BRICK – Summertime is a great time to learn about the art of photography. Just ask former and current students of their instructor, Gabrielle Cetrulo Porter.
The Brick Township Arts Council, which was founded by Porter in 2025, aims to instruct young teens in the arts. This summer’s program is focused on photography, teaching the students how to use a digital camera.
“We launched the non-profit last year,” said Porter, who also serves as the council’s executive director. “I just moved to Brick Township in January of last year and I wanted to create a space where it connects the arts to all types of people. Starting with children, I thought it was the quickest and easiest way to get them involved with the arts.”
Porter said that parents are always looking for a safe space for their kids to go to. With those kids being off for most of the summer, learning about photography with an actual camera is something they might be interested in.
“I launched the photography course last summer and I partnered with the Brick Township Teen Center to hold all the workshops there,” she said. The Teen Center is in Civic Plaza, at 270 Chambers Bridge Road.
Included in the first year’s workshop were the basics of a camera. Techniques like shutter speed and aperture were discussed during the four-week program.
Porter, who works full-time for Brick Township, said the photography workshop was so successful last year that they decided to offer it again. The program this summer is a little different that last year. This summer the students will be working on lighting and portraits. Approximately 25 kids signed up for this year’s program, which is more than last year’s total.
The equipment is free for the students to use, with a limited number of cameras and lenses available to use during the Wednesday classes. Students were encouraged to bring their own cameras if they had them. Kids in grades 6-12 were allowed to participate.
Most people are used to snapping an image with their phone, but learning how to make an image better is something these workshops will focus on. Using an actual camera is very different than a phone. These students will learn how to assemble the lens and camera body, set the settings, and compose an image all within the monthlong workshop.
On the second week of the workshop, the class studied portraits, which is a popular topic among teens. The idea of how to compose a photo was introduced to the class. Students learned how to “frame” the shot, which means how to look through a viewfinder or LCD screen to align what you want to take a picture of. Through a quick slideshow, students learned what a bird’s eye view is as opposed to a worm’s eye view. The bird’s eye is looking down from above the subject while a worm’s eye view would be looking upward at a subject.
The students then learned what a frame within a frame is; which is to say how to look for angles at your subject and how to use the surroundings to compose the image.
As practice makes perfect, the students were then given free time to use their cameras. For about an hour, students roamed both outside and inside to practice taking portraits. Selfies, which is technically still a portrait, were practiced along with traditional portraits of their classmates. The students worked in groups for the most part with their teacher walking around answering any questions they had.
One of Porter’s students, Kayna Lavecchia, took the course last year as well as this year. “I like taking pictures of landscapes, and people doing things, in action,” she said. “I want to work on how to adjust my pictures quicker – so I can take them quicker – and lighting.”
On the fifth week of the workshop, the Teen Center held a showcase to display some of the students’ top shots.
Porter also spoke about how the Brick Township Arts Council is a nonprofit, so they rely on donations from the town and public to continue bringing these types of workshops to teens in Brick. With big hopes of the workshops expanding to adults in the future, Porter and the Brick Arts Council are looking forward to what they can teach the community next.
For more information about these workshops, please contact Gabrielle Cetrulo Porter at bricktwpartscouncil@gmail.com or visit bricktwpartscouncil.org. You can find them on social media as well: instagram.com/bricktwpartscouncil
