Photography and videography have always been important to senior Brooke Kucel.

“I’d always been a fan of photography, so I had wanted my own camera to experiment,” Kucel said. “When I was 13, my parents surprised me with a brand new Cannon t3i for Christmas.”

Her photography has not hid away, for it has always been noticed by someone in respect for her talent.

“I’ve recently won 1st place in the ATPI #FallisComing Twitter Contest,” Kucel said. “As well as had a photo chosen and put into the Texas High School Photography Book out of 36,000 entries.”

The photo that won the 2017 #FallisComing ATPI contest was taken during Thanksgiving break, just a few days before the deadline.

“I was in Levelland while I was visiting my family. That’s my older cousin, Micah, and my younger cousin, Brantley, in the picture,” Kucel said. “They were simply riding down the street and they looked like they were having a lot of fun. Since I had my camera out, I decided to capture that moment,”

Brooke’s love for sunflowers came in handy when her photo got placed into an annual book of photography.

“I was in New York City for a film convention in 2016, and my friends and I were walking when I saw sun flowers across the street at a store,” Kucel said. “I ran across the road to take a quick picture of them.”

Although it had been a while since she had taken the photo, it was picked to be in the Texas High School Photography Book for 2017.

“I entered it to ATPI just for fun and for liking the shot. I didn’t really think much of it,” Kucel said, “I’ve started to realized that I get the best pictures when I am not thinking too hard about it and I just decide to capture it. I was surprised and really excited with receiving the award in the Texas High School Photography Book because I did it out of my pure love for photography.”

Her boss, Chris Fritchie, expressed his happiness after the news of Brooke’s photo being placed in the Texas High School Photography Book broke loose.

“I am incredibly proud of my assistant, Brooke Kucel, for her award winning image she captured,” Fritchie said. “Her talent, skill, and dedication makes my job much easier.”

Brooke plans to do photography as a career when she gets out of high school. She’s not sure what college she will be attending yet, but she is excited for her future.

“Photography has been such a big part of my life and I have a big passion for it. This is only the beginning, which is crazy, but I’m so excited of what the future holds for me and my career as a professional photographer,” said Kucel. “Thank you to everyone that continues to support me. Especially to professional photographer/artist, and my boss Chris Fritchie. He’s taught me so much and I look up to him greatly.”