The Missions Storytelling Workshop is an excellent opportunity for you, but you need to move quickly. They will accept up to only 11 people. Deadline is 3/18/2014
Host: ABWE is an unaffiliated, independent Baptist missions agency providing like-minded churches with vital services to expedite their Great Commission ministry. Where: Lisbon, Portugal Dates Needed: 5/14/14–5/28/14 Cost: $2,800 Duration: 15 Days
Requirements are that you know your way around your camera. We will consider you if you have been a freelancer or shooting on staff and have no college background. So this experience will count for your college requirement.
While we would prefer that you know your software, this will not keep you out of our selection. We expect you to understand how to get the pictures off your camera and your computer. We recommend that you have photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. Also, you will need some software to put together a complete package. Most PCs and Macs come with a basic editing video package. For the Mac, it is iMovie.
You can also use the more advanced Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere if you like.
Bring your laptop computer with the photo editing software and some video/slide show software.
I recommend the camera gear for moderate wide-angle to moderate telephoto lens coverage. This would be like 28mm to 200mm on a full-frame camera. Also, a flash that you can bounce or take off the camera will sometimes be necessary for your coverage.
Who are the subjects?
You will be working with ABWE missionaries. Some might be doctors, evangelists, teachers, and many other roles. We will assign you a person for your story. You will be working alone on a story, with our coaching you all the way.
You will meet the people you will be covering and then spend some days capturing their lives and the people they come into contact with.
The Audience for the story
These missionaries will use your stories to help them communicate with their supporters. The Audience may also include the larger ABWE Audience of churches and supporters.
Stanley’s Thoughts on this opportunity
I have gone on many mission trips and grew up on the field. When people go on a mission trip, they go with a group. This makes for terrible photos, in my opinion. You are tagging along with the group and often do not have time to capture the everyday life of people.
This is one of the best opportunities I know of where you can get in-depth coverage without your group rushing you to the next timed event.
If you feel called to do mission photography and are unsure how to do it, this is a perfect opportunity.
If you already enjoy shooting and want the opportunity to shoot missions and don’t know how to hook up with missionaries, then this is also perfect for you. This way, ABWE people can get to know you, and then you can understand their requirements. The workshop can lead to more opportunities for you.
Why should someone trust you with their story if you cannot tell your own story? You must be able to tell your own story before telling another person’s story.
Acts 1:8 New International Reader’s Version (NIRV) 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. Then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. You will be my witnesses in all Judea and Samaria. And you will be my witnesses from one end of the earth to the other.”
Since the church has been telling stories for centuries and doing so very well, I am using its storytelling to teach the principles of good storytelling.
In the Christian church, when one decides to follow Christ, it is done by a statement of faith. Many of the denominations do this during a confirmation class. Often, we use questions to help people formulate their ideas and develop their thoughts. Here is one example:
Some questions to think about: 1. In What ways have you seen God work in your life? 2. Were there events that tested your faith? 3. How did an event draw you closer to God or keep you further away? 4. How was your spiritual life strengthened (weakened) then? 5. What is important to you about being a Christian? 6. What is important to you about being Presbyterian? 7. What are your hopes for being a member, how you would like to serve, what gifts you bring, and how do you want to grow?
Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 4500, ƒ/5.6, 1/100
The power of a first-hand witness is their authority. Their testimony has absolute power if they speak on what they know rather than speculation.
One of the best examples in the Bible is this one.
John 9:25 New International Version (NIV) 25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind, but now I see!”
While the lawyers questioned this formerly blind man, he stayed with what he knew. The power of the testimony was irrefutable. The power of the story is the before and after. The man was blind before he met Jesus; after Jesus healed him, he could see. One sentence is the testimony. What’s your story? Only expect others to share their stories with you if you are willing to share your own. We do this every day. You meet someone for the first time, and through the introduction process, you either do a great job telling your story or a poor one.
Nikon D4, 85mm, ISO 8000, ƒ/2.8, 1/100
One of the best ways to learn how to tell your story is to read to others. In the church, we even sing songs that help us practice storytelling. Here is one that is an excellent example of storytelling. It is called Jesus, and it is all the world to me. Here are the words:
Jesus is all the world to me, My life, my joy, my all; He is my strength from day to day, Without Him, I would fall. When I am sad, to Him, I go, No other one can cheer me so; When I am sad, He makes me glad, He’s my Friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, My Friend in trials sore; I go to Him for blessings, and He gives them o’er and o’er. He sends the sunshine and the rain, He sends the harvest’s golden grain; Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain, He’s my Friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, And faithful to Him I’ll be; Oh, how could I, this Friend, deny, When He’s so true to me? Following Him, I know I’m right, He watches o’er me day and night; Following Him by day and night, He’s my Friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, I want no better Friend; I trust Him now; I’ll trust Him when Life’s fleeting days shall end. Beautiful life with such a Friend, A beautiful life that has no end; Eternal life, eternal joy, He’s my Friend.
Here is my challenge: create a 2-—to 3-minute elevator speech that is your story, not an elevator pitch to land work.
Here is my story: I was born with Autism. I did not speak until I was three years old. It would be well into my adult years that I would finally learn that I had Asperger Syndrome. People with Asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted. Those with Aspergers find it more challenging to communicate and interact with others, leading to high levels of anxiety and confusion. I have felt a fundamental disconnect with people for most of my life. While there are similarities with Autism, people with Asperger syndrome have fewer problems with speaking and are often of average, or above average, intelligence.
My difficulties early on were with speech. I had to have tutoring to improve my pronunciation, and reading was extremely difficult for me before my school years. While in high school, I felt this call to go into the ministry. In hindsight, this could not have been the poorest choice I could have made based on my Aspergers.
My father, a minister, recommended I get an undergraduate degree in business or social work. He said churches would want you to have a master of divinity degree, and majoring in religion for an undergraduate would be repetitive. I chose social work, and I am so grateful I did. Social work helped to train me in how relationships work and what is essential in healthy relationships.
While in college, I was taking photos for the school and had an uncle who was a former photojournalist and had a portrait studio. I would take my work to him for review to improve my hobby. Studying body language and interpersonal communication skills in social work, combined with my uncle teaching me how to capture these moments with the camera, was instrumental in my being a photojournalist today. I believe that it was due to God calling me into this profession to use my most significant weakness of communicating and interacting with others as a strength. You see, for me to share, I must work at it. It doesn’t happen; I approach communication from my head, not my heart. I must work at thinking through a process and why it should work.
Due to my wiring from Autism, I cannot take it for granted; I will likely screw it up. Asperger’s people learn best by seeing relationships and using the camera; I could break this down into decisive moments and even micro-expressions.
Because I had to break down each element and then learn to recognize it later to capture it with the camera, I can now teach this skill to others. In addition, because I am susceptible to people’s attitudes, I have learned to pick up on this when teaching and ask questions to be sure the students and I are together.
One of the traits of Aspergers is the ability to learn complex concepts quickly yet struggle with easy skills. Over time, I knew I had to work on the details because they were essential. I managed my lifelong struggle with Aspergers through years of learning and people with compassion who mentored me.
However, today, my most vital gift for teaching visual storytelling came from my weakness due to Aspergers. It is because of my brokenness of Aspergers that I must get up each day and work hard. It is not curable. Aspergers has helped me to be more patient with others who struggle to learn these concepts. My weakness is now my strength.
So, What’s your story? If you tell your story as well as you can, it will invite people to want to know more. Isn’t this what we want to do with our photos? My mentors taught me that the audience will want to read the caption if I make a compelling photo.
Writing an effective caption will encourage the reader to continue the story. WARNING! When you tell your story effectively, you will become transparent. Transparency engages the audience more than the story’s topic.
Pastor Emanuel Yameogo is in front of the church he pastors in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, Africa.
Many photographers enjoy traveling the world for an NGO in exchange for access to subjects. But, unfortunately, you can get hooked on doing this for the wrong reasons. Getting one more country stamped on your passport can feel good to even those doing it for all the right reasons, but be sure this is not the motivation to see the world.
I just had someone post this on a social media forum I contribute to and enjoy. I posted this as a response and believed too many photographers with big hearts and giving to organizations often do more harm than good in the big picture for those organizations.
San Antonio Catholic Church in Tikul, Yucatan, Mexico
“NGOs/NPOs have a budget for marketing. Do not let them tell you they have no budget.”
Sadly this is not true in all cases. While there are many reasons they have no or inadequate budget for marketing, there is one that many of us contribute.
Altruism is one of the biggest problems with these organizations. Many media professionals, out of wanting to help, have hurt many of these organizations over time.
A giving photographer isn’t able to give to their charity $20,000 but chooses to give of their time for what would amount to a $20,000 gift. So Volunteers are how many organizations can do more with less.
Let’s say that for the next 20 years, this photographer gives a week of their time doing projects from multimedia, still, photography, and maybe some writing to help with marketing materials for this organization.
Jacob Tarnagda [left] and Jay Shafto walk through Jacob’s courtyard. Jacob is a leader in the church in Soumagou, Burkina Faso, West Africa.
Sadly the photographer died one year for whatever reason. Slowly this organization is losing traction. Their marketing is not as good as it was. They cannot find a veteran photographer like the one they had before. So now they rely on college students and amateurs who give up their time.
Sometimes they stop doing any photography. That was something someone gave to the NGO but not something they needed in the minds of the NGO.
While the photographer was alive and giving, the organization flourished, but once they were gone, they started to wither.
Street scene in Tikul, Yucatan, Mexico.
Please don’t be that photographer.
Be altruistic and give up your time just like the photographer did all those years. However, this is how you can be different and help the organization.
Take the time to have conversations with the leadership. Then, sit them down and get them to understand the actual costs, and encourage them to start creating a marketing budget. Then, get them to put it into the budget they vote on each year.
Your gifting of time can cover the costs while you are able, but by this being on the visible budget, you will be helping the organization slowly create a budget.
I would help them, over time, realistically put together a budget just like each of us who are independent have to do for our budgets. Then, maybe get them to slowly hire a few independent media specialists to help your projects be better.
Night street scene in Tikal, Yucatan, Mexico.
Besides creating a physical budget for the organization, help them know how to use entry-level communications people. Help them to understand the importance of strategic creatives and how they can mentor the newbies.
Maybe you help them by training students and having them work with you on these projects for internship credit. Be sure, if you do this, that you are communicating the importance of the seasoned pro. Let them know how this is saving them money in the long run. Show how new fresh perspectives of the students can also help them grow. Just be sure they understand the importance of strategic communications rather than just photos and videos being created to have something “visual.”
Here is the hanger used for the ministry story point in the bush village of Sabtenga, Burkina Faso, West Africa.
You need to help the organizations understand the difference between filling holes and using holes to serve the organization.
Girl worker in Carolina Cotton Mill, 1908 photo by Lewis Hine
Lewis Hine’s photographs of children working as slave laborers in plants were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States.
Spinner in Vivian Cotton Mills, Cherryville, N.C. photo by Lewis Hine
The subject is paramount for Hine. At the time of the publication, the standards just were not good. So you don’t read about Lewis Hine complaining about the work’s reproduction. The reason is simple; he was more concerned about the subject matter getting seen and letting it impact the audience.
Hine understood that photography was a tool that helped him convey a passion for a subject. However, photography was not to be the result for Hine. Instead, he wanted the country to see the conditions children were being asked to work in for a slave labor role.
The photo I took while working at The Hickory Daily Record.
My first full-time job as a photographer was working for the Hickory Daily Record. One of my daily ongoing assignments was the featured photograph. I was to make a photograph of the community that would engage the audience.
It didn’t take long before I realized I had very few ideas. I then took a picture of my family of ministers. They often preached on themes.
I started thinking of what city workers did each day for us. I then thought about some of the most challenging jobs on a hot day.
What I was doing was searching for a subject. Over time I learned how to do a better job of finding issues.
Get a notebook and carry it with you. Make a list of things that interest you. Start with something that you know a lot about. The best place is to start with your hobbies and interests.
Find three or four topics that interest you. The first mistake many of us make is picking just one subject to start with. However, selecting more than one subject from the start is essential. Go to the library or an Internet-connected computer at home and conduct a preliminary search of each topic.
Determine which project idea can work with plenty of published material. This way, you can select an exciting and feasible final topic.
It must be visual. When you first do this, you will most likely scratch off things that you would put back later in your career. For example, at first, figuring out how to photograph abstract thoughts like philosophy will not make the cut, but later as you get better, you will discover a new way to capture those thoughts.
It must be ongoing. It would help if you had a subject that you could revisit over and over to explore all the possibilities thoroughly. A good topic will be thought-provoking. As you edit your photos and think about what you are trying to say about the subject, you find better ways to communicate.
Of interest to an audience. You cannot be self-centered, or your audience is one. You become like the paparazzi who track celebrities due to the audience being willing to pay a lot for access to the subject. In the book On Being a Photographer, David Hurn says, “So there is an excellent line between pandering to popular appeal and a respectful consideration of viewers’/listeners’ attention-span or interest in the content.”
This photo is of a group of illegal immigrants across the border from New Mexico in Mexico as they prepare to cross with the help of a coyote.
One of my subjects is missions. One of the subjects within missions is helping people. Lately, I have become more aware of the problems with illegal immigration. What are the causes for this to be happening to people?
While I know the problem is super complex, one of the root causes is the lack of opportunity where someone lives, and they look for a place to sustain them.
A few years ago, I covered one part of this by digging deep into the coffee growers in Mexico that were crossing the border illegally. Hard to understand when global coffee consumption is second to crude oil. The number 2 commodity in the world, yet as I drink my $5 cup of coffee, we had illegal coffee farmers here because they could not support themselves or their families.
I am returning to do a follow-up story this fall. Here is the first package I produced to help this cooperative spread its message. It has helped all the communal farmers to remain in Mexico and not just get by but thrive.
In Mexico, the peak time to pick coffee is November through March.
Like Lewis Hine, who had to plan his coverages, I, too, have made plans to cover the coffee. , However, first, I needed to pick the best time of year to see the operation. By planning my trip between November and March in Mexico, I will have the best opportunity to see the coffee on the plant and capture the entire process.
I am going in early November because the weather is the best travel time.
Access to the process requires me to work with the coffee growers and work with a translator since I do not speak Spanish.
There are two main stories I want to capture on this trip in various ways. First, I want to show how this is high-end coffee and tell the story of the coffee itself. Also, I think the story of how coffee impacts the coffee growers’ families.
Why these two threads? I have discovered this from reading books by Seth Godin and others.
Seth Godin says to create a story that shows how you’re different, which helps to earn you the right to sell to people. Then the second thing he stresses is to sell the story rather than the product. Too many make the mistake of thinking buyers base their decisions on logic. For example, people pay up to $5 a quart for bottled water because (so the story goes) it’s “healthier” than tap water.
If you are engaging your audience online then one of the coolest ways to show a space is with the 360º Panoramic. Put your mouse in the photo, click on it, and drag it around, and you can feel standing in the room and turning around to see the space as if you are there.
That same interactive 360º panoramic can also be output as a still image. Still, I think most people are not quite grasping into comparison to the interactive version, but it gives you the space’s documentation space.
The traditional still photograph
This single wide-angle image of the classroom gives the viewer the feel of the room.
It gives you a slice of the room in a moment in time. In addition, however, you can use a series of photos from the classroom to help provide a complete story of the usage.
Small groups in the classroom use technology at the desk with also larger monitors to share what one person has on their device with the group.
Here you can see the groups in discussions with the instructor moving through the space to check in on each group. The area is large enough that group discussions are possible without interfering with each other.
You can see here that the student is sharing with the classroom and using a microphone to ensure everyone can hear what is going on. They also can use video in the school to create live classrooms online for those around the world to participate.
Video
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdB2E1mz-mo]
Just a quick clip can help communicate the space to your audience.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgTKczVc0as]
Video is at its best when you want to lead your audience through the message. Here in this clip, I can tell a complete story about the expansion of the IMPACT 360 gap year program in Pine Mountain, GA.
Which one is best?
Too often, people think more about “either/or” rather than “and.” The answer to this question lies within the strategy of your plan. If you do not have a design, you are more prone to make a significant mistake.
For example, had I only done a video, the organization would have nothing to use in the printed newsletter they send to all their supporters.
Had I just done the panoramic interactive, I would have something online and, as you can see, the stretched still image for a printed piece.
What about doing it all every once in a while for those big projects where you will use the stills, the interactive panoramic, and the video to help engage your audiences in many different spaces?
I contend that today, the still image is often overlooked for video. The video appears to be more sexy and cool. However, I believe that the base from which all visual communications of a project similar to this must contain the still image. Even NPR realizes the power of the still image and its importance in their online packages.
They took away the video cameras to train their people to make strong still images. Why do this? Just go to their website at http://www.npr.org/ and notice how they use the still image as the place to start. Before you click on any video online, it usually has a placeholder of a still image. If that still image isn’t engaging, then you have most likely wasted all that money on a video that few will see except those who already would watch it regardless.
Remind yourself not to be trapped into thinking “either/or,” but instead think “and” when choosing a medium for your audience.
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.
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.
Two of my close photographer friends have been going through growing pains after more than 30 years in the industry. Gary S. Chapman and Robin Nelson started in Newspapers as photojournalists and both of them have been freelancing for most of their careers.
I have watched both of them continue to find clients and continue their passions of storytelling. Each of them have explored using video to tell stories and both have done some work with video.
While many in our industry have been preaching that to get jobs you must embrace video the two of these photographers still believe in the power of the still image.
Today both of them would most likely describe themselves as visual storytellers more than they might have when they were working on newspapers.
Writing
Gary S. Chapman is a humanitarian photographer who travels the globe doing coverage for his clients. Often his wife Vivian, who is a writer and producer has collaborated with him on many projects.
Gary has made just about every change possible to stay current with the technology to provide the very best product for his clients.
Storytelling is core to his work. He has captured real moments as opposed to setup situations in order to respect the dignity of the subject and remain true to representation of the story.
Gary started blogging early to share these stories of the people he was meeting around the world. He was being sent to places where people needed help. For example Gary was meeting people whose entire families were killed in front of them by another group. While the organizations were getting the photos they did not always use them to their full potential.
Due to budgets being cut everywhere Gary was traveling alone more often and didn’t have Vivian to write the story for him. Out of necessity Gary began to write short stories for his blog about the people he was meeting.
In the past year Gary started to ask the NGOs if they would like him to write short stories and help them blog about the stories they were sending Gary to cover. The only additional costs to the NGO was a little more to cover Gary’s time for writing.
It won’t be long before Gary is going to need to change his title from “Humanitarian Photographer” to “Humanitarian Photographer/Writer.”
Video and Stills
Robin Nelson is as passionate about telling his subjects stories as Gary.
Whenever I call Robin and we get together for some coffee I am always asking what he is working on. The overwhelming time is spent on telling me the struggles these subjects are going through and how wonderful these people are as human beings.
A little over a year ago Robin took the plunge into video and went to the Immersion Conference. While the teachers were trying to keep the students from using stills in their projects and only video, Robin resisted. He wanted to incorporate what he was already doing with the stills and not abandon them as many others had done.
While many photographers talk about their work as being the voice for the voiceless, this could not be more true than with Robin’s passion for the developmentally disabled. The difference with Robin is he is involved helping this community even when he is not photographing them. His own son has some challenges and Robin has seen first hand how society expects everyone to pull themselves up by their own boot straps even if they don’t have boots.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5iHiYB4H7U]
This is one of the video/still packages Robin has done for the Georgia Council on Developmental Disability’s ‘Real Communities’ initiative.
How Robin was able to get this project is he was already known by the advocates in this community. They saw him at their meetings and saw the stories he was publishing through traditional media for years. It was because of this ongoing relationship he was able to have them approach him about the stories they wanted told.
Now Robin occasionally writes stories, but this new way of combining his photos with the actual voices of the subjects has him excited.
Robin and Gary might not see themselves as executive producers, but they are living the role. They are no longer taking photos and handing them to organizations expecting the organization to know how to use them to tell the story.
Both Gary and Robin are producing packages that are being used more today by their clients than the photos alone were being used in the past. They have solved problems for their clients.
In the past the clients had to take the photos of these photographers and then create a package for their audience. With budget cut backs and frankly a lack of knowledge of how to do what Robin and Gary offer, clients are eager to work with someone who gives them a product ready to go.
Both Gary and Robin were noticing for years that their photos were not getting used enough by their clients. Both of them ended up putting together their own packages for their blogs. Their passion helped them to pursue new skills that their clients now embrace.
Are you passionate enough about your subjects to tell their stories even if your clients fail to tell the story? You need fire in your belly to work as hard as Robin and Gary to take on more work like they are doing. I am sure that the subjects of their stories today are glad they did.
Turn your photos upside down; this will help you see where your eye goes first. After seeing where your eye goes first, is this where your audience wants to look? Nikon D2Xs, ISO 400, f/7.1, Nikkor 24-120mm
Fair values are one of the most significant factors influencing where someone looks. Nikon D2Xs, ISO 400, f/7.1, Nikkor 24-120mm
Start upside down One of the ways I was first taught to look at a photo is to turn it upside down. This way, you see how the photo’s composition and light values will direct someone to what is essential or away.
The light values alone have a tremendous effect on the viewer. If you put a black dot on a white paper with nothing else or a white dot on a black piece of paper, your eye is drawn to the dot.
With more stuff on the paper, the principle is still the same. The contrast of the light value to the rest of the scene will draw you to a spot.
Now that you know this, you should be able to help create a photo that directs the viewer based on fair values to the subject.
The ceiling helps to add some graphic qualities to the photo. Nikon D3, ISO 400, f/7.1, Nikkor 24-120mm
Graphics
Sign manufacturers have used big arrows to direct you to a store location. You could use a large hand to show people where to look, or you can use this same principle more subtly to direct the viewer.
Leading lines and perspective can help pull you into a photo and give the image some depth.
While straight lines hit you over the head, directing your eye, the S-curve is a classic way to draw a viewer’s eye. One of the most common uses in the scenic photo is the river winding through a scene.
Framing
Here I am using the tree and the people in the shadows as framing at The Citadel. Nikon D3S, ISO 200, 1/1250, Nikkor 24-120mm
While a photo might look good in different frames, you can buy it at a frame shop. You can also use elements in an image to help frame the shot. This framing often helps create a sense of depth to a photo and not just a border like a physical frame. Looking through a doorway to the subject in a room helps create some context.
Using the flowers to fill in what could be an empty space. Nikon D3, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/5000 Nikkor 14-24mm
Flowers in the foreground and the subject like a house in the background help fill what would often be dead space in the photo.
Hey there’s more
While your eye may go to the young man setting the table and it is telling a story, your look will likely drift to the woman at the stove cooking and then to the people in the back room. If I did it right, your eye would drift around looking at the more minor details because I got your eye moving, and once it is, it will explore. Nikon D3S ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/40, Nikkor 14-24mm
You can make a nice composed photo of a subject and do a great job creating a good image of the issue. You can also make a more storytelling photo and not just a pretty picture. These are photos that you may be drawn immediately to the main subject, but your eye continues to be moved around the scene, and you are learning more about the story.
Some photographers have you looking only at the subject and not much more. The seasoned storyteller will have you looking all around and absorbed into the content.
Multi-layered compositions take time and help tell the story in its context more. It also is more entertaining but requires time for the audience to absorb. Photos like this need a longer pause in the slide show or video. Sometimes in magazine story spread, you let them run over two pages to let the audience see all the action. Nikon D3S ISO 5600, f/5.6, 1/250 Nikkor 14-24mm
This is our family at Nelson’s graduation from the US Army Armor School at Fort Benning, GA.
The event: Our Son Graduation from The US Army Armor School at Fort Benning
I wanted to lead with the most common photo many of us take at a graduation. The family has a group photo with the graduate. I setup the photo before I got into it, so there are some things I did for this first photo that I recommend.
Turn the flash on. In this photo you will quickly notice that had we not had the flash on you would have not seen our graduate’s face due to the shadow of the hat covering his face. If you look closely you will also see how on my daughter the shadows would have been worse around her eyes without the flash.
I used the background to help our family remember a little about the event. Nelson is part of the Cavalry and the statue behind him helps capture that as well as his hat. In addition the building is the main building for the Armor Division and is called Maneuver Center for Excellence.
Spacing of the group is done so you can see everyone’s face but we are not too far apart so that when you take the photo the faces are too small.
The front to back is well used. We have the family closest to the camera and not right next to the statue or the building. This is a common mistake many make, because to then show the statue for example and the family you would back up and everone’s face would be like the size of a dot in the photo.
Some angling to not be perfectly parallel to the building. This helps create depth to the photo.
Statue to help communicate this building is the home of the Cavalry.
Detail shots help round out the coverage for the day. I took a moment and walked around the statue until I found an angle that helped to communicate the power of the statue. Shooting up really close made it where I was shooting almost straight up. This helped make the statue look powerful. Further away would have taken away the emotion of the power.
Look for details and then notice I had a purpose for the photo. I wanted communicate something. If you don’t know neither will your audience. Take a moment and think why you want the photo.
Capturing emotions helps to communicate
I know that if you go through some of the intense training the military, then you most likely have developed some emotional connections to others on the team. This was not an event for me, this was our son’s graduation. I needed to show what this school meant to him. One of the ways to do this is to show people reacting to their friends.
While this was not my son, capturing others enjoying each other help to communicate the bonds formed in the school.
When a subject looks into the camera they are looking at the audience. While I prefer unposed photos of subjects reacting to people and not the camera, sometimes their a moments where the subject engages the viewer.
I notice people using their cameras probably more than most since I do this for a living. What I think this captures is how important an event is to a community. When I take a photo of others taking photos it shows that to these “photographers” this is important to them.
His role is to help update the social media pages for the unit and here he is getting some visuals for his next post.
At attention for the national anthem.
Patrick Lencioni, author of the New York Times best seller “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” says ceremonies are important for people to move on in life. He even said that weddings are as much a funeral for those leaving single life as it is about the joining together.
After hearing Lencioni speak on this topic I realized how important the symbolic ceremony is to helping us with changes in our lives. The simple act of listening to the national anthem changes everything when you are at a military ceremony. It brings to your mind and heart the commitment of soldiers for our country.
Capturing not just a prayer, but for me I see the elected official and the military in this photo.
In the middle of the two officers on stage was the Governor of the State of Georgia. Our elected officials are responsible for calling for war on a country. It highlights the importance of going to our polls to elect not just someone because they may believe in similar ideals that we want fostered. It means electing someone to office you trust will have the mind and heart to carefully consider what the right thing to do is when we ask these soldiers to lay their lives on the line.
I shot this as tight as I could and tried to use the American flag to help communicate this is an elected official. This is Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia giving the keynote address to the graduating class.
Our son Nelson is being given the Iron Man Physical Fitness Award for having the highest Physical Training score in the graduating class. Nelson scored a 347. Presenting him the award is Governor Nathan Deal.
The moment Nelson reached out to take his plaque and give a handshake to the Governor is the pinnacle moment in the ceremony for our family. “The Decisive Moment” was when I thought would be the moment that helped tell the story of the day. While this is what I thought prior to the days event as the story telling moment, I am not sure that some of the other photos don’t do just as good of a job.
If I were transmitting the photos to the Associated Press this would be one of the ones I transmitted, because it is something you would expect to be in the group of photos. While you want to be sure you have it, the editor may pick another photo that works.
A good reason not to use the photo is because it is what you expect–that’s right. Sometimes the reason you don’t use a photo is because it is cliche. Does this photo really make you want to know what is going on? I think not. Our family likes it, but you reading this article may be just as happy with another photo that is stronger in your opinion.
Get the 2nd fiddle as well. While the first handshake by the Governor was cool others should still be photographed. My son didn’t spend one moment with the Governor during his schooling, but he did spend time with this leader. Which one will mean more to the graduate? Get both and he will love them both.
The standard establishing photo.
Sometimes we get to focused and just get the photo of the handshake at a graduation and then one more photo of the family. Round out the story. Show where the event took place. It gives some context to the situation. The thing this photo does better than all the other photos is it gives an idea as to the size of the class and how many of the soldiers families came for the event.
This is the only graduation that the Governor has come to this year. It was newsworthy because he came. How do you tell the audience how important it was that the governor was there? Show the media coverage and you help communicate how big of a deal this is to the state of Georgia and the country by taking this photo.
When you get the award for “Iron Man” you want your photo to show the “big guns.” Putting him in front of the tank works for the Armor Graduate. Notice the flash was used here.
While you can have people pose for you, you can get some cool photos of when they are not posing for you but for someone else. One of the reasons these photos work is they are different. Look through all these photos again. Count how many of these photos you would always expect most people to get, then count those that are different. What did you notice?
When people are posing for others get those photos too, but from a different perspective.
Okay if you are reading this you made it to the end. Did this give you some ideas for your next event? If so please take the time to let me know by writing below your comments. It is through your comments that others will get more out of this than just from my words alone.
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