Lilya Nikoghosyan is a junior at Glendale High School and president of our campus’s new Photography Club. During her free time, Lilya mostly spends her time practicing her two sports, cross country and track, and doing her homework, because it is super time-consuming.
Lilya’s hobbies include reading and watching movies and shows. She wants to become a director and a producer when she graduates, and you guessed it; she also wants to work in the field of photography. She loves taking pictures, especially the ones that tell stories.
Lilya’s friend Kristy Tarbinian is also a junior at GHS, and she is the club’s social media manager. In her free time, Kristy loves playing video games, watching movies, listening to music, biking, and hanging out.
Lilya founded the Photography Club because she has been in the GHS cinematography program since ninth grade, and she has been loving photography ever since. She realized there was no photography club on our campus, so she made one for the people who are interested in it. Her advisor is our cinema teacher, Mr. Richard Gavin, and they discuss how to use cameras, how to use lighting, and how to just get better at photography in general.
Lilya started this club because she was first texting her friend during winter break and said she loves photography. However she realized that it is sometimes awkward to take pictures outside, so she thought that this might help students get over that feeling.
Lilya also made this club because her friends were also super interested in photography and wanted to learn more about it. This club is especially relevant in this day and age, where people love taking pictures and posting them on social media, so others can see what they’re doing.
Kristy is here to support Lilya, not only as a member of her club, bu also as a close friend. “I rike her idea, and I want to help make it a true real thing,” Kristy said. She is working on the GHS Photography Club website so that members can post reference photos and photography bios. She is hoping that the club members will be able to find jobs based on this resource.
Lilya says she’s a good fit for being the president of the club. She constantly watches videos and researches photography and lighting.
Lilya is also currently a member of our GHS yearbook staff, where she has taken pictures for this year’s edition of Stylus. She took several photos during our 2024 Homecoming Game and during her cross country meets, and she is currently taking pictures during the track season.
Lilya also has a camera of her own, which enticed her to learn more about photography. “I love working with it, and it’s not something that you can just learn by watching videos,” she said. “You have to experience it.”
Lilya states that being confident in the people you are leading makes you a great leader. She also tries to be confident about the pictures she takes, even if they aren’t always “great”. Lilya has been super energetic during her first club meetings, so she claims that being confident and making your team excited makes her more effective as a president.
Kristy also agrees that having confidence is one of the most important aspects of making you a good leader. “You should have a good idea of what you are trying to do and execute it because you are the person leading this club,” she said. “You are the one to make those decisions.” Kristy also mentioned that just having confidence will boost your impact on other people.
During her future meetings, Lilya is going to have weekly themes, where members will take pictures based on each theme, either on their phones or their cameras. Then members will present their photos during meetings and talk about how they took them and the story behind them.
The Photography Club will have meetings every other Tuesday, which will give members two weeks to take pictures for each theme. Lilya will also have lighting demonstrations, where she will show people how proper lighting can improve the quality of their images.
One of Lilya’s future goals for her club is to help members earn community service hours through events from the Glendale Public Library. She also is trying to achieve and build up the club, like getting more people to join, making the club more exciting, building the website for the club, and creating a community.
“I would like a community where people who love taking photos stand together and just help each other out,” Lilya said. Kristy’s goal, as a social media manager, is to use social media platforms, along with their club website, to make better interaction with people who might be interested in working with them.
If you are interested in joining the Photography Club, all you have to do is enter the code @b79cc3h into the Remind app, and Lilya will be able to send messages to let you know when there will be meetings. Get photographic, Nitros!
