Why do you take photos and who cares?

If you enjoy the process of taking photos and are the primary recipient of all your work, then read no further. You are all that matters for your photos.

However, if you make photographs to share with others and help them connect to your experiences, then I am writing this for you.

Who and Where is your audience?

I grew up where we all gathered around the slide projector or movie projector and watched family slide shows and movies. Usually, it was of someone’s latest trip.

Later I would help produce slide shows about missionaries worldwide for a missions agency. These slide shows were more scripted and storytelling than random photos from vacation trips. We would sync two or more projectors and record audio that would run with the show.

I suggest thinking of someone in this group who is a good representation of that audience. For example, I know one photographer whose grandmother had never been 50 miles from her home. She had never dipped her toes in the ocean at age 80 and only lived about five hours from the sea.

Maybe the person you are thinking about is well-traveled and has been to more places than you have been. Hopefully, you can see that these two different audiences would impact how you tell the story.

Where will they see your work? If most of your audience is at one location, then maybe a presentation where everyone comes to a site is the best way to reach them. This location could be something like a civic organizations meeting or a company staff meeting.

Maybe your audience is a company, but they are worldwide and use an intranet as a way to disseminate messages.

Again you can see this can impact the packaging of your story for the audience.

I am on my first trip to Taos, New Mexico, around 1986.

What is your goal?

After everyone sees your package, what do you want them to do? Come up and tell you how wonderful of a photographer you are. Maybe you went with your Lions Club to distribute glasses in another country. While there, you decided to put together a package.

There are two types of presentations you can give. First is a vacation package. Here is what you saw while you were there. The second is the story of a typical person you were helping. The second story is where you go deeper and even give a call to action at the end of the presentation. For example, encouraging them to continue to help raise funds for glasses and volunteer next year to go and help people fit them with the glasses.

Pre-Planning

Once you have a goal and purpose in mind, sketch out a storyline based on what you know before doing the story.

Gather all the information you can and then put together your shot list of what you need to tell the story visually. Plan time for your interviews if you plan to write text for an account and put photos with it. The same if you choose to use audio or video.

You are now planning for a total package.

I know I need some audio to drive the package; the best audio I prefer is the testimony. The first-person narrative tells the subject’s story. With this, I can lay still images over it to tell the story. This is a much better story than just putting a bunch of photos in a gallery for people to see.

The Shot List

I have the shot list we worked from in the picture above to cover the Chick-fil-A kickoff. I was shooting for multiple outlets.

Here are some of the places the images were to be used:

  • Slideshow/Video to show internally to the company. The storyline here was to deliver moments people would be talking about for days.
  • PowerPoint presentations. The organizers use these images to help plan for the next big event, like the Chick-fil-A Bowl’s end of the college football year.
  • Videos. Often these images are part of other projects where some photos will show something that a department was a part of and needed that one image.
There were more places than this for usage, but you get the point–I know the audiences we had to keep in mind.
What you determine with the shot list is what is happening, when, and how you can capture all you want to do in the limited time. By pre-planning, we are now aware of two things happening simultaneously and deciding what takes priority earlier.
Shooting the assignment
As you work your shot list, things may fall apart, but now you have your list to go to. Each bullet needs good storytelling moments to help make the overall package work.
Post Production
After ingesting toss out all the wrong images using PhotoMechanic, I process them in Adobe Lightroom. Finally, I will narrow down those images to “Selects,” which I am considering for my multimedia package.
Next, I am editing the video/audio, which will be the foundation of the package in Final Cut Pro X.

Do you remember the old textbooks where they had the human body? Each page was a different part of the body. One page may be the skeleton, the next the organs and the skin. All were on clear pages, so you could see down through them as you peeled away the layers.

Layers are how the Final Cut Pro X Time Line works. Whatever is on the top layer is visible; if some parts are clear, you can see through them. A good example is a text that lies on top of titles.

Here you can see my music in green. The next level is doing interviews. On top of this are individual still images or titles that, when exported, become a movie that I post on YouTube, Vimeo, or another server for people to watch. Occasionally I make a DVD for someone to show to a group at a meeting.

Take Ownership of the Distribution

Today photographers must be hybrid photographers—mixing text, audio, stills, and video to tell the story.

Suppose you are just using still images and text for a blog. Then put the whole package together and post it. Suppose you are doing this for a client and offer to handle it to the end. You are increasing the odds of it getting used.

How often did I take photos for a nonprofit, and they sat in a drawer of some staff person? I cannot even tell you.

Don’t think of posting when you are all done, either. Instead, take advantage of social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. As you shoot, send an image and keep it short with the idea that there is more to come. Grow your audience by posting throughout; this will help the potential viral message to take off.

The Family Historian

Maybe you are just doing this for your own family. I have many friends who have scanned all of their relative’s recipes and then put this into a book with short stories surrounding those recipes. Most of them include a photo of the person known for originating it with the family. Maybe you document your children, and then when they graduate from High School, make a coffee book for them of their growing up years. Imagine what that will mean to the generations to come in your family. I would have loved a book like that on my grandparents.

Remember, the key is having a plan before you start, which will help guide you.

Photographer’s best composition tool

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/125

Objective?

Why are you taking a photo? What do you want to accomplish with the photo? Those are just some of the questions you should be asking yourself before you start pushing the shutter release.

My daughter’s choir had their last dress rehearsal for the parents before they took off for their choir trip this summer. Like every parent my first priority for taking a photo was to capture a good moment of my daughter. So the first photo here is of her solo performance.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/125

Just a couple years ago when they first started the group only about 11 singers and only about 8 of them went on that first choir trip.

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, ISO 5000, ƒ/5.6, 1/80 [April 29, 2011]

While getting up high and showing the singers gave an idea who was in the choir I still was missing some people.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/125

The two choir directors would switch out for who played the piano and who conducted. Here you can see the pianist.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/125

To capture a good overall shot I was in the balcony of the historic sanctuary and going wide I was able to show to the far left the three musicians, the choir and all the families that came to support their family.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/200

I also wanted to show they were leading in message and not just music for the worship services. So I captured some of them reading scripture and giving a message.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/125

Now when I was on the same floor level as the choir, depending on which side of the room I was on determined what members I could see. Here you can see some people are blocked by the director. However, from this perspective I was able to show a proud father getting some photos of his child singing.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/125

While I am there to capture my daughter I am also using my talents to bless the other families. Many of them just cannot get as good of a photo as I am able to get of their child. So, I am also trying to get as many photos of each person in the group for their families to enjoy them as much as I enjoy good photos of my daughter.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/125

We are also so grateful for the leadership and one of the ways I try to let them know how much we appreciate them is to get the best photos I can of them doing their best leading our children. I also believe these moments will help recruit more families to want to participate in the music program of our church.

What is that secret composition tool?

Your feet. Yes the best thing you have to make your photos better is for you to move around a room and around your subject. It is by exploring different perspectives that you not just get a better photo of the subject, you also have a better chance to tell a more complete story.

Photojournalism has given me better perspective and focus

Job 42:5
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

What a privilege

I am reminded over and over as I do my job as a photojournalist how really cool it is to be invited into people’s lives and get to see how they live, work and play.

Sometimes I have been invited into people’s lives during tragedy as I was years ago to photograph the Newberry family. Their son Philip contracted spiral meningitis and due to this Philip lost both hands and feet to the disease.

What was a devastating experience became such a walk of faith by a family. How powerful of a story to see a family transformed in such a positive way.

When I get invited into homes I do not see the poverty as much as I am seeing a person sharing the most intimate space of their lives. What impacts me over and over is how most people with so little are so happy in life.

While in West Africa in Burkina Faso I met a husband and wife with their newborn child. This one room hut with a dirt floor was filled with the love of a mother and father for their child.

When I traveled to the Yucatan I was invited into the home of a family where they all lived in one room.  I thought it was so cool to see how they made use of space using hammocks at night for sleeping. During the day those hammocks can be moved to give room for the kitchen or work they might do in the same room.

Early I would be so hesitant to ask to photograph families in their homes that showed such poverty. Today I realize they are as proud of their homes as I am of where I live. Here a teenager is proud of his own room.

Comparing his situation to the families living in the space he calls his room lets me know he is better off than many people around the world.

I was excited to be invited to photograph Almond Standard who built his log cabin home in his late 60’s. He was so proud of being able to use his skills to build this home from scratch all by himself. The only thing he didn’t do himself was the roof.

Perspective Shift

Meeting people from all walks of life and seeing how they live around the world makes me appreciate my situation so much more. I also realize that I live so much better than most of the world. Had I never traveled to distant places my perspective would be based on living in the suburbs of Metro Atlanta. I would see how so many live better than me and that I was more towards the bottom of the socio economic scale.

Now having more of a broader perspective I know I am living way above most of the world in my lifestyle.

While you may be able to take vacations that are designed to see exotic locations I recommend you go and experience the world from another perspective. Get involved with a non-profit and volunteer your time. Travel with the non-profit to another part of the world and help give back. You will start to broaden your horizons and this will change your life forever. It changed mine.

New Focus

I want my time to count now days after the experiences I have had in life. I want to live a life of doing something positive. I hope to use my camera to help those who are voiceless and marginalized by the world.

I want you to know these people so you too can feel more in touch to the world and not just in touch with your neighborhood alone.

Photojournalists covering disaster need to know their role

Moore Oklahoma Disaster Relief Coverage

I find many people who have trouble covering disasters or helping with them due to being overwhelmed emotionally. While seeing horrific tragedy can affect you if it consumes you it isn’t healthy. It is healthy to have a heart and be moved by the situation, but when it imobilizes you is when it is a problem.

When you are unsure of your role is when you are more prone to being an emotional wreck and not very useful.

The people of Moore Oklahoma are some of the most resilient people I have ever met. One of the reasons for this is their understanding of their roles in disasters.

You can ask any resident their plan in case of a tornado and they can tell you their A, B or even a C plan they have in place. Most of them will first tell you if they have a place to go for shelter below ground or in a safe room above ground.

The next plan beside seeking shelter is to get out of the way. Most of them with this plan will just get in cars and drive away from the area.

Once the tornado has hit everyone jumps into recovery mode. What is interesting here is many people realize they are better off doing what they do best rather than doing just anything.

After digging out of their own homes, many will go back to work, because what they do as a job is helpful. Many who worked in the restaurants would go back helping feed those who are the first responders and the victims of the tornado.

You see most of these residents understand how they are most helpful for recovery efforts.


The Photojournalist’s role

While I could have gone to Moore, Oklahoma with a team to help clean up, I am much more useful telling the story. You see when I do my job well as a photojournalist I am helping get the word out.

There are three basic things I see as my role as a visual storyteller.

First, I need to help people know what happened. Now besides taking pictures showing the damage, I need to help tell the personal stories of the victims of the tornado. This first piece of the puzzle will help engage my audience.

When I capture the emotional impact the tornado is having on the community, it is time to move onto step two.

Second, I want to show what is happening right now. This is where I am showing the immediate first responders helping the community. This could be in the moments right after the damage while they are digging through the rubble to find survivors or it can be even days to weeks later where I am showing teams helping clean up.

I enjoyed showing all the teams helping clean up. I was there to show Chick-fil-A going around helping those home owners and clean up teams by giving them a hot sandwich.

Many of the local Chick-fil-A franchise guys all realized they served their community best by doing what they do best–making chicken sandwiches.

As a photojournalist I have to remember what I do best. Visual storytelling by me is helping the subjects connect with the audience who can potentially help. This is where I move on to the last part.

Third, I need to help my audience know how they can get involved. You can here the lady sharing how it is helpful for teams to come and help them put their community back together and for those who cannot come even prayer can make a difference.

Without giving people a way to respond can often cause problems. Most news media outlets coverage will tell their audience they can give to the Red Cross for example. I encourage you to consider going with a team as well and for everyone to pray for the people.

Photographing People Tip: It is all about relationships

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12,800, ƒ/5.6, 1/200

Today I was blessed by one of my daughter’s friends. She came up to me to tell me how good my photos were of the play my daughter was in the other night. I think she thought I wasn’t taking her compliment seriously enough and so she went on to tell me how nice the photos were.

I seldom ever hear how nice my photos are any more. People thank me for taking photos and yes I occasionally hear a comment, but for the most part once you establish yourself as a professional then people just expect a quality image.

The young lady continued to tell me how impressed she was with my logo as well.  I had to tell her I was lucky to have a good friend design that for me. My daughter’s friend was very kind and gave me a blessing.

The fly on the wall

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 5,600, ƒ/5.6, 1/200

Fly-on-the-wall is a style of documentary-making used in filmmaking and television production. The name derived from the idea that events are seen candidly, as a fly on a wall might see them. In the purest form of fly-on-the-wall documentary-making, the camera crew works as unobtrusively as possible. –Wikipedia 

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 10,000, ƒ/5.6, 1/200

If you are able to put people at ease then they will allow you to be present as if you were not there. There is a trust that must be established to pull this style of photography off.

I think this is one of the most powerful forms of photography. The best photojournalists do this every time they pick up the camera.

The fly in the room

I think the “fly on the wall” isn’t the best description, because this just means you are in the room. More like ease dropping on the conversation. The photos that are most compelling require good composition and lighting on top of the decisive moment to capture the essence of the subject and message.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12,800, ƒ/8, 1/200

I like to see myself moving around the room like a fly. Have you ever tried to get rid of a fly and they seem to disappear in the room only to notice them right in front of you at times. While I do not want to equate what I am doing as being a pest, I do want you to notice how the fly is able to get very close and quickly get out of the way.

The obstacle course

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 4,000, ƒ/5.6, 1/250 [Combating the teleprompter and microphone]

Most every place I am photographing is like working an obstacle course. To get a good line of sight to a subject requires me to move a great deal at times.

Microphones on podiums often are right in front of the speaker’s face. You are moving side to side and even behind the speaker to find an angle to not just get rid of the microphone, but sometimes teleprompters and things like flower arrangements.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 11,400, ƒ/5.6, 1/250 [Moved to the side to eliminate the problem with the teleprompter and microphone.]

Those are just the things between the camera and subject and then you have to contend with a background. Often you are trying to move to keep things from growing out the head of the speaker or looking like they are being impaled by something.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/250 [Found another spot to get a clean shot of the speaker]
Nikon D4, 28-300mm. ISO 12,800, ƒ/5.6, 1/250 [I am using the plants around the stage as a way to frame the subject.]

Off the stage and informal

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12,800, ƒ/10, 1/60 [I put the camera up as high as I could hold it and shot down to give the birds-eye-view of the reception. I also waited for a moment when the people in the foreground were showing their enjoyment of the moment. Also I wanted your eye to go from the front to the back, so I chose to increase the depth-of-field by using ƒ/10.]

My favorite shots at meetings are never from the stage but the small conversations at receptions or just in the halls outside the meetings. This is where you see relationships.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 11,400, ƒ/3.5, 1/200 [I came in close to show this moment and used a shallow depth-of-field to keep the focus on the foreground of the two people.]

I think we all so want of a good relationship in our life that we enjoy seeing other relationships as well. We hope to learn something from them and appreciate them. I believe the reason we are here on this earth is for relationship and that our DNA makeup has us pursuing this every day of our lives.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 12,800, ƒ/8, 1/250 [Here I wanted to show the ladies listening to their friend and so I used ƒ/8 for a little more depth-of-field.]

Capturing people in relationships of all kinds I believe is the core value of the human race. We celebrate strong relationships through marriages and parties. We punish those who destroy relationships that steal or even kill another. However, even in these situations we can be brought to tears when relationships are restored.

Nikon D4, 85mm, ISO 1,100, ƒ/1.4, 1/250 [Here I wanted to isolate the subject so I used the 85mm @ ƒ/1.4 for a shallow depth-of-field.]

Showing how people are engaged is one way to capture those relationships. Another thing is to show how interesting a person is and this can be done by isolating the subject.  It is the mixing of all these different lenses, ƒ-stops and compositions that help me bring more impact to the moment. While I have chosen sometimes to go wide and other times to isolate, notice how even with their differences of nuance they still have you focused on a relationship.

The reason I think photography is so powerful as compared to words—it has the power to capture the essence in relationships.

My tip to you is to hire photographers who value relationships and to take the time when we photograph people to honor the importance of this by picking the right moments using composition and lighting to celebrate humanity.

I don’t want to be a fly on the wall—I want a relationship with those in the photo. My goal is to develop friendships for myself and to connect others to those people.

Only Photography can capture the “Microexpressions”


Microexpressions

 

Lie to Me is the hit TV [January 21, 2009 to January 31, 2011] series based on the research of Dr. Paul Ekman. Haggard and Isascs are credited with the discovery of Micro Expressions in the 1960s. Paul Ekman created a coding system for microexpressions and in 2001 he was named by the American Psychological Association as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century.

A microexpression is a brief, involuntary facial expression shown on the face of humans according to emotions experienced.  They are very brief in duration, lasting only 1/25 to 1/15 of a second. The 1/25 second was determined because back in 1960 this is how they slowed down a film that ran at 1/25 frame rate.

Even in the TV show Lie to Me you see that when a microexpression is detected they must investigate further, because one must not conclude that someone is lying if a microexpression is detected but that there is more to the story than is being told.

While some people are natural at seeing microexpressions many people learn how to detect them through training.  What is important it is much harder to detect a microexpression on people in person or within video.

The easiest tool to practice detecting micro expressions are photographs. So as you will see if you watch the TV show Lie to Me, which you can get on Netflix, is they use photographs to isolate and show the facial expressions.

The major emotions-how surprise, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and happiness are registered by changes in the forehead, eyebrows, eyelids, cheeks, nose, lips, and chin. These help as there are not just one type of each expression. For example the emotion of surprise has many different expressions; questioning surprise, dumbfounded surprise, dazed surprise, slight, moderate, and extreme surprise. The intricacies of facial expressions are more easily read in photographs of how various emotions can blend or create different expressions.

Charles Darwin believed that facial expressions were universal. Through the years many have disagreed with Darwin.

Dr. David Matsumoto however agreed with Darwin basked on his research during the 2004 Olympics.  He studied both the sighted and blind Olympians during the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

What is important is how he conducted the research. He studied the thousands of photographs and compared the facial expressions of sighted and blind judo athletes, including individuals who were born blind. All competitors displayed the same expressions in response to winning and losing. So it is not something learned, but innate.


Take away

I believe that the power of the still image is because it can capture the microexpression that video cannot do. Sure you can argue that if you slow down video you can see a microexpression, but you are then trying to stop the video and thus creating a still image.

Today we can record up to 200 million frames per second, but the most common used high speed cameras record around 1000 frames per second. Television series such as MythBusters and Time Warp often use high-speed cameras to show their tests in slow motion.

We use these high speed cameras for seeking the truth and helping us scientifically build safer cars for example.

So if we want to understand something and get to the truth as in TV shows like MythBusters we must examine things in fractions of a second. This is where the still photographer has worked for decades.

My take away from all this about the microexpression is the the power of the photograph is it’s ability to freeze the moment for us to truly understand. For most people microexpressions are not controlled and therefore when we see these expressions tend to hold them as truthful moments.

It is important to point out that some people are born able to control their expressions (such as pathological liars), while others are trained, for example actors. “Natural liars” know about their ability to control microexpressions, and so do those who know them well. They have been getting away with things since childhood, fooling their parents, teachers, and friends when they wanted to.

Photojournalists are very aware of “The Decisive Moment” and what I believe is that microexpressions is more about that moment. This research and material published on microexpressions is great content for the photojournalist. Understanding microexpressions will make you a better photojournalist in my opinion.

 

Which photo is best? Another Example

Click on photo for a larger view.

This is a series I shot of a little Senara boy in the town of Konadouga, Burkina Faso, which is located in West Africa.

Which of the photos would you pick and why?  Here are larger versions of the composite above:

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

Photo 8

I think anyone of the photos will work. Yes I do believe they are all good and which one to use depends on what I am wanting to say to people. Now I might crop the photo a little depending on the photo I select and how it will be used.

I could easily see this photo running over two pages of a magazine with the headline and story on the left over the photograph.

I think the furrow of his eyebrows and his hands on the post change so much from photo to photo. The only photo I really feel like makes the child look content and happy is Photo 2. You could argue Photo 3 also he is playful and enjoying himself.

All the other photos he is looking at the photographer inquisitively which can be interpreted many different ways.

For the most part all the ones with the furrow of his eyebrows and tight grip on the pole communicate some type of desperation to me. These look more like the NGO photos trying to raise money for their programs that help children. The expression communicates uneasy feeling which can help the viewer feel responsibility for the child.

I am shooting slightly from above the child a few feet away from him. What I find interesting is in the last photo he raises his chin which makes his eyes look more level to the camera perspective. This in turn puts him more on eye level with the audience.

That last photo could be used where you may have the child making his on plea for help in the copy.

Which photo is best? The first question should be what are you trying to say.

Photographer Tip

When shooting situations like this in the field you have to feel the situation. Then you must know what you are trying to communicate about this person to people who are not hear but will be the audience.

There are two of the journalists questions I think you need to really understand and know what the answers are before you push the shutter release.

What and Why are the two question of the five I would stress.

Here are the five questions a journalist should ask:

  • Who is it about?
  • What happened?
  • When did it take place?
  • Where did it take place?
  • Why did it happen?

Some authors add a sixth question, “how”, to the list, though “how” can also be covered by “what”, “where”, or “when”:

  • How did it happen?

What is going on that you need to communicate to your audience? This helps you pick the situation and moments out of everything that you are seeing and focus on the message.

Why should the audience care? This is a deeper question that I like to ask rather than just why did it happen. This helps me often work to find the peak moment that will engage the audience.
This is why I might crawl on the ground to get my audience eye level with children. When they are eye level with a child this should help them feel like a child, because to see this moment like this would mean being like a child on the ground.

Remember if you don’t know why you are pushing the shutter release then no one else will understand either when they see your image.

Photojournalism isn’t trendy for a reason

“Migrant Mother” is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California.

Every other type of photography other than photojournalism goes through trends. You can even look at the hottest trends for each year. Here is a link to “The hottest photography trends of 2012.

Once you start using gimmicks to draw the attention of viewers you are tampering with the authenticity of the moment.

Howard Chapnick former president of Black Star Photo Agency had over fifty years of experience behind him when he wrote “Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism” back in 1994. 

Howard Chapnick wrote “For documentary photography to be gripping and absorbing it must be imbued with immediacy, concrete reality and emotional involvement.”

Photojournalism is about photos being relevant. To be relevant the photographer needs to capture what is impacting our world.

You cannot have concrete reality and trying to set or follow trends.

What really makes great photojournalism is a photojournalist who is passionate about the subject. They have become emotionally involved. This is not to say they have lost their objectiveness, but they have captured a real moment in a way the reader is pulled into the moment.

One of my favorite photo stories of all time is Eugene Smith’s Country Doctor. Here is a link to the Time Life website with that story.

This story was ground breaking because Eugene Smith broke from the script of shooting photos on a list. He followed the doctor and captured whatever he was doing. The doctor drinking coffee at the end of a long day wasn’t part of the script. It works because of it’s immediacy, reality and emotional involvement. Here is that photo.

Photojournalists today have better cameras and technology to help them capture moments that those before couldn’t even do. Tri-X film was not released in 35mm format until 1954, seven years after the “Country Doctor” story ran in Life Magazine. Smith was shooting with an ISO of 125 at best in 1948.

Today photographers can shoot at ISO 100 to 12,800 with the Nikon D4 and can even extend this range to ISO 50 to 204,800. You can now almost shoot in the dark and capture a subject.

In the future the only thing that will change in photojournalism is our equipment will get even better, but how we tell stories will remain the same.

The keys to great photojournalism:

  • Story ideas – You need to be able to find stories and distill them down to the nuggets which engage an audience.
  • People person – You need to be able to talk to almost every kind of person from the homeless to those who live in castles. You need to carry on conversations with the high school dropout to the research scientist.
  • Understand body language – The nuances of a head tilt, gestures and subtle eye movements are necessary to help not just communicate what is necessary to the story, but be sure it is honest and true to the character of the people.
  • Solid understanding of the camera – Getting a good exposure and in focus picture the camera can do with anyone. The photojournalist must understand when to change an aperture or shutter speed. They must understand which lens is the best to use in a situation.
  • Know light – Mastering light can help a photojournalist know where to stand to make the light work for them rather than against them. They also know when they must use auxiliary flash to reveal a story more powerfully without changing it.

When you start to feel like your work has plateaued this is not the time to think about trying a gimmick. You need to ask yourself if you are maximizing the technology to capture the stories. If you are a master at this you might just need to find a story that ignites the fire you have let go out.

Who do you know that could use someone help them tell their story? Who can benefit the most from your skills as a storyteller?

Maybe you just don’t know of anything and this is the time to find some way to get plugged back into your community. Be sure you are reading the news for your community, region, nation and world.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is just take a break and recharge yourself. Vacations are needed for the creative to keep them fresh. Who needs a burned out photojournalist telling their story?

One of my favorite events to cover that will pull you out of a funk is Daddy Daughter Date Night at Chick-fil-A. This is from the event in Columbia, SC.

Photojournalism isn’t about covering misery alone, it is about covering life. I suggest whatever kind of stories you have been covering to mix it up. Go and find a story on something outside your normal genre.

3.5 reasons to buy faster glass

[Nikon D2X, 24mm ƒ/2.8, 1/4, ISO 800] Ismael Tarnagda and Jay Shafto wind up a long day in Sabtenga, Burkina Faso.

1.    You need a faster lens to capture a scene
2.    You need a faster lens to increase the shutter-speed
3.    Bokeh: You want a silky smooth out of focus background and/or foreground
3.5.    Status symbol

If you are still shooting film and don’t have a digital camera shooting fast glass is a necessity in low light. Kodachrome only went to ISO 200 and sure you could push the ISO and pay extra to process, but the quality just falls a part.

If you shoot color negative film you can find ISO 1600, but again there is a lot of grain to contend with in your photos.

[Nikon D2X, 28mm ƒ/2.8, 1/10, ISO 800] Ismael Tarnagda and Jay Shafto wind up a long day in Sabtenga, Burkina Faso.

On my Nikon D4 the ISO is expanded to 204,800. This looks better than my film did at ISO 1600.

This is all to say that if you cannot increase your ISO for any reason you need a faster lens to capture a photo. One of the first lenses many photographers first buy to get the faster glass is the 50mm ƒ/1.4.  This lens is affordable as compared to almost every other ƒ/1.4 lens.  The Nikon 50mm ƒ/1.4 sells for about $289 on the street.

Many of Nikon’s cameras come in a kit with the 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX (VR) Lens. By adding the 50mm ƒ/1.4 the photographer gains 2 ƒ-stops.

If you are shooting architecture getting faster glass isn’t that important for the most part. Most of these photographers are stopping down the glass to get everything in focus. Also, they can put the camera on a tripod and since their subject doesn’t move they can shoot a long exposure time.

If you shoot people, then shooting much slower than 1/30 shutter speed will capture motion blur due to the subject moving.

[Nikon D2X, 30mm ƒ/2.8, 1/60, ISO 400] Clinic attendant Ester Betnam assists George Faile, general practitioner as he sees patients at Baptist Medical Center in Nalerigu, Ghana.  Outside his door are patients waiting to see just him for today. 

Stanley’s Shutter Speed Guidelines

  • 1/30 for people when they are stationary. You could do family portraits with your camera on a tripod (to avoid photographer movement) to get good results.
  • 1/500 for sports. This is for most sports you can get sharp photos of the athletes. Things like football, basketball, and baseball will fall into these sports that will work at 1/500.
  • 1/2000 for high-speed sports. If you want to freeze the hockey puck or the motorcyclist in a race you need to crank up that shutter speed even more.

These are just guidelines. Shooting a photo with a shutter speed of 1/30 maybe too slow if you have an active child in a family photo. Maybe you want to pan with the racecar and shoot a slower shutter speed to blur the photo and therefore you wouldn’t want to shoot at 1/2000 shutter speed.

These are just ways to evaluate your need for faster glass in a situation.

With today’s zoom lenses being incredibly sharp as compared to earlier models they rival the sharpness of some of their prime lenses counterparts. Due to this increased quality I recommend finding a zoom that fits your style of shooting.

[Nikon D3, 16mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 6400, 1/50] Sunrise in North Georgia for a balloon ride over Lake Lanier.

Here are some of my recommendations from Nikon’s lens lineup.

Zooms

Photojournalism/Documentary/Street Shooters

  • Wide Angle Zoom (one of these) 
    • AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED 
    • AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR 
    • AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED 
  • General Zoom (one of these) 
    • AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR 
    • AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR
[Nikon D4, 105mm of 70-200mm ƒ/2.8 1/640 ISO 12,800]

Sports Shooter Zoom (in addition to the above)

  • AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR II

[Nikon D4, 85mm ƒ/1.4, 1/100, ISO 800]

Prime Lens Suggestions

Photojournalism/Documentary/Street Shooters

  •     AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED
  •     AF-S NIKKOR 28mm f/1.8G
  •     AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G
  •     AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G
  •     85mm (either one)
    •     AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G
    •     AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G

Sports Shooter

  • AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8G ED VR
  • AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4G ED VR 

[Nikon D4, 85mm ƒ/1.4, 1/250, ISO 100]

Bokeh

If you desire the silky smooth Bokeh there is another thing that affects the background—sensor size. This is especially true when you go to the smaller chips. The lens gets closer to the sensor and when this happens the depth-of-field increases. This is why your smartphone photos look in focus with a ƒ/2 lens. It is like shooting at ƒ/8 or ƒ/16 with a full-framed DSLR.

Buy a full-framed sensor camera to get the silkiest of all backgrounds.

[Nikon D4, 85mm ƒ/8, 1/6, ISO 100 for light I used Alienbees B1600 at 1/16 power being triggered by Pocketwizard Mini TT1 on the camera and Plus II transciever on the strobe. The strobe is powered by the Vagabond Mini Lithium]

Master’s Thesis on Don Rutledge: Chapter Five – Conclusion

Don Rutledge (photo by Ken Touchton)

CONCLUSION

To a non-Christian, Don would have been considered crazy for taking the positions with Southern Baptist. Going to the Home Mission Board was a step down in pay and prestige for Don Rutledge. Why would someone leave a superposition to drastically cut salary and work with people who generally did not understand photojournalism? Why would Don repeat the cut in pay and prestige and leave the Home Mission Board to go to the Foreign Mission Board? The answers to these questions only come from one source, and that source is God.

Don turned down positions with Life magazine, Associated Press, and many others. The Associated Press job would allow Don to travel the country doing any feature story he wanted. The AP job also would require him to go with the President of the United States on any overseas coverages. Don turned down what most would not have thought twice about taking as jobs.[54] 

These people dressed in white are going to the Eny River to be baptized and become members of the First Baptist Church in Novosibirsk, Siberia; Thirty-five people are in the group. The person who is leading them is a deacon in the church. His name is Vladimir Korniyshin. According to Eduard Genrich of Second Baptist Church in Novosibirsk, working with outsiders means listening and being heard. People here say they are encouraged and helped by outsiders but taken advantage of by some.

Don did not follow the average direction that most Americans seek. He did not climb the ladder as most would. In our culture, we are trained to continue to go up vertically. We move through our school years doing this, and most continue to do the same in the corporate ladder climb. However, Don learned to follow his Lord——Jesus. Whenever Don decided, there was no brass ring to grab. In hindsight, Don’s life is a testimony to how the Lord cares for his children. 

John Howard Griffin was a black man in New Orleans in 1956. (Photo by: Don Rutledge)
John Howard Griffin was getting dressed in a hotel in 1956. (Photo by: Don Rutledge)
John Howard Griffin is looking at movies playing. He would have a separate entrance when going in as a black man. (Photo by: Don Rutledge)
John Howard Griffin as a black man and polishing shoes for a white man. (Photo by: Don Rutledge)

Don’s life has been a testimony to other photographers who are not Christian. He is often asked to speak at conferences for the National Press Photographers, Atlanta Press Photogra­phers, and The Southern Short Course and also speaks for numerous camera clubs around the country.

This writer concludes that Don has exemplified better than most that following your Lord does not mean giving yourself to a lesser life. Those who earlier criticized Don for leaving Black Star to work with Southern Baptist have repeatedly called him asking if there are any openings for them to serve.[55]

New York City, NY 1966:  Lady on the rooftop. (Photo by: Don Rutledge)

Those who want to follow in Don’s footsteps need to be warned that the road that Don has paved still has potholes and other problems that will require one to proceed cautiously. They must realize Don focused on relationships with all those around him. They must build strong relationships. 

While working with Don at the Foreign Mission Board, this writer observed how the administrative assistants and those working in the file area of photography often teased Don. After one trip, Don’s office was wholly rolled with toilet paper. Another time, one of the girls in the office had everyone dress like Don. Don always wore the same style of shirt, making teasing him easy.              Another time, Don came back to discover his desk stacked with mail. Virginia Adams, administrative assistant in the communications department, made labels with Don’s name and address. Virginia asked everyone to bring in all their junk mail. She then put the labels on all that mail.

Boy in the mirror. (Photo by: Don Rutledge)

One does not build this relationship by looking out for themselves alone. Don was not around much at the Foreign Mission Board, but he knew how to put all at ease around him. He was well known for the stories that he told. Don always had a story to tell and keep people laughing. 

Brazil

Don’s ability with people is strongly related to his relationship with Christ. No matter how good one is with the camera or words, one must understand that Don’s success is due to the diligence and patience given to him by Jesus Christ. You will never hear Don preaching or grabbing shirt collars to witness. Due to Don’s life, many have seen Christ’s compassion for the world. Looking at Don’s photographs allows one to see the world from a Christian perspective. One does not have to work with a Christian institution to do what Don does well. One only needs a Lord they call their master to understand how he does it all——his Lord enables him.

China

[54] Interview with Rutledge.

[55] Rutledge.

Master’s Thesis on Don Rutledge: Chapter One

Figure 1 Harley Shields is a Southern Baptist Home Missionary whose workplace is in Selawik, Alaska. Don photographed him in 1978.

This writer has en­joyed seeing the world, approximately 137 coun­tries, and all of the United States without ever leav­ing his own home.

Most of the travel­ing was done with the help of The Commission Magazine and Missions USA. Both maga­zines have won some of the highest awards in the country. The Commission Magazine has placed third in magazines in the “Pic­tures of The Year” contest sponsored by the Na­tional Press Photographers Association in 1989 and 1990. Missions USA has earned similar awards. These Southern Baptist magazines are in league with National Geographic and Life Magazine for their photography and design. The reason for their success can be significantly tied to Don Rutledge. For this reason, this writer is doing his thesis on Don Rutledge for publication.

Don has worked for the Black Star photo agency in New York for over thirty years. He has also worked for the Home Mission and the Foreign Mission Boards of the SBC. He has won more than 400 awards for his work. In addition, he has been published in many magazines and books around the globe. His career has taken him throughout all fifty states, Canada, and 135 countries.

Today, Rutledge is a mentor to many professional photographers and students. All of the photojournalists in the Southern Baptist Convention point to Don as the reason they are where they are today. All of them hope one day to make the impact he has already made for Southern Baptists and the cause of missions.

Having worked with Don Rutledge for many years, this writer has developed an excellent appreciation for him. He has understood that working with people is the common thread that binds all those in minis­try. Don works with people so well that he has made significant changes in magazines with his soft, encouraging voice. Wherev­er Don goes, he makes many friends.

Figure 2 Every year, Carl Holden, a home missionary, takes his young people tubing from his church, Central Baptist.

Don’s ability with people is a gift. Don puts people at ease with or without his camera. This is a talent envied by photo­jour­nalists the world over. Those in the field of Christian photojour­nalism understand where this gift came from. They know how Don’s faith is lived out through his camera.

As one looks at Don’s photographs, one feels he is in the room with the people. Don becomes a part of the woodwork wherever he goes. He blends in so well that people can be themselves. His subjects looked as though Don was not present. They are not reacting to his presence but are free to be themselves. Don has allowed God to be so much a part of his work that when one speaks of how Don is a part of the woodwork, one can picture how the Holy Spirit works through him.

Figure 3 In 1967, Don Rutledge went inside the Artic Circle and captured this Eskimo child playing.

His reputation often precedes Don, now that people know of his integrity without ever meeting him. They can see a man who gives dignity to his sub­jects. Often, many pho­togra­phers today will exploit their sub­jects. They pho­to­graph a handi­capped per­son and exag­gerate his handicap so that one never really sees the per­son. Don’s pho­tos call one to feel a part of the per­son. Don says the eyes are the windows to the soul. He re­veals the inner­most aspect of people in a brief instant that is frozen on film. The more one looks at the photo­graph, the more one sees. He packs so much information into a photo­graph that one can go over and over it and see something new every time—Don in­cludes small details in his photo­graphs like a good writer who pulls his reader into the situation.

Don studied to be a psy­chologist and worked on his doctorate in the field. He also studied for the minis­try and was a pastor for a short period. He still uses his psychology in pho­to­graphing people, and his pictures reach more than 1.5 million weekly.

Don’s work has helped people see the result of mission­aries’ work worldwide. In addition, he has helped the mission board reach the world for Christ.

Growing up as a home missionary kid helped this writer realize the importance of relationships in ministry. This writer felt the call to the church and went a traditional route of majoring in social work and planning to go on to the semi­nary to become a pastor. While in college, this writer discovered photog­raphy and the camera’s power as a communication tool. Knolan Benfield, Jr., was a photogra­pher who worked on Missions USA magazine and introduced this writer to Don Rutledge. This writer was intrigued by the work that Don did on the maga­zine.

After talking with Don, this writer felt redi­rect­ed in his call to be a minister who used the camera as a central part of his ministry. Many who are Christian photojour­nalists have struggled with the call. In many ways, the Chris­tian photojour­nalist is a preacher. The photo­journalist’s illus­trations are not done with words in the pulpit but with photo­graphs on the printed page.

As one will see, Don’s work is powerful, and his style can be seen in most photojournalists who work for the Southern Baptists. They will tell you they hope someday to be like Don.

Don dreams of publications combining words and pictures effectively to communicate God’s concerns in his heart. This driving force in Don is the Holy Spirit convicting him of the message of missions. His photographs have one common theme: Love. They have moved people to become in­volved in tasks. God has called them into missionary service after they looked at the mission field through the “eyes of Don.” Don’s work has helped meet the needs of people worldwide.

When considering the skills of Don Rutledge, one can see that he could have become very wealthy from his photography if he had not worked with Southern Baptists. In the three months before coming to work with Southern Baptists, he made more than he would make in the next two years working with Southern Baptists. His decision to be a minister with a camera meant choosing the narrow road. Don decided to follow Jesus Christ. Due to his follow­ing Christ, his work as a Christian photojour­nalist has helped spread the gospel worldwide.


[1]Howard I. Feinberg, The Best of Photojournalism 16: The Year in Pictures, (Philadelphia: Running Press Book Publishers, 1991), 232.

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Christmas Holiday Moments

Fly On The Wall

Ever heard someone say that they would like to be a fly on the wall during that conversation? This means you would like to overhear the conversation as if you were not there. You want the situation to be accurate and not know you are there.

Being the Fly-on-the-wall also refers to the documentary style of photography where you work as unobtrusively as possible to capture those candid moments.

In the first photo, I captured the newest addition to our family. His older cousin and great-aunt are entertaining him and loving his reactions.

Body Language

I love this photo of the nieces and nephews getting measured to see who is taller while their aunt looks on. What makes this photo fun is that this isn’t all that is happening; you have the youngest boy being held by his mother and looking at me.

The body language tells the story that most likely happens during the holidays at many homes where the children are measured to see how much they have grown since last year.

Leaving some things out

You don’t need to see everything in a photo to work. Here the proud mother holding her child comes through clearly. Do you need to see all of the kids for it to work? I don’t think so. You may want more in the photo, and if you took it, you would include more. The strength of sometimes leaving something out makes you want to know what is going on. By leaving something out, you help pique the curiosity of the audience. Keep everything in, and often you lose that curiosity.

Details

So often, the small things around the holidays help tell our family story. For example, how often does your family talk about something grandmother cooks during the holidays? Do you have photos of this to pass along to your family?

My sister makes these rainbow cookies every year, so I thought I would document this for our family history. I keep talking about gathering our family recipes and creating a book. Now imagine this photo with a photo of the recipe card in the original family member’s handwriting that started the tradition. Maybe you have a picture of them as well on the page of the family book.

The Patriarch Speaks

Every year my dad likes to remind us how important family is to us. This year he read The Dash Poem by Linda Ellis. Here is a link to that poem if you want to make it part of your family tradition.

Crawling on the floor

Please don’t walk around the room and take all your photos from the standing position. Instead, get down to the little ones’ level as I did here. What happens when you are at eye level with the family’s baby? Well, the last time most of us saw things from this perspective was when we were just children.

When you get down on the ground, you help the audience feel like they did when they were children.

Have some fun

Here my daughter on the right with her friend is making music with Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A. He had these shakers with egg-shaped cow spots. During my daughter’s Christmas break, she had fun with her friends and Dan Cathy.

Where did you go?

We drove just a few miles from the grandparent’s house to where they filmed some of the Hunger Games.

You may recognize this photo as the baker’s shop.

Maybe you remember Katniss running here in this scene.

Holidays are about memories; here, my daughter is excited to be in front of the waterfalls where Katniss ran across.

How did you do with capturing your family this Christmas?