More Than a Lens

From school dances to senior photos, Grant High School senior Meghna Rickabaugh Rich has practiced photography for and outside of the school since her junior year. Starting about five years ago with the camera of her mother’s old phone, she has developed an aspect of her life that she says is “definitely here to stay.”

Rickabaugh Rich’s photography journey was borne out of her boredom during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the guidance of her parents — both of whom are photographers — she began taking the hobby more seriously in 2021.

Rickabaugh Rich’s craft expanded through 2022 when she got her first phone, which had much better camera quality than the one she had used previously. She began to experiment with using her parents’ professional cameras later that year. She recalls the moment when she decided to make the switch, citing a hummingbird nest in her yard. “I was like, ‘I really want to capture this,’” she says. “My dad let me use his camera … And then I was like, ‘This is even better than a phone.’”

Rickabaugh Rich says that using a camera always “came very naturally to me.” She hasn’t taken any photography classes, but rather opted for a process of experimentation to learn. “It was just a lot of pressing buttons and seeing what worked,” she says.

Initially, Rickabaugh Rich’s main subject matter was animals — her pet dog in particular. Looking to photography books as a reference, she aimed to recreate their intricate silhouettes. “I really tried to emulate those, really close up — getting the eyes of the animal or getting individual noses and seeing the pattern of (them),” she says. “I really try to hone in on to the really fine details of things.” Though dogs still make up a large portion of the photographs she takes, in the last year Rickabaugh Rich has found an interest in photographing her peers.

This passion developed when she was invited to photograph Grant’s homecoming dance her junior year with her friend, Nick Akita. Having little experience photographing people, Rickabaugh Rich recalls feeling nervous about the event. “(It sounded) really big,” she says. “I didn’t want to mess anything up.”

Rickabaugh Rich returned to photograph winter formal after a surprisingly positive experience at homecoming, and has been asked to return by friends in leadership or volunteered herself for every school dance since. “For me, it’s kind of just about feeling. I just love capturing feeling,” she says. “That’s kind of what I do for the dances. Some of those photos of people just dancing, I don’t even ask to take the picture sometimes. I’ll just start shooting whatever is happening in that moment, because that’s the joy of photography.”

Aside from school dances, Rickabaugh Rich has also done some sports photography at Grant — something she says came with more of a learning curve: “(There’s) nothing anybody hates more than a bad photo of them doing something they love … It was definitely just trying to find that balance between a really cool photo that’s authentic, but also captures the person looking good.”

Rickabaugh Rich has played softball at Grant since her freshman year, which led her to do several shoots for her coaches’ teams. She even takes photos of her own teammates, photographing the team when Grant’s established sports photographer, John Davenport, isn’t around — capturing memorable moments from sleepovers or post-season celebrations in photos that are worth the frame.

One of Rickabaugh Rich’s main sources of inspiration for her editing style is movies — specifically those of filmmaker Wes Anderson. “I really love his style of editing and the way he shoots,” she says. “I take a lot from movies and film when I do my photos.” One way she mimics Anderson’s hazy cinematography is by applying the color grading of certain scenes to her own photos. She cites other professionals such as Mick Rock, a respected photographer of the rock music scene, as an inspiration for her portrait style.

She mentions her mother, an artist, as a motivation for her to carry on with photography, saying that her encouragement is a reason she has stuck with it. She says that her parents have given her “a lot of freedom to just keep doing it,” despite their artistic styles being very different.

Photography has been integrated into many other aspects of Rickabaugh Rich’s life, such as her volunteer work at the Oregon Humane Society. “I do pictures for them quite often when I go on my volunteering shift,” she says. Many of her photos of dogs up for adoption have been uploaded to the Oregon Humane Society website. Her Instagram, which now has over 300 posts, was downloaded initially with the goal of sharing her photography. Even more photos of animals — dogs in particular — can be found on the page. “It’s just kind of incorporated into my life at this point,” she says. “I’m just always doing photos.”

Because the activity has become such a habit for Rickabaugh Rich, she doesn’t have much trouble making time for photography in her busy daily schedule. “There’s always ways to sneak in photos here and there,” she says. “If I need a break from school and I’m getting sick of staring at the same paper for hours on end … I’ll go shoot a picture.”

For beginner photographers, Rickabaugh Rich advises to stick to YouTube tutorials. “Stay off of those Instagram Reels,” she says. “Half of those are just plain incorrect.” Still, she emphasizes the importance of learning through real experience instead of sole instruction. “Don’t just study the camera — I mean, that’s good of course — but just start taking photos and messing with the settings,” she says. “If you can take a photo (and) you’re proud of it … that’s really all there is to it.”

Now a senior, Rickabaugh Rich plans to continue photography after graduation. “I definitely think it’s going to stay in my life,” she says. “It’s a main part of it. Because it’s really just part of who I am. I’m never anywhere without a camera.”