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. These moments, however, need an excellent storyteller to help weave them into a compelling story with text/words.

Photographers must 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, successful marketing is about the photos we take and the stories we tell to help seal the deal.

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 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 so that we 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 involves 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 an excellent example 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 metalwork as delicate as lace . . . It’s not a high-kicking, glossy lipstick city.”

Photography can help create these five parts of the story. It can show what is often 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 usually 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 captured slices of 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 about the story for your family this Christmas. 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 creates questions that cause the client to realize they don’t have answers and need 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

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 1250, ƒ/5.6, 1/100

I enjoyed seeing the sights in London. But unfortunately, some of the views were just reflections on the sidewalk of the Coke sign in Piccadilly Square in London.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/4.8, 1/100

There is so much to see in London, and there is not enough time for any tourist. So you pick your locations. For example, our family went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard ceremony.

Finding one location to get good photos of every part of the ceremony is impossible. We got right next to the railing of the front gate. I had to shoot through the iron gates to get this photo.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 800, ƒ/4.8, 1/100

I found the Fuji 55-200mm lens just great to use for this situation. Unfortunately, I was too far away for the 18-55mm, but I could have fun moments like this one of the London Bobby with tourists taking a selfie.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 800, ƒ/4.8, 1/100

I just had to wait and watch to capture people in beautiful moments of expression. The people were more uncomplicated to do than catching the guard. They are very business-like throughout the event in their role.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 640, ƒ/4.8, 1/100

In photography, to capture people’s attention, you need “surprises.” Most of the time, I find that expressions on people’s faces are the easiest to find. Different enough to be a “visual surprise,” like this guard wearing a turban rather than the tall bearskin hat that the rest of the guards wear—the only one with a beard makes this better photo.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/3.5, 1/150

The most important thing for me the entire trip was that my wife and daughter were having fun. If they were enjoying everything, then I was OK with wherever we were in London.

We all love Harry Potter, and my wife has been a Downton Abbey fan for a while. So London was a perfect place for a vacation.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/70

This photo made me think of the “Night Bus” in Harry Potter. Maybe before Harry Potter, it would just be a double-decker bus in London, but the storyline of Harry Potter is part of my memory, and now these are the Night Bus in the series.

Technical Tip

Before I could concentrate on capturing the moments and moods of England, I had to understand my camera and make it do what I wanted, not just whatever it would create.

For all these photos, I used the ExpoDisc to create a Custom White Balance. Unfortunately, using presets or Auto White balance usually doesn’t yield good results. So here is how I do that in an older blog post.

For the most part, I think you can shoot much of travel photography with lenses between 28mm to 200mm. The FUJINON XF 18-55mm and FUJINON XF 55-200mm give me between 27mm to 300mm coverage. These two lenses was important to get those photos at Buckingham Palace.

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

You don’t have to get a camera with changeable lenses; you can buy cameras with built-in zooms that cover this range.

My last tip for your vacation travel and all photos is to write captions and keywords for the images. This way, you can find them later on when you need to. I use the software PhotoMechanic to do all my captions and keywording. Here is an earlier blog post to help you understand how this works. For those who prefer a video, I created a video showing this workflow.

After this trip, I will most likely create a coffee table book with Blurb, so I can enjoy this trip for years to come.

In 1987 I drove up from Richmond, Virginia, to Rock Port, Maine, to attend a photography workshop. I was able to stop along the way and take some fun tourist photos of the country. This first photo is of Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse, Maine.

I was looking for this photo on my last trip to Bangor, Maine, last week. However, this was more than two hours away from Bangor, so I decided to go to Bar Harbor and take some photos there.

I was pleased with some of the photos but was still disappointed I couldn’t get a lighthouse.

In 1988 I decided to take another Northeast vacation and visited Cape Cod. Highland Lighthouse, located on Cape Cod, is one of 4 lighthouses on the outer cape. While I was in Hyannis, Massachusetts, part of Cape Cod, the closest lighthouse to me was on private property. I decided to try and capture some of the coastlines, so I shot this instead of the lighthouse.

Sometimes I think we get too locked into one visual icon representing an area of the world that we forget there is much more to see and capture.

Sometimes there are photos worth making just in your neighborhood, like this Kroger gas station near me.

Here is a bicycle race taking place about a mile from my house. My point is you don’t have to go far to capture exciting photos.

This was in my yard. While this is being posted on a Thursday, many people will post older photos for “Throw Back Thursday” why not take some time today and explore your city, neighborhood, or backyard?