Breaking the Ice

It's prom night. You're the quiet nerdy kid standing with the other wallflowers away from the fun at the dance. You see the girl/boy that you've been pining after for the whole year. Sadly you don't gather the courage up to try to persuade them to talk to you let alone dance with you.

Fast forward to the present. You've still got that terrible spine chilling, gut rotting fear hiding deep inside the depths of your heart.

One of the worst things I went through that I can't believe I fell prey to during my really early parts in journalism would have to be getting the courage up to get in there and do what's required. Things like gathering caption information, asking serious questions to "important" people, and saddest of all... getting close enough to shoot.

I know my profs will be happy to hear me quote Robert Capa... "If your images aren't good enough, you're not close enough."

You have to get over that fear. It's killing your ability to become a great journalist. I too often see high school aged students shooting sports (saw this last night actually) with a medium range lens, standing back from the sidelines. I definitely fell into this same mentality early on. You can't be afraid to get in there. You're job is to get right up on the events and record them. That just can't be done from the back wall with the other D&D fans. No offense to D&D fans.

The same goes for caption info. Get in there. Many of my professors really instilled in me that your captions are extremely important to the power of your images. One went as far as to say that if you have amazing images, but weak captions it can affect the chance of you being hired. You have to really fill the gaps that the photo doesn't tell. It's great to even go as far as getting a quote to give your caption some life. So don't be afraid to gather that info. You're a reporter with camera knowledge and don't forget that.

Fish Boil Assignment

First off I want to apologize for the extreme length of my posts so far. I promise I’ll try to make smaller posts and link to articles or something when I learn that a bit more.

Assignment Number Two:

(email)

Lucas,

There is a fish boil dinner at the local marina on Friday. Sometime around 5:30 is the dinner time rush for them we think.

Get us roughly 2-3 photos covering the following:

People cooking

People serving

People eating food

Maybe something incorporating the live music

Don’t forget caption information.

Turn in right after coverage.

Thanks,

Photo Dept.

This one is a subject that I’ve covered before. At my college paper (*ah cough plug your friends ah cough*) I’ve shot a similar type of assignment for the college.

There are only a few minor problems that arise during these sorts of assignments. Again, I say minor because eventually you should be able to spot them before they show up, and then adapt.

First, how do I make an image of someone eating be something interesting to look at? Well, best thing to do is bite the bullet and find a family with small children. Kids are usually always more likely to be animated than Grandma and Grandpa. It’s tough to photograph kids at times, but usually if you’re patient you’ll always walk away with good images.

Second, there are so many people, how do I get permission and the like? Well, my best approach to this is to actually talk to your subject before you shoot them. If people are waiting in line for food, like at a register, or at a buffet, just stop someone and tell them who you are, where you’re from, and ask if you can take pictures of them while they get their food. I tend to reiterate at this point that they need only to ignore me and I’ll do all the work. When they’re done getting their food, just ask them for their names and a small interview if need be.

I believe I’ll be making a post later about the importance of getting used to approaching people for photography.

Third is something that is dependent upon what the venue is of the event. As the last post talked about, lighting is important. It sets the mood. I really like to find a place to use off camera flash at some point in my assignment. All you could ever learn about off camera work can be found at Strobist. It’s cheaper than you think. Buy a flash that has the ability to be set to a manual power output, and a sync cable. Just don’t point it directly at people a lot. Harsh light and all.

The image at the left was done by holding above and to the right of the subject. I wanted it to hit both the guitarist and the rest of the tent that he was in. Using a TTL cable, a pocket wizard, or a sync cord is an easy way to do this, but note that I'm not just burning the guy from on camera. I'm diffusing it into the room. Oh, and if you can "rear sync" your flash as much as possible. It really makes your flash lit images better.

No assignment is the same. All together, your images need to tell the story. If you can’t look at your shots and get the general story from your images, you’ve got to do better. That’s your job plain and simple, write the story with your camera. Usually in one image. Tough yes, but hard work pays off.