The Collegian

Issue date: 10/2/08 Section: Arts

Frozen moments in time fill the wall above junior Sarah Howard's bed - moments she has preserved with her camera.

In one frame, a friend with long hair and a longer scarf stares kindly at the camera, in perfect focus, while the moving walls of a large tent fade behind him in a blur.

Howard made the shot in one or two takes as she traipsed through an exploratorium with friends.

"The camera had to figure out what to focus on," Howard says. "A picture like that depends on the movement of the object, so it won't reoccur."

Her friends say Howard's artistry guides her eye and her camera.

"She's really good at capturing moments that define a person," says senior Hannah Stone.

To the right of the friend with a scarf, there's a crackling brown leaf, perfectly focused against grains of snow; a Colorado mountain, its white peak reaching into the darkness of the black and white photograph; streets in San Francisco, with markets and people and faces.

"A lot of them have representation for me in what they convey," Howard says. "Usually it's less intent for me to go take a certain photo, but it's just capturing what I see."

Howard says she'll occasionally pose a photo's subject, but she values most the ability to be ready for a moment, and snap it. She points at a picture near the middle of her wall's collage - a bride, holding a bouquet, descending a staircase, calm but careful of the train around her feet.

"I had one chance to get that picture - it'll never happen again," Howard says. "I like that challenge. It's what draws me to wedding photography."

"She has a really good eye," says sophomore Laura Golden, who lives with Howard in Waterman Residence. "When she sees something, it's not a big deal - she just takes the picture in a few minutes."

Howard says her photography around Hillsdale differs from her work around her hometown of Berkley, Calif. Private property makes it harder to seek out camera angles, and grassy fields lack the humanity of her usual scenes.

"I'm a fan of the urban environment," she says. "I love nature, but I'm not inspired to take photos of it. The movement of the city means it's never the same - it has the variable of people, which I like."

"It makes her appreciate lovely things," Golden says. "Being able to capture that with a camera - it's great."

Howard recently put up a Web site, hoping to gain more wedding jobs. ("That's the only way to have a legitimate presence for jobs," she says.)

But she considers her photography mainly a hobby.

"With her, I'm drawn to her portraits," Stone says. "They're non-traditional, not just a pose or an expression. She seems to get the person's essence."

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