Month: June 2011

Your interests can lead to more

by Stanley LearyPhotography
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Some of the planes flying in formation

This weekend I went to the Good Neighbor Day Open House Airshow at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. This brought back memories from my time in Civil Air Patrol in high school.

This made me think of how an early obsession playing GI Joe grew through the years in my life. It was this interest in getting dressed up in military outfits that led me to Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and then to Civil Air Patrol.

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Pitts aerobatic plane doing stunts

I learned in each organization new things that people who wore those uniforms got to do. This interest was expanded and led me to enjoy technology. I learned in CAP for example how planes fly and how to use a compass and map to get around. You had to know this to help with search and rescue missions.

While at the air show I met a friend who grew up just blocks from the airport. He was so influenced by the airport that he went to Georgia Tech and majored in aerospace engineering.

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Crowd watches a Pitts Plane

While he is not doing that today, he too was seeing how an interest helped to start a journey.

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Army had some of their helicopters for the crowd to see up close.

Can you remember earlier interests and did this help lead you to where you are today?

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The A-10 Warthog (Thunderbolt II)

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Paratroopers presenting the colors

Writing for a blog has opened my eyes to differences between words and pictures

by Stanley LearyPhotography
What will I blog about today? Then the idea comes.  Often I have had a lot of ideas that I could easily write about, but I have no visuals to show.

However, I can look at photos and then find something I can share that I learned and have an example to show you.  I prefer to work this way.

Today I am doing the opposite.

When I write I have a slow build up to when the storyline is established. Once this happens I write away and the time after I finished the idea to editing the final product is very short.

One of the ways I come up with a storyline is through reading or conversations. They spark an idea and then I might Google to research and gather more material. I might find a quote that helps make the point more emphatically than my wording can do. Coming up with a lead or a hook for me is the when the story then just flows quickly onto the page.

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Graph to show how I work with words to a story.

When I work in photography to tell a story the workflow is so different. I may have an idea or been given one by someone to cover.  I usually make phone calls and talk to the subjects before showing up.  At this point I have already got a pretty good idea of the story.

Once I arrive I allow the story to go another direction and try not to force it. I do see if things are going as I expected and if they are then great, if not I must then decipher what the story really is all about.

To me the pinnacle moment with the photography in story telling is when I have a moment that tells the story pretty much by itself.  Once I have this “decisive moment” I then continue to shoot.  I look for ways to introduce the subject/story.  I look for detail shots to use as transitions or even points in themselves about the story.  I look for a way to end the story visually as well.

When I leave I have all the visual content I will need.  I cannot call back and get a photo I missed—I can when I write.  I can call back and ask for clarification when writing.  Sometimes this can even change the story, but with photos I would have to go back and reshoot to fill in any holes in the story and I have done that before.

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Graph showing how I work using photography to tell a story.

No matter which medium you use you must understand your audience really well to contect with them and have the message delivered and understood.

I was reading Temple Grandin’s book “Thinking in Pictures Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism” where she writes about Uta Frith, a researcher in cognitive development psychology who coined the concept of “theory of mind.” It is the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one’s own. Frith uses this example to talk about it:

For example, Joe, Dick, and a person with autism are sitting at a table.  Joe places a candy bar in a box and shuts the lid.  The telephone rings, and Dick leaves the room to answer the phone.  While Dick is gone, Joe eats the candy bar and puts a pen in the box. The autistic person who is watching is asked, “What does Dick think is in the box?” Many people with autism will give the wrong answer and say “a pen.” They are not able to figure out that Dick, who is now outside the room, thinks that the box still has a candy bar.
Professional communicators must be able to understand the concept of the “Theory of mind.”  They must be able to correctly understand the reactions of the audience.   
What I am amazed at is how both writers and photographers don’t understand the other mediums.  I am amazed at writers who can communicate in such a way that I am transported into their world.
One thing I constantly come up against with many folks when they are word folks and not visual is what photos they think will work with their story.  If they were there they see a snapshot and it brings back their memories–they do not know how the audience will see the photo.  They lack “Theory of Mind” when it comes to visuals.  
Many of these writers know how to take pictures and get good exposures, but do not know how visually lacking their photos are.  They have what I call incomplete sentences.  Most of the word folks that are not visual but take photos will take photos of the nouns of their story.  Here is John, here is his home, and here is where he works is what they make photos of for their stories.  They don’t see the photos telling the stories and showing the character of John and if he is a warm person and how much he cares for his family and work. 
The writer uses words to lead the audience to where they want to go.  It is a very linear approach and very different to the photograph when telling a story.
Photographs unlike words play to a different parts of the brain.  How they communicate is based a great deal of the shared experiences of people. Photographers are looking for triggers to help communicate. Over simplifying the process is like looking at just face expressions to communicate moods of a person. Smile can communicate happiness and frown can be sad. 
The writer can control their message better because they can be sure the audience doesn’t drift off to something in a scene by not including it in the story they write even when the photographer has to contend with them in the photo. 

“Gone with the Wind” –75th Anniversary

by Stanley LearyPhotography

There are a lot of events in the Atlanta area to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the book Gone with the Wind.

If you’re in or around the city, consider these venues:

— The exhibit Atlanta’s Book: The Lost Gone With the Wind Manuscript (June 4-Sept. 5) at the Atlanta History Center features the final four chapters of Mitchell’s recently rediscovered manuscript (once thought to have been burned by her husband after her death). The exhibit also features the first-ever public display of Mitchell’s writing desk.

— Margaret Mitchell House tours showcase the Crescent Avenue apartment (which she affectionately called “The Dump”) and feature exhibits on Mitchell’s pre- and post-GWTW life, along with details on the making of the movie.
Other GWTW-related doings in Georgia:

— Marietta Gone With The Wind Museum: Scarlett on the Square, June 10-11, will stage a tribute to Mitchell with several cast members from the movie, along with question and answer sessions and a literary panel.

— On June 11, the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro will feature costumed storytellers linking the history of the town with stories from the book.

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In 2003 the BBC sent a reporter to the Road to Tara Museum to film for the special on “Gone with the Wind”  It was rated in the top book favorites of all time for the BBC audience.

 

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At first we just posed with the BBC reporter and the Scarlett O’Hara look alike.
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We had a little more fun with their expressions.

Today I would shoot it differently than I did in 2003.  I would want to shoot later in the day to have the lights in the house show up.  I would have more dramatic lighting by not lighting everything as evenly as I did here.

I enjoyed shooting this and remembered it when I saw the latest news about events celebrating the book this year.

Joplin Tornado brings back memories

by Stanley Learylighting
Satellite loop courtesy of Jonathan Finch - click to enlarge
Here you can see my first major tornado that hit my last semester in college at East Carolina University.

I started my career in the 80’s and one of the first disasters I saw and covered for my college paper was a F4 tornado.  There were 16 deaths and 153 injuries. The tornado was up to 3/4 of a mile in width. Portions of East Carolina University were severely damaged. 300 homes were leveled, most in Greenville, NC.  My good friend Jesse Riggs lost family members that night.

No matter how many times you see disasters each time I feel a numbness come over me for the loss of life and property.  You are sad for those who are having to rebuild their lives.

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On November 10, 2002, a tornado destroyed 50 homes. At least seven people were killed in the Morgan County community of Mossy Grove in eastern Tennessee. I was looking for an overall perspective up the mountain when I shot this photo.
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The tornado cut a swath about a mile wide and a mile long.  The hard part when covering these disasters is showing items to give a sense of scale and what is destroyed.  Here I wanted to show the cars overturned for scale and what happened.
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What always amazes me is the quickness of the national media on covering these events.
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What I realized over the years covering these events is that the national media always took the time even in a disaster to get the best lighting for a shot.  Notice the hair light above the reporter in addition to the main light.  This helped to separate the reporter from the early dawn background.
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Just hours before a tornado destroyed this community
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The national media all find similar angles to show the destruction to their viewers.  Here you can see three networks all lined up for their early morning news shows.  I chose to shoot this to show how a nation was mourning for the folks.