By: Edir Coronado
Mitchell Pavlak of Watchung, New Jersey is a sophomore and recent recipient of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. His forte is photography, macro photography to be exact, a form of photography where you take pictures of small subjects and make them larger than life size, “this is a passion of mine,” explains Pavlak.
The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards are bestowed to those students who display a superior talent in the realm of art and literature. The awards are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers and through these awards recipients have the opportunity to gain notoriety, have their works published, and earn scholarships. Students from 7th to 12th grades, private, homeschooled, or public can submit works.
The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards are bestowed to those students who display a superior talent in the realm of art and literature. The awards are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers and through these awards recipients have the opportunity to gain notoriety, have their works published, and earn scholarships. Students from 7th to 12th grades, private, homeschooled, or public can submit works.
Pavlak began delving deeper into the new found interest and explored how shutter speed played a role in freezing moving objects or the depth of field due to an increase and decrease in aperture. Early on Pavlak gravitated mostly to wildlife photography because of the challenge that is presented trying to capture a perfect moment when your subject can easily fly away if disturbed, this combined with his preferred method of using his equipment in manual mode, displays a great deal of patience and effort.
He later began exploring macro photography when his parents rented him a macro lens to try out, after Pavlak excitedly showed his mother some macro photos he had obtained online. “The challenges of extreme macro photography also inspire/challenge me as manual mode is practically a must, and every little bit of camera shake is magnified greatly,” explains Pavlak. He gains a great deal of joy from achieving the perfect photograph, despite the level difficulty it entails.
He has instead chosen to use his skills in photography for a greater cause, opting to provide his talents, for free, to events like StreetSquash, Newark’s annual Brick City Cup charity squash tournament. Pavlak has also donated several photos to non-profit wildlife and nature centers in New Jersey and North Carolina, so that they may sell them and boost funding for their operations.
Currently Pavlak has a website, which he posts all of his photos. mitchellpavlak.smugmug.com.
