Article by Maggie Catney, Photograph by Dawn Serazin
On Thursday, May 2, 2019, photography students from the Chagrin Falls High School eagerly stood at the school entrance, ready to leave. Digital and film photography teacher Ms. Serazin lined students up and handed them their final exam rubrics, and lead them out the door. The excitement of the students was uncanny, who wouldn't be excited for a field trip to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. High school photography student Maggie Catney and her friends ran to their bus the first second they are released, to ensure a good seat on the school bus. Bus 2, Maggie's bus, headed out to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo as their primary destination. The zoo being originally named the Cleveland Zoological Park first opened at Wade Park in 1882. In fact, the original zoo is now home of the Cleveland Art Museum, and the zoo as we know now is in a more secluded location in Ohio City.
As soon as the school bus rolled out of the school, students were turning on their cameras and shooting within the bus in magnificent ways. “It's so interesting how you can take one usual thing, and turn it into unusual art” exclaims sophomore Jamie Dustin, when using the bus around her to create intricate photographs. Around arriving at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo at 9 am, students and staff realized the zoo would not be opened till 10 am. After a quick moment of confusion and laughter, students decided to continue taking photographs on the bus, and of the things they passed while driving circles around the zoo. Nevertheless, the students made it to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. The excitement of Maggie and her friends was like no other, as they began taking pictures of everything they saw. As shown below, Maggie and her friends were having a ball discovering and photographing every inch of the zoo. All in all, the primary destination of the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo was no waste of time. After hours at the zoo, it was finally time for students to get on their buses and head to the RT 306 Auto and Wrecking junkyard. The RT 306 Auto Parks has been a landmark auto junkyard since the 1940s. The junkyard has even been locally family owned for over 35 years. As students arrived at the junkyard, the excitement had not gone down from the zoo. There was almost an overwhelming amount of treasure to sort through. In fact, sophomore Sadie Nactaway exclaims how her experience at the junkyard was, “One of the most interesting in my photography career. All in all, I had over 400 amazing photographs to sift through from the experience”. Nactaways reaction to her experience at the junkyard emphasizes the overall feeling the students had in their experience. Shifting through old junk, opening cars, and exploring “uncharted” junkyard territory was a special experience for all of the students. The following photographs truly depict and portray the once in a lifetime experience Ms. Serazins photography students experienced throughout their field trip.