up at their respective times. Lightweight men went first, then lightweight women, then singles. Due to delays, the men’s 11th place time wasn’t released until much later in the day. The singles placed reasonably well. The women’s lightweight, however, placed third in their category, netting a bronze national medal for the team. Through the cold and atoms, Plant High Rowing persevered and made a name for themselves in the national spotlight.

A lot of stuff happened at the Head of the Hooch. (I should know; I was there.) But also, a lot didn’t happen. A majority of the races were canceled and most people had few positive things to say about it. I think the copy turned out well considering I had very little interesting information to work with.

Transformation from to Year...Freshman SENIORM

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(12)

Freshman Stats

Senior Stats

John

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Freshman Stats

Senior Stats

- 3rd Place Women’s 3rd Varsity Eight at FSRA West Districts 2012- 2nd Place Women’s U17 at Regionals 2012- Chosen to go to SRAA Nationals as an alternate- 2K Personal Record: 8:27.2

- Freshmen 8+- 7th Place in States - Participated in Nationals- 2K Personal Record: 7:40

- Second Year Boy’s Team Captain- Rowing Club President- Men’s 1V- Hoping for a medal at States- Hoping to go to Nationals- 2K Personal Record: 6:38

- Girl’s Team Captain- Rowing Club Historian- 1st Place Women’s 1V at Halloween Regatta- Hoping for a medal at States- Hoping to go to Nationals-- 2K Personal Record 7:42.9

While I didn’t actually put this mod together, I did just about everything else in regards to it. I took the pictures and I pestered Madi and John for the statistics. I also picked these two captains from the pool of 6. The plan was to put every captain on the page in some way or another. Two got on this mod. Two got in the other mod (see below). Two also got captions for quotes.

What’s in YOURBag?

Helmet

jersey

Skates

gloves

tape

shoulderpads

extra shirt

knee pads

I took all of these pictures from Carter Black-ard’s bag. He forgot twice to bring it, but luck-ily I planned ahead and asked him long before the pictures were due. I took a large amount of pictures of at least 2 times this many objects, but these were probably the best to describe a hockey player’s bag. Also, it was incredibly smelly.

The dominant photo for the ROTC page was from my first photoshoot. I got to school at 6:30 and stayed out un-til the bell rang at 7:30. I don’t actually own a good camera, so the one I took this shot with is courtesy of Camer-on. Since I didn’t have experience with shooting photos, I took lots of photos and many of them turned out well.

...“youCONSTANTLY haveAWKWARD tan lines”

...“you FREQUENTLY say,CAN’T‘I , I haveCREW

“ ‘ ...“you canNEVER sleep in

on SATURDAY mornings”

...“a bath fullAWESOMEsounds

ICE ...“you EXCLUSIVELYdrinkwater from a NALGENE

You know you’re in Crew when....

...“waking up for4AMis NORMAL

NO ONEwants to hold yourhand cause of your

...CALLUSES

of

than you”SMALLERBOSSED...“you get around by

someone

...“you in THINK PORTS & STARBOARDS not lefts & rights”

...“yourFAMILY

becomesBOATyour second

“

” ”

...“you literally LIVEin SPANDEX”

”

”

-Jacob Figueredo (11) -Jared Martinez (9) -Laura Miglore (12)

-Melissa Jassir (12)

-Olivia Clark (11)

-Hill Awmiller (12)

-Stephen Stavropoulos (10)-Catherine Miglore (10)

-Julian Cuevas (9)-Jason Xu (9)

-Alexander Duke Edwards (12)-Rebecca Allie Hendry (11)

than you”BIGGERBOSS...“you around people thatare

CARDIO

That’s a lot of quotes! The purpose of this mod was to cover a lot of people in crew. If you look at the grades, there are three of each class and a similar number of boys and girls. This was fun to do, simply to hear the responses. This mod covered a lot of people in crew. I also covered two captains: Laura and Duke.

Left. Right. Left. Odds are you’ve seen ROTC raise the flag on your way to school. Or maybe you have seen a whole line of students marching and saluting to an officer’s orders. But to a member of JROTC, the organization much more than that. At Plant High School, JROTC is a organization about order and emulation of the air force. Deputy Corps Commander Cadet Major David Callahan (12) said, “I just do my job because I like it. I’ve spent three years in here. This thing is not about me anymore. Next year, I’m gone. Everything I do, I do it for the freshmen that are quaking in their boots now. Once you get past your own ego, you can actually achieve something to be remembered.” From “quivering freshmen’, JROTC transforms cadets into fledgling military officers. These new officers, in turn, participate in the duties of JROTC, teach their skills to new cadets and impart their discipline to the next generation. This year, the cadets and officers of JROTC commemorated those who lost their lives in the tragedy of 9/11 thirteen years ago by participating in the nationwide “minute of silence.” And even after high school, some of those cadets and officers hope to take their skills and training to the military and bring what they learn with them. Next time a blue-clad officer crosses your path, remember who the members of JROTC are and the impact that they make.

This was my first copy. Back in August-September, I didn’t understand the minute details inherent in writ-ing a copy. Looking back at this helps me see how far I’ve come in the semester since. I will never again write a one-paragraph copy with one quote about the club in general.

Over 100 hopeful seniors applied to the prestigious club- The Order of the Gold and Black. Only 22 new members

joined its ranks. The applicants competed with one another by citing their achievements in athletics, academics,

service and leadership.

President, Sam Fowler (12), said “It’s like an honor society, but it rewards those who are well rounded and not

just academically successful.”

After the 22 applicants were selected, the incumbent members each chose one successful applicant to tap. Each

returning member decorated a sword, unique to the new member’s personality, and presented it to the senior as a

congratulatory sign.

All that remained between the new squires and their knighthood was the induction ceremony.

Old and new members, as well as parents, gathered at Fowler’s home for the ceremony. One of the highlights

of the night was Derek Thomas’s famous introductory speech. This year Thomas made the night extra special,

considering it was his last event with Plant High School.

Peter Connelly (12) said, “Mr. Thomas’s speech was very inspiring to me and made me realize the importance of

the honor society.”

Following Mr. Thomas’s inspiring speech, the ceremony began and the 22 new members were each knighted by a

former member of the club.

The knighting ceremony officially inducted the students into the club and honored them for their many

accomplishments at Plant.

This copy was nearly impossible to do. I couldn’t go to the event ; only Gold and Black members could. So I had next to no idea about what happened there when I first received the assignment. Luckily, the pres-ident and a few other members were in my Stat class and I easily gathered some information and quotes from them. The real tough part came when I found out that Gold and Black doesn’t actually do anything apart from the Induction Ceremony. I wrote about what I could, and the copy turned out quite well con-sidering the scant information I had to work with.