By Chris Patrick, staff writer
“I really had to push myself,” says Zoe Jakovenko of her time at Virginia Sea Grant.
In January, Jakovenko joined VASG as a photography intern, taking and editing photos for VASG events. Most of these events were indoors, which presented new challenges.
Before her internship, Jakovenko mostly took pictures outside. For VASG events she had to learn how take and edit photos in a way that compensates for indoor lighting, which varies more widely in color and intensity. She also figured out the best ways to take candid photographs of speakers and mingling event attendees.
Now finished with her internship, Jakovenko says she’s more confident in her indoor event photography abilities. Gaining these new skills has inspired her to want to be an event photographer.
Jakovenko is currently in her last semester of an associates degree in visual communication at Thomas Nelson Community College and on the hunt for a job for after graduation. If she doesn’t find something in event photography, she’s also eager to work in graphic design.
Her favorite part of visual communication is giving viewers a new way to look at their world.
“I like making people see a different point of view of certain things,” she says. Once, for a school project, Jakovenko took a bunch of super close-up photographs of vegetables. She zoomed in so much, the vegetables looked more like abstract paintings than produce. At first glance, viewers couldn’t figure out what her photos were of. But when they realized they were veggies, they noticed new, never-before-seen details.
Jakovenko also likes to take pictures of nature and abandoned housing. She often visits Smithfield and Suffix, VA to photograph farms and cows.
Jakovenko is originally from Manahawkin, NJ. She moved to Yorktown, VA with her family when she was in middle school
See some of Jakovenko’s work for VASG here.
