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 day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all 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 subjects. They must reciprocate as long as the issue is honest with the journalist.

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 various photos I could use, I needed to pick the images that helped tell his story.

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

How a journalist arrives at the photo 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 photos and pick which image you think best for the story.

I hope you took the time to look 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 the story is and which photo best tells it. Since you didn’t know the story, you must say, “I cannot choose without knowing the storyline.”

What is the code of ethics? Here is the National Press Photographers Association’s 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 materially pay sources or issues or reward them 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. I also 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 where the proper action is not explicit, seek the counsel of those who exhibit 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 your organization or even the subject into that blank. You feel like you know how best to help people by not telling the complete story, but 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 more of the truth? One would certainly like to think so.

When you interfere with “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 who 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.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. 

Hebrews 11

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.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast”

Ephesians 2:8-9:

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.

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36-40

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 to teach a workshop on multimedia storytelling with three other instructors.

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 to jog my memory. I couldn’t take the time to get the best picture of each situation, but I felt I could 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. Talking through the levels a few times took much more time than doing an account, where you can say whatever you need.

I liked a few “moments” from the trip, including seeing these boys react to James Dockery.

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

I thought it was fun just watching people. The locals were on bikes, whereas our group was 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.

If you are interested in joining us next year, go here: 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.

Korinna Duke interviews the founder of a Leadership Academy in the Balkans. [Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/9, 1/280]

Today is our time. We will show everyone in the class each of the student projects. The students have enjoyed hearing the stories of Global Workers taking the time to develop relationships with the people of the Balkans to improve their lives.

It has been about 17 years since the war ended, and they haven’t fully recovered.

So many of the youth lost families during this time. They are looking to the future and starting their families.

Today, each student is working on their computers, putting all the interviews, videos, and stills, and picking music to help tell the story of the subject they have been working with since this past Sunday.

Today, the other teachers, Pat Davison, James Dockery, Jeff Raymond, and I, will go to each of the twelve students to review their stories and offer advice on improving their edits.

The biggest thing we have been doing in the first edit is getting their stories short. Now we are polishing the videos.

Come back sometime in the next couple of weeks to see some of the finished multimedia packages.

This is one of the largest Mosques in the Balkans, where we lead our Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Workshop. [Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/4, 1/15]

Today is hump day and is also our midway point for our Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Workshop we are doing for 12 students in the Balkans.

Last night we introduced the software Adobe Premier Pro to the students. We had them install a workspace and shortcut keys into the software that James Dockery designed for our workshop.

James explains that while they can set up their workspace and create their shortcuts, for the teaching team to sit down with them and help with editing, we need to have a shared workspace to see what we are looking for as instructors.

We have a schedule we are working from, and each student has a workbook that fits into a pocket with the deadlines they are working to meet each day.

We have a chart of their deadlines up on a wall so we can see where each student is in the process.

Today each student is to have finished putting their interviews into the timeline of Adobe Premier Pro and let one of the instructors listen to their audio story. Then they and the instructor can see all the scenes they need to have B-roll to use as the visuals to complement the audio.

To be productive, we have to all be awake, so James and I have been drinking those Macchiatos to keep awake and alert.

Tonight we will export all the projects, look at them in the morning, and assess what is missing and needs to be shot to help us make all the projects compelling stories.