Increasing The Standard's use of photography both online and in print has been one of my priorities this year, as we have consistently received feedback in our NSPA and CSPA critiques that we lack photography coverage. We have also increased our audience on social media by covering events more regularly and publishing photos of students  to bring more life and relatability to each piece.

Please click on the photos to read the full story with captions.

I established a clear and straightforward system for event coverage on Instagram to allow for same-day reporting and encourage reporters to cover as many school events as possible. All photos and captions are sent to me directly; I edit as soon as possible, coach the writer on their knowledge of caption writing if necessary, and send the final version to two members of the Media Team who insert the content into the template and post. The Standard is posting on Instagram more than ever and has increased its following to over 930 followers after it had stagnated in the 800s for a couple of years.

I have been working on my photography skills since Grade 9, scanning through the list of events every couple of weeks to sign up for coverage. Some of my fondest memories in journalism have been attending sports games or school fairs with other reporters. It was transformative for me to learn from photographers in Grades 9 and 10 when I tagged along when they were covering events, and I still remember the first time that an editor used a photo of mine in a gallery. Now, I have had the opportunity to attend matches and culture nights with younger reporters and explain basic photography skills like getting close to the action and honing in on a subject.

As a result of so many staff members becoming involved in photography, I discussed making a greater distinction between different types of content with the Deputy EIC: Online so that every person who visited our site could immediately find the kind of content they were most interested in. We now title feature photo galleries with "GALLERY" in the headline so they can be easily discovered, and created a Photo Gallery tab under the Multimedia section.

To encourage staff members to utilize The Standard's new cameras as much as possible and expand on our use of photography, I created a Photo Spotlight section for the Standard Scoop – a weekly briefing that I design and print Friday mornings – where any reporter could contribute. I announced at the first full-staff meeting of the year in September that staff members could send me their best photos from the week, and I would put one picture to highlight in the Scoop. More reporters than ever are checking out cameras, and these challenges have also bolstered our use of photography in print because most photos that do not end up in the Scoop are used in the upcoming issue.