What you need to know to create a story with photos and ideas

Thinking about visual storytelling

Soak in the details of complicated situations



10 rules of photo composition

Don't know what to shoot?

Becoming a better photographer 

Pet’s Eye View. Pretend that you are your pet. How would you see the world if you were a dog? A hamster? Shoot a series of images from the perspective of your pet’s eye level.

A Day in the Life of… This is a great project to document a particular occupation. For example, you could take photographs of a nurse at work to show all the various aspects of his or her job. It may take you more than one day of shooting to capture a representative set of images.

Get to Know Your Neighborhood. So often, we never really take a good look at our own neighborhood. Make it a point to walk around, and shoot ten images of the area where you live. Do this once a month, or even once a week, if you really get inspired.

A Collection of “Somethings.” Whenever you’re out, carry your camera, and be on the lookout for whatever “something” you choose. It could be feet, garbage cans, vegetables that look like faces, bicycles – you name it! Get creative, and pick a theme that you don’t usually see in pictures.

The Park Bench. Take your camera and a tripod to a park, and find a busy park bench. Set yourself up some distance away with a long lens aimed at the bench and pre-focused. Settle in, and for the next few hours, take images at fixed time intervals, say every ten minutes. This is really an exercise in time lapse photography. I think the resulting images would make a fun photo essay. The setting stays the same, but the subjects change at random.

Evolution of Construction. Find a nearby construction site, and take a picture every day. If you choose the same vantage point each time, you’ll end up with a series of images that show the building in progressive stages of completion.

Through the Seasons. This exercise is similar to number two, but is best done in a less urban environment, and over a longer period of time. Find a landscape that you can shoot in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The works especially well if you live in a place that receives snow in Winter, and where the leaves on the trees turn color in the Autumn.

Self Portrait. The concept of this is simple: take a picture of yourself every day. It helps to use a tripod and shutter release, rather than limiting yourself by trying to shoot with the camera at arm’s length. You are the most patient subject you could ever work with, so use this to your advantage. Get creative, overact, dress up, and use props. You decide how you want to show yourself to the world! If you do an internet search on this topic, you’ll find related Flickr and Twitter groups, where you can share your images.

Think about your pictures and what is the story that they tell.

You need to think of five things:

Who?   What?   Where?   When?   Why?   How?

Any good story provides answers to each of these questions. You must drill these into your brain and they must become second nature.

For example, if you wish to write a story about a local sports team entering a competition you will need to answer these questions:

• Who is the team? Who is the coach? Who are the prominent players? Who are the supporters?
• What sport do they play? What is the competition?
• Where is the competition? Where is the team normally based?
• When is the competition? How long have they been preparing? Are there any other important time factors?
• Why are they entering this particular competition? If it's relevant, why does the team exist at all?
• How are they going to enter the competition? Do they need to fundraise? How much training and preparation is required? What will they need to do to win?

Start with topic or genres that you love

Use websites to help you

• WhatShouldIReadNext.com: start with an author or book you love, click the closest match from the list that pops up, and then this site will generate a list of books you’ll probably like based on your initial author/title. Pretty cool.
• GoodReads: This is social networking for readers. Join (you can use your Facebook credentials) and then find friends and see what they’re reading, find interest-based groups, search book lists, or join a discussion.
• BookBrowse.com: The “Read Alikes”  service here is similar to WhatShouldIReadNext but the lists of comparable books is handpicked by other readers.
• WhichBook: Choose your book by mood or other fun factors, like Happy or Sad, Beautiful or Disgusting, Conventional or Unusual.

Make the time to read. Make it important. Make it a priority.

• Read in the bathroom
• Read in line
• Read while you are waiting for . . . anything
• Read before you go to bed
• Read in a favorite chair on a rainy day
• Read outside on a sunny day

Use the 50-page rule

If you are not into it by the 50th page there is no sin in saying that this book is not for you.

Start a reading notebook

It could be a Pinterest board, a note on Facebook, a list on your phone, a folder of photos, your GoodReads account etc.

Find your reading spot

• Make it comfortable
• Where you cannot be disturbed
• Turn off your phone
• Have a good light
• Have some tea or some other beverage of your choice
• Maybe eat the food you might be reading about
• Read with someone else who appreciates reading (fun to read to each other)

How to become an avid reader (and why)

For your mid-term assignment 

You will document, over the next two weeks your relationship with reading a book. You will take pictures and create a narrative for presentation on Monday, Oct. 16. 

This will include: 

• Pictures of you finding a book that works for you (minimum of five photos)
• Documenting when and where you read the book plus how many pages at a time you read (minimum of five photos)
• Take five photos the explain the plot of the book (This is the really creative part - minimum of five photos)
• Write an extending puke (plus you should be doing this the whole time in order to write about you are documenting) about how you felt about the process of the course of time you have read the book. Again, this is an opportunity to get really creative. Last five photos. 

Create a slideshow in Adobe Spark Pages (We will go over this in class.) 

Here is one of the best examples from a couple of years ago. 

How and why photojournalism makes an impact — photographs stop timHow and why photojournalism makes an impact — photographs stop time, giving the viewer a moment to think, to react, to feel, to soak in the details of complicated situations.e, giving the viewer a moment to think, to react, to feel, to soak in the details of complicated situations.