PORTFOLIOTWENTY-ELEVE

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Sarah Berlinsky

Self Evalua tion

If I had learned one thing about yearbook it’s that it was nothing like I thought it was going to be. The hard work and dedication it took blew me away when I first start-ed. It was so much that I was convinced that I would not do it again the next year.I believe that through experience I have become and asset to the yearbook staff from my contributions. I’ve learned a lot about time management and organization and trust me I am very much still learning. Yearbook has taught me that you can’t make exceptions. Dead-lines are deadlines, period. Complaining or begging or stressing won’t help you get a deadline done. You have to put all your effort in to something if you want to be successful and to make the best out of every situation. I believe that this year I have become a leader, but I have also learned to trust others and ask for help. I’ve learned to plan out deadlines and to really try and keep on schedule. I believe if I keep making deadlines that I a true asset to the staff, and though I’ll never be an editor I will still help out newbies and contribute as much as I possibly can to the grand masterpiece.

Reflection One

Probably my most prized and memorable piece of work I have done this year would be the girls JV basketball spread. Of course that isn’t exactly the most exciting subject to have as a story or spread in general, but I feel it is the work that I am most proud of. Deadline four was the first deadline I have ever made. At the begin-ning of this deadline, I knew that I had to make it. My history on yearbook that year had been pretty catastrophic. I felt I had the need to prove to you (Burke), my editors and most importantly myself that I could do this. As soon as deadline three ended I took matters in to my hands and jumped at the first opportunity I had to get the story. Luckily I did have a friend, Bridgette Norris, who was on this team who agreed to sit down with me for more than an hour discuss-ing possible story ideas. When things started falling apart mid-way through, I knew I couldn’t go back to throwing up my hands and giving up. Probably the biggest conflict I had was the issue that many of the girls on the team were not very good, meaning not very many photo opportuni-ties. Also, the girls who were good were already used. Asking for help turned out to be the best decision I could have made. I luckily solved the issue and finished up the deadline ON TIME. Handing in that folder to you was considered one of the most ac-complished moments in my life. This was because I finally felt like a true asset to the staff and showed myself that it is possible. My favorite part about this spread may have been the secondary coverage. I think it’s cool how the editors chose showing the ap-parel that a specific athlete would carry with them.

FIRST FINAL

\ Refle ction Two

Probably my most prized and memorable piece of work I have done this year would be the girls JV basketball spread. Of course that isn’t exactly the most exciting subject to have as a story or spread in general, but I feel it is the work that I am most proud of. Deadline four was the first deadline I have ever made. At the be-ginning of this deadline, I knew that I had to make it. My history on yearbook that year had been pretty catastrophic. I felt I had the need to prove to you (Burke), my editors and most importantly myself that I could do this. As soon as deadline three ended I took matters in to my hands and jumped at the first opportunity I had to get the story. Luckily I did have a friend, Bridgette Norris, who was on this team who agreed to sit down with me for more than an hour discussing possible story ideas. When things started falling apart mid-way through, I knew I couldn’t go back to throwing up my hands and giving up. Probably the biggest conflict I had was the issue that many of the girls on the team were not very good, meaning not very many photo opportuni-ties. Also, the girls who were good were already used. Asking for help turned out to be the best decision I could have made. I luckily solved the issue and finished up the deadline ON TIME. Handing in that folder to you was considered one of the most ac-complished moments in my life. This was because I finally felt like a true asset to the staff and showed myself that it is possible. My favorite part about this spread may have been the secondary coverage. I think it’s cool how the editors chose showing the ap-parel that a specific athlete would carry with them.

FINALFIRST

Reflection Thr

ee This is the first picture I took for the Yearbook that I was truly proud of. This was definitely my fa-vorite action shot that I had taken this year. I like that the lower half of the teacher’s body is blurred, showing that he is truly showing movement and action. At the same time, is face is in focus show that this is a picture frozen in time. It also shows him focusing on the element that he is doing. I am proud to have this picture as a representation of my work this year.

4 Reflection Four

Looking back on the previous year, I believe I did become an asset to the Legend crew. It certainly didn’t start out that way however. The first time I felt like a true asset was when I handed in my first complete deadline. I finally understood the true commitment and dedication it took to be apart of this team. I took most of giving up most of my lunch periods, hours before school and after school. It took staying up late all night. It meant three hour work days, and even longer work days on the weekend. It meant not wasting time or joking around during class time. It meant giving up your plans for the day or even dressing up for school dances to take pictures. I believe that yearbook has a reputation of being the epitome of commitment and dedication. It took a large amount of effort, responsibility and time to accomplish a masterpiece. Looking back on my first year as a staffer, I truly see myself gradually becoming more dedicated and definitely more passion about Publications. Also look-ing at the final product (the yearbook), all of the effort seemed completely worth it. I think this next year I will definitely be much more of an asset to the book by making my deadlines on times and helping the newbies with theirs as well.

HARD SHIPS

Reflection Five

Time management was my number one hardship this year on yearbook. First of all my cheer and yearbook schedule just didn’t coexist very peace-fully. They unfortunately overlapped constantly which left me little time to stay after school or be present for full work days. They both left me exhausted and it was very difficult to succeed at both at the same time.Time management also applied to how I spent my time during class. At the beginning of the year, I very much didn’t pay attention to the fact that pages take a very long time to finish. I definitely goofed off and did not take enough time to put together my pages. I also spent more time stress-ing out about the spreads than actually doing them, which was obviously a very stupid thing to do.From these situations I learned that I am going to have to stay on track and completely manage my time. One thing I learned to do is plan out what needs to be done and in what order. As you know I have very bad ADHD which leaves me very unfocused and off-task. That is why plan-ning out deadlines has become a very important part of my routine. I’ve learned that I can not overstress over the work that needs to be done, be-cause that gives you less time to actually work and spending it on useless stressing. I just have to take a deep breath and not worry and keep on working because that is the only thing you can do. As far as my cheer schedule, I just have to make sure and get more work done in class instead of leaving it for workdays or after school. I also need to not let it get in my way or complain about it, just work it out the best I can. Next year I just to constantly remind myself to not stop working until ev-erything is done. Experience from not making deadline is truly a constant reminder of how terrible things can get and that I want to complete avoid what turned out to be disasters.

Reflection Six

My biggest weakness publication wise is my lack of time manage-ment and organization. At the beginning of the year I was caught off guard to how much time deadlines take to be completed. Also how much responsibility I had to posses to finish a page on time as well. I did not handle my time wisely. I procrastinated and stressed out most of the time I could be working on my pages. I also did not care-fully organize my folders, important information or make any plans to help me sort out what I had to accomplish which really threw me off. The first thing that help me break my bad habits is planning out my deadlines. I would write down what needs to be done and in what order. This saved me a lot of time during class and I saw a differ-ence on how much easier it was to accomplish what needed to be done. The second thing I learned was to not stress out. I wasted a lot of time worrying and thinking about the deadline instead of actually working on it. I’ve learned that if you’re stressed or worried about a deadline or any assignment, the best thing you can do is keep working on it because thinking about how impossible it is get’s you no where except probably in an even worse position than you were before. Another thing I learned to do is ignore my surroundings. Listening to my iPod and blocking out conversations or events around me while I work leaves me less distracted and more focused in on what I’m working on. This year was a complete learning experience for me. I feel much more prepared for the year to come and I plan to succeed a lot more. My goal is obviously to make every deadline, and stress out a lot less.

CSPA

Gol d Circle Award

Y18 feature photo p.163This is the first picture I took for the 2011 Legend Yearbook that I was truly proud of. This was definitely my favorite action shot that I had taken this year. I like that the lower half of the teacher’s body is blurred, showing that he is truly showing movement and action. At the same time, is face is in focus show that this is a picture frozen in time. It also shows him focusing on the element that he is doing. I am proud to have this picture as a representation of my work this year.

Y18 feature photo p.12-13I didn’t have very many opportunities to take still shots this year unfortunately. Of the few I took however this is by far my favorite. Why that is, is because I love how the strings of the balloons somewhat frame her face. It also gives the picture more of a design and theme aspect. Seeing this picture in the yearbook made me fall in love with it, I felt like a true photographer because I had finally taken an artistic shot.

Y15 sports action p.16-17 (supplement)

My yearbook advisor actually despised this photo because of the girls form in this picture. She wasn’t supposed to bend her front leg. I think that makes the picture more unique. When I see this picture I think of the girls grace because it looks like she’s float-ing through the air. I also see the girls originality because she has her own way of jumping which placed her first mostly first in all of her competitions.

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