All work and no play makes for some fairly unhappy staffers. Especially considering the amount of work that goes into documenting the current schools year’s history in both the yearbook and our blog site. It’s safe to say that we deserve a break once in a while.Which is why UHSpress successfully combined both works and play in this year’s annual photo field-trip to Winter Park, Florida for the yearbook’s colophon & the blog site. What did we do on this field trip is the real question.

Rode the Sunrail 

If you thought being awakened by an alarm clock was bad, try having train tracks screech to a halt at 7:40 in the morning to give you give you that jolt of energy you needed to wake you up. Nevertheless, being able to ride the Sunrail to Winter park runs circles around all the staff members scrounging around trying to find a ride to Winterpark. Or worse, having to rent a school bus for the evening. The seating on the sunrail is more open, there was no need to worry about dealing with I-4’s painful early-morning traffic, and it was more convenient for transporting over 20 staffers to our desired location: Downtown Winter Park.

“I think the sun rail was definitely a more enjoyable experience than if we were to be stuck on a nasty bus,” sophomore Coral Estes said. “It was a nice being able to sit at actually tables across from our friends and really be able to enjoy each other’s company said.

Took Pictures

Ok, duh that was a given, but still. A large majority of the time, our UHSpress staffers can be spotted around school with a camera slung around their neck, being as a large part of documenting the year involves taking pictures. This field-trip was definitely not an exception to this norm. In fact, our whole day was centered around taking staff self-portraits & staff group photo. In order to effectively manage our time and make sure that everyone had a wide variety of shots, we broke up into three smaller groups. Each group had a designated photographer: in charge of taking pictures of everyone in the group, a group manager: in charge of making sure each group member took photos, in at least three different spots in Winter Park, and two-three general members. With our chaperones, Mrs. Courtney Hanks and her husband Dustin Hanks in close proximity, we had the option to move around and find different backgrounds for our photos. Creating groups not only helped to knock out all the pictures we needed in the short amount of time we had but allowed us to interact more intimately with one another.

“I thought it was a really good bonding experience!” sophomore Grace Rooney said. “Taking photos for people can get very personal for both of us, I definitely feel closer to some of them. I also had a ton of fun, being a photographer for this was already super exciting, so hanging out with my friends made it even better.”

Explored Downtown

Downtown Winter Park is known for being a historic district filled with plenty of cute little shops for locals to spend time and, more importantly, money in. To get the most varied backgrounds for our individual shots, as possible, the staffers took to these shops to take their pictures. Not only did it bring life to the pictures, but made it to where staffers could use the unique shops to their advantage, and let their own personalities shine through. Compiled with a wall full of authentic candies, unusual soda flavors hung up on the wall like trophies, and lots of candy-themed memorabilia, the cavity-inducing utopia named Rocket Fizz proved to be a staff favorite.

“It was fun getting to walk around the candy store even though we were on a school trip because we got to look at the variety of different things they had and we also got to take photos with a bunch of stuff they had in there,” sophomore Jordan McKendrick said.

Ate At Cocina 214

Usually, the staff doesn’t have the chance to sit down and have a meal together. Unless you count the times we ordered out for pizza to feed on during our work nights that can last anywhere from 7-9 pm. Even then, we don’t have the chance to sit face to face with one another and have non-work related conversations without having our computers perched in front of us. We made our reservations, and met back up with at 11;30, a few hours after we broke out into groups. One long table that seated around 24, surely stood out for the casual Tex-Mexican style restaurant, especially on an early Friday afternoon. However, it was still enjoyable to dine out with the people we’ve grown closer with over the past year and was a perfect use of time, as our day out was reaching towards the end.

“Being able to sit down at lunch together was a much different experience than the typical press staff get-together,” junior Joey Arquette said. “We were able to enjoy conversation and really connect with one another without worrying about what we needed to get done or having to discuss work. Even though some of us get the chance, not all of us get the chance to talk to everyone on the whole staff as friends as opposed to co-workers.

Getting a chance to step away, from the everyday hustle and bustle of our everyday jobs as staffers were definitely needed factoring in all that were responsible for. How many campus classes are able to say they take annual field trips for a photoshoot? There’s likely not many. Point: UHSpress.