Witchdoctor and his family in Togo, West Africa [Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 DG Art, ISO 100, ƒ/1.4, 1/2500]

I believe that many journalists look for validation that the work they are doing is essential. I sure do look for it myself. I want to know that I am making a difference.

However, I believe that too many put that validation within the industry through awards given mainly by the high priests of journalism. Awards like the Pulitzers and POYs are judged by our peers and not by our audience.

I stopped entering contests more than 25 years ago and only recently can articulate why. I felt like the awards didn’t validate if the stories I worked on making a difference in the audience’s lives.

When journalism is done right, it is often a languid pace of change in the communities it serves. Sometimes the most challenging part of the job is our impact can take years to see. Sometimes we take credit for the change. We see that is the work of others long before we came on to the scene.

As journalists, we should look to our audiences and how they respond to our stories about our communities for validation.

Though it may be interesting or even entertaining, the maximum value of news is as a utility to empower the informed. The purpose of journalism is thus to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, communities, societies, and governments.

We need to ask ourselves, “Who’s paying attention? Why does the story need to be told? Why should the audience care?”

When the inner drive in our souls is that of a calling to journalism, it is much easier to endure a long time, sometimes necessary, to see any real change.

I am most depressed from burnout when I am no longer in touch with the audience and know what they care about. If there are stories we think they should care about, and they don’t, then this is where I struggle the most.

I have discovered that when I see no impact from my work, it is often because the metaphors and similes I may be using do not resonate with the audience. I must know my audience so that while doing the story, I think of what the audience would be interested in and why.

One of the best questions journalists should ask themselves is not how much time they spend telling their stories but how much time they spend getting to know their audience.

Once you have sought to understand your audience and your subject entirely, only when great journalism can take place.

[Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 8000, ƒ/2.8, 1/4000]

Every year I cover the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. These games have been some of the most watched in the Bowl Series. Many close games and big upsets have taken place.

This year it was a match-up between the SEC and the AAC conferences. The University of Central Florida achieved perfection, upsetting Auburn for a 13-0 season.

Auburn fought hard but had three turnovers, while UCF only had 1. This was the difference that helped UCF defeat Auburn 34-27.

The game was close throughout the four quarters. They traded scores back and forth, keeping it close.

UCF is Nation’s Second-Largest University. The University of Central Florida has become the second-largest university in the nation in student enrollment, surpassing Ohio State.

The hard part about covering football is the tension about shooting too tight so that you don’t see the competition.

I couldn’t switch cameras fast enough on one touchdown, so my lens was too tight to show the playing crossing the end zone.

One thing I did enjoy capturing with the UCF players was the joy they had for the game.

These are just some of the action shots I captured from the game.

Christmas Family Photo [Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4, ISO 400, ƒ/8, 1/200 – (2) Godox V860IIN + Godox X1NT with MAGMOD MagSphere]

This is a family photo we did this year of our family with my wife’s family. One of our son’s couldn’t be there and had to work with a new job.

To get this final photo required me to be behind the camera saying “Do you want a treat?” to get the three dogs in the middle to look at the camera.

So this is actually the photo I took with me behind the camera.

Here are the steps to then add me into the photo with dogs looking the best.

Open photo with me in photo shop. Open the second photo in photo shop with dogs looking best. Select all and copy the photo of dogs best.

Go to the photo with me in it and paste the other photo on top of it.

You will now have two layers. the top will be the one with dogs looking best and I am not in the photo. See the copy of PhotoShop screen grab.

Now we need to create a mask. Down below the layers click on the mask.

It will now look like what I have screen grabbed here for you. Be sure the brackets are around the mask (white box) and that it is the top photo, which is the one without me. We are going to use the eraser and now erase the empty chair and reveal me.

You just need to brush me in. See the photo of the tools here. Pick the eraser. It has box around it.

Next be sure the foreground color is black and on top. This will let you erase me.

Now if you make a mistake you can then click so that the white is on top and use the same brush and brush back the photo on top.

 As you brush you can see in the mask that what you brush over becomes black.

Now when we I finished and showed the photo they wanted the small dog on the far left to look at the camera as well. So I looked for a photo of the small dog looking great.

So I found this photo and then using the same technique brushed in the dog.

Here the tips you need to follow to make this work.

First put the camera on a sturdy tripod. You want to lock down the composition so that nothing changes.

Second do not change the zoom if you are using one.

Third if you are in the photo use the timer or use a remote to fire the camera. I had left my remote so I set the camera timer to 10 seconds.

Fourth, be sure you have good lighting on everyone. For this photo I used two Godox V860IIN + Godox X1NT with MAGMOD MagSphere. Here is what the setup looked like:

Christmas in Sparta, New Jersey. [Fujifilm X-E3, 18-55mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/4, 1/60]

We are celebrating Christmas in Sparta, New Jersey, this year. This is my wife’s hometown.

She hasn’t been home to celebrate Christmas since 1985. We have spent many years together with my family in North Carolina.

Joey is my brother-in-law, and while eating dinner, he realized my family’s traditions might be different, and he asked me what we did for family traditions at Christmas.

What I am really excited about is that our family is willing to do something different to be part of our family we haven’t had as much time with this year.

Just seeing the decorations around the house reminds me that these are new traditions for us to be exposed to.

Dorie and I went to see The Man Who Invented Christmas earlier this year. The movie is the journey that led to Charles Dickens’ creation of “A Christmas Carol,” a timeless tale that would redefine the holiday.

While you may have some excellent traditions for your family at Christmas, ask others about their habits and why they do them. Maybe you will also learn to redefine the holiday for your family this year.

Maybe the process will bring you closer to Christ, whom this holiday is about.

Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas

Do you have an “image library” for your organization? What is an “image library”? It is a pool of pictures that you commission that will be used in many different ways for mainly internal and external communications. Sometimes, but rarely are they used for advertising.

Today many of those with “image libraries” are hosting these online through intranet or Internet for different departments and even the organization’s agencies to use.

Previously, non-profits and educational institutions commissioned this work due to budget constraints. Still, the need to feed social media with ongoing content is becoming popular for corporations.

When I shoot for an “Image Library” production, the coverage is quite broad—often looking for diversity and showing some of the operations that go on daily. We tend to have alerted departments we are coming at a particular time, and then we capture their people working. We may move them around and even have them change outfits, like asking them to put on a lab coat.

I have recommended that companies subscribe to online services like Libris by PhotoShelter. [https://libris.photoshelter.com/]

You can give access based on passwords or by email/password that gives you protection for your images.

Strong visuals can connect with an audience faster and more emotionally than words alone. Storytelling remains at the heart of good communication. The power of images in modern touch is irrefutable.

The approaches for doing an “Image Library” production vary widely. You can do high-production shoots back to back, where lighting and styling give you high-quality images. This tends to be where the photographer creates images rather than capturing them.

You can go to the other extreme, where the photographer uses little or no lighting and captures mainly what already exists in situations. You are paying for the years of experience of the photographer to capture images within a case.

Sometimes there is a mixture of high production and existing light depending on your organization’s needs.

Doing bi-annual or annual “Image Library” shoots gives your communications team images to help with the messaging you need to be doing to engage your audience.

Roswell Fire Department is monitoring a tree whose branches are in the transformer, causing some arcing from power lines. [Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/9, ISO 81275, ƒ/4, 1/100]

Just two days ago, the local television stations were predicting 1″ to 2″ of snow possible in metro Atlanta. As you see in the first photo, we had the fire department monitoring arcing of a transformer since the snow had weighted down the branches of a pine tree into it.

This morning I woke up to 6″ on our back porch with the snow still falling.

We enjoyed looking out our back windows to see the snow. Staying warm and seeing the snow is a great way to appreciate the beauty of snow.

Here I was able to capture our Christmas tree, all decorated with the snow falling outside the window.

When the snow started to fall, I went out to get some photos figuring that we were getting that 1″ they had predicted.

I used my Godox V860IIN with the Godox X1NT to trigger the flash-off camera. On the flash, I was using the MagMod MagSphere to modify the light. This let me get a great color temperature on the leaves and flowers as I got in close.

I found it cool to see still evidence of Fall with the snow. We are still a few weeks from Winter.

We are staying warm this Saturday morning and watching the snow still fall.

This morning I had to clear the snow off the top of the bird feeder. The snow had weighted down the top, making our squirrel-proof bird feeder now birdproof.

This morning the snow has whited out our backyard.

We are having all kinds of birds visit us.

Enjoying my time today with nature.

I had a lot of fun this weekend shooting some soccer shots. This is one of my favorite images from the day.

I am lying on the ground shooting with my 14-24mm Nikon lens at 14mm. The guy landed on me once; it might have been with this photo. As Robert Capa said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” I was trying to get close to creating more impact with the photos.

The first photo I took was this typical team photo. I picked a location where I had the sun directly behind them and then used two Godox V860IIN and triggered them with the Godox X1NT.

This kept them from squinting.

Then I moved the players around for different poses.

Then I just got lower to make them look more like heroes.

Then I tried another pose.

When you are shooting for the art director they need choices.

I also shot some verticals as well as some action during the scrimmage.

So everything I shot, I tried to get both verticals and horizontal shots for options.

The problem with actual action shots during a game is the light isn’t quite as lovely as when you set something up to get that “poster” shot.

While I could have shot the photos with the two strobes on TTL, I used the manual to get consistent output. When you move to a low angle with more sky, the camera meter will want to change the flash output and the camera exposure. I tried to control it, so it was consistent.

I recommend not always shooting with TTL for your flash. It will get you in the ballpark quickly, but the beat consistency as things move isn’t as good as shooting in manual mode.

This is the Macchiato I was drinking at a restaurant during our Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Workshop in the Balkans. A Caffé Macchiato or Espresso Macchiato is a shot or two of espresso, with just a small amount of steamed milk that “marks” the espresso, though in some regions, the steamed milk comes first, and the espresso makes the mark. [Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4, ISO 100, ƒ/1.4, 1/400]

Most of my days start with a good cup of coffee. Every day I also do three things which I think you may do.

I look to the past. I often take a moment to reflect. I ponder what I have done this year and what happened a year ago.

Facebook even has a message that pops up most days about posts from the past.

Your Memories on Facebook

Stanley, we care about you and the memories you share here. We thought you’d like to look back on this post from 7 years ago.

Thanksgiving, I think, made all of us look back. We thought o a family that is no longer with us. We thought of past thanksgivings with family and friends.

This Saturday, my wife got a phone call from her friend Stacy Carter’s husband. Stacy had experienced a massive brain aneurysm followed by full cardiac arrest. She died later that night.

When we lose a loved one unexpectedly, this causes us to spend a lot of time reflecting.

I immediately thought of my children after thinking about Stacy’s two boys and her husband. I thought of how will my children do with me not here. I think about the future. What do I have to do later today, this week, and in the coming months?

I am at a lot more peace when I can look on my calendar and see enough work that I will be able to pay my bills for the next month or two. Freelancers are concerned about getting projects on the calendar to meet our obligations.

If there isn’t much on the calendar or nothing at all, I often panic. This is where I am thinking about what I can do to get some work.

I often take a few minutes to dream as well. What would I love to do in the future? Where would I love to go and see something new and adventurous?

I am often reflecting on my goals for life. At times I am adjusting to the circumstances to make plans that could potentially help me make those dreams a reality.

I think about the present. I take stock of where I am and my goals and then make my plans for the day, week, and even months ahead. This then has me active for the rest of my day.

I am writing emails, making phone calls, and working on ideas that need to be refined before I pitch them to my clients.

I also take some time to be thankful. Looking into my past, I can see the hardships I overcame to get where I am today. I also noticed that many people helped me along the way.

I am also reminded of how miraculous many of these people just came into my life at the right moment. I know these are what I call my “God Moments.” They cannot be explained any other way than there is something bigger than me at work in my life.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

2 Corinthians 9:11

Tomorrow has become “Giving Tuesday” in our country. Giving Tuesday, often stylized as #GivingTuesday for hashtag activism, refers to the Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving in the United States. It is a movement to create an international day of giving at the beginning of Christmas and the holiday. Giving Tuesday was started in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation as a response to commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season (Black Friday and Cyber Monday).

This past weekend my wife and I saw The Man Who Invented Christmas. It is a biographical story of Charles Dickens writing A Christmas Carol.

In A Christmas Carol, we see how Scrooge deals with the Past, Present, and Future.

After the book came out, it revived much of the nostalgia and tradition we associate with Christmas today. Every time this piece of literature is read or displayed on the silver screen, it reminds us of a vision of Christmas that has little to do with displays of wealth and instead focuses on loved ones and the joy of an act of charity.

There are numerous accounts, from its publication through today, of people becoming exceptionally generous as a direct result of reading the story.

Take time today to look at your past, present, and future. I hope you, like Scrooge, can see that you can choose redemption as he did.

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”

― Charles Dickens

Daddy Daughter Date Night at the Memphis Zoo [Nikon D5, Nikkor 14-24mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 3200, ƒ/4, 1/15 – Godox V860IIN + Godox X1NT]

“Photography is not like painting,” Henry Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative,” he said. “Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

Capturing emotions requires you to feel the mood of the moment. I love this photo of the Chick-fil-A Cows with the daddy and daughter posing for me, while on the left, a dad is taking a selfie of himself and his daughter in front of the Ferris wheel.

When people pull out those phones and take selfies, I notice they are having a great time. They are also working hard to express themselves to match how they feel inside about the whole experience.

Seeing the joy on both dad and daughter as they skate together was great. But I love it even more when there is a little more interaction between people.

When the girl looks up at her dad, you can tell she thinks the world of dad. You can tell she is cherishing this moment.

I also saw dads looking at how much fun their daughters were having.

“Men are motivated when they feel needed while women are motivated when they feel cherished.”

― John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

The little things that dads did for their daughters that night touched me so much. One of the dads had bought a corsage for his daughter to wear. She was so proud of this gesture from her dad. He is setting the standard pretty high for the way she needs to be treated in the future.

Since I have covered Daddy Daughter Date Night since the 2nd one ever held at a Chick-fil-A in Olathe, Kansas, I was pretty much aware of many of the emotions I would experience, just like I know what plays a football team will call after covering them all season.

I was looking for moments when there was a genuine emotional connection between dads and daughters.

Chick-fil-A helped make the moments possible with Cows, Princesses, Ferris Wheel, Carousel, Music with DJ, and so much more.

I couldn’t just snap a photo because I saw and dad and a daughter. I had to wait for the moment between the two of them to start to happen. I had to anticipate those moments.

If you want better inspirational photos, you must start with feeling those moments and then be able to anticipate them to capture them.

“Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.”

— Yousuf Karsh

A father’s influence on a daughter’s self-image. A dad’s involvement in his daughter’s life is a crucial ingredient in developing a young woman’s self-esteem. … Direct involvement and encouragement by her father will help diminish a girl’s insecurity and increase her confidence in her abilities.

My favorite type of photos are where there is an emotional connection. Last night I was able to capture a lot of moments of dads and daughters enjoying the Memphis Zoo for a Chick-fil-A Daddy Daughter Date Night.

By putting my flash off camera for some of the photos, I was able to improve the light on the faces of the people to capture those expressions and then drag the shutter to pick up the background to add to the atmosphere.

The dads and daughters enjoyed dancing together.

They enjoyed a Carousel Ride as well.

The Important Role of Dad. While almost any man can father a child, there is so much more to the critical role of being a dad in a child’s life.

I watched as dads did everything they could to be sure their daughters were having a wonderful time.

Not all were as brave or good on ice skates as this dad. However, many did also take in the ice rink as well.

To walk the zoo could take a long time the zoo had its trams running to bring everyone around the zoo, cutting down on those long walks.

The Cow Celebrities were running around as well as the princess for the kids to enjoy being photographed with and to give hugs.

While I would have preferred to shoot everything with available light, the problem was that I found the people silhouetted by the glow of the events behind them. The flash also made them the essential part of the photo.

A good father makes all the difference in a child’s life. He’s a pillar of strength, support, and discipline. His work is endless and, often, thankless.

Roswell Fire Department [Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm ƒ/4, ISO 7200, ƒ/4, 1/100]

I have two fellow photojournalists that I love to hire when I need help. One is Robin Nelson, and the other is Michael Schwarz when meeting tight deadlines.

What all three of us have in common are newspaper and wire service backgrounds.

I have realized that we have a lot in common with Fire Fighters over the years. Have you ever visited a Fire Station? I know I did as a young preschooler.

You will notice they are ready to go at a moment’s notice. They have firefighter pants [Heat and Flame Resistant Clothing] with suspenders over their boots. Jacket hanging with their helmet and breathing unit nearby.

They are not there when they come back from a fire. Once they return to the firehouse, their first mission is to get everything ready to roll. They clean their uniforms; they tend the trucks, and any of the supplies that need restocking are done.

99% of the photographers I meet, if they were firefighters, would not have their boots and uniforms ready to go out the door.

What A.S.A.P Means to Wire Service

Shooting for a wire service like Associated Press means you get a shot, and as fast as you can get it out of the camera to your computer to caption it and upload it to the Associated Press server is expected. This “fast as you can” usually means less than 15 minutes, not like 2 or 3 weeks.

Each of us asks the client, “When is your deadline?” What surprises us is when they say A.S.A.P. each of us finds ourselves asking what they mean. Do you want it right after the event, the next day, or when?

When they say A.S.A.P., we all think we are ready to bring our laptops and turn them around in minutes, not days.

Why turn it around right away?

When I shoot about anything, I try my best to edit those images and get them to the client immediately. When I shot some weddings, which I rarely do, I had 2,500+ ideas for the bride and groom before leaving for their following honeymoon.

You see, my goal is to be ready like a firefighter. Too many photographers I have called to do assignments that have been too busy to take on another job. They were dynamic editing.

If you approach being a professional photographer the way firefighters do, you come home from a job and maybe go to bed, but the first thing you do is get that job edited and off the computer to the client.

The first thing I do is pull all my batteries and recharge them while editing. Once I have ingested the cards and have a backup, I reformat them so they are ready to shoot a new job.

I have different lighting kits ready for a various types of jobs. I have a speed light kit, studio strobe kit(s), and a video light kit prepared for any kind of jobs.

Once those images are delivered, I also scan all those receipts and create an invoice that goes to the client.

You could rarely call me, and I am not ready at that moment to walk out the door for any assignment. The only thing I can think of that would delay me getting on the plane anywhere in the world is only if the country requires a visa.

If you were to approach your business by getting your photography to the clients immediately and having your gear fresh and ready to go, your business would be on fire for the right reasons.