Student’s photography leads to career developing opportunities

With a simple press of a button and a shutter closing, a memory can be captured for a lifetime.

Recently OSU’s ‘Go Pokes’ magazine needed a professional sports portrait of senior Marcell Ateman.  Junior Lindsay Bain was the first to be recommended for the job by her yearbook adviser Casi Thedford.

“I knew Lindsay could give them exactly what they were looking for,” Thedford said.

Bain got straight to work. Instead of just showing up for the shoot, she met with Ateman, researched poses online and shared with him the photos she took on sight to get his input.

“She’s always very professional,” Thedford said.  “I actually came to know her through her mom, who I met when I was getting my hair done. Her mom showed me some of her pictures and I knew I had to have her on my yearbook staff.”

Bain didn’t start out receiving assignments for universities, taking photos at every football game and working on the school yearbook. At the age of five, Bain had picked up a camera and began her journey.

Bain is completely self-taught, other than a critic whom gives her advice from time to time.

“I never really had a mentor,” Bain said. “Teaching myself turned out to be more rewarding than following someone else’s direction.  I knew I wasn’t just copying other people’s work.”

In eighth grade Bain started to take action shots of her teammates and everything started to quickly progress from there.

“I decided I’d expand my pictures to outdoor portraits of other people,” Bain said.  “They turned out really well so I’ve been working to get better at it ever since.”

Once other people took notice of her work, business started to roll in.  Bain was soon being paid to do something she loved.

“I started it as just a fun hobby,” Bain said.  “Soon enough people started to ask how much I charged.  I like to take portraits, but it’s weird accepting money because I wouldn’t consider myself a professional when I really just do it for fun.”

Although Bain enjoys photography, she doesn’t plan on making it into a lifelong career.

“I would like to go to the University of Florida for forensic science and golf,” Bain said. “I’d rather just keep photography as a hobby, even though I’ve been told that I should go to college for it.”

Currently, Bain has a paid plane ticket to shoot a wedding in Indiana.

“I’ve always loved taking pictures, I feel like pictures are a visual memory worth remembering,” Bain said.