Renée Ittner-McManus is a big believer in experiential learning. Every fall for the past seven years, the University of South Carolina photography instructor has taken her students to the South Carolina State Fair to test their skills.
But they don’t go in cold. By the time they pass through the turnstiles, students in her photojournalism classes have learned the camera’s settings and practiced taking portraits on USC’s historic Horseshoe. They’ve also spent weeks getting quizzed on the exposure triangle: aperture, shutter speed, ISO.
If the terminology sounds foreign, you’re not alone. Some students enter Photography for Visual Communications with a few skills already in their bag, but plenty have never taken a picture with anything other than a smartphone. That’s especially true when her students hail from across the College of Information and Communications curriculum.
“Getting those cameras in the hands of my students and allowing them to apply that classroom knowledge in real-world scenarios is the only way to get them confident with those cameras,” says Ittner-McManus.
And the State Fair is an ideal real-world scenario. The annual field trip begins in bright sun and finishes under flashing lights. If they’re lucky, students might also catch a dramatic October sunset, though out on the midway available light is only part of the equation.
“As a photojournalist I really emphasize the moment,” says Ittner-McManus. “It’s that little spark of emotion that’s going to connect the viewer to your photo and your subject and make it all come alive.”
Over the midway
Junior Katie Altman is double majoring in visual communications and information science, both through USC’s College of Information and Communications. This fall, she took Ittner-McManus’ videography class after taking her photography class in 2024. It was in that earlier class that she took her photo skills to new heights. “I go to the fair every year, and I love to ride the sky tram, but I was terrified that time because I didn’t want to drop my camera,” says Altman. “But then I looked over to the person passing us, and they just had this huge stuffed animal. I thought ‘That’s funny. I need to take a picture to show somebody else.’” And when she showed the picture to her instructor, she got an extra boost. “Renée has just done so much helping me with the skills of using the camera and how to frame, how to train your eye, how to adjust for any situation. And she’s so nice about letting each of us know, ‘You have talent. Let’s see where we can place it and how to help it grow.’”
Fair skies
Junior visual communications major Tag DuMond fell in love with photography and currently works on USC’s athletics creative media team but credits Itttner-McManus’ class with helping him develop his journalistic sensibilities. DuMond says it’s important to put yourself in the shoes of other people and remember what they enjoy about an event like the fair if you want to truly capture the vibe. His establishing shot checked off one of his instructor’s boxes, but to get it he leaned into the experience. “I was actually riding one of the rides, and I had that view,” he says. “I felt like it was a good representation of the scene and the landscape as a whole. It was a good day for it, the sky looked good, so I figured getting that top-down angle was the right move.”
Hold tight!
International student Richelaine Tromp came to USC from Aruba because the admissions office made her feel welcome, and the junior mass communications major is equally enthusiastic about her classes. “This is such a good class, not just if you want to fulfill that credit,” she says. “I recommend it 100 percent. You can go from not knowing anything about a camera to learning so much in just one semester.” To capture her image of fairgoers on the pirate ship, she had to be ready for the moment. “I was just walking around to see what I could see when I heard all this screaming on my right, so I turned my camera. It was perfect because everyone was yelling and they were scared, holding on tight. I remember it vividly.”
Visual communications junior Ali Lucia signed up for Ittner-McManus’ class to improve on some skills she started to develop back home in upstate New York. “I did a photography job over the summer,” she says, “but this class has really taught me technique and how to work with more-advanced cameras.” Getting a dramatic nighttime shot of a ride in full swing was part preparation, part happy accident. “I was originally trying to take a picture with the sunset in the background, but it takes a while to load everyone on the ride, and then it got dark. But that turned out to be perfect because the lights, the swings and the dark sky just looked really cool together.
Eyes on the prize
Since Giovanni Cusatis arrived at USC, the junior journalism major has focused primarily on writing. Ittner-McManus’ class was a chance to get out of his comfort zone and explore some other aspects of the industry. “I didn’t think I was going to get any photography experience as a part of my major,” says Cusatis, “but it’s been a lot of fun getting to learn the cameras and add a different element to my skills in journalism.” Unlike many of his classmates, who got their best shots along the midway, he captured his blue ribbon still life in the agriculture building. “The contrast of the gold lettering on the blue ribbon, along with the jar of jam — I just liked it,” he says. “I shot it from the side to help give it some context.”
