XI | Capturing the Second

Twenty six. That quantity appeared oh so far-off to me 4 years in the past, but right here we’re — lower than a month away from commencement. What appeared an nearly summary idea for me for many of my life instantly looms nearer and nearer, an inevitable actuality that I’m unsure I’m prepared for. To cope, I’ve been listening to Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” your entire semester (as one does) which, past filling me with immense disappointment, has additionally made me reminisce and mirror on my faculty expertise. What have I performed or discovered prior to now 4 years? What did I really accomplish at Cornell? When pondering such questions, one factor comes clearly to thoughts: images.

I’ve all the time liked taking footage of something and all the things, ranging from my childhood days after I would borrow my older sister’s telephone (as I used to be not allowed one till my sophomore yr of highschool, enjoyable truth) on household journeys to snap pictures. But it was not till sophomore yr at Cornell, after I stumbled upon my mother’s seven-year-old digicam, that I began taking images a little bit extra significantly. My first expertise capturing footage on one thing apart from a telephone was — not even exaggerating — fairly life-changing for me. I loved it a lot that I saved up all semester to buy my first legit digicam, a Fujifilm XT-30. With this new shimmering prize in hand, I appeared for alternatives on campus to really use it, which I discovered by becoming a member of The Sun’s images division. It was one of the best determination I ever made. 

Up up to now I used to be nonetheless very new to even beginner images, with little data of the strategies, guidelines and intuitions of the sphere. My first huge expertise got here sophomore spring, after I signed as much as cowl a basketball recreation. I’ve been a fan of most sports activities together with basketball my total life, so it appeared like a enjoyable factor to do. Little did I do know that it might result in certainly one of my defining faculty passions. I fell in love with capturing sports activities, although I used to be positively a sufferer of the newbie photographer’s ego as I assumed all of my pictures have been superb. Looking again, I can definitively say they weren’t — all the things was tinted inexperienced, for some motive? (I’ve come a great distance since then, to place it properly.) Nevertheless, I took each likelihood to cowl sports activities that semester, from basketball to hockey to lacrosse, and had a blast. 

Lacrosse specifically piqued my curiosity. Before Cornell I had by no means watched a lacrosse recreation in my life, however I discovered the game so entertaining, with a gameday environment in contrast to the rest I’ve ever skilled at Cornell (in addition to hockey, after all). Junior yr, I attended all the boys’s group’s dwelling video games through the season and even some away ones, and what a trip it was. The Red gained the nationwide championship that yr, and I used to be there protecting each single recreation alongside the way in which. I used to be capturing historical past with my digicam: from CJ Kirst breaking the NCAA all-time scoring file, to the group standing alone atop of the nation. I can proudly say that I recorded these moments in my viewfinder, making my very own lasting mark by way of my photographs. That, I feel, is what’s so interesting about images to me. The skill to seize an emotion, an interplay, a life-defining second in an everlasting trend each time I press the shutter makes the medium so particular. 

What I’ve additionally discovered prior to now few years is that images is really a neighborhood, bolstered by social media together with the shareable and accessible nature of images. Nothing makes me happier than having a participant use my picture as their profile image, getting my photos printed in a Sun article or a mother or father reaching out asking for his or her child’s photographs from a recreation. There is one thing so fulfilling about creating materials that’s appreciated by others, which is what I all the time hold high of thoughts when committing hours upon hours of labor to protecting a recreation within the pouring rain or doing a commencement shoot. Meeting and connecting with different photographers throughout a recreation or occasion is all the time a plus, too.  

All that stated, after I look again in 30 years or so on my time at Cornell, the influence I’ve had with my images will likely be what I bear in mind and cherish probably the most. I typically have that lingering feeling that I’m solely an observer in my very own life, however one of the crucial necessary classes that images has taught me is to develop into extra grounded within the second … within the right here and now. Photography is a medium by way of which I can doc my journey by way of life, nonetheless daunting that will really feel proper now simply weeks away from commencement. So, whereas I proceed to play “Landslide” and dwell in nostalgia for one thing that’s not but even over, I remind myself to concentrate on the now and really make the recollections that future me will look again on by way of footage. My photographs app on my telephone at the moment accommodates 22,358 photos, and I stay up for including to that quantity as I begin the following chapter of my life.

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Timmy Xi

Timmy Xi is a member of the Class of 2026 within the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a employees photographer and could be reached at [email protected].

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