A Snapshot of Senior MJ Peters

Ever been to a Conn Athletics event and wondered who the student taking the photos was on the sideline? That’s senior MJ Peters. Although you’ll find her in classrooms pursuing a neuroscience major with Government and Psychology minors, Peters is a top-notch photographer who has been asked to photograph numerous Conn events as well as shoot concerts and music festivals for other organizations. 

Peters’ love of photography started early with father-daughter bonding trips to San Francisco, just 45 minutes north of where she grew up. Her father, a former Kentucky horse racing photographer, would bring his camera and show Peters every part of how to operate and shoot photographs. By the age of 12, she knew everything from how to set the aperture to shooting in the rule of thirds. It was their thing, and to this day, Peters has continued to learn and improve from those initial lessons with her father.

It wasn’t until high school that Peters took a photography class. She said “it was a blast” because she knew everything already, so she could just have fun with it. It wasn’t until her sophomore year of high school that she started taking photos and putting together fun videos for her school. At Conn, she was a goalie on the women’s hockey team (her first passion) until the end of her junior year. While still on the team, she made a hype video for fun that she posted on Instagram. Her coach, Kristen Steele saw it and passed it along to the former sports information director, Matt Chmura, who offered Peters a spot as a student photographer/videographer for the Conn Athletic Department.  

Since then, Peter’s photography has grown exponentially. You can check out her photography Instagram @mjpeterscreative for an idea of her content and the many collaborations she has captured. When she’s not on the sidelines of a Conn athletic event, you can catch her photographing concerts headlined by big names like Flo Rida, capturing some lacrosse action with ADVNC Lacrosse back home in California, or taking pictures for clubs around campus. She’s partnered with a production company in New York City called the Respective Collective to shoot some other concerts and festivals too. 

After graduating, Peters plans on giving photography her full attention to see if she can make it a profession. She says her mentor, the videographer for the LA Lakers, has been a huge help in figuring out the steps to working in content creation. “It’s something I’ve always genuinely really loved with my whole life, like loved as much as I loved hockey, but I spent so much of my life focusing on hockey, and I think I was kind of insecure about (pursuing photography.) Like, I knew a Ph.D. degree would bring in money, but like, will being a freelance photographer/videographer?” Peters continued, saying, “I think we’re really fortunate to live in a time where you can be successful in that field, in creativity and following your passion and what you genuinely love. And my big thing is I don’t want to be sixty years old and look back and be like, I regret not ever giving it a try, because I love it.”

At Conn, Peters entered college with the plan to pursue a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. She has dealt with concussions first hand so she wanted to study CTE, the evolving science of the effect of concussions on the brain. However, in true liberal arts fashion, Peters’ photography pursuits show that our studies can be used for so many things, and sometimes our careers don’t aline with our degrees, and that’s ok. 

So next time you’re at a Conn Athletics event, keep an eye out for MJ Peters capturing the game on the sideline! •