Photo by Dorie Griggs

What gifts do you have that others would benefit from right now? I am not a cook. I am not a medical provider. I am a storyteller.

I know that most people could use help telling their stories. I also know that seeing is believing.

The first thing I lead with on my stories is how these restaurants are solving the audiences problem. That problem is cooking meals at home. There is a point for most people these days that they could use a break.

The second thing most people are interested in is how they can get some of their favorite restaurants food during this crisis, since they cannot go the the restaurant and dine-in.

One of my good friends Greg Thompson talked about him being taught the lesson of do what you are good at and let others do what they are good at on a mission trip.

While in another country the team he was working with were doing some construction. Up on the hill watching them were what they learned were the local construction guys who could use the work. They took up money and paid the guys to work and Greg then did what he was best at doing and that was taking photos.

I am sure you have been in Greg’s shoes as well. I know many of my friends talk about how they tried to save money only to have to call the experts sooner or later to do it right.

Two things I hope this time of crisis is teaching all of us. First know what you are good at doing and help others using those gifts of yours. Second, hire those experts who do it better than you whenever possible.

It is together we do community. While we all need to practice social distancing we can still call and connect with our neighbors.

photo by Dorie Griggs

March Madness means something totally different for 2020. Just a few weeks ago all of our plans were so different than what we ended up doing for this month.

I am watching so many of my friends and neighbors feeling the stress of the uncertainty that CORONA-19 Virus has brought to our lives.

I think this is the best time to reach out and help rather than looking for every way we can survive.

I work with restaurants most of my time. These past two weeks I have looked at local restaurants in my town and could sense how they needed our support. So I reached out to Slopes BBQ where my family has been eating ever since I moved to Roswell in 1993.

I asked Bob White if he would let me do a video to showcase his restaurant and team.

I realized that the number one thing they do is provide a service that meets a real need for many people. Most people get cabin fever and need to get out and they also get tired of eating their own cooking. For some people they don’t even know how to cook.

Here is the video I did to help remind those near Slopes BBQ that they are still open for carry out.

Do me a favor and share the video to your social media posts if you live nearby. Hopefully this will inspire others to help your neighbor.

Proverbs 3:28 tells us “Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.” In this verse, a neighbor is someone who asks for help. We are taught here that a neighbor is to be helped quickly, immediately. It also implies that our neighbor is someone we see regularly.

Operator Selection, Talent, Human Resources [NIKON Z 6, 35.0 mm f/1.4, Mode = Manual, ISO 50, 1/125, ƒ/6.3, (35mm = 35)]

Nothing can inspire you more than a crisis. The Chinese word for “crisis” is frequently invoked in Western motivational speaking as being composed of two Chinese characters signifying “danger” and “opportunity,” respectively.

I had already scheduled some photo shoots this week that I was able to keep; we just took the opportunity to show how my client was responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

I work most all the time with a formal shot list, or I have done something so many times that I know the list by heart.

I have had one complex list. The team I am working with had this one category they called “Something that embodies.”

Labor Cost was one of those topics.

I went online and Googled and looked for images others had done on the topic. This inspired me.

I wanted to get some small people figurines and thought of Hobby Lobby near me.

I called to see if they were open, and they were. I went and found two sets of people. A Family and Young Adults were what I found in the store.

While there, I went ahead and bought some matchbox-style cars and trucks. I used them for the theme of “Auto Insurance.”

I then combined the two for other possibilities.

While shooting images is fun, the photos are not all that usable without a caption and those important “Keywords.”

You can easily add keywords in Adobe Lightroom, and here is a video showing you how to do this. Now when it is uploaded to an online library and someone searches, as long as I have created keywords in the metadata, they are findable.

So for the past few days, I have been being productive and shooting images that some of my clients will use.

This has helped me keep my sanity and keep my focus. While many are just seeing the “DANGER,” I have chosen to see the “OPPORTUNITY.”

Haley Newbold, the team member at Chick-fil-A Roswell Corners FSU, expedites an order to a customer in the drive-thru. The Dining Rooms are shut down during the Coronavirus outbreak. Paul Joubert’s restaurant Roswell Corners FSU is closed on its third day in the dining room. [NIKON Z 6, 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/60, ƒ/5.3, (35mm = 98)]

I have enjoyed working with the Flashpoint XPlor 600 HSS TTL to help with some tricky lighting situations.

Using the transmitter to change the settings on the flashes allows me not to have to stop shooting where I am standing and go and adjust each flash and then do more test shots. As they say, I can shoot and make the adjustments on the fly.

The canopy had a white ceiling that I bounced off to get an even light to shoot these photos you see here.

Behind the guy’s head is one of the lights. The other is near the passenger door of this SUV bouncing as well.

On the other side of the building was the window to the restaurant for delivering food. I didn’t have the same size canopy and used a more direct flash that caught a slight overhang to bounce down.

They didn’t have the canopy at another drive-thru at a different restaurant. I just had my assistant man the off-camera flash and stay about 45º from the camera angle. That usually meant I was on one side of the car shooting, and the flash was on the other.

I was shooting wide open at ƒ/1.4 with my 35mm and ƒ/1.8 with my 85mm. Since the flash is TTL, it also is HSS. That stands for High-Speed Sync.

I shot most all the photos on an overcast day with the strobes at shutter speeds of 1/400 up to 1/2000 with the flash.

Using Nikon’s software, I could see how the camera was focusing. It was on eye-tracking. Here I zoomed in so you can see the focus point.

I love shooting at ƒ/1.4, but few images were as sharp as they are now with the Nikon Z6 mirrorless that has eye-tracking.

While shooting with the Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8 lets me blur the background, which helps me make the subject pop. Using the flash helps get a catchlight in the eyes on an overcast day. It also helps increase the dynamic range.

TIPS:

• Use fill-flash
• Use wide aperture like ƒ/1.4 or ƒ/1.8
• Use eye-tracking to get that precise focus on the eyes
• Use Dehaze Slider in Lightroom – Helps bring back detail in hazy BOKEH

Chelle Leary, Felicia Agostini, Lauren Baxter, Max Hipp, Thomas Beasley, Virginia Roulette [NIKON D4, 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0, Mode = Manual, ISO 1600, 1/8000, ƒ/5, (35mm = 24)]

“Whenever you go on a trip to visit foreign lands or distant places, remember that they are all someone’s home and backyard.”

― Vera Nazarian

I shot this photo in my backyard a few years ago. This is to show you some of your best work can happen at home.

I often test some ideas at home that I later execute somewhere else.

I have spent hours photographing birds that visit our yard.

I have also photographed hummingbirds in our yard.

“You can spend your whole life traveling worldwide searching for the Garden of Eden, or you can create it in your backyard.”

― Khang Kijarro Nguyen

Take your camera and explore your house and yard.

Take your lights outside and have fun as well in your yard.

Try your small lights as well. See what you can do with all this time in isolation.

Dodge Viper [COOLPIX P7000, , Mode = Manual, ISO 100, 1/1250, ƒ/6.3, (35mm = 30)]

This was one of my favorite photo shoots. I loved the Dodge Viper for the lines and styling.

I recommend just having fun at your own house, taking photos of some fun objects. I went to the local store, bought this car, and then just had fun lighting it.

I even shot this on a super simple Nikon P7000 point-and-shoot camera.

I suspended one large 32″ x 40″ softbox above the car on a white seamless.

After shooting with a simple lighting setup I decided to ad some color.

So I added some blue and then tried red.

This is so fun to take a model car and see what you can do with a simple light and white background.

I put this last photo in for scale. I don’t think the local store has sold out of car models. Next time you buy toilet paper during our coronavirus social isolating crisis, pick up a car and have fun with your camera and simple light. Use a white sheet, or since the car is so tiny, maybe just a pillow case and create some fun images.

I am often asked to do an environmental portrait of a subject. I do a variety of photos from posed to them doing something.

Here I have assembled some examples of shots I would look to do for a person being featured. I ask them about their hobbies and what they do at work, and then we shoot everything I can do with the time I am given with the subject.

We try to capture some images of him doing everything we can think of.

You cannot settle for one photo; that is all you give an editor. It would be best if you mixed it up.

Here I have the logo for Chick-fil-A in the background. I like the photo but thought it might be too blurred.

Before you arrive, have a call with the editor or writer who will tell you everything they know about the person and what the story is they are writing.

Next, call the subject and talk with them, telling them what you have been asked to do. Then ask them about their hobbies and interests and anything else you can think about that would work for possible locations for photographing them.

Then get as much time as you can so you can capture as many of these as you can do. Prioritize them so you get the ones you think are best, and if you run out of time that the best ideas are the ones you will capture.

The other day I was processing some of my thoughts with one of my mentors Greg Thompson.

Greg Thompson retired last year from Chick-fil-A, where he was the senior director of corporate communications. Before joining Chick-fil-A, Greg spent 25 years in various global communications management roles for IBM in the U.S. and
Asia, including more than five years living in Tokyo, Japan. Greg joined IBM after a career as a photographer, sports writer, political writer, editor, and bureau chief for three newspapers and The Associated Press.

I was getting frustrated with some people who were not refining the story but instead expanding the story. So, I made a comment that I thought writers were used to being able to make changes up to the last minute. Greg said that in his years of experience, it was not due to being a writer but to being indecisive.

I have been working with our Advanced Storytellers workshop in Nicaragua. The biggest thing we are doing in this workshop is inviting the participants to see how to create a communications plan. The plan is to tell a story that will help a missionary organization.

A lack of process clarity guarantees a slower, more convoluted path to the desired outcome. It would help if you made decisions that will have you focused on compellingly telling a story that invites the audience to join the narrative.

What I watch happen every time with any organization is they want to tell the audience everything they do and, in the process, not only don’t engage the audience but turn them off.

If you step logically through a proven process, you will waste less time and use the right resources at the right time.

Before we even begin to tell a story, we ask the organization what the problem they need to solve is. If we do our job as professional communicators, what will success look like to them?

Once we have this goal, we know our purpose and can decide if something stays or gets cut in our communications.

We are using the hero’s journey as a framework to tell stories. The very first thing we will do is establish a crisis for the main character.

The 2018–2020 Nicaraguan protests began on 18 April 2018 when demonstrators in several cities of Nicaragua started to protest against the social security reforms decreed by President Daniel Ortega that increased taxes and decreased benefits. After five days of unrest in which nearly thirty people were killed, Ortega announced the cancellation of the reforms.

The missionaries we are working with had to leave Nicaragua quickly. Many went to neighboring Costa Rica. When they left Nicaragua, some of their supporters stopped their support of the center they used as a base and redirected those funds to other missionary projects in other countries.

The center defunded in this process has served as a hub of their ministry since they returned. It is like a small college or camp. It has dormitories, a dining area, and classrooms, making it a great place to host groups for all types of training.

We started with their objective and goal, which was to raise financial support of at least $4,000 a month for their operational budget. Even though we had talked through this, some missionaries didn’t understand why we had to start with the protest and them leaving the country, but the audience needed to know quickly why there was a problem. Why are you contacting them and wanting their support?

Too often, missionaries and any organization want to tell people all they are doing. Keeping everything positive but missing the critical part that storytelling does better than a bullet list. When I hear many people speak from nonprofits, I wonder why they need help. They have built wells or built churches. They tell you all their successes and never do a good job of establishing why they need money.

You always start with the crisis in a story. It helps to clarify the objective of the organization. We are trying to solve this problem, and the story invites the audience to join in the main character’s journey.

You can do it faster when you know precisely what you are trying to achieve. Period. I doubt that requires more explanation. Speed comes from greater clarity of purpose and process.

Right from the start, I asked the missionary team about their most significant need. What keeps you up at night and worrying about tomorrow?

If they lose the center where they are doing their ministry, everything will get more complicated, expensive, and even prohibitive in some cases for them to do their work.

Once we knew the priority, we looked for people they had helped through the center in the past to tell their stories. We have many more people like this person to help and need the audience to come along with them and help them accomplish their goal of changing lives for the better.

After some questions, they mentioned this pastor. He was called into the country where some people wanted to start a church. He didn’t know how to do this and needed help. He heard about the missionaries. They told him about their center and their classes.

Out of this church, another crisis for the community started to pop up. The kids didn’t have much to do and just got involved in drugs, and many girls became pregnant as early as 9 or 10 years of age. This led them to start programs for the youth in that community. They had church teams from the US come in and do camp programs during the summer, and the center helped to train the community to create programming for the youth.

Other programs for women who needed a purpose in their lives came through bible studies, teaching them how to reach their neighbors.

We have decided to learn more about these different programs that this pastor’s church has created with the help of the center to tell the story of how this center is helping to change the lives of communities in Nicaragua.

Muddled processes don’t provide much evidence of logic, sound input, fairness, or representation of interests. Confused decision processes create skeptics and cynics, not supporters of those missionaries.

We will have limited time in the country, so we are trying to identify all the characters and as much as possible about their stories before we land in Managua. We have had three video conference calls with the team. The team comprises people from four countries—Togo, West Africa; Columbia, South America; Nicaragua, and the United States.

Next month when we land, we need to have all the interviews lined up and then have time to capture video and photography of these people in their churches, homes, and places of business to tell their stories.

If you get off the plane and nothing is lined up, it is because we were Wishy Washy.

By creating clarity of purpose, process, and roles, people learn to trust the system and let go. Once that happens, they can get back to their top priorities and amp up their ability to focus.

Numerous missionary teams think they are focused but are working on five decisions and two plans simultaneously. And they wonder why they keep going in circles. They haven’t figured out what decision they are making and are trying to make several at once.

How you leave people feeling is always important. Decisions made with clarity produce the best results across the board.

Here is my list that I work through with missionary organizations:

1. What is the #1 priority problem that needs help? What is it that keeps you up at night from sleeping?
2. Is there someone that you have helped that represents what success looks like? This becomes the main character
3. What was their problem that you helped them with?
4. Who on your team helped them? Who was the guide in the story?
5. What was the plan that the guide had for the main character?
6. What was the call to action from the focus to the subject?
7. What does failure look like if the issue isn’t successful?
8. What was the success of the matter?

Due to time constraints and budget, we must stay focused. Sometimes there isn’t a clear choice in this process, but you must pick. Suppose you have to flip a coin. Don’t be Wishy Washy.

If magically I could have any lens on the camera at any moment, I would be switching lenses all the time. If I could do this in the blink of an eye, I would. They would probably all be prime lenses, but often this isn’t very practical.

Since magically switching lenses with a blink of an eye isn’t possible, I decided to take my Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 Art lens mounted on my Nikon Z6 and then keep the Nikon 28-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 on my Nikon D5 as I went through the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden which is just north of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.

I think you sometimes will need to read the specs to tell the difference. When shooting the 28-300mm @ 300mm, the compression creates a shallow depth of field even at ƒ/5.6.

Sometimes the shallow depth of field is almost too shallow. So I would shoot some at different apertures and then pick.

I think I like some from both lenses for different reasons. What do you think?

I think that the ƒ/1.4 is a really smooth and silky BOKEH, but the 300mm @ ƒ/5.6 isn’t bad if you didn’t have that one lens.

The more I travel, the more I think if you have to be weight conscious, the Nikon 28-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 is an excellent lens.

[NIKON Z 6, VR Zoom 24-105mm f/4G IF-ED, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 250, 1/500, ƒ/4, (35mm = 24)]

We often enjoy photographing sunsets and even talk about the Golden Hour of light for photography. The Golden Hour (sometimes called the Magic Hour) is usually defined as the first and last hour of sunlight in the day when the exceptional quality of light yields stunning photographs.

I have found that when it comes to matching the artificial light of buildings within the Golden Hour, it shrinks to just minutes of suitable time for great light.

Now the difference between this photo where the light outside is balancing well with the restaurant’s light was just a few minutes between too much light and too little light from the sun.

The top photo of my wife was shot at 6:32 pm. Right about the time of sunset. This one just above was shot at 6:18 pm.

From my many years of shooting, I have noticed that from the time of actual sunset to when balancing light with artificial lights like here, you have about 15 to 20 minutes tops for good photos. I think there is a 5-minute window for the best pictures.

My favorite shot was done on my Galaxy S10 phone and with a wide-angle lens. That is 13mm, equivalent to the 35mm camera. This is shot at 6:40 pm, 13 minutes after sunset.

By the way, the food and atmosphere of The Fish Hopper in Kona, Hawaii, are excellent. The waitress was one of the best we have ever had. Big shout out to Bridget Kaleki Butler for the recommendation.

The photo above is of Don Senas, Fire Dancer [NIKON Z 6, VR Zoom 24-105mm f/4G IF-ED, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/320, ƒ/4, (35mm = 75)]

This week I have been teaching how to use studio strobes to help improve one’s photography.

Last night was the only time I have had the class join me for an actual photo shoot that they can watch, take some photos to help remember the occasion, but primarily have the opportunity to watch pros and what they do on a photo shoot using studio strobes to improve the lighting.

My wife Dorie Griggs took a video on her phone of me taking the photos and the students watching. Here is that video:

You can see the strobes off to the side at about 45º from the camera angle.

All those were shot at these settings: [NIKON Z 6, VR Zoom 24-105mm f/4G IF-ED, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/160, ƒ/4, (35mm = 24)]

These photos are of Brooke Valle Anderson, a Hawaiian Dancer. She is with Island Breeze. They do luau shows on the Big Island.

Brooke also works with a Hula Keiki (children’s) after-school program where the children learn different dances.

Earlier in the day, I taught the class how to use an off-camera strobe to complement the existing light. Here are some of the shots I did to show them how to do this before they each went and spent the afternoon shooting an assignment to do an environmental portrait and use the flash to improve the photo.

They were to hand in a before and after photo like I am showing here.

I also gave them a PDF for the assignment. Here is a link to that project if you want to try this.

Here are a couple examples I showed them that are “Environmental Portraits”

Here are some that would also work for this assignment from my photo shoot in a Chick-fil-A. All of these also use a strobe to improve the light.

This was the last assignment of my time here on the Big Island of Hawaii, teaching the students in the School of Photography 1 at the University of the Nations. The last assignment they did is the one that I do more than any other lighting setup.

I am adding just one light off the camera to help light a person’s face to help draw the audience to them quickly in a photo.

“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.”

Jim Richardson