Category: photojournalism

Little Details Make a Big Difference

by Stanley Learyphotojournalism

“God is in the details” — Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) … or “the Devil is in the details” (a variant of the proverb). However you choose to look at it, there’s no question that little details make a big difference in your work.

The ancient Greek artisans took this so seriously that the statues they carved were complete all the way around, even though they knew their carvings would be in places where no one would ever see those details. This attention to detail is perhaps one of the reasons we marvel at their art thousands of years later.

A Photojournalistic Approach to Corporate Training Materials

I recently worked on a crew, creating training materials for a restaurant chain. We decided to approach the assignment photo journalistically rather than stage the photos. This approach showed the employees doing their jobs properly, making the images more believable than set-up shots. In addition, these pictures will train other employees and show how doing things in detail is best.

Even though we didn’t stage the shots, we still had to set the stage by cleaning up the place. We had to make sure everything looked as the company said it should look and everything was in its place.

In past training programs, the photos occasionally showed that a store didn’t always follow the company line in every detail. It may be as small as some item not being in its usual place or something not present in every location.

Insignificant but incorrect details are not little to those responsible for training employees. In the Nixon/Kennedy debate of 1960, Nixon’s sweating was the deciding factor.

In most high-investment photo shoots, stylists are to catch the small details that can distract from the message. Attention to detail is the fine distinction that separates the professional from the amateur.

Communicating Clearly, Without Distractions

I’ve told you this story before, the one about sitting by a grandmother on a flight from Dallas. She showed me a snapshot of her grandchild standing in front of a house. The child was a mere speck in the picture, but the grandmother, so intent on the child’s memory, was unaware of all the photos’ distractions. She remembers what the child looked like and saw her clearly, but only in her mind’s eye.

Musicians, poets, writers, and photographers know how important detail can be. Musicians listen as they play to keep themselves in tune. Poets search for one precise word. Writers look for the verb to carry the action. Photographers look at the subject plus scan the complete frame to eliminate details that distract or add ones that complement.

As professional communicators, we must show what we want people to see and show it clearly and without distraction.

The goal is to remove distractions that can sidetrack a trainee, or they may miss the teaching point. On the other hand, if there are too many distractions, the trainees may not be trained as they should be.

It is our job to ensure the message does not fail due to overlooked things. That’s why details make the difference.

No Setup Photos

by Stanley LearyEducation / photojournalism

The cry of all the focus groups when they review most educational recruiting pieces seems always to say they want natural-looking photos and not set up.

After spending the last forty-plus years as a photographer shooting pure photojournalism, where you capture what happens in front of the camera, to shooting for advertising pieces, where there are stylists arranging everything in a photo, my experience says most focus groups are asking the wrong questions.

Anderson University Campus Scenics

“Do you like the photo?” is not as good of a question to see if the photo was successful as a question like “What did you learn from the photo?” You can even have a picture again on a questionnaire from your recruiting materials and ask, “Does the photo help you see what a typical dorm room looks like?” You could ask, “What could improve the photo to show you a dorm room?”

I have come to this place of evaluating photos because of my experience with indeed “real” photographs. I have spent many years shooting “photojournalism” for magazines, newspapers, and wire services. You do not change a thing in these photos and do everything you can to use composition, lens choices, lighting, and timing to communicate the mood and reality of a situation.

Often a photojournalist’s photos are not “pretty” pictures. Photographers will use their composition to create more conflict to add to the photo’s mood. Having a focus group evaluate war photos with the typical questions we ask, “Did you like the photos?” will give results that say the photographers were unsuccessful.

Anderson University Campus Scenics [NIKON D3, AF Zoom-Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6D IF, Mode = Manual, ISO 200, 1/40, ƒ/22, (35mm = 90)]

How can you know the right moment to take a picture unless you have a relatively clear idea of what the subject means and what you are trying to accomplish? When you are interested in a topic, you want to learn more about it. So you dig below the surface values to the truth beneath. That way, you get to know it intimately and can photograph it understandingly.

Understanding does not necessarily mean a technical knowledge of the subject. Instead, understanding is interest, sympathy, curiosity, and the human element of the equation.

While photojournalism will give you “real” photos, sometimes reality for recruiting will keep your institution on the same path rather than where you would like to be.

Central Perk, set, from the tv show Friends

Getting the photos you need is where what I call “sitcom” photography works best. Of course, we all know the sitcom isn’t real, but it can create such a reality we are all tuning in to see “Who shot JR?”

Staging is the type of photography where the school has determined where they want to go and created communications pieces to help them attain the goal. For example, if you want to be more diverse in the future, you will need to show diversity. If you keep it real, you will research to find those situations where diversity exists. Then you would photograph those situations and play them prominently in your piece.

As one person said, “You don’t want to be the lone raisin in a bowl of milk.” If everyone works to help, the school will become more diverse.

Campus Scenic photos

As you can see, there are a few ways to communicate your message using photographs. Of course, the ideal scenario is to have “real” photos. If you had a photographer go to everything you did this year, you might get the reality you need.

Campus Scenic photos

Sometimes “reality” isn’t what you want to show—the student wearing another competing school’s T-Shirt. In addition, a student with significant overweight or skin problems can detract from the message. Avoiding these distractions is why so often we re-create reality like the sitcom. If properly planned, you will tune in and want to know more about your school.

Photographs are about light, mood, texture, form, and line. Methods by themselves are barren. To come alive with meaning, they must be employed interpretively. Getting a trained professional photographer with educational recruiting experience is where I come in. Give me a call, and let’s make your recruiting photos—REAL.

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Photojournalism Is a Life of Research Papers

by Stanley LearyPhotography / photojournalism

My favorite thing to do when I was in school was the field trip. I remember going to the fire station when I was in kindergarten, sitting on the fire truck, and seeing the firefighters go down the sliding pole.

I remember so much from these trips because I could see what I was learning. Sometimes I even got to sample things — like a hot dog in a meat-packing plant.

Photojournalist

As a photographer/photojournalist, I get up each day and go on a new field trip. Each time I learn something new. The excitement I feel while on these adventures is what I hope to capture with the camera. I need to take the readers of publications to places they may never go in their lifetimes but can experience through photographs to expand their world.

As a photographer, you must tune in with your ears and eyes. You must try to understand as much as possible and then capture those things that help not just document what you saw but also grab the excitement you felt when learning about the place.

Assignments also can be a little overwhelming — like trying to write a term paper the day before it is due. In these cases, it helps to know the subject before you arrive. If you have done research in advance, you can use the experience as icing on the cake, not the cake itself.

Researching before every assignment is not always possible, which is why it helps to find your niche or expertise. Formal education in a subject can be one of the ways to become an expert.

Social Work

I studied social work to understand people better. I later did my master’s in communication at a seminary, which helped me work with people of faith. Another subject I have devoted a lot of time to is sports and, specifically, basketball. I enjoy playing basketball, which gives me insights into the game that I would probably not appreciate as much as a spectator alone.

In school, we all did research papers. We were learning to do reports on my hobbies or interests made it enjoyable and a better message.

Mastering a subject is true for photographers, too. After you have learned an issue, transfer your skills to a new topic, and in time you will have diversified your clientele and turned your passion into a career.

The Secret To Good Communications–A Well Told Story!

by Stanley Learyphotojournalism

We sit on the edge of our chairs, laugh until we cry, and forget the time of day when someone tells us a good story.

There are many ways to tell a good story–my favorite is the cinema and running a close second is the theater. Both of these use more of the senses than the printed page.

Don’t get me wrong; I still love a vital “decisive moment” with a still image. I even love a good story around the campfire or bedtime story, but when all the elements are there, I am transported out of my world into another realm.

Some of my favorite movies have been the ones dealing with a cross-cultural experience. I love the movie “Finding Forester.” I love how the classic story where two people from different cultures find common ground and, through this interaction, become better people for the experience.

“Remember the Titans” is another movie that compels me to re-examine my life.

Great stories don’t just entertain–they change us. They help us to be more human by making us see our faults and frailties. It is through the storyteller that by being transported for a while into another world, as I return to the reality of the present, I am different and look at my culture in a new way.

Sometimes I appreciate my life more, and other times I am reminded of my pride and lack of compassion for my fellow man.

What is exciting for everyone is hearing another person’s journey. We can listen to the passion in the voice, which awakens our souls to respond. Our response is what can move the relationship to the intimate. A dialogue is started where our story is requested.

As we get older, we can polish our story because the spectacles we use to look back over our lives have had time to examine and focus on the details to see the colorful thread in the fabric of all our lives.

We can see how our gifts have been used to bless others. At first, we didn’t know we could do anything well, and now we see we are not better than those around us but unique. The combinations of those things we do well and don’t do as well make us different from those around us who may even have a similar profession.

The cool thing for me is seeing how my story is more of a development of a character in the bigger story of community. When we come together in a community to share our journeys, we can see how we are part of everyone’s story.