Somer Kreisman pauses to think about what her life would be like without photography, and the camera she carries constantly.

“I’d be lonely and bored,” Kreisman said. “And never come out of my house.”

“Just kidding,” she quickly adds.

Fellow students at South Whidbey High School have grown accustomed to seeing Kreisman patrolling the sidelines with her camera during sporting events, or roaming the campus on the search for candid shots for the yearbook.

People elsewhere have taken notice of Kreisman’s photography skills, too. Kreisman recently learned she had won a silver medal for her photograph “The Kiss” in the National Scholastic Art and Writing Contest.

Kreisman is the first national winner the school has had in the contest, which dates back more than 80 years, said Don Wodjenski, photography instructor at South Whidbey High. Previous winners in the Scholastic competition include Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon and Amy Tan.

Kreisman, 17, has been invited to receive her medal at a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York on June 8. The Falcon junior is currently fundraising to gather travel costs for the three-day trip to New York, which includes the award ceremony and two days’ worth of workshops.

Eighteen students at South Whidbey High School entered the contest this year, and there were roughly 200,000 entries from across the country.

In addition to her national silver medal, Kreisman also received two “Gold Key” regional awards for her photographs.

She recalled her surprise when she found out about the silver medal. Her mother, Sarri Gilman, was a bit more muted, at first.

“It was really shocking; I was really excited,” she said.

“My mom didn’t believe me. She came over and started reading the e-mail and said, ‘I don’t know, Somer…’ Then she got all excited,” Kreisman recalled.

Kreisman took her winning photo, “The Kiss,” during a Zone 5 photography field trip to San Francisco, Calif. It was a candid she took of a street performer when the group visited the wharf section of town.

It photos like that, of people, that she enjoys shooting the most.

“It’s the most relatable subject,” she said.

Likewise, she’s a fan of the work of Avedon, the late, great portrait artist who’s work graced the pages of Harper’s Weekly, Vogue and The New Yorker for decades.

“It’s all incredible, the really simplistic portraits. He really gets down to the soul of a person, you can see it in their eyes,” she said.

Ideally, she said she would love to have a career someday as a photojournalist.

She’s hovered behind a camera lens for years. Kreisman started taking pictures in the fifth grade, using a hand-me-down camera she got from her mom.

“My mom is really supportive of me,” Kreisman said, recalling how her mother once found a free enlarger and set up a darkroom for her daughter in the garage.

She recalled how she and her mom made a special trip to the high school when she was still in eighth grade, asking Wodjenski how she could get into his photography classes as a freshman.

“I knew it was what I wanted to do,” she said.

“The school has been so supportive of everything I’ve done,” Kreisman added. “The teachers are great. “

Although she has had other interests – she played the flute for five years, and she still fences, something she shares with her identical twin Aliza – photography consumes much of her free time. She’s the photo editor of the high school yearbook.

“It’s always been a part of who she is. To see Somer without a camera is unusual,” Wodjenski said.

He joked about his reaction to the news that Kreisman has won a silver medal in the Scholastic contest.

“I responded, ‘Ho hum. Another award for Somer,’” Wodjenski quipped.

Somer also won a regional award last year in the competition.

“She’s a pretty shy person, but she has talent to spare,” Wodjenski said. “She’s smart, she’s gifted, she’s dedicated to producing quality work, and she’s fun to have around.”

Next stop, Carnegie Hall

The community is invited to send financial contributions to help support

Somer Kreisman’s trip to New York to receive her medal. All donations are

appreciated, and can be sent to donations to South Whidbey High – Attention : Don Wodjenski, PO Box 390, Langley, WA 98260.