With only a camera, junior Danielle Barbour headed off for three days. One photo and $50 later, Barbour returned from Jostens publication camp changed.

“She took what she learned the first two days of our class and combined it with our theme and won our photo contest,” Barbour’s photography teacher and president of the Missouri Journalism Education Association, Kyle Carter, wrote on an Instagram post to introduce her as a student to watch.

Barbour, a first time photographer, won the contest out of the hundreds of other campers from Michigan.

“There wasn’t really a theme,” Barbour said. “It was just to take the best photo you have taken over the three days.” Even with such little time Barbour was able to master the concepts of manual photography.

“I have been so impressed with her photography eye and ability to created using light and colors,” Carter wrote.

Barbour took the course to prepare for the upcoming year as a freelance photographer for the news and yearbook staffs.

“I’ll be honest – I had no idea how she shot it, she had to explain it to me – it blew me away,” Carter said.