This was a whole week for the team in Lima, Peru. We were getting up around 7 am and going to bed around midnight or later every day.

We had a big group of 18 people. Jeff Raymond organized all of us. We had three instructors, four administrative staff [one of those a translator], and ten workshop participants working on nine stories. Two of the team worked together on one story.

Eight of the nine stories were done in Spanish with subtitles in English. 

One of the first things that the first-timers noticed was how long it took to do an interview when you must work with a translator. 

We taught what a storyline includes and how to do a better job interviewing people to improve the quality of that story.

Every story we did was about a person impacted by a ministry.

Life Before & After

What was the difference this ministry made in your life? Due to the ministry, what is it now that is different than before?

The Inciting Moment

What was the moment you realized you needed some help, and how did you find this ministry to help you?

Call to Action

Unlike going to a movie where the film’s primary purpose is only to entertain, all of our stories had a call to action. After hearing this story, would you like to support this ministry somehow? 

B-roll

There are two parts to the finished projects. There is the interview, and then there is all the B-roll shown while they are talking that compliments what they are saying.

The students learned how to shoot a series of photos from a scene and then would put these to help move the story along visually. 

Josh Hart shot many videos of the subjects getting in and out of a cab, walking to the church, opening the door, and walking in. He shot this from their front, their back, and from the side. That was just one scene. He had scenes of the pastor walking from the back of the church to the pulpit and then another series of him preaching.

After doing many more scenes, he had enough b-roll to help compliment the interview so that you felt like you saw and heard the story.

If you are interested and want to learn more, then go here and learn more at StorytellersAbroad.com.

In data-driven decision-making, data is at the center of the decision-making. It’s the primary (and sometimes, the only) input. You rely on data alone to decide the best path forward. Data is a crucial input among many other variables in informed decision-making. You use the data to build a deeper understanding of what value you are providing to your users.

I have sat in many meetings hearing about analytics. When I first learned about analytics, I was thrilled. One of the very frustrating things is how the content you create is seen, but no one clicks the LIKE button.

However, analytics doesn’t rely on the audience to “LIKE” your content to know if they have been to it or even shared it. It can record if someone came to the page and how long they were on it, as well as many other tidbits.

Are you aware of “Blind Spots” in your analytics, such as images?

Images are increasingly taking over social media and becoming a significant way of engaging and talking about your brand. Prints are generally more memorable and shareable than text.

There are over  300 million active daily users on Instagram alone; it’s clear images are a vast social commodity. But why is the intent behind sharing images such a big deal? For starters, not all images are accompanied by text. Sometimes the whole point is that words can’t adequately convey the emotion or event, so it’s shared in image form. If your social media listening is all about text, these posts and users aren’t accounted for in your analytics. This is your “Blind Spot.”

This means there is no way to get accurate analytics about photos unless you could employ eye-tracking technology. Most people will not allow the cameras on their phones and computers to be turned on to watch how they behave while looking at your content.

Why are clickbaity headlines working? Content that piques users’ curiosity does well. Instead of writing clickbaity headlines, can we integrate this insight into our content strategy? Write about topics people are curious about but may not know enough.

I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I‘d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, “A faster horse!”’ People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things not yet on the page.”

Steve Jobs

Editorial judgment is still needed alongside analysis of quantitative data. Each newspaper and station adopts its news values. Good “news judgment” means understanding your audience and your organization’s principles and values.

Being a good storyteller/journalist is akin to being a good parent/teacher. You rely on data to help you know what is working while simultaneously looking out for them and distilling information into a digestible form.

Photo Above Data [NIKON Z 6, Sigma 24.0-105.0 mm f/4.0 ART, ISO 16000, ƒ/6.3, 1/200, Focal Length = 95]

I have owned the Fuji X-E series cameras for a few years. I love them. Then I bought the Nikon Z6 to be able to shoot mirrorless with some of my Nikon glass.

I think the Fuji X-E3 compares pretty well to the Nikon Z6. I like that the Fuji X-E3, when you are close to someone will find their face and eyes. 

The Nikon Z6 camera automatically detects the subject and selects the focus area. At default settings, the camera gives priority to portrait subjects; if a portrait subject is detected, the selected subject will be indicated by a yellow border (if multiple faces are detected, you can choose your subject using the multi-selector). 

To get some photos from the service, I left the 55-200mm on the Fuji X-E3 and the 24-105mm on the Nikon Z6.

No question that the larger full-frame sensor on the Nikon Z6 had less noise. However, I was also pretty happy with the noise on the Fuji X-E3.

I think that the dynamic range is better with the Nikon Z6. You can see some of that comparison here.

I love the smaller size and weight of the Fuji system. I think the quality is excellent.

I think that the image quality and higher ISO are definitely in favor of the Nikon Z6.

Top photo specs [NIKON D5, 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8, ISO 20000, ƒ/5.6, 1/4000, Focal Length = 17]

I was able to do some testing of the Nikon Z6 at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl game of Florida vs. Michigan. The final for those interested in the score was Florida 41 and Michigan 15.

I can say that the Nikon Z6 sensor gives you great dynamic range and very little noise at high ISO numbers.

The mirrorless Nikon Z6 used an electronic shutter at 1/4000, which gave some lines if the LED signage was in the photo at those shutter speeds. At the slower speed of 1/100, the jumbotron came out just fine.

Regarding the fast action on the field, my Nikon D5 did a superior job of focusing. I do not think the Nikon Z6 is in the same league for sports as the Nikon Flagship D5.

Due to the performance not being equal to the Nikon D5, I put the Nikon 28-300mm on the Nikon Z6 and shot some with it in the Red Zone.

When you compare the image quality, the Nikon Z6 is fantastic. Good dynamic range.

The big difference was that whenever the LED boards were in the photos, the Z6 gave those lines, and the D5 didn’t look at the 1/4000 shutter speed.

I am still very pleased with the Nikon D5 for sports. However, I do love seeing what you will get with the EVF of the Nikon Z6.

So for sports, I will continue to rely on the Nikon D6, but I think the Nikon Z6 is much more fun to shoot for almost everything else.

I love walking around with the Nikon Z6. It is a lot lighter than the Nikon D5.

Another thing that the Nikon Z6 is great about, but not a factor at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, is how quiet the camera is when clicking the shutter.

Many think I should lower the ISO and shoot at a slower shutter speed of 1/1000. I can tell you that the sharpness goes up with the higher shutter speed.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the results from the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. In summary, buy the Nikon D5 for shooting sports, and for most everything else, the Nikon Z6 is just perfect.

The main reason I bought the Nikon Z6 over the Z7 was to have the extra stop for higher ISO and lower noise at higher ISO.

On Christmas Eve, I photographed our church’s service. I was shooting at ISO 51200 at times.

The Nikon Z6 has “Single-AF” as well as “Point-AF,” and this week, I discovered it is best not to use the “Point-AF” when trying to lock on people.

While shooting in the studio, I quickly got 20% out-of-focus photos using the “Point-AF.” By switching the “Single-AF,” I improved the number of in-focus images.

I prefer the “Single-AF” over the group setting for accurate focusing.

For every camera I have owned, there is a learning curve. You need to learn all the menu settings and find what works best for your way of shooting.

Hopefully, these photos will give you a peek at my learning of the Nikon Z6.

When shooting wide open aperture and getting as close as a lens will let you get to the subject, you will get the shallowest depth-of-field possible with that lens.

Look at the photo above shot at ƒ/4, which is the same photo zoomed in closer.

Now the only way to see what I am talking about is to shoot the same photo with different apertures.

Now here is a closeup of that ƒ/16 photo.

Now I shot this at a variety of apertures. Here it is at ƒ/8.

Here is a closeup of that photo.

I have discovered with all my lenses that the depth-of-field at the widest aperture and focusing as close as the lens can produce what looks to be an out-of-focus photo, but what is happening is the depth-of-field is so shallow that it looks soft.

When getting this close to a subject, I recommend starting with an aperture of ƒ/11.

Here I shot this at ƒ/11. I also changed my ISO from 100 to Auto ISO, which gave me ISO 51200 because I have the shutter speed set to 1/100. As you might notice, the shutter dropped to 1/50. That is because I had capped at ISO 51200.

Here is a closeup of that photo, in which you will notice some noise.

When it comes to still-life photos like the ones here, there is no reason not to experiment. Shoot on a tripod, as I have done here, at different apertures. Shoot at ISO 100, ƒ/16, and for 20 seconds. Then shoot as many apertures as you can to the widest aperture. 

When you have the photos on your computer, zoom in and find the picture that works the best to make your object appear sharp and in focus, as well as the soft BOKEH. 

Hopefully, you also see that there is such a thing as TOO MUCH BOKEH.

Sarah Clements, one of my daughter’s good friends from the church youth choir, asked me to help her with some headshots. She is a soprano majoring in voice.

She is in her junior year of college and getting closer to graduation. She is thinking of now having to promote herself for jobs. Headshots are needed since casting often involves getting someone to look the part.

We took a lot of photos together. I enjoyed using my new Nikon Z6 camera and the Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G lens, which produces incredible quality.

The photo above is a closeup showing just the eye of the previous image. The detail is beyond remarkable.

I always want to get the best possible photos during a photo shoot. 

I started with almost 300 images, and after editing for slightly missing the focus due to such a shallow depth-of-field and occasional blinks, I could give her over 200+ images.

What I love about photographing artists is they understand nuance. As a professional musician, Sarah has to know more than the mechanics of music theory. She knows the difference between being slightly out of tune and in tune—between each note blending properly in a choral group.

We can work on tweaking facial expressions and lighting to achieve the perfect combination that captures the person’s personality in the best possible light.

I love the finished images I am getting with the Nikon Z6. 

By the way, today, everyone needs a headshot. Do you have one?

This is just a quick comparison shooting some ornaments on my tree. First, this is using my Sigma 35mm F1.4 ART DG HSM on the Nikon Z6 using the FTZ Mount Adapter.

With the Fuji, I am using the kit lens XF 18-55mm ƒ/2.8-4. It is close to the same format I shot compared to the 35mm. 

Here I am shooting with a telephoto range using the Nikon 85mm.

Here I cropped into about 100% 

Overall I think the Nikon Z6 focused faster. I was using the point to focus. I did the same thing with the Fuji X-E3, but there is a little back and forth with the Fuji.

In my opinion, the larger sensor gave a cleaner file and less noise than the Nikon Z6.

I noticed that the Fuji kit lens compares nicely to the two sharpest lenses I own for the Nikons.

When it comes to travel I still would prefer to carry the smaller Fuji. I think I give up a little performance to pick it, but less weight.

When it comes to performance, I believe the Nikon wins.

While majoring in social work in college, I discovered photography’s power. Specifically, I realized that photojournalism did the best job I could find in educating people about the world around them.

Before graduating with my degree in social work, I had to do an internship in the field. I found an internship working at the mental health center in Kinston, NC.

When counseling a person, I would “peel the onion,” as we would say to move from the symptoms to the cause of a problem in a person’s life. When someone is suffering, it takes them longer to see the root cause of their pain.

While in college, I was also taking photos for the school newspaper. I saw how a photograph helped “peel the onion” for a community. Mirroring is a therapeutic technique where you repeat back to a client, usually in your own words but sometimes word for word, the idea that has just been expressed. It can be as simple as the Client: “I felt hurt and confused.”

I discovered that a photograph was even more potent than the mirroring technique.

I finished grading the students in Introduction to Photojournalism at Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

More than half of the two classes I taught had never owned a camera other than the one on their phone. I was teaching them the mechanics of photography and how to tell stories as a photojournalist.

I discovered that the one skill they needed more than how to use their camera was how to “peel the onion” of the subject.

The photojournalists that consistently tell potent stories are the ones who spend more time getting to know their subjects.

I will love to help you if you don’t know how to “peel the onion” of a story. In January, I am going to Lima, Peru, with a few other instructors who have the same calling to help ten workshop participants to become storytellers using their cameras.

Each person will work with a person to tell their story. While working on the story, they will have one-on-one time with the instructors to coach them daily through the process. By the end of a week, they will show the community a short 3 to 5-minute video with the subject telling their own story.

I will do this again in March in Trinidad, and then this coming summer, we will bring the team together again and go to Bucharest, Romania. Maybe you want to join us.

Go here to sign up for our trip.  You can also contact me for one-on-one classes, or we can organize a workshop for your organization.

Today our country buried former President George H. W. Bush. In attendance were all the current living former presidents, including Jimmy Carter.

I had an appointment with President Jimmy Carter today. Dorie, my wife, had signed us up to be at the Conversations at The Carter Center: Humanizing Religion and Human Rights, where President Jimmy Carter was the host and on the panel.

If you want to watch the presentation, here is that video link.

It was pretty refreshing to hear from the three Abrahamic Faiths: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, about how the individual faiths address Human Rights.

For those reading this for photography comments on the Nikon Z6, I want to talk about two things I tested the camera on. First, I tried to shoot on Silent Mode, an electronic shutter but got banding.

I also shot just a couple of shots at pretty high ISOs.

This photo is shot at ISO 32000 and cropped a bit as well. I was impressed with the high ISO with the new Nikon Z6.

While I enjoyed testing the camera, I kept pinching myself. I have had many opportunities through the years to be in the presence of President Jimmy Carter. No matter which president in history, it would still be rare for most of us to have so many opportunities unless you are friends/family or work for their administration.

Atlanta is blessed to have The Carter Center in our backyard. We plan to return to Plains, GA, to hear President Jimmy Carter teach Sunday School again.

I admire all he has done with The Carter Center. I also enjoy his Sunday School class.

What a privilege it is to listen to him.

This past week I picked up the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera. In s few days, I could put it through some assignments.

The first assignment I did with the camera was a headshot. I was thrilled with the performance of the camera with the headshot. The 85mm ƒ/1.8 never looked this sharp before to me.

Before I did this first assignment, I ran tests, and the first thing I realized was the files would not open in PhotoShop or Lightroom. The camera is so new that the RAW files are not readable.

The BETA-Version Adobe RAW converter is available on:

• Mac: http://www.adobe.com/go/dng_converter_mac/
• Windows: http://www.adobe.com/go/dng_converter_win/

The second assignment was shooting the SEC Fanzone event at the Championship game between Alabama and Georgia.

I enjoyed using all my Nikon F-mount lenses and seeing what you will get before you press the shutter. I wanted the incredible sharpness due to no more anti-aliasing over the sensor.

I shot over a thousand images at the Fanfest with the Nikon Z6. I got a lot of great shots and was please with the performance of the camera.

I had to use an on-camera flash to get this photo of Hines Ward with a young fan. The image of Ward behind them was super bright jumbotron, and the only way to get them from not being silhouetted was with a flash. The Godox V860iiN worked just incredible with the camera.

After all day shooting, I charged up my batteries for the camera and me. By the way, I used three batteries all day shooting with the Nikon Z6.

Then Sunday, I shot another 1000+ images at a church covering all types of settings. Once again, the Nikon Z6 performed flawlessly.

The camera, without putting it into silent mode, was already quiet compared to my Nikon D5, which I was also shooting.

I think the files look much better than my other Nikon D5 files. I think the new CMOS sensor with the new Expeed 6 processor gives much sharper images out of the camera.

It is fantastic to see what you will get before you click the shutter in those tricky lighting situations with mixed lighting.

I think the Z6 performed well and compared very similarly to the Nikon D750 I used to own. I think the Nikon D5 is the camera for sports and outperforms the Nikon Z6 in responsiveness. Well, it ought to be better at a ticket price of $6,500.

The best part of the Nikon Z6 for me is to have all the things I love about mirrorless but can now use all my Nikon glass.

The order of worship in churches is based on the only whole worship service we have recorded in scripture, Isaiah 6:1-8.

When we start the service, the first thing that happens is acknowledging we have come into the presence of God. This is similar to how you create a story and introduce characters.

When we meet God at this moment, it will cause us to be reminded of our sin, which is similar to a story needing crisis/tension. This is where in worship, we acknowledge there is nothing we can do and only God’s grace can save us. But first, we must confess.

This dialogue continues between man and God in worship, where God is asking who will go after we confess and God has forgiven us. This is like in the storyline where the mentor is outlining to the main character what they need to do to overcome their crisis.

Often this is where the homily/sermon gives us more insights into how to live our lives. This is the direction given to all main subjects in a story that they go and then live out those instructions.

Here is the scripture that Christians and Jews use to create their order of worship.

Isaiah 6:1-8 

REVELATION– verse 1: “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

ADORATION– verse 3: “And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!'”

CONFESSION– verse 5: “Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.'”

EXPIATION– verse 6-7: “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.'”

PROCLAMATION– verse 8a: “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?'”

DEDICATION– verse 8b: “Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.'”

SUPPLICATION– verse 11: “Then I said, ‘How long, O Lord?'”

COMMISSION– verse 9: “And he said, ‘Go, and say to this people…'”

If you look at this order and then compare it to the Narrative Storyline, you will see they have a lot in common.

PLOT – a series of incidents that are related to one another; what happens in a story includes five stages (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution)

EXPOSITION – usually in the beginning of a story, where the characters, setting, and conflict (problem) are introduced

RISING ACTION – the part of the story where the conflict(s) develop, in which the suspense and interest builds

CLIMAX – the turning point or most exciting moment of a story, in which the main character comes face to face with the central conflict, and a change happens

FALLING ACTION – all the loose ends of the plot are tied up, the conflict and climax are taken care of in this part of the story, and the suspense is eased

RESOLUTION – where the story comes to a reasonable ending and the outcome is resolved

Here is how I see these lining up

Worship Service	Narrative Story
Revelation	Exposition
Adoration
Confession	Tension/Struggle
Expiation	Climax
Proclamation	Falling Action
Dedication
Supplication
Commission	Resolution

All the stories in scripture have flawed characters who either turn to God for help and are obedient to those directions or refuse to be respectful. Many of those stories involve a series of times where well-intentioned characters continue to return to God and ask for forgiveness for not being obedient.

I believe this format is used in worship because it forces us to process our faith in story form. It reminds us that, like all characters in a story, we live in a crisis that we cannot solve alone. We need help. In the stories of Hollywood, you need THE FORCE in the Star Wars movies to take on your enemies. You go to someone like Yoda to be trained.

In the Disney stories like Cinderella, she needed a Fairy God Mother to help her.

Stories move us because we can relate. While the problems are different, they are problems that the main character, like us, cannot solve alone.

The other cool thing about worship services relating to storytelling is that they have a soundtrack. The music in worship services helps to set the tone for stories to be told, and as we resonate with those stories, we are reminded of the story we are living.