Student Posts

About a month after he was finished recovering from a bladder stone surgery and spending 95% of that time medicated or laying down, we started to think our dog Prince needed some enrichment. To celebrate his speedy recovery, we took a drive up to Lumpkin, Georgia for a visit to Providence Canyon State Park. As we suspected, he was really excited to be up and about, and spent the whole three mile trek leading us on his leash. Since it had rained recently, there were puddles in the clay-heavy dirt around the hike trail, and he ended up with the dog equivalent of dorito fingers, which we found pretty hilarious. This is him around the very end of the trail, when he started to get a little tired and ready to go home.

Or maybe it was the frightening clay snowman we saw on the trail that skeeved him out, he didn’t really say. In the Live version of the image, he talks a half-look back at the haunted looking snowman. At this point, there were a couple of reasons to head on out, but not before this picture was taken.

I wanted, in this post, to highlight a space of my office. Because I work in the Law Library, I’m honestly surprised by my first interactions with students at the university, as they treat me with austerity – they go right for the “Mr. Gonzalez” and all that. Suddenly, though, when they enter my office filled with my figurines and stories, and nerd collection, they’re surprised, and it slowly starts to erode. I like that I have this duality – equal parts serious to fun. Okay, more fun than serious, but I like that I can be a different sort of assistance from a faculty member in the stressful environment of Law School!

Looking for inspiration for this assignment, I decided to showcase how cropping parts of my office can change how someone perceives me at work. I have a collection of our university’s Law Review in my space, showcasing our school’s little bit of history. But, just above them, I have a variety of Amiibos; in fact, ones of Kirby, the cutest little pink puff! They’re silly guys, just sitting on top of materials that Law Students know can mean the difference between working at a firm just out of school. While the work is important, I also want them to be more than just Lawyers – they can also be themselves.

The Lost Eel by Jaclyne Jones. 2025. Licensed under CC-BY 4.0.

The Lost Eel (Reworked) by Jaclyne Jones. 2026. Licensed under CC-BY 4.0

Last summer I traveled to Greece to celebrate my graduation from the University of Edinburgh. As we traversed about on the island of Crete, my friend and I came across this aquarium, full of rescued sea life. I was immediately drawn to this large, beautiful fish surrounded by eels. The first picture I took was to revel in its beauty. It wasn’t until I glanced downward that I saw the eager eel trying to be seen from behind the scenes. I absolutely adore this photo, and even more so the cropped image because it accentuates the simile I witnessed. What is large and center is not always the main attraction. Sometimes if you adjust your viewpoint, you might uncover something entirely different to behold. Plus, I find the eel’s expression beyond hilarious. I plan to go back one day to check on the little guy. Make sure he’s getting the attention he deserves.

The original image was taken by me at the Everglades last year. The main focus of the image are the water lily’s, so I cropped the image to exclude the grass towards the bottom of the image. I also wanted to alter the ratio so the sky and the grassy areas are evenly distributed. I cropped the image primarily to leave out unnecessary details.

I had a lot of good options of photos to go with for this post, but something about the turtle’s face in this edit was speaking to me. In the original photo the turtle itself is very zoomed out, and the turtle seeming out of place on a random driveway is the point of focus. But in the cropped and edited version, the turtle seems to have more purpose. Life is a highway, and this turtle is going to noisily drag itself along the pavement all night long! (The turtle appeared behind me on a walk coming at a rapidly zooming pace, and the rear end of it shell loudly dragged on the concrete, which was what alerted me to its presence. It was rather alarming, actually.) I intentionally left a lot of space ahead of the turtle to convey the turtle’s forward movement. This turtle had places to go and things to see, and I believe my edit highlights that.

Sunset on the water in Chicago, 2025, by Alih Rosa, licensed under CC BY 4.0

I took this photo during a trip to Chicago in May of last year. No matter what time of day I walked past the river, there were always architecture boat tours taking place. The original photo captures many aspects of the city, including the river, buildings, boat tours, and the setting sun. In the cropped version, I chose to emphasize one of the boat tours. Cropping the photo shifts the narrative from a general city landscape to a personal city experience by focusing on the line of people waiting to board. Details, like the flowers on the boat and people taking a stroll, become more focal and tell a more individual story.