In Lima, Peru, we practiced mock interviews to teach missionaries how to draw out authentic stories and work effectively with a translator. Great storytelling doesn’t happen by accident—it’s learned, refined, and practiced. Early in my…
A woman draws water from a well in Dakoro, Burkina Faso, West Africa, to supply her household’s daily needs. When I was growing up, my parents made sure my sisters and I had chores. Not…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been attending the Citizens’ Fire Academy with the Roswell Fire Department here in Roswell. I originally signed up simply because I was curious. Like many people, I see fire…
Doug Mills shares the story behind a historic black-and-white photograph from Ground Zero, capturing President George W. Bush embracing a firefighter amid the rubble and rescue workers following the September 11 attacks. Over the years,…
Billy Weeks interviews Brynn Anderson of the Associated Press during the 10th Annual Photo Night at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Anderson shared stories from more than a decade covering major sporting events—including the…
If you want to become a photojournalist, you need to understand something up front: this isn’t about taking pretty pictures. It’s about telling stories that make people feel something. And that requires two things working…
There’s a moment many photographers, videographers, and storytellers eventually experience—but almost no one talks about it publicly. A major client goes quiet.Another one disappears entirely.Calls aren’t returned. Emails go unanswered.Work you assumed would continue… just…
Back in 2008, when Greg Thompson—then Director of Corporate Communications at Chick-fil-A—asked me to come on as a visual communications consultant, he didn’t just want pretty pictures. He wanted results. And the question he kept…
Stop Trying to Get Better Photos and Start Communicating Better Stories The beginning of a new year is when photographers tend to do two things: We look at our work from last year with a…
When I was playing trumpet in school, there was no confusion about where I stood. We challenged for chairs. First chair, second chair, third chair. Everyone knew their place because we had to prove it.…
When Technical Mastery Is No Longer the Differentiator There was a time when a photographer’s reputation rose or fell on technical proficiency. If you could consistently nail focus, exposure, timing, and composition—especially under challenging conditions—you…
Andy McCree Hern took my mother's Benfield Family photo around 1980. Growing up as the son of a pastor and a mother who supported his work, I was surrounded by people who genuinely cared about…
