The amount of skill junior Riley Pabor has behind a camera is only matched by his willingness to take photos with it. Pabor particularly enjoys conducting photoshoots with his friends, as it combines several of his interests.

“It’s mixing the two things that I love, my friends, who I think [are] all beautiful and stylish, way more than me and taking pictures,” Pabor said.

When school first began, Pabor found himself unable to invest as much of his time on photoshoots.

Now that he’s grown more used to the time management that school requires, he is beginning to work around his other commitments to plan photoshoots at least once a week to once every few weeks, on average.

Pabor’s friends are usually the deciding factor behind the location of each individual photoshoot, as Pabor wants to capture their interests and what they enjoy in each photo.

“It’s definitely based off the people – usually what they’re interested in,” Pabor said. “Some people want to do a more urban theme, so we could do pictures downtown or some people want a nature theme…usually it depends on what the person wants.”

Although Pabor has a talent for photography, there are many struggles that come with pursuing an artistic career. Thus, Pabor is considering keeping his interest for photography as a hobby, rather than pursuing it full-time.

“For me in the future, I thought about taking it as a full time career, but I have other interests that are safer, as a lot of people know being an artist is difficult,” Pabor said.

Junior Cassidy Noonan, Pabor’s friend, has modeled for several of her friend’s shoots.

Noonan really enjoys the opportunity to model, as it allows her to spend time with her friend, while also working hard to maximize their time and get as many valuable photos as possible.

“It was really fun, actually, because mostly it was just like hanging out, but at the same time, all of us were focused and weren’t just trying to goof around the whole time,” Noonan said.

Noonan really enjoys the work Pabor has accomplished so far.

While Pabor loves to take photos of his friends, he also has a matching interest in nature photography. Pabor frequently attempts to implement nature-related themes into all of his work.

Senior Khaeilene Epan, another one of Pabor’s friends, has also modeled for him. Epan knows that Pabor’s skill at photography and the way he chooses to express his talent, comes easily to him.

“Ever since I’ve known him, he has just been a really artistic person,” Epan said.“Him having an interest in photography wasn’t a surprise; he’s definitely grown in his photography field and he is branching [out more] with it.”

Noonan believes that Pabor would go far if he was to choose to pursue a career in photography, as he has a meaningful way of capturing subjects.

“I can see him definitely pursuing this in the future, because I think he has a real talent at it and a real eye for capturing photographs that are visually compelling,” Noonan said.