About Shannon Hamilton

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"I got lucky with one shot," Shannon Hamilton said of her photograph, which captures the boots of a boy she was babysitting mid-splash.

"He just happened to be playing in the puddles," Hamilton said. She grabbed her camera when she saw the reflections of trees in the water.

The photo was for a project she was assembling in her photography class at Sacred Heart Prep, where she is a junior.

"I actually started photography last year at school," she said. "It's just one of my interests."

Hamilton submitted the photograph at the last minute at the request of her photography teacher, Lars Howlett, and was surprised to win first place in her category.

"I especially like shooting in black and white," Hamilton said. "It's all work done by hand. The pictures, you develop a better connection with them: You've dealt with them and processed them."

Her most recent work is currently exhibited at SPUR Projects in Portola Valley.

"I worked with six other students and traveled down to Tijuana and took pictures of the migrants down there," Hamilton said. "We talked to people who had just been deported or were planning to cross the border."

The Sacred Heart students lived there for a week, taking pictures on both sides of the border.

Hamilton will continue to work with film at school and experiment with digital photography on her own.

"It's an interesting way to express yourself," she said.

--Thea Lamkin-Carughi