[Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4, ISO 400, ƒ/1.4, 1/125–Alienbees B1600, Translucent Umbrella, Pocketwizard remotes]

My daughter helped me today with a photo shoot. Here she stood in for a test shot where I needed a key/leading light due to the overhead skylight creating unpleasant light on her face.

Once I had my setup, I dialed the Pocketwizard AC-3 power up and down to balance the light in the room. I made it about a stop brighter to be sure it was the leading light on her face.

Next, I moved closer and tried a few angles with the Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4.

After exploring my options later, I took my second Nikon D5, put the Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G lens on it, and did a few more shots for angles. Now it is on a second body because it would be much faster to change cameras than lenses.

Again I then tried a few different angles and compositions.

My gear for this photo shoot:

Nikon D5

Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8

Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4

Alienbees B1600

Pocketwizard TT5 & TT1 kit

Pocketwizard AC-9

Pocketwizard AC-3

Manfrotto 5001B 74-Inch Nano Stand

Westcott 2001 43-Inch Optical White Satin Collapsible Umbrella

Drew Gibson plays at The Crimson Moon in Dahlonega, GA with Dave Hadley playing the steel guitar. [Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/45]

Last night we drove up to Dahlonega, GA, to see one of my wife’s friends from college in Richmond, VA play at The Crimson Moon.

Drew Gibson plays a country-blues style of music. He writes all of his music.

His latest album is 1532, about his late father and his family. I believe when artists start to deal with those raw emotions that they experience in things like the loss of a loved one, they can unleash their feelings.

Musicians often create a vibe with their music that draws others in since this often resonates with their audience’s emotions.

While listening, I felt like the photos I took from my seat didn’t capture all the emotions I wanted. I saw this in front of The Crimson Moon and Drew and Dave playing through the window.

Shooting through the window created this barrier between the musicians and me. The reflections in the window were from outside the coffee shop.

Often this is how I think we listen to music. We hear the artist’s theme, and at the same time, we are reflecting on our own lives. The experience of the event creates this hybrid of our worlds colliding.

When I returned to the restaurant, I wanted to capture the guests all relaxed and listening. I tried to pick up on the mood of the place itself.

I took a few photos from different parts of the room to give more context to the small venue in Dahlonega.

Too often people get tunnel vision and continue to shoot from the same spot with the same lens. It may be a great composition and the best angle, but it isn’t the only angle.

Move around and find those different perspectives.

If you want to experience a similar concert as I did, go to The Crimson Moon website for a list of shows.

You can find out more about Drew Gibson on his website as well.

This is a song about Drew’s Mother, Betty Jane, from the album.

Here is another song by Drew, “When the Vinyl Scrapes.”

A small outreach group has started in the bush village of Sabtenga. The oldest man in a hat was Musanai Zemnai, the Chief of the Young People, who welcomed the group. [Nikon D2X, Sigma 18-50mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 400, ƒ/2.8, 1/350]

I grew up singing in Baptist churches “Blessed Assurance.” The refrain went like this:

This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.

The words of this song are vital to the photojournalist’s ethics. We are not there to tell our story but rather the subject’s story. As long as the issue is honest with the journalist, they must reciprocate.

When I was visiting the Chief among the young people of the bush village in Sabtenga, I took many different photos of him.

While I ended up with a variety of photos that I could use, it was imperative that I pick those photos that helped tell his story.

Often the photojournalist is limited to just one photo, so which one is the one photo?

How a journalist arrives at the photo is one that determines the storyline. Often the journalist will pull together a narrative using the images in a specific sequence to tell the subject’s story.

Look at these different photos and pick which image you think is the best for the story.

I hope you took your time and looked at each one closely. Most of those who may read this will have picked a photo.

If you picked a photo and would run this photo, you have now just violated the ethics of photojournalism.

The question you should have been asking is what is the story and which photo does the best job of telling the story. Since you didn’t know the story then you must say I cannot choose without knowing the storyline.

What is the code of ethics? Here is the National Press Photographers Association code of ethics.

Code of Ethics

Visual journalists and those who manage visual news productions are accountable for upholding the following standards in their daily work:

1. Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.
2. Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.
3. Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording issues. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one’s own biases in work.
4. Treat all topics with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable issues and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.
5. While photographing subjects, do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events.
6. Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images’ content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or change the sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.
7. Do not pay sources or issues or reward them materially for information or participation.
8. Do not accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.
9. Do not intentionally sabotage the efforts of other journalists.

Ideally, visual journalists should:

1. Strive to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in public. Defend the rights of access for all journalists.
2. As a psychology, sociology, politics, and art student, I think proactively to develop a unique vision and presentation. Work with a voracious appetite for current events and contemporary visual media.
3. Strive for total and unrestricted access to subjects, recommend alternatives to shallow or rushed opportunities, seek a diversity of viewpoints, and work to show unpopular or unnoticed points of view.
4. Avoid political, civic, and business involvements or other employment that compromise or give the appearance of compromising one’s journalistic independence.
5. Strive to be unobtrusive and humble in dealing with subjects.
6. Respect the integrity of the photographic moment.
7. Strive by example and influence to maintain this code’s spirit and high standards. When confronted with situations in which the proper action is not explicit, seek the counsel of those who exhibits the profession’s highest standards. Visual journalists should continuously study their craft and the ethics that guide it.

But we are not journalists!!!!

We have to protect our __________

You may have inserted into that blank your organization or even the subject. You feel like you know how best to help people by not telling the complete story. The audience will not understand.

Just remember that you put yourself on a very high horse just like in the movie

Could “we the people” handle a bit more of the truth? One would certainly like to think so.

When you get in the way of “truth,” you have changed the narrative. You have robbed the subject of “their story” and replaced it with “your story” or “your organization’s story.”

Maya Angelou said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

When it is finally shared, do you want to be the one person that altered the story in any way that could diminish its power?

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/18

Yesterday I was studying Hebrews 11. As I was reading all the examples of those who had great faith, it struck me that they did not have the scripture as Jews, Christians, or Muslims have today.

The chapter continues using the examples of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

They had an extraordinary relationship with God. They knew God and God knew them. They seemed to walk together through life.

What is interesting to me is the phrase “By Faith” used to introduce each of them. This is quite different than saying “By Confidence.”

Faith is always a gift from God and never something people can produce. In short, “faith” for the believer is “God’s divine persuasion” – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers, i.e., the persuasion of His will.

Throughout scripture, faith is always received from God and never generated by us. In many ways, this is what Christians would believe is the Holy Spirit working through us. It is also what many would say is how God works on the hearts and minds of those who are not believers.

Understanding that God gives Faith makes it much easier to read this scripture and understand it was only with God’s intervention that Abraham could have offered his son in sacrifice.

When God tested him, Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice by faith. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking, he received Isaac back from death.

The more I read and study the concept of faith, the more I see that it is something that comes from a relationship with God.

To run my business by faith would require me to be called by God to be in this business. It requires me to yield to his will and to take time each day to be in a relationship with God. Without the connection, there can be no faith. I must allow God to speak to me and be willing to listen.

Are you living by faith if you feel called to the profession you are doing today? I cannot tell you the five steps to living by faith because faith is given by God and not something we can produce.

We can carve out time today to be with God. We can read the scripture and live by his commandments. We can seek to know his will.

This, to me, is why I love Jesus so much. This one scripture keeps it simple for me.

I am writing this blog post for Mac users. When formatting a USB drive or even an external hard drive that you intend to share with PC users, knowing there are many ways to format the drive is essential.

I will walk you through the steps here, which will let you easily share your files with anyone, and if they want to, they can add files to the drive to give back to you. We had to do this for our Storyteller Abroad Workshops, where we had a mixture of Macs and PCs used in the workshop.

We wanted to share photos and videos so we could use this in b-roll, and we needed to have everyone’s Adobe Premier project ultimately saved to a hard drive that we could open on the instructor’s computers to fix if needed later or if we needed to change something due to changes in the storyline.

In your toolbar, pick Launchpad.

Then select the “Other” folder.

Inside that folder is the “Disk Utility” you want to select. Another way to choose this is to go to Spotlight and type in Disk Utility.

You will highlight the drive you want to format when it launches in the left column.

Then, at the menu’s top, click “Erase.”

Name your drive and then click ” Format ” to see all the options.

You want to pick “ExFAT.”

Next, be sure you pick the “Master Boot Record ” scheme. Apple defaults new partitions to GUID, which is bootable on a new Mac. However, Windows can’t read it. You must manually choose MBR (Master Boot Record) as the partition type, bootable in Windows, and then format it as exFAT.

Sometimes, you might get an error after it attempts to format the drive. If you try it a second time, it usually works.

Now, you can share your files with your clients using a USB drive or hard drive.

I suggest always using this format so you never get the call that the client cannot open your USB Jump Drive or Hard Drive.

[Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 1/125 – Neewer TT850 flash, Neewer 433MHz Wireless 16 Channel Flash Remote Trigger, MagMod Magsphere]

I am one of my favorite customers Raving Fan. For the past 13 years, Chick-fil-A has taken one day a year for customer appreciation day. However, the cows like to call it “Cow Appreciation Day.”

Being a Raving Fan of Chick-fil-A, I wanted my photos to stand out and show my enthusiasm for the brand.

Now everyone is taking photos with their phones and point and shoots of the day. I am competing with thousands of photos. How do you make your photos stand out and look “different”?

I have found the best way to use a flash-off at 45º of the camera axis to create a pleasing light. It also helps color correct, giving you excellent skin tones.

Here is the setup where my assistant holds the off-camera flash for me.

Using the flash helps in so many ways. I do not have raccoon eyes from the sun overhead, and getting the skin color right is equivalent to singing in tune.

I am using the flash inside and outside. Also, I am just adding the sparkle to about +1 Stop above the existing light. Sometimes a little less. If you are just above the current light level, the flash can help correct any color cast.

One more thing that might not be apparent, but I am not lighting the entire scene. I am just adding a little light to the subject only. The backgrounds are all lighted by another light source than my flash.

Just add a little light to the subject to make your photos stand out because, like seasoning, a little light goes a long way.

Here is all the gear I used for the photo shoot. All of these links are affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission from any purchases made using the affiliate link. This is at no additional cost to you.

Nikon D5
 Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4
Neewer TT860
Neewer Radio remote

MagMod Basic Kit – v3

MagSphere

Yesterday, I took a few large group photos. The editors needed to identify everyone in these group photos. Within Lightroom, you can go to “People,” which will search for all the faces using face recognition software similar to Facebook.

While Lightroom helps you with “face recognition,” you must still get everyone’s names. So here is that blog post for an earlier post on how Lightroom “face recognition works.

Here is a link to Adobe Lightroom and PhotoShop software:

By the way, I just took a big photo with all the people’s names in Lightroom and did a screen grab. So, in addition to putting the information in the IPTC, I also gave them this photo so they could see the identification.

I had each person print their name on a Sharpie with a 3.5″ x 5″ card. Then, I made a quick headshot of each person.

After they held up the card, I had them put it by their side and did a few quick headshots. I also gave all these to the client. It is a bonus for them, but I needed it to help me to identify people in all the photos.

I also needed everyone to fill out a Model Release. Here is the short form I use on card stock.

My assistant hands out pens and cards to make all this go fast. Then, I used the software FotoBiz to create the model releases. It comes with the wording for the model release as well.

I hope these tips can help you the next time you need to identify many people in your group photos quickly.

[Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/5, 1/100]

It has been over a week since I returned from the Balkans. I have been reviewing my photos and reflecting on my time there.

I was not there to shoot photos and come away with a story for myself. I was there teaching a workshop with three other instructors on multimedia storytelling.

This is a photo of the three instructors: James Dockery, Pat Davison, Jeff Raymond, and one of the students, Allison Basye.

We spent our time helping the students with their stories.

I ended up making a lot of snapshots. This is what we call the Balkan Harley. They made a lot of noise driving down the street.

These were photos for me to jog my memory. I couldn’t take the time to get the best picture of each situation. I did feel like I was able to get good photos of the setups and a few shots of the other instructors teaching. Here is one of James working with Meghan Duncan.

We navigated, telling the stories through all the politics of the area. That took a lot of time to talk through the levels a few times compared to doing an account where you can be free to say whatever you need.

There were a few “moments” that I liked from the trip. Seeing these boys react to James Dockery was one of those moments.

After I got that photo of the kids laughing, James went back to show them some of his shots.

I thought it was fun just watching people as the locals were on the bike versus our group walking on the left.

While walking the streets and taking photos is fun in different places worldwide, they still don’t compare to being inside the homes and businesses and having them share their stories.

Go here if you are interested in joining us next year. storytellersabroad.com We don’t have dates or locations yet, so stay tuned.

[Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 4000, ƒ/4.5, 1/200]

My daughter is helping teach a summer camp theatre class. This past week the camp was about what in the theatre they call the Triple Threat: Act, Sing, and Dance.

This energetic session focused on popular Broadway musicals and plays from Mary Poppins to Matilda and Pippin to Wicked. It included a dance/choreography class and a song component in the voice class.

Compare just these two photos. The main difference between the two is the actors in a peak performance moment and just standing there.

Over and over, way too many people take the last photo than the first. The reason is pretty simple. They need a picture of their kid on the stage. Both images do the same thing for those parents. They see a photo showing their kid on stage.

Theatre people are some of the most talented artists on the planet. To be considered a strong artist in the field of theatre, you must be able to act, sing and dance excellently. Not only must you be able to memorize lines, but you must also learn a routine, hit all the right notes in a song, and maintain that audience’s interest at all times. As opposed to other art forms, theatre happens entirely live, so there are no re-dos. It would help if you were on it at all times.

If you pick the right moment in a musical or play, you can capture the peak performance showing this talent.

For me, theatre is simple to shoot. I believe playwrights have compacted the best moments in a storyline that is quite compelling. Capturing these moments in real life would take days or years compared to a 2-hour show.

This photo of the lady taking a selfie of her friends and the ladies walking by looks to me like the beginning of a song in a musical. I can picture the people on the bench breaking into song and the ladies walking by also responding. The words would give us insights into people’s thoughts in real life.

If you are learning photography, go to the theater and look for moments. The playwright has assembled the best moments of a story for you.

[Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/25]

This young boy and his friends were hanging out on a bumper car ride in the Balkans. The boy is looking at me through a reflection of mirrors in the passage. There is a curiosity in his eyes about who is this American with a camera.

His look and the fact I didn’t have the time to get to know him reminded me that listening to others takes a lot of things.

We had just finished showing our projects to the Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Workshop on Friday night, and we all took a break and walked downtown.

Saturday, we put the finishing touches on the stories to show that evening to all the Global Workers and subjects of the stories during our Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Workshop.

Here is Pat Davison working with Hannah Dunlap, a student at Cedarville University. Beside them is Meghan Duncan, who just graduated High School working with James Dockery on putting those finishing touches on their stories to show Saturday night.

Pat and Hannah are celebrating because they just started exporting the finished project. Meghan and James are getting close, and I was working with Juliana Spicer, a Liberty University student, on fixing a corrupt sequence in her Adobe Premier Pro project. We got it fixed, and she showed her show as well.

This is Korinna Duke, a Cedarville University grad with her subject. Korinna told me later that she was watching him while showing the story she did for his reaction. When he gasped at part of the story, she was distraught. She wanted to tell his story as accurately as she could.

Did I offend him? Was her question? In the end, he not only loved the multimedia package, he asked to get a copy to show all his friends and family.

This week has taught me a lot about “Getting it Right.” We were in the Balkans telling stories of people whom we didn’t speak their native language and whose English lacked some of the polish necessary to get to the heart of the story.

Most of the students read what the global workers had said about the person they were doing a story on and did little on that first interview to peel beyond what was written on the page. They had taken the story at face value.

Some of the subjects had been persecuted based on ethnicity before the Balkan wars for many years, but after the war, that hasn’t disappeared. During the war, they had guns pointed at their heads instead of insults and lost their jobs just for being ethnically different. They watched as the soldiers executed their parents in front of them by cutting off their heads.

The main reason we were there was due to one global worker who, during the Balkans war, went to Europe from the United States to help refugees in a camp. The war was over much sooner than expected, and she was asked to work with all the children that were either orphans or had lost their fathers.

She created a school to love these kids and help them during their rebuilding of the country.

Many of the subjects were very guarded about telling their stories. It required the workshop’s students to build trust and listen with more than just their ears. They had to attend with their eyes. They had to be more observant than in their everyday life.

Teddy Roosevelt said, “People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” This is the core skill necessary for the storyteller. Their subjects don’t care how much you know about them; they want to know how much you care about them before they allow you into their lives.

This week each instructor would ask questions of the students about their subjects. The common question was, “did you ask the subject?”

The key to getting the story right and having the information necessary to produce a compelling story relies solely on the storyteller’s curiosity and character. Do they care more about the person than the story? If you do, then the subject will let you into their lives. Only when the subject opens the door to their heart can the storyteller take the rest of the world with them on that journey.