Mike Santagata

Hello, my name is Michael Santagata, but i prefer to be called Mike. I am 18 years old, born february 1, 1994. I am from Brooklyn, New York, in a neighborhood called Sheep's Head Bay. I moved to Apopka, Florida, when I was about five years old to be able to spend some time with my dying grandmother, who, shortly after, succumbed to her cancer, and passed away. After my family and I moved into our own house, I attended Elementary school at Clay Springs Elementary. From there, I continued onto Piedmont Lakes Middle School, and later Wekiva High School. After a short time there, I transferred to Apopka High School. Around this time, I took up a large interest in photography, focusing mainly on scenery. However, since Apopka lacks any true scenery, I started doing portrait photography, and not just for people, as a lot of people have hired me to take pictures of their pets. Since I started, i've gained much experience in portrait photography, and while I loathed it in the beginning, I have grown to look forward to taking peoples portraits. I even purchased a high end DSLR camera, the Canon Rebel T3. I plan to apply my skills in photography and videography to my work in this Journalism class, and trust me, Im a much better photographer than I am a writer. :)