This is a marketing tip I learned about websites. When people come to your website, they need to know what you do and then have an action item you are encouraging that they take.

This is my website, and the action item is at the top of the menu. “FREE Download” is what I want people to click on to be able to get their email address and contact information. They are then enrolled in my monthly e. Newsletter and I give them the FREE Download of the “Tips for Better Photos” PDF.

They fill out the form you see here and then get an email with their download link.

I am not expecting a ton of signups for this FREE Magazine/Book, but I am hoping I get some engagement from my website that I can measure with something I can then use.

Go to my website at StanleyLeary.com to experience this and see if you think you need to do something similar for your website, and then I hope you enjoy the FREE “Tips for Better Photos.”

Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 DG Art, ISO 1400, ƒ/1.4, 1/200

If photographers would take photos the way, they write, all of their images would most likely be ten times better in quality.

So many people pick up their cameras and point and shoot. Just try and do that with writing. Go ahead and try it. Pick up the pencil or pen and write.

How is that working for those of you who use the “Spray & Pray” methodology? Your percentage of a photo you like is probably better than just clicking one time and moving on.

The famous photographer Ansel Adams’s first chapter in his very first book was about the concept of previsualization in photography, where the photographer can see the final print before the image has been captured. Adams often says, “Visualization is the single most important factor in photography.”

Adams was referring to not just what was in front of the camera but rather his interpretation of what was in front of him to the print before he clicked the shutter.

Most photographers are not producing work like Ansel Adams because very few have taken the time to think about what they are trying to capture and say with their photos.

Previsualization is applied to techniques such as storyboarding, either in charcoal-drawn sketches or digital technology in planning and conceptualizing movie scenery makeup.

The advantage of previsualization is that it allows a director, cinematographer, or VFX Supervisor to experiment with different staging and art direction options—such as lighting, camera placement and movement, stage direction, and editing—without having to incur the costs of actual production. The directors work with actors in the visual effects department or dedicated rooms on the larger budget project.

At the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, they have displayed the sketches, which then are turned into models like here.

After they have done this then they make the actual set that will be used in the movie as you see here for Diagon Alley.

Now compare this set to the street of Cecil Court that most likely inspired J. K. Rowling for Diagon Alley.

This is why Harry Potter the movie is a little more exciting than the just point and shoot of the tourist that I was on Cecil Court. The street has been the inspiration and then the artists create their vision of what they want to use to convey a mood for a story.

Even in sports, the creative photographer is anticipating. I am downfield, waiting for the action to come to me. I have thought about where I need to be and what I want to capture.

TIP FOR BETTER PHOTOS!

Treat the camera like a pen. Before picking it up and putting it to your eye, have some idea of the sentence you will write. If you don’t, you will only have gibberish, which is why your photos don’t work. You didn’t know why you took the picture, and no one else will.

Take this one step further and consider the caption that will also accompany that photograph. This will help you know what you are trying to say with your photo.

The emcee for the event was Ernest Thorwald “Ernie” Johnson Jr.

My morning started off early with the annual Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Fellowship of Christian Athlete’s breakfast.

They had surprise guest of Heisman Trophy Winner Hershel Walker being interviewed by Ernie Johnson Jr. at the end of the event.

This year the event was moved to the College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-fil-A Fan Experience.

For many, this is a fun place to come to in Atlanta. Seeing all the memorabilia was just a bonus that the football fans loved, in addition to hearing from the football legends.

The emcee for the event was Ernest Thorwald “Ernie” Johnson Jr., a sportscaster for Turner Sports and CBS Sports. He also interviewed Dan Reeves.

Dan Reeves spent  23 years coaching for the Denver Broncos, New York Giants, and Atlanta Falcons. He played or coached in a record nine Super Bowls – five with the Dallas Cowboys, three with Denver, and one with Atlanta. Before coaching, he also spent 16 years in the Cowboys organization – five as a player, three as a player/coach, and eight as an assistant coach.

The keynote speaker was Benjamin Watson. In the 2005 AFC Divisional Game against the Denver Broncos, he made perhaps one of the most notable plays in NFL history when he tackled Denver cornerback Champ Bailey one yard short of what would be a 101-yard interception off Tom Brady. Bailey intercepted the pass one yard inside the Patriot end zone and proceeded 100 yards before Watson, the only Patriot within ten yards of Bailey, hit Bailey violently, knocking the ball and Bailey out at the Denver 1-yard line. This play is of note because Watson was on the other side of the field when Bailey made the play. He had to sprint an estimated 120-yards, run through a referee, and never gave up in the chase.

My job this morning was to document the event. I got some overall shots to establish the event’s location and then had tight shots of the speakers and everything in between.

I shot the event with what I use on the sidelines of the football field because the distance to the speakers without standing right down in front of the podium is a reasonable distance away.

My tip for covering an event like this is to plan. Which lenses will you need? Will you need a tripod or monopod? I used the monopod.

Take the time and think all through the event if you can go early and scout the location.

I like to think of still photography as capturing the emotional moments of a story. They are moments, however, and need an excellent storyteller to help weave them into a compelling story with text/words.

Photographers need to remember it isn’t just about the moments that will get them hired. In other words, just having images will lack the essential part of getting jobs.

For photographers marketing ourselves is no longer about the photos we make but the stories we tell that will help us seal those deals.

This is excellent insight by John Steinbeck about a great story, “If a story is not about the hearer he [or she] will not listen . . . A great lasting story is about everyone, or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting–only the deeply personal and familiar.”

The Five Essential Elements Of A Story – Katie Kazoo says, “A story has five basic but important elements. These five components are the characters, the setting, the plot, the conflict, and the resolution. These essential elements keep the story running smoothly and allow the action to develop logically so the reader can follow.”

1. Character – This needs to be developed to feel like we know this person. We can picture them and how they would dress, walk and talk.
2. The Setting – Great writers like Pat Conroy who does such a great job of writing that if you had never been to Charleston, SC, you would recognize it from just reading some of his books.
3. The Plot – This is how you sequence the events of a story to keep the reader on edge.
4. The Conflict – This can be internal or external and often is a little of both for the main character.
5. The Resolution – offers a fitting conclusion, which can be a tragedy or a comedy.

This is a great example here of creating a setting for the story by South Carolina’s famed writer Pat Conroy as he describes Charleston in his 2009 novel, South of Broad: “I carry the delicate porcelain beauty of Charleston like the hinged-shell of some soft-tissued mollusk. . . . In its shadows you can find metal work as delicate as lace . . . it’s not a high-kicking, glossy lipstick city.”

Photography can help in creating these five parts of the story. They can help show what often is challenging to tell without many words.

I am looking for those moments where the expressions on people’s faces are what writers often spend pages trying to create using just the text. I often see photos packing in even more information than the writer attempted.

When you go to see a movie that a writer’s book has been turned into, you will notice over and over where screenwriters, directors, and producers must include so much more in the frame of the lens that isn’t even described in that type of detail that the camera is giving to the audience.

Throughout my family vacation, I was capturing slices of the memories that will be part of the stories we tell as a family in the years ahead.

When you look at the images that you captured this holiday, did you capture slices of the story?

Many will always say yes, but I want to challenge you. Take a moment and think of what the story was this Christmas for your family. Now without thinking of your photos, can you tell the story? Then after telling us the story, how many images do you have that will support this story?

You don’t start your storytelling by just clicking randomly. You start with the storyline in your mind.

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”

– Brandon Sanderson

Marketing yourself with the story is creating the questions for the client to realize they don’t have answers and need some help. That help is you!

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 1250, ƒ/4.5, 1/100

This is the time of year we celebrate Jesus being born. This is the time of year we celebrate children.

At my church this Christmas eve, there is a unique service for families with small children that we enjoy attending each year.

This little boy decided to join our minister in the chair beside her. The minister said as long as you sit, you can stay.

Well, that was a fun thing to watch unfold.

I think the minister enjoyed the little boy as much as he liked being treated like an adult.

The more I travel, the more I see that children are much more welcomed into services worldwide than we do here.

Here all the kids are so well behaved in Togo, West Africa. However, they walk around in the service to the mothers and families.

Children can bring you joy.

Take the time to enjoy moments and capture them to show others what you value and teach children what you love.

Photography has the power to help communicate our values when it comes to faith and capture those moments that shape your morals and deals for your family.

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

1 Timothy 4:12

 Children are paying attention to all we do and how we act.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

John 1:12

Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author widely considered the first existentialist philosopher.

Kierkegaard sourly prophesied a banal fate for the newly popularized art of photography. “With the daguerreotype,” he observed, “everyone will be able to have their portrait taken—formerly it was only the prominent—and at the same time, everything is being done to make us all look the same, so we shall only need one portrait.”

As we get older, it becomes more and more difficult for people to buy presents for us. We go out and buy what we need, so what would someone give you, and what can you give others that they don’t already have this Christmas?

One of the best personal gifts people can give is a photograph. The reason for this is that photos have the power to keep all our precious moments alive. And giving the gift of an especially well-chosen image is a way to preserve a fond memory with someone you treasure.

The gift of a photograph today has many ways for presentation. One way many uses now is a greeting card. This photo, however, is typically an individual or family sharing one of their memories with their family and friends.

If you give a photo to an individual, the image of something you shared cannot just show your friendship with them but help remind them of a memory that the two of you share.

Besides giving a photo print, you can have a shot put on just about anything. Here is just a sample of the items you could put the photograph on for that special gift:

• Coffee cup
• Candy Tin
• Blanket
• T-Shirts
• Aprons
• Coasters
• Calendars
• Neck Tie
• Ornament
• Porcelain Plate
• Puzzle
• Digital Photo Frame
• Coffee Table Book

The photo book also shows you took the time to make their gift. It will help preserve those memories of a family trip you made or one with your friends.   If you have the time and enough variety of photos, the photo book is one of my favorite things to come along. You can produce an excellent coffee table book for your friend for as low as $20 for a 20-page softcover book.  

If you choose to make a book, my favorite book publisher is www.Blurb.com.  

Go online to www.MyPhotoPipe.com, where you can get prints, holiday cards, and have canvas prints made.

Have Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This photo was taken at the mall near us, where you could get your picture with Santa. They created an experience where you can go on an adventure to see Santa with Po and his friends. Our son loves Po, so we wanted the photo with Po even more than our photo with Santa.

They had created great backgrounds and overall experience to put families with Santa.

The key to group photos is planning — and how big you plan to use the image can make a big difference in your planning. We don’t hang wristwatches on the wall because their faces are so small you cannot tell time with them. You could have a three-inch face clock in most family rooms and say the time. In a classroom, you might need a 10-inch face. The clock face size is a good rule of thumb for determining whether someone will be recognized in a wall print at an average viewing distance.

The more you show in a photograph other than people’s faces, the larger the photo needs to be to recognize the people because their face size will diminish. If your group photo is more for identification, getting everyone close together where you can see their faces should be the primary goal. Then you can run the image in a publication, and people can tell what everyone looks like.

On the other hand, if your photo is more about creating a mood for a poster of, say, a hip-hop band, you will shoot much looser and space the people out and let their body language help establish the mood. For these concept/mood photos, I like to spread people out and put people at different heights (relative to their faces). I want to think in triangles. If you were to connect the dots (faces) between people, do they make triangles? Create depth by having some people closer to the camera and others further away. This will give it a more three-dimensional feel.

If you go to the music store and look at the CD covers of music groups, you can see some of the leading work done in the industry. Try copying some of these until you get the hang of it and can come up with your concepts.

If you pre-plan, have a good idea, and consider people’s sizes, you will move pretty quickly through the process. If you don’t, it goes slowly, and your photo may fall apart — because you will lose the attention and interest of the people in the image.

In scouting locations in advance, you are not only choosing a site because of the scenery but also ensuring you are there at the best time of day for a group photo. Having the sun right behind the group isn’t the best technical photo. Sometimes, a location won’t work simply because the group isn’t available at the right time of day to make the photo.

I have found that you can make any group photo in 10 to 15 minutes if you have done your homework. You may get to the location earlier, but the people in the image should be able to be placed into position immediately — and then you are just looking for good expressions.

One last thing that can significantly impact the quality of your photo has a laptop computer or TV on location to view the images as you shoot. Virtually all digital cameras will plug into a TV and let you see the picture big enough to assess the minor details — enabling you to move people only inches and improve the final product.

Nikon D5, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/200

Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience, or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousands of years specifically for the purpose of keeping an audience’s attention. Although people’s attention is held by different things, because individuals have different preferences in entertainment, most forms are recognizable and familiar. Storytelling, music, drama, dance, and different kinds of performance exist in all cultures, were supported in royal courts, developed into sophisticated forms and over time became available to all citizens. The process has been accelerated in modern times by an entertainment industry which records and sells entertainment products. –– Wikipedia

During my time in London, we stopped by The Globe. The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare’s playing company. A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named “Shakespeare’s Globe,” opened in 1997, approximately 750 feet from the site of the original theatre.

I believe photography is one way to preserve these storytelling moments and enjoy them in a new medium, and share them with many more than live theater can do. While theater is quite entertaining, it is just one way for us to capture the imagination of people. Storytelling is a great way to take the brain hostage and substitute one’s vision for another people.

I love the theater for the same reason I love the movies and TV dramas; they all help me think beyond my imagination. After watching these stories, I often find my mind dreaming new dreams made possible by these art forms.

To me, the one thing that is just as impactful if caught in such a way that it is a slice of a story is real life. I believe photojournalism is that medium of telling real-life stories.

Here is a slice of a wedding, the first chapter of the couple’s new life together.

Real moments make your photography better. Real moments are perfect for hijacking a person’s brain from their own dreaming stories to your storytelling.

Great lighting, excellent stage direction, and acting can capture an audience’s attention. But a soundtrack can make your story even more memorable if you want the audience to remember.

We all have had an earworm. An earworm, sometimes called a brainworm, sticky music, or stuck song syndrome is a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person’s mind after it no longer plays. Phrases used to describe an earworm include “musical imagery repetition,” “involuntary musical imagery,” and “stuck song syndrome.”

Also, music can help create mood as much as light does. Finally, music helps us remember storylines and just about anything.

Multimedia packages are where I combine still images, motion, and audio to tell a story.

I do this for companies. Here is just one example:

Storytelling is an art form. The artist is always looking for ways to capture the audience’s attention. So you are competing not just with other things demanding their attention but with their daydreaming.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 25600, ƒ/4, 1/100

First of all, before you jump too sure, a $6,500 camera should be better than a $1,500 camera. It is more about the features than the prices. 

You will not hear that I love it because it weighs so much. One of the reasons I own the Fuji X-E2 system is because it is light. Spending a week in London walking everywhere would have been a pain carrying my Nikon gear.

The bride and groom asked me to take a photo with the groom’s grandmother. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a shot list, so I had to prepare for every situation. Ready for any case is why the Nikon D5 is the go-to camera for almost all my client jobs. I quickly got a custom white balance and then clicked the photo at ISO 25600. The lens was wide open, and I was shooting at 1/100. The lens has image stabilization as well.

To do this with the Fuji with available light would have me shooting at ISO 6400 and 1/25. I wouldn’t say I like slow shutter speeds with people when I prefer a sharp photo.

As a family friend, I was also at the rehearsal, and thank goodness. I was then utterly aware of how dark the church would be for the wedding.

When they mentioned that they wanted to have everyone in attendance in a group photo, I wanted to be sure you could see everyone clearly, so I just used strobes for that photo.

Another thing is that the Nikon flash system is far superior to the Fuji. I used fill flash for some photos of the bride and groom outside due to the overcast.

Today I believe it is challenging to find the one camera system that does it all, but my Nikon D5 is that camera for me, and if it were light as my Fuji X-E2, then I would work only on it for all my work. However, for those times I need a camera but don’t want to lug my Nikons, I use the Fuji.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/4, 1/400

We have been having lots of fun in England this week. Morning full English breakfast at The Orangery at Kensington Palace. My daughter enjoyed her tea.

I am just going to add photos here from the last couple of days that I was able to capture with my Fuji X-E2. I use only 18-55mm and the 55-200mm lenses.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/7.1, 1/120

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 800, ƒ/9, 1/100

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/4, 1/100

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 250, ƒ/4, 1/100

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 1600, ƒ/11, 1/100

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/11, 1/100

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/5, 1/350

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/4.7, 1/180

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/5, 1/600

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/5.6, 1/120

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/5.6, 1/240

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 5000, ƒ/2.8, 1/100

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/2.8, 1/350

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/3.6, 1/680

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/3.8, 1/950

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/4.8, 1/300

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/4.7, 1/120

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/2.8, 1/1100

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/3.2, 1/640

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/3.6, 1/3800

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/3.6, 1/750

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/4.8, 1/120

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 400, ƒ/2.8, 1/300

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/45

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/90

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 1600, ƒ/5.6, 1/100

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 2000, ƒ/5.6, 1/100

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 4000, ƒ/5.6, 1/100