In the middle of January of 2016, senior Allen Li felt as if he needed to give back to the school in some way. He was dissatisfied with the level of participation and involvement he had had in school for the past three years, so he decided he needed to make a change. He didn’t join new clubs or pick up extracurricular activities around campus but instead chose to dive into a more powerful path: photography and videography.

“I didn't have a lot of school spirit in freshman and sophomore year — I think I went to maybe two rallies, so part of my intention stemmed from wanting to give back to the school in my own way,” Allen said.

It started with Bombay in the Bay 2016. In December, Allen wanted to be the main videographer for the Friday show, so he pursued and met up with officers and the adviser of the club to see if he could cover the event. He worked hours on end to prepare for how he would videotape the show and with a plan set in place, successfully videotaped and uploaded footage of all the acts in the Friday show. It was the start of his in-school videography and photography career.

“Bombay in the Bay was probably the first big gig with a lot of planning that went into shooting the whole event — especially with how dark it was,” Allen said.

His expertise in videotaping the show did not go unnoticed. Allen offered his services to events in March such as the junior class’s Dandia and then again for the Sadie Hawkins dance.

He was starting to make an impact around school and according to him, this desire stemmed for his newfound love for school participation.

“This semester is my last semester at SHS, and knowing that I had a lot of missed opportunities to do photography in the past, I wanted to give back to the school in my own way,” Allen said.

Allen takes pride in his equipment as well as his attention to detail. He got his first camera in the spring of 2014 and began browsing various photography galleries online and really fell in love with what photography represents.

“I noticed that although seeing something first hand is the best, photography has the ability to capture a lot of information in a relatively small frame and I liked to use that ability to represent a lot quickly and efficiently,” Allen said.

Allen has become a key name, being called up to videotape and photograph several different events purely due to his quality shots, just this past semester but he does not have any intention of relinquishing his passion for helping others and photography anytime soon.

“Photography up to this point has been a big part of my high school career, and it's likely that I'll continue in college,” Allen said. “I'll likely join the respective photography club or yearbook in college and hope that I'll play a bigger part in school spirit and pride in the future.”