Jefferson High School teacher and photographer Dawn Smartnick started creating personalized composite photos of each willing 2020 graduate due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19.
In a typical year, Smartnick takes photographs of the graduates and their families after the ceremony. This year, with graduation plans still in the works due to social distancing and other pandemic restrictions, Smartnick decided to try another way to honor the graduates.
“These kids are pretty special,” she said, adding that it also happens to be the year her eldest son, Ethan, graduates from JHS.
Smartnick has set up several photo shoots in Helena and Boulder to make it easier for students at either end of the county to participate. The photo shoots and photographs are free and offered to parents through an online gallery. That way, they can either make prints or keep them digitally, said Smartnick.
Smartnick has been posting the photographs on her Facebook page, adding a personalized tribute to each student.
This way everyone in the community can see what that particular graduate plans to do, she said.
Smartnick shoots the photos using her Canon digital camera and then uploads them to her phone, where she puts the composites together using a graphic design platform called Canva.
The Jefferson High School Class of 2020 includes 71 graduates and Smartnick estimates that she has photographed about 60 percent of the class.
