The Salvation Army was packed, with endless aisles of old clothes, furniture and electronics. It was a Saturday afternoon and the line to the registers extended around the store. The electronics table was littered with endless gadgets and old, vintage findings. An old, rundown camera, the kind nobody sees anymore, caught the eye of aspiring photographer junior Jaxen Berkompas.

“There is the cliche of ‘you take pictures to capture something in its truest form’ or whatever, but it is kind of addicting because you get a cool angle on things and you get to capture a cool moment,” Berkompas said. “It’s like, ‘Wow,’ like you never saw that before. It is a different way to look at things and you can experience and look at things through pictures.”

Berkompas has been taking photos since he was in middle school and about two years ago he began to take a more active interest in photography. Not many of his friends have been introduced to his photography but those who have said he is talented.

“I knew about his interest in photography and he has shown me a lot of his photos and I believe he has a real talent for it,” Royal Oak High School junior Carlos Gibson said.

Junior Juliet Danyal said she’s seen Berkompas’ photos and “he’s really talented, even though he won’t admit it.”

“He used to go around thrift stores and look for cool different cameras and try to fix them and use them for pictures,” she said.

Berkompas moved to Troy last summer from Royal Oak.

“Honestly, after moving away from all my friends it kind of unmotivated me to get out there and take pictures,” Berkompas said. “The amount of pictures I took dropped a lot, almost to none. But when I did take pictures, I found I liked to take ones that were blurry or distorted and I don’t know why.”

Although Troy was only a few miles away, Berkompas said he experienced culture shock.

“Coming to Troy was hard,” Berkompas said. “Royal Oak is not a bad school education-wise, but they don’t pound GPA and stuff as much as they do here. That was a big change. From a social aspect too, Royal Oak is a smaller school and you know everyone and we are all kinda close to an extent. It was definitely weird coming into a school where everyone is in their own little space.”

Berkompas attended Royal Oak High School for his freshman and sophomore years.

“Everybody always hears the quote ‘you don’t know what you have until it is gone,’ but I guess I never really understood the difference between a house and a home until I switched,” Berkompas said. “Royal Oak is home. You know the streets, you can drive around and see different blocks and you know a bunch of different people and have so many memories everywhere.”

ROHS junior Jacob Knightstep has known him since the two were in kindergarten.

“Since the move I don’t see him nearly as much as I used to, maybe only once or twice a month,” Knightstep said. “I’m in contact with him over text or Snapchat almost daily. We like to go out driving together, biking, play instruments and just hang out in general. I found out he was switching schools over the summer when he moved to Troy. My reaction was initially sadness followed by happiness because I was glad that he was getting a new experience.”

Berkompas moved to Troy because his parents wanted a different house.

“I like it here,” Berkompas said. “It was rough at first because of all the new people, but honestly I love Troy now. I feel like I’d be missing out on something if I hadn’t met these people. There are a lot more clubs here. At Royal Oak you have your basic student government and spirit clubs, but here you have a lot of other cool stuff.”

Berkompas is currently in Longboard Club and Spanish Club. He said he hopes to go into a career in STEM.

“I like physics and sciences, which is really weird,” Berkompas said. “Ever since like sixth or seventh grade science just seemed really cool. It’s so cool to me to learn how stuff works because it is applied in everything. It is so interesting.”

Though he doesn’t want to go into a photography career, it is something Berkompas wants to continue.

“I definitely want to do it for the rest of my life,” Berkompas said. “Maybe not as a career but it is cool to be able to capture moments in time. I guess your future is like an undeveloped photo. You don’t know what it will be like or how it will turn out.”