My Understanding

John Pyle.

It's safe to say that most people in Columbus have heard of him, especially if you attend Columbus a High School (in case you haven't though, he's a photographer).

John is my mentor for senior project {at my school we have to do a project in which we learn a new skill and log 100 hours of working on it... there are a lot of requirements we won't get into tonight}.

I usually get pretty mixed reactions from people when I tell them who my mentor is. To be quite honest, person's reaction is generally based off of what "crowd" they are a part of.

There's a group of people who generally seem excited to know more about my project and how it is going when I say I work with him. These people have usually taken pictures with him, or their best friend took pictures with him, or their best friend's cousin's boyfriend was photographed by John. They know him, or they've heard about him from someone who knows him. 

Then there's the group of people who assume things. The people who, when questioned, admit that they have never actually talked to him or asked anyone who personally knows him what he's like. This group of people tend to say things like "he only takes pictures of beautiful girls" or "he thinks he's better than everyone else". [these are actually things people have said to me about him- people who've never even met him] 

*side note: he doesn't only take pictures of beautiful girls... he's good at what he does and knows how to make every girl (and guy) look good in a picture.

Obviously, these groups are just my general understanding of the way people perceive him. Not everyone falls into one of these groups.

After working with him for several months now, I have found that John is one of the nicest people. He wants to give everyone the best experience possible when they're photographed- to make them feel beautiful. And, he's made senior project pretty enjoyable for me. He's a helpful and patient teacher (I ask a lot of questions).

I've become genuinely interested in photography. It's really fantastic, and I love going on photoshoots! I've met some incredibly sweet people, and done some pretty interesting things to get the perfect shot. I'm sure I'll post about my senior project later.