Layclan Saylor shows off his Nikon D5100 camera and the lens he uses for sports photography. A Wawasee High School sophomore, he takes pictures of many of his school’s sports teams. Nature is another favorite subject of his. Photo by Lilli Dwyer.

By Lilli Dwyer
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — Layclan Saylor, 15, is a sophomore at Wawasee High School and a budding young photographer.

“I started with taking pictures of the sunset with my dad’s camera that he had, and I thought, ‘hey, this is kinda fun’ … They ended up getting me my own camera for Christmas one year,” he recalled.

Saylor’s first camera was a basic point-and-shoot. Nowadays, he prefers a camera, which allows him to be more hands-on.

“It does all the work for you,” he said of his first camera. “And then there’s manual cameras that you can adjust yourself. The zoom on them is different, the lens actually zooms. On the (point-and-shoot) camera, there’s just a button that you push up and down to zoom in and out. I’m more manual.”

Saylor takes his photos with a Nikon D5100.

“There’s faster cameras than that, but I work with what I got,” he said.

He also retouches photos in Adobe Lightroom.

Saylor takes pictures for many of Wawasee’s sports teams, including baseball, football, soccer and softball. He’s also a photographer for his own sports— cross-country and swimming.

“I don’t shoot manual all the time, because it’s a lot harder for sports. And birds, especially, because I like taking pictures of birds. I just shoot on auto for those,” he said.

Outside of his sports photography, he’s done some senior pictures shoots as well.

“They get me because I’m cheaper, and they know my pictures are pretty good for being a beginner,” he said with a laugh.

Nature is another one his favorite subjects.

“Birds are probably my favorite, and then any flowers, and landscapes. … I just like being out in nature, too,” he added.

Photography captured his attention and has kept him hooked because of how personal it is.

“You can make it your own, being able to take pictures of whatever you want to and make them look like whatever you want. Every picture you take is originally your own; it’s not the exact same as anyone else’s. It’s always gonna be a little different. That’s the freedom that it has, I think,” he explained.

Saylor describes himself as “mainly self-taught.” He is also taking part in an independent study for photography at school. He views the art form as something he could do for a career.

“I think I might go to college for a business major, and then minor in photography and see if I can start my own photography business,” he said.

Recently, he’s also started to get involved in competitions. Last year, one of Saylor’s natures shots, a closeup of a lily pad, made it into the top 100 of 60,000 entries in the Rocky Mountain School of Photography competition. Nine of his other photos are hanging up in Warsaw’s Parkview Hospital.

Between cross-country, swimming, and photography, Saylor stays fairly busy; however, when he has free time he enjoys spending time with friends, hunting, fishing and surfing on Winona Lake.