Feature photo by: Kenya Lee- Senior Sumer Martin sits at her desk while working on her math project. Martin loves to do photography and plans on making it a career. 

Sumer Martin is a senior at Rangeview High School, but she spends half of her time somewhere more important to her: Pickens Technical College. At Pickens, Martin takes a photography course; she is very passionate about it.

“I love taking pictures,” said Martin. “One picture can tell a million different stories.”

Growing up, Martin said she had a rough life. Her father died when she was very young and her mother left due to difficult circumstances. As a result, her older sister took her in and she has been living with her ever since.

As a kid, her family owned a lot of family pictures — pictures that were priceless and very precious to Martin since they were pictures of her childhood. Most of them, however, were destroyed in a flood and are gone for good. It was this tragedy that inspired Martin to want to become a photographer, for she feels that pictures have a huge impact on someone’s life.

“I want to help people relive their past through pictures, whether it’s good or bad memories,” Martin said.

Through her photography skills along with her personality, Martin has left a great impression on her friends. One of Martin’s friends, Dante Craig who is also a senior at Rangeview, expressed his thoughts about her.

“Sumer is such an outgoing person who doesn’t deal with non-sense or drama. She also takes great and very artistic photos,” said Craig.

Martin says the love and encouragement she gets from her friends and family serve as a driving force to keep moving in this direction. She hopes to attend the University of Montana where she will try to acquire her Associate of Arts in Photography.

Senior Natalie Humphrey has known Martin for two years and the two have grown very close during that time.

“I remember sophomore year in English – I didn’t know anyone in that class and she was so welcoming to me,” said Humphrey. “She always has a smile on her face and inspires me to do the same.”

When Martin is not busy pursuing her dream career of being a professional photographer, she is either running for cross country at school or busy working as a manager at Wendy’s for the time being.

Martin thinks that she is on the right track though, and will continue to do all that she possibly can to make sure that she accomplishes her photography goal. She believes that through hard work, she will succeed in life.