The perfect lighting, the perfect pose, the perfect setting, all to get the most perfect picture. Madi Murdok is a senior at Boulder High School who works to get the perfect picture as she practices her photography. While she has only been pursuing photography seriously for the past two years, she is already winning competitions and has her photos displayed at art exhibits.
Though initially, her inspiration for joining photography was to fulfill an art credit, now she’s in it to win it! She dedicates time in class and outside of school to taking photos, even participating in photography programs to enhance her skills on her own time. “Nobody goes through a summer camp if they aren’t really passionate about it, so it’s really cool to meet people who are passionate about it,” she says.
Passion and inspiration are crucial to enhancing art. Though she has many famous photographers she looks up to, at the start, she was truly inspired by her more advanced peers. “I would see the advanced photo students… and I was like, I want to do that, I want to be able to do that, and create that work.”
Now that she is one of those “advanced students,” she has work that she is proud of. Her favorite piece is one that won an award at the Loveland Youth Showcase in the digital portrait category. This piece was a grueling process: it took 30 minutes to get the right photo with five people helping her.
She also says it is her favorite because of the subject of the photo, saying, “I love the girl in the picture.” Working with someone you know can be much easier than working with a stranger. Typically, Madi chooses to make her subjects people she has a friendly relationship with, though she hopes to branch out with those she photographs.
Continuing to grow and learn is an essential part of doing anything. Madi does this through practicing, of course, but also through watching videos of famous photographers. “Their techniques are so cool,” she exclaims. “There are little things that you start to notice the more you learn about it.” She also loves to see how each photographer functions and their personal style.
Taking the pictures isn’t the only part of photography; a lot goes into the production after the photo is taken, both for digital and film cameras. She says film is a lot scarier because “you don’t get to see the picture until you’ve shot the entire role.” This is because you have to develop the pictures in a darkroom.
The darkroom is used to process film photos. This room is Madi’s favorite part of this process. “I like printing when there was no one else in the darkroom,” she shares. She says that because it’s so dark and so quiet, and you can’t be on your phone, so you’re free of distrac-
tion. “It’s the most peaceful thing ever.” She adds that she feels like she can “ do whatever you want, do a little dance while you’re waiting for the photo to print.”
The dark room is the post-photo taken part of film photography; digital photography is very different. The pictures can be seen immediately, and no physical development is needed. The other aspect of digital is editing. With film, you “edit” the photo in the darkroom by exposing it to negative and positive light. “It’s a lot of trial and error,” she says. With digital images, one can edit them on programs like Photoshop and Lightroom.
Lightroom is Madi’s favorite digital editing software. Just like anything, it took her some time to understand the program, but now, she is beyond proficient. Madi’s mind is wondrous when she receives a theme for her photos for class. She explains her process as immediately writing down every idea she has in her notes app. “I
read out all these crazy things and then I’m like, okay, let’s come back to reality,” she says about her ideas. After narrowing it down, she’s able to pick something “actually manageable.”
The whole process, from when she gets the prompts to when she prints her images, takes her three weeks if she is “locked in,” as she says.
She plans to continue feeding her passion for photography “on the side” of going to college. She says that photography was one of her considerations in choosing what college she wanted to attend in the fall. “I need to be in a place where I can get really good and creative photos,” she explains, partly meaning she wants to live in a “pretty place.”
To Madi, “on the side” doesn’t just mean for fun; rather, it means actually working at a “little photography business” while she is studying STEM at Boulder CU.
As she leaves Boulder High this spring, she is also leaving one last piece of advice: “Try all the different styles,” she says. Look at others’ work and their style and become inspired. Pictures tell stories. “Really try to find the stories told within different photos. And then see what story you want to tell with your photos.”
