March, 2014 - Storyteller

Storytelling using multimedia to tell the story

by Stanley LearyMarch 31, 2014September 1, 2025multimedia / visual storytelling

Reading Time: < 1 minute

How many times have you been called to talk to a group, and you have either said or wanted to say, “You just had to be there to know what I am talking about?”

When I traveled to see the coffee growers in Salvador Urbina in the southernmost part of Mexico in Chiapas, I was there to help tell their story.

Here is one of the latest packages I just had translated into English from Spanish. The video is David Velázquez, the current president of the cooperative Just Coffee. Please go there and buy their coffee. For those who are coffee enthusiasts, it is premium arabica coffee.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAUNXl1IBUQ]
I decided to use primarily still photos for the b-roll for a reason. I think those moments allow you to pause and listen to David simultaneously.

The human voice is the most powerful audio I know for video, especially when you can hear it in their voice. Here the voice-over talent Craig Carden did a great job capturing the mood of David Velázquez.

I am blending Video, Audio, and Still, images which I think together is a better package than any of these alone would be by themselves.

I let David tell his story, and then I went through the shooting days and picked as many images as possible that related to what he was talking about.

I hope you enjoyed it. Then, call me if you want to take a class from me on how to do storytelling using multimedia.

Photographers: Three ways to direct the audience

by Stanley LearyMarch 30, 2014November 2, 2025Nikon D4 / Off Camera Flash

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 1100, ƒ/3.2, 1/100 Custom White Balance with ExpoDisc

Composition/Graphics

You can use compositional elements like leading lines in the photo above to help direct your audience through a scene to where you want them to look. For example, I have the lines from the shirt directing me back into the photograph to the guy talking.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 2000, ƒ/6.3, 1/100 with off-camera flash with Nikon SB-900 with MagMod 1/4 CTO Gel being triggered by PocketWizard TT1 and Flex TT5 with AC-3 zone controller

Light

With this photo of the kids watching the balls race each other down the incline, I am using the incline to lead your eye, but I am also now using another element to help direct your attention—light.

By using an off-camera flash, I can put more light on the man at the top of the incline and also light the kids. As the light drops off to the background, it is slightly darker, so your eye doesn’t go there first.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 2000, ƒ/6.3, 1/100 with off-camera flash with Nikon SB-900 with MagMod 1/4 CTO Gel and 20º Grid being triggered by PocketWizard TT1 and Flex TT5 with AC-3 zone controller

I knew that if I didn’t use a light on the subject here, holding the weight, you may drift to any one of the people in the background.

In this photo, you can see my photo assistant, a VALS [Voice Activated Light Stand], helping me pop the subject out from the crowd.

Now, I am using a 1/4 CTO gel that works well with the flash’s available light. I started with 1/2 Plusgreen gel, but even with color correcting using the ExpoDisc, the color never looked right on the faces compared to the background.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 11400, ƒ/6.3, 1/100 Custom White Balance with ExpoDisc

Color

You can also use color to draw your eye into a photo. Here, the lady in pink draws your attention because she is wearing Pi. The same photo in bland white loses the directing quality of the color.

To make a B&W photo worth, photographers will burn and dodge to direct the eye with available light photography. Here, I have burned in some of the areas of the photo so the lightest area directs the eye.

Light is the most significant influence in photography.

Photography is writing with light. That is what the word means. No, wait a minute. I decided to add light to the situation above. Watch how much I am now directing your eye with the light.

While the lady in pink is attracting some of your attention, I have more information on the scientist holding a brain model.

In black and white, I have now really isolated where I want you to look. I have removed the pink jacket’s color influence, and you are now, because of the introduction of a spotlight on the subject, a way for me to influence where the audience looks.

Put it all together

I used an off-camera flash and a 90 mm lens to get close to the two little girls. Most importantly, I was capturing a moment when their eyes communicated interest, which is the second most important part of a photo—the Moment.

Here, I am using the off-camera flash to light the young boy and make the background darker. The mother’s orange jacket is a complementary color to the blue jacket, and I am also using the color to help direct you. I am using the hand of the scientist holding the brain model while the mother’s hands continue to direct you towards the boy’s expression on his face. His eyes and facial expressions catch this moment of interest. The mom’s expression also complements her son’s expression.

I am again using the off-camera flash to brighten the people in the foreground, and the background is now darker. I am still using composition to help direct you, and most importantly, I am looking for the moment that tells the story. The embroidery on the scientist’s sleeve almost replaces the need for a caption.

Capture a moment with a father and daughter. The photo reads faster than if I had relied solely on composition.

As seen in this last photo, your eye will wander if the photographer doesn’t use all the necessary tools to direct your attention.

When you look back at your photos from an event and nothing stands out, there is a reason. Are you using all the tools at your disposal to capture moments? Of all the tools you can use, an off-camera flash may be your best weapon. Do you know how to use one?

If you would like to master this technique, contact me for a personal class with one-on-one instruction.

Storyline involves a Plot

by Stanley LearyMarch 27, 2014September 1, 2025Nikon D4 / photojournalism / storytelling / visual storytelling

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Fujifilm X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.6, 1/250, custom white balance with ExpoDisc

A plot “ensures that you get your character from point A to point Z.”

The shooting of the story is often not in the order of telling the story. It is standard in Hollywood when they are making a movie to shoot a story all out of order for budget reasons.

You may need to go ahead and shoot the ending because it takes place in the spring, and you are now in the Spring time.

Fujifilm X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/9, 1/45, custom white balance with ExpoDisc

Yesterday I was working with my intern/photo assistant. I sat down for a few minutes to talk about what I was doing and why. He is going to Lisbon, Portugal, with me and will be shooting his own visual story.

One thing I talked to him about was how every situation I shot was as if it were a stand-alone story.

Fujifilm X-E2, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.4 D AF, using Nikon G to FX adapter, ISO 500, ƒ/1.4, 1/60

Yesterday I photographed a Georgia Tech Management student. I followed him around for the day. While in the classroom with him, I photographed each situation as if the whole story had to come out. I was shooting stills and videos. I shot an overall shot of the classroom, some of the teacher and some of the students, and everything else you could think of in between.

Nikon D4, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.4 D AF, ISO 1100, ƒ/1.4, 1/250 Custom white balance with the ExpoDisc

I shot each situation as if it were a stand-alone package because it is easier to sequence the overall package with the best photos to tell the complete story.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/6.3, 1/500, custom white balance with ExpoDisc

If you didn’t shoot the variety, you might end up with all close-up shots when you finally were editing. Then the array of the photo starts to work against you by shooting to get good tight, medium, and overall pictures and varieties of each of those; you then are picking from each situation and then putting these into a sequence that moves the viewer through the plot of events to tell the story.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 8000, ƒ/4.8, 1/250, custom white balance with ExpoDisc

Unlike fiction writers who can create their content, the visual storyteller who captures the story must grasp it before it is sequenced and told. The writer can design and make it work and not worry if they have images to move you through the plot. They create it.

Fujifilm X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/10, 1/500

I even did the environmental portrait as a safe shot of the student in front of the Georgia Institute of Technology sign.

During our interview with the subject, he mentioned that he would be working with Wells Fargo Securities this coming summer. So just to have something we could drop in for a visual, we found a sign to put him in front of for the story.

Fujifilm X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/10, 1/180 and -1 EV on the pop-up flash

The bottom line is that you need to have a storyline in mind while shooting. Then for each point of the outline, you shoot it like it will be the complete story. Then, you create another sub-outline of the design that makes this a full report.

It is almost impossible to overshoot for a visual storyteller. Those who undershoot will have to rely on other communication like text or audio to help tell the story.

The best way to tell a story is to show the audience rather than say it to the audience. Don’t be caught without enough visuals when putting the final package together.

Storytelling involves Setting The Scene

by Stanley LearyMarch 25, 2014November 21, 2025visual storytelling

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Layering is one of the best techniques I know for setting scenes. Layering is when you have a foreground, a middle layer, and a background. For example, in the photo above, I use layering to engage the viewer with the little boy and his interaction with his parents within the overall concert scene.

Here is another scene setter, but notice how it is more of just a wide shot saying “here it is” rather than the above photo that engages the viewer in something going on much more effectively. The lower image has two people walking closest to the camera.

Here, I use the lady taking a photo with her phone to pull the reader into the scene.

The photo I loved the most and used as the scene setter for this event is one of a couple dancing. Even without seeing the stage, the couple dancing, and people in the background facing in one direction, you can sense the band playing. Hopefully, you see the critical piece that the photo needs to be powerful enough to engage the viewer. In this photo, the romantic moment is what draws the viewer in.

I have the couple enjoying themselves in this photo, but it isn’t a scene-setting type of photo. Yes, it captures the mood of a party, but I am missing the feeling that the earlier photos give the audience.

Here is a more cliché scene-setting photo. It establishes the location. It does so from a low angle.

Here is another way to introduce a story about Saint Martin: getting up high on the road and shooting down into the bay, capturing the community.

Often we think of scene-setting photos as the overall shot, like this one of arabica coffee growing in Salvador Urbina, Chiapas, Mexico. But sometimes, you can set the scene with a tight trial just as well.

The tight shot of arabica coffee and the wide shot help introduce the topic of coffee cultivation. So often, photographers make the mistake of trying to put everything into their scene setter, losing the impact of what the setter is doing—introducing the topic.

This photo of the fence along the border between Agua Prieta, Mexico, and Douglas, Arizona, is also a great scene-setter for the story on coffee; however, using this photo starts with the report’s reason—illegal immigration.

When I think of The Citadel, I think of the pageantry of the parades. I got low with a wide-angle lens to show the beginning of the Friday afternoon parade.

Another time, I went across the parade field and captured a more compressed photo with a longer telephoto lens.

Tossing the hats at graduation is another excellent scene for a story on The Citadel.

Just as significant to The Citadel graduates is the long gray line the seniors form upon graduation. They form one long line and walk across the parade field for the last time.

Class of 1967, Pat Conroy immortalized the sentence “I wear the ring” in his novel The Lords of Discipline, published in 1980. So, which of these photos would work for the beginning of the book, The Lords of Discipline?

I think any of the three can work, and that is the point. Your establishing shot could be a close-up photo like the one of the ring, and start your story just like Pat Conroy.

I like the last photo for a different reason—most of the guys in the photo chose to go to The Citadel after reading The Lords of Discipline.

So you can shoot mindlessly and get shots that are unlikely to engage the viewer, or you can work to get shots that do engage people.

Probably the most crucial point about finding your establishing shot is to have an idea of what the story is all about; otherwise, you will lose the overall or close-up picture you need to help set the scene because you were paying too much attention to capturing a subject or just capturing the climax of the story. Remember, you need a sequence of different photos to guide someone through the plot of your account.

Take the time to think about the story and how you can best establish the scene for the audience.

Storytelling Involves Characters

by Stanley LearyMarch 24, 2014September 1, 2025photojournalism / storytelling / visual storytelling

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Here is one way to introduce a character running straight at the audience.

The show, don’t tell.

When introducing your character, sharing an experience of the essence with the audience is essential. With the football players, this is an easier way to introduce a character into the story. But, again, the action helps to tell us about the character.

Student Omar Yougbare in Koudougou, Burkina Faso.

While this might be a lovely portrait of the story’s character, you can see that because the man is just looking at the camera, it does little to tell the audience about the man. So now the story must rely more heavily on the storyteller’s telling rather than showing to introduce the character.

Paul Tiendeno is a student at the theology school in Koudougou, Burkina Faso. They teach theology and farming to help the pastors feed their families while they minister as bi-vocational pastors.

Contrast the photo of the man just looking into the camera lens with this one, which shows the man working in the field and tending his crops.

Which photo helps to establish the characteristics of the person?

Here is the matriarch of her family pouring hot water over coffee grinds to make coffee. Showing her working in her kitchen is an excellent way to introduce the mother and wife of coffee farmers in my story on a coffee cooperative.

Just Coffee Coop in El Aguila Adan Roblero

The theme of the story I was working on about a coffee cooperative is how the cooperative’s success depends on the coffee drinkers getting to know their coffee growers. One of the Arizona coffee drinkers plays with a coffee farmer’s son in El Aguila, Chiapas, Mexico. Here, I am telling a small story within the photo, introducing the character into the storyline.

Doug Parkin, a volunteer pediatrician from Arizona, sees patients during his two-month service at the Baptist Medical Center in Nalerigu, Ghana. (Photo by: Stanley Leary)

Here is a doctor who donates some vacation time to serve in the Baptist Medical Centre in Nalerigu, Ghana. The story tried recruiting doctors to become full-time missionaries in this hospital. Unfortunately, when I visited, they had only two doctors.

Surgeon Danny Crawley is in theatre doing a hernia operation, and Comfort Bawa, the theatre assistant, helps him at the Baptist Medical Centre in Nalerigu, Ghana. (Photo by: Stanley Leary)

Danny Crawford is one of those two doctors and the only surgeon. So, this was a way to introduce him into the storyline.

Pushing the boy is one of the coffee farmers with his grandson in Salvador Urbina, Chiapas, Mexico. I think this is a great way to introduce the coffee farmer and show the value of family to the people of the coffee cooperative.

Recording artist Soulja Boy poses for a portrait at his Atlanta Buckhead Penthouse on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

While you may have a lovely portrait of a person like this, a shot of Soulja Boy does little to introduce the character compared to if he was doing something.

The people can even have beautiful smiles, but you still know little about the characters when you have them stop and look at the camera.

The portraits can be pretty powerful, but they are not the same as introducing the character when they are doing something. So yes, they can be powerful images that capture your attention, but what is the story?

State and Lake In-Line Rob Meier, Operator

Don’t you think this photo of the two guys competing on who can move the Oreo Cookie from their forehead to eat is a much more exciting and character-revealing photo to introduce a character?

The Archbishop of Atlanta, His Excellency The Most Reverend Wilton Daniel Gregory, S.L.D., presides over the Eucharist during The Mass of Canonical Installation of His Excellency The Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, S.L.D. at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta, Georgia on January 17, 2005.

This moment during the celebration of the Eucharist in Mass is a great way to introduce Archbishop Gregory into the storyline.

Only as a last resort should you use the posed portrait to introduce your character. Let the visuals tell the story—SHOW, don’t TELL!

Storytelling involves conflict

by Stanley LearyMarch 23, 2014September 1, 2025photojournalism / visual storytelling

Reading Time: 3 minutes

My last post was on the elements of the story. This is just on one of those elements: CONFLICT.Here are some tips on capturing that for the visual storyteller.

Conflict—The major problem of the story

There are two categories

External—Happens outside the character, involves more than 1 person, can be observed
Internal—Happens inside of the character, involves only 1 person, can only be observed in the thoughts and feelings

Three types of conflict

Man vs Nature [External]
Man vs Self [Internal]
Man vs Man [External or Internal]

Looking at the photos can you decide which of the types of conflict they are communicating?

Using the visual to create conflict is what a visual storyteller does to help move the audience into and through the storyline.

Breaking composition Rules

Breaking the rules of composition to help create even more tension is one way photojournalists help you feel the conflict of a news event like this one of the car wreck.

Natural Barriers

Sometimes you can just photograph using the natural environment to help create a tension. I use this a lot.

Body Language

Now just how the subject looks and carries themselves can help with establishing the conflict necessary in the storyline.

It isn’t always over the top and hitting you with a hammer, often the body language is more subtle.

Here it is just the eyes of the child who is suffering from Malaria that grab you.

Competition

Sports are great for where you can see conflict.

You can show the offense and defense in one photo.

Expressions

Just the grimace of a person can introduce some tension into a moment and make you want to know more about the situation.

Have you been in school wondering what is going on or just struggling?

Don’t shy away from the photos with tension, they are needed in the storyline.

Not all photos are about a place of peace and calm. Stories require a conflict—are you capturing it? If you are not then are you telling stories?

Visual Storytellers: The elements they use to tell a story

by Stanley LearyMarch 20, 2014September 1, 2025photojournalism / visual storytelling

Reading Time: 5 minutes

To help with the conflict portion of the plot for my story on coffee growers in Mexico, I had to talk about the immigration issue. Why did coffee farmers risk illegally crossing the border before they formed a coffee cooperative? I think this photo with the border patrol is one way to help establish the conflict.

Elements of the Story

Storytelling has five main elements of a story: setting, plot, characters, conflict, and theme. Whether you’re studying a short story, a novel, an epic poem, a play o,r a film, if you don’t find these five elements, you’re not looking hard enough.

This photo is of a group of illegal immigrants on their journey with a coyote on the Mexican side of the border, hiding from the border patrol before they break across the border. I ran into them while trying to find images to talk about the border. This photo shows one way to show the characters of a story.

Definitions

The setting is the place for the story.

The plot is the action, the quest for satisfaction, what’s going down, and what’s going to happen. It is a series of events. Every story is a series of events. So the way you order these to create an account is called the plot.

The characters are the people in the story who act. All the characters in a story have a history and details about their pasts that are important to understand their personality and present lives. The audience must know some of these details to understand the story. These details are called the exposition. Explaining the characters of a story are early in the story. Often this is the first part of the plot.

Conflict is that something has gone wrong! Conflict happens when characters are against each other, like teams in a game or two groups fighting on the playground.

The resolution of the conflict is the story’s climax, the plot.

A theme is the hardest to get out of the five main elements of a story. That’s because a story’s main idea or message is usually something abstract. And authors rarely come out and state the main message. Instead, they imply the theme through the other elements of the story. Themes usually explore timeless and universal ideas.

This photo could be a scene setter for the story on the coffee cooperative. The red beans are arabica coffee is grown in Salvador Urbina, Chiapas, Mexico.

Fill in the blanks

Take each of those elements and identify what those are in your story before you start to shoot. Even in breaking news, you need to understand these elements. Many great photojournalists do this instinctively because great storytellers quickly find the storyline.

Create an outline

With the experience of storytelling, you may no longer create an outline that you reference formally, but starting this is the best way to ensure that when you get ready to put the package together, you are not missing an element crucial to the story.

Luis “Pelayo” Diaz is a coffee grower and one of the founders of Just Coffee. Today his son is studying to be a Dentist, which was made possible through the coffee cooperative.

Here is a list of some shots you will use to help tell your story.

Opener: Sets the scene for the story
Decisive moment: The one moment that can by itself tell the story
Details: Besides being like visual candy to the report, help often with transitions–especially in multimedia packages
Sequences: give a little variety to a situation
High overall shot: Gives a good perspective on how the elements all fit together
Closer: Besides the classic shot of the cowboy riding off into the sunset, there are other visual ways to help bring the story to a close
Portraits: These photos are great for introducing the characters of the story

It is easier to start with knowing the different elements and having an outline before you begin shooting your story. But, it will also change from what you started—because things change.

All these people are waiting to see one doctor in Ghana. So my story was to help tell the story of the need for doctors, and hopefully, through the telling of the story, some doctors would feel the call to go and work at this hospital.

Audience

I kept the audience broad when I was telling the cooperative coffee story. I could have easily just targeted the Presbyterian Church and given money to support the missionary who was instrumental in funding the cooperative. I could have also targeted the Catholic Church because they had a role in starting the cooperative.

I kept it broad enough, yet I had those audiences in mind. I told the story to those concerned about immigration and looking for a solution. The story was to establish the conflict of illegal immigration, with the resolution being cooperative.

So many patients are on the floor of the patient wing of the hospital. If you look closely, some of those beds have two patients on one bed. I wanted to help show the “conflict” of the story.

I have worked on stories for mission organizations many times through the years. The goal of those stories was to get the audience to Give; Go, or Pray for missions.

Even in sports, there is a story. Here is one photo you see the conflict. You have offense and defense battling, and the story’s climax is where the hero slams the basket past the defender.

Can you look at your photos and find storytelling elements? Are you thinking about the story elements when you are shooting?

How can you tell a story if you do not understand what makes up a story? Hopefully, this will point you in the right direction on your next project.

Storytellers: Who’s Your Audience—NO REALLY!!!

by Stanley LearyMarch 3, 2014September 1, 2025Photography

Reading Time: 4 minutes

James Gregg, Staff Photographer, San Diego Union-Tribune [Fuji X-E2, XF 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/10]

All photos from the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference

At every conference I attend today, I am passionate about “Storytelling” and “Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.”

I don’t think this is all that new, but what is new is the focus on moving from bullet lists on a PowerPoint presentation to telling a story instead.

We have always done this, but now we are more aware of the power of an authentic story.

However, with all this emphasis, I am still not feeling the stories that people are sharing. The reason I am not feeling it all that well is pretty simple. The storyteller forgot all about me.

I can tell they got lost in the story and the subject and forgot all about the audience.

I am sure there are many ways to connect with the audience, but let me talk about one that I believe is the most powerful way to connect your audience and subject in a truly engaging way.

Andrew Silk, lecturer at California Baptist University [Fuji X-E2, XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.2, 1/200]

Authenticity

Preaching to me turns me off, primarily lecturing about what I need to do.

Here are what I think are three elements you need in storytelling to engage an audience.

Tension—You need to have the audience asking the question about the outcome of the subject. The narrative of your story must incite the audience to want an answer. Many a screenwriter talks when an account is not moving you along that you need a “dead cat.” You are missing the tension, and then there is no need for the audience to need to read the story.

Unpredictable—I think of Disney’s latest movie, Frozen, and how the ending has a twist so different than all the other princess movies I have seen. This twist has people talking and loving this movie. As a visual storyteller, I sometimes use visuals to help create the unpredictable. The unpredictability should be full of suggestion, foreshadowing, and recall. Not gimmicky shots and tricks; instead, One should design the video to tell a story in a not predictably sequential way.

Personality—The salesperson sells himself before they can sell the product. The narrative must have a warm and inviting style, not boring and dull.

Mike Martin, pastor [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 2800, ƒ/10, 1/2000]

The last one on personality is often where the subject reveals their flaws. The best stories are where the main issue is flawed and not a perfect Barbie Doll or Ken Doll.

Too many people will go to a church revival, and the testimony of someone who had a terrible life moves them. They were on drugs, beaten, or even raped, and the power of their story about how awful their life was.

I often hear people say I wish I had a story like that. They even may jokingly say they wish they had a drug addiction. But, they feel like they don’t have an account because they don’t have a “dead cat” in their story.

I know of people who are the most attractive people you could imagine that appeared to have it all who attempted suicide. The key is not that they tried or thought of suicide, but the power of the story comes in the authenticity of why they thought their life was not worth living.

Giraffes at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center [Fuji X-E2, XF 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/4.5, 1/200]

You see, they compared themselves to their siblings or someone else who had what they thought was a successful life. They maybe had older siblings that were star athletes or straight “A” students. In their eyes, they are a failure.

The key to this person telling their story is not in how bad they thought they had it; the power tells the story of how they are a broken vessel.

I think great leaders are the ones who do share a little of their humanity and do not try to appear that they have it all together.

Every person feels adequate. They all feel they are not as good as those around them at some level—even those who are the most successful in life struggle sometime during their day as missing the mark. Learn to connect to the audience on how this story you want to tell is similar to their account.

When we tap into the audience and where they are in life, we will have a better time engaging them in the story. Nonprofits can tell their story as long as they connect to the subject’s struggles and how the audience can make a difference. But to do this, they must establish how and why the subject cannot do it alone.

They must show how the audience can make a difference and connect the emotional part of the story to the message.

[Fuji X-E2, XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/7.1, 1/25]

Knowing more about the audience before you work on the story can help you find those emotional connections between the two. Appealing to an entrepreneur to help support microloans or even macro loans to help another entrepreneur achieve their dream changes the world. But, first, they must establish why they cannot get a traditional loan.

If your organization is struggling, I would guess that one of the primary reasons is they forgot about their audience.