Like many extracurricular programs at Diamond Bar High School, the yearbook team has been forced to quickly adapt to new conditions this year. As a publication heavily relying on photographs, the Taurus has come to count on sparse in-person events and self-submissions to fill pages.
The organization’s primary concern has been the lack of in-person campus activities such as clubs and athletics, which make up a large portion of the yearbook’s content.
“The hardest challenge we faced was definitely finding photos of people that…weren’t blurry and had good quality,” seniors and sports editor senior Ashlyn Woo said via Instagram. “This year was definitely hard finding people who not only had photos that matched our page topic, but who were also willing to respond to us.”
To help facilitate photo opportunities, Woo helped plan in-person photoshoots for superlatives and senior profiles.
“I have been an editor for two years, seniors and sports. I also help run the yearbook Instagram,” Woo said. “This year we did have to compromise our coverage, which is how many people we can possibly fit into the yearbook without repeating anyone, since we were on a photo and people shortage in terms of who we could interview and who had photos.”
As an editor, Woo also mentors staffers, who are primarily responsible for holding interviews and obtaining photos, including junior Toby Yee.
“I just joined this year, so I’m a staffer. Staffers are the ones who do the interviewing, acquire, curate and choose the photos, and write the copies, captions and mods,” Yee said via Instagram. “I had to make sure that the photos were as good as possible and to get follow-ups from them should their responses or photos be inadequate.”
Another of their concerns was finding an effective way to communicate between sections virtually. The Taurus opted to communicate through Discord, as the platform allows them to separate sections into different channels and participate in voice chats under the supervision of their editors-in-chief.
“We had to work individually with no good way in Zoom to send files, contain long chats, hold photos, or to run meetings in a fast, private manner,” Yee said.
The staff is unsure of how distance learning may impact yearbook sales at the end of the year. Woo hopes that distribution will be held in-person, but predicts that whatever system is used this year will be similar to last year’s drive-through pickup where yearbooks were handed out in the parking lot.
“I really do hope that even though it was a remote year, people still bought yearbooks to remember it because this year has been something truly special,” she said. “The yearbook is a special book that documents all the highs and lows of high school. It’s a physical memory that you can look through in future years and laugh about.”

Cut Version:
Like many extracurricular programs at Diamond Bar High School, the yearbook team has been forced to quickly adapt to new conditions this year. As a publication heavily relying on photographs, the Taurus has come to count on sparse in-person events and self-submissions to fill pages.
The organization’s primary concern has been the lack of in-person campus activities such as clubs and athletics, which make up a large portion of the yearbook’s content.
“The hardest challenge we faced was definitely finding photos of people that…weren’t blurry and had good quality,” seniors and sports editor senior Ashlyn Woo said via Instagram.
To help facilitate photo opportunities, Woo helped plan in-person photoshoots for superlatives and senior profiles.
“I have been an editor for two years, seniors and sports. I also help run the yearbook Instagram,” Woo said. “This year we did have to compromise our coverage, which is how many people we can possibly fit into the yearbook without repeating anyone, since we were on a photo and people shortage.”
As an editor, Woo also mentors staffers, who are primarily responsible for holding interviews and obtaining photos, including junior Toby Yee.
“I just joined this year, so I’m a staffer. Staffers are the ones who do the interviewing, acquire, curate and choose the photos, and write the copies, captions and mods,” Yee said via Instagram. “I had to make sure that the photos were as good as possible and to get follow-ups from them should their responses or photos be inadequate.”
Another of their concerns was finding an effective way to communicate between sections virtually. The Taurus opted to communicate through Discord, as the platform allows them to separate sections into different channels and participate in voice chats under the supervision of their editors-in-chief.
“We had to work individually with no good way in Zoom to send files, contain long chats, hold photos, or to run meetings in a fast, private manner,” Yee said.
The staff is unsure of how distance learning may impact yearbook sales at the end of the year. Woo hopes that distribution will be held in-person, but predicts that whatever system is used this year will be similar to last year’s drive-through pickup where yearbooks were handed out in the parking lot.
“I really do hope that even though it was a remote year, people still bought yearbooks to remember it because this year has been something truly special,” she said. “The yearbook is a special book that documents all the highs and lows of high school. It’s a physical memory that you can look through in future years and laugh about.”

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