One of the many things that the pandemic has taken from students is a typical freshman orientation experience when starting college. At the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, Campbell created ways for freshman students to arrive to campus ahead of upperclassmen in order to have their own orientation and time to get to know each other… and that is all found through the Campbell Tartan Experience. It brought back so many memories for me to feel the energy and nerves in the room radiating off these brand new college kids. I happened to know two incoming freshman myself, so it was fun to not only remember my first days at Campbell, but to also connect with these two that I care about so much as they begin their journey there.

Y’all, this is Martha’s debut to the SP blog! (YAY). We are so excited that this will be the first of many blog posts for Story Photographers featuring Martha’s work. This year is the first time that someone else on the SP team has needed to cover a Campbell event because I was already booked. Hearing Martha’s experience at this shoot warmed my soul, y’all. She experienced all that makes this place and these people so special to me, and so many others! It brought so much joy to hear about how things went from Martha, so let’s just hear what she has to say about it….

It has been such a joy cultivating a relationship with the Alumni Engagement office at my alma mater, Campbell University. After I photographed homecoming in 2019, we started working on more projects together. I was really looking forward to all the events I was going to get to photograph for the CU alumni office in 2020... Then the Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed those plans, like it did so many plans. So, I was really excited when they reached out with this idea to offer headshots for their students in the new student center!