Rebranded AV Club ventures out

West Chicago Community High School’s Audio Visual (AV) Club is a recently rebranded organization, formerly known as Photography Club. The new rendition allows members to focus on taking photos and videos by providing opportunities for students to go out into the surrounding community to seek areas of visual and storytelling interest. The group is advised by English teacher Dave Jennings.

AV Club is open to all students who are interested in what Jennings describes as “audio visual stuff.” Although the organization centers primarily around photography, there are several members who gravitate toward video.

Most recently, the group celebrated the holidays with a field trip and scavenger hunt to downtown Geneva. Jennings spent considerable time planning the activity.

“The first group that finishes the scavenger hunt and shows up with photo evidence gets some free coffee on me, then we hangout and look at pictures,” said Jennings.

The group meets on Wednesdays after school. Students are able to checkout cameras if they do not own one of their own, or want to try their hand at a DSLR.

“Next semester we got of all kinds of stuff planned. We usually jump in a minibus and we’ll go somewhere nearby and take some pictures of scenic destinations, like a forest preserve or a park. Sometimes we compete against each other, and who can take the best picture of a flower or, like at Cantigny, who can take the best picture of a tank as well,” said Jennings.

The group also took a trip to Cosley Zoo in Wheaton during the fall.

“Everybody is there to kinda get better at taking pictures and we all learn from each other. Some people are really into airplane photographs, nature photographs, and some people want to take pictures of other people. You have all kinds of interests, but everybody is there for the same reason: to get better. And we all take advantage of each other’s knowledge and like to learn from each otherl,” said Jennings.