Removing AIDS Stigma In Togo

Nikon D5, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/1.8, 1/800

Hannah Saxe, one of the Storytellers Abroad participant, has her fan club walking through the village of Adeti-Kope,Togo, West Africa. Hannah did her story on HIV in Togo.

Brenda Mastin is a nurse at the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism hospital in Tsiko, Togo. Over the last few years she and other Togolese colleagues have formed the organization ALMA which is french for "friend indeed". They are an HIV/AIDS ministry of education, compassion and support. Their main operation is to educate the local churches to show compassion to HIV/AIDS patients as well as giving them support through counseling and medication. They hope to open their own center for chronic disease care near the hospital. In this video Storyteller Hannah Saxe tells the story of ALMA and their work in Togo.

Here is Hannah having prayer with an HIV patient and the subject Brenda before they did the interview.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 2000, ƒ/8, 1/100

We still have openings for the Honduras Multimedia Workshop taking place this October 29th to November 5th. Deadline to apply is August 30, 2016. 

Click here to learn more. Get your money in now to hold your spot.

Freedom From the Fetish - Martouka’s Story

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 5600, ƒ/8, 1/100

Storytellers Abroad participant Hannah Teramura works with the voice over for her video.

Teramura tells the story of Martouka. After years of growing up in fetish worship, Martouka Anani fell deathly sick and remembered the gospel he had heard as a child. Even though his parents disowned him from walking away from the fetish religion, he pursued Jesus and devoted his life to sharing the good news with others.

Now he is a pastor of a thriving church and a teacher at the Bible Institute, training up other pastors to step into teaching roles to transform Togo for Jesus. This is his story – please watch and consider support the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism's mission to impact more lives and expand the multiplication of churches in Togo, West Africa.



Here is Hannah on the far right enjoy some fun with some of the other workshop participants.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 160, ƒ/8, 1/100

We still have openings for the Honduras Multimedia Workshop taking place this October 29th to November 5th. Deadline to apply is August 30, 2016. 

Click here to learn more. Get your money in now to hold your spot.

Because of God’s Love - Djamila’s Story

Nikon D5, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/1.8, 1/1250

Storyteller's Abroad participant Kathryn Shoaf tells the story about a young woman named Djamila. She is the daughter of an Islamic soldier, but found herself torn between two opposing worlds - the familiar traditions of Islam and the unknown Christian faith that her mother had claimed. With guidance from two ABWE teachers, she discovered the life changing love of Christ.

Kathryn was stretched during her time in Togo. She was learning how to use visuals when there are no visuals when someone talks about something that happens in the past. She also learned more about how to sequence the story to keep you more on the edge of your seat.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 1600, ƒ/8, 1/100

Before the class all went their separate ways to interview their subjects we did a practice interview where they saw what it will be like interviewing someone in French wth a translator helping. Kathryn has the headphones on in this photo.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 160, ƒ/8, 1/100

While we work hard while in Togo, West Africa you can see we also had fun as a group.

We still have openings for the Honduras Multimedia Workshop taking place this October 29th to November 5th. Deadline to apply is August 30, 2016. Click here to learn more. Get your money in now to hold your spot.

Trials in Togo

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 800, ƒ/4, 1/4000

All the girls jumped into the back of the pickup to ride into the village. On the far left front is Liz Ortiz. This was Liz's second trip with Storytellers Abroad Missions Multimedia Workshop. She first joined us in Romania.

Liz did a story on Gaglo who was there when the missionaries first came to Togo. He helped build the hospital and has seen first hand how the hospital has made an impact on the Togolese. Over 32 churches have been planted because of the hospital. Gaglo not only works as a physician assistant, but is also a pastor for one of the church plants.


We still have openings for the Honduras Multimedia Workshop taking place this October 29th to November 5th. Deadline to apply is August 30, 2016. Click here to learn more.

Teaching Women Reaching Togo – Storytellers Abroad Missions Multimedia Workshop

photo by Jeff Raymond

A week ago today I was stuck in the Accra, Ghana airport waiting for Delta Airlines computer system to get back online so that we could return home after a week in Tsiko, Togo, West Africa.

It was a good week of capturing stories of the work being done with the help of Association of Baptists for World Evangelism missionaries. We were staying at the Hopital Baptiste Biblique guest housing while working on stories that have all been the result of the hospital.

Jeff Raymond organized the Storytellers Abroad Missions Multimedia Workshop with the help of Pat Davision and myself.

Over the next few weeks I will share some of the stories done by the students. Today I want to share what Hannah Strayer captured.

This is Hannah Strayer capturing her story. [Nikon D5, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/1.8, 1/640]

Hannah's story is just below here. Take a look at what she captured in just a week while in Togo.

Under the teaching of ABWE missionary, Rebekah Poteat, Abra Sakpa has been learning Bible study methods and is using them to teach between 20-25 women about the Bible. Her vision in learning and teaching the Bible is that she might teach other women to teach women to teach women so that the farthest corners of Togo might be reached with the Gospel.

We still have openings for the Honduras Multimedia Workshop taking place this October 29th to November 5th. Deadline to apply is August 30, 2016. Click here to learn more.

What makes a successful humanitarian photo coverage

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 32000, ƒ/14, 1/100

All the trips I have done overseas have been for humanitarian work. Humanitarian work is concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare.

This past trip to Nicaragua there was a lot of opportunity for taking care of basic healthcare needs. Now the difficult thing sometimes to do as a humanitarian photographer is to capture and compel the audience to act.

In the homes they didn't have a medicine cabinet with your basic bottles of Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Aspirin, cough medicine and bandaids. If they needed an aspirin they would go to the city and buy not a bottle but just a few pills. That is all they could afford. I needed to capture the medically trained indigenous volunteers checking blood pressure or giving an IV, because handing a person a small ziplock bag of ibuprofen doesn't read quickly to the audience medical care.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 1250, ƒ/4, 1/100

The gravity of this moment with medical missionary nurse practitioner Traci Warner isn't as clear to the audience visually as I would have wished. Dominga is the lady in the middle with the IV above her head. Her sister is to the left and had just paused a moment from waving the fan to keep her sister comfortable.

Dominga is dying from cancer. After we visited Dominga would die later that night.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 1600, ƒ/4.5, 1/100

Missionary nurse practitioner Warner has a lot more to offer than her medical skills. During this part of life that we all will go through Warner took the time to read Psalms 23.

Verse 4 really speaks to me:

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

This photo really captured for me why I like working with missionaries. They are caring for the whole person and not just their physical needs, but their spiritual as well.

Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 DG Art,  ISO 200, ƒ/1.4, 1/100

If you are taking photos of humanitarian work you need to keep shooting. Sometimes when you are taking photos and thinking something better will come along is a mistake. You shoot everything you can and then later pick the moments that best capture the work going on and the soul of the story.

Here Warner is checking a skin condition on a lady with the Nicaraguan medical volunteer learning about the fungus condition.

I hope you are realizing at this point of my writing that the words are paramount to understanding what is going on in each of these photos. Take notes and be able to describe what is going on in a photo and why they are doing something.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 100, ƒ/4, 1/160

I really like this photo of the young girl here. Now without text it is still a very compelling photograph. In context of the photos above the photo can take on even more meaning, but requires the words to help the audience feel even more impact than the visual can do alone.

This is the young granddaughter of the lady in the very first photo. The lady having her blood pressure taken has high blood pressure that they monitor. Due to the medical team not just giving her some medicine to help lower the blood pressure they helped her through educating her on her diet. Today she is no longer needing the blood pressure medicine, but just needs to monitor it.

By saving the grandmother we saved the care taker of the granddaughter. Now she has someone to watch her and take care of her as her parents are both out working trying to make ends meet for the family.

Many young girls like her are raped and abused due to lack of adult supervision. Who would think that humanitarian aid through medical training and some blood pressure pills would help save this young girls life?

This is why I love traveling the world and helping make people's lives better. How do I make things better when I am not a nurse practitioner? I help tell these stories and get people like you to give and go to make a difference.

Here are two opportunities this year for you to do the same thing and learn how to do it as well.

First we have two openings left for our Storytellers Abroad workshop in Togo, West Africa.

• Togo, July 26-August 11, 2016 - $3,670 

Next opportunity is traveling with Gary S. Chapman and myself to Honduras, Central America.

Honduras, October 29 – November 5, 2016 – $2,600 

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 450, ƒ/8, 1/100

This is not a classroom class only. When you are done you will have had the opportunity to produce a complete project that will do exactly what you would be doing if you were capturing the story yourself. The difference is you have teachers/coaches to help you navigate all the hurdles of storytelling.

If you want to do coverage like I am doing overseas, then here is your chance. The students we have finish the Storytellers Abroad Workshop have now shown to the missions agency ABWE their skills and also let the organization get to know them. Many are asked to tell more stories of missionaries around the world.

Sign up today and I will see you in either Togo or Honduras very soon.

Announcing Multimedia Storytelling Workshop with Coffee Farmers in Mexico

I am putting on a multimedia storytelling workshop in Chiapas, Mexico with Cafe Justo's coffee growers January 9th – 16th, 2016.

I hope you consider joining me and learning how to tell a story doing all of the process yourself with the guidance of myself and James Dockery.

This is James working in one of the edit suites at ESPN. [Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 12800, ƒ/7.1, 1/30]

James Dockery, ESPN Video Editor | James works as a lead video editor for ESPN and also operates his own business in Charlotte, NC where he is photographer/ videographer. James has been a photographer for over 30 years and a videographer for over 20 years.

Here is James' website for his photography business outside of ESPN http://www.jamesdockery.com.

While James as you can see is well qualified to teach the subject the main reason I have partnered with him is his personality. James is such an optimist and a person who has a lot of energy and is interesting to be with. James passion for teaching is felt by the students as he spends time with each person being sure they are getting what they need to complete their projects.

Here James is working with student going over her project. [Nikon D750, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 500, ƒ/1.8, 1/100]

James loves pastries and here he is making the best of friends of the workers at the local coffee and pastry shop on our trip to Lisbon together. [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 4500, ƒ/8, 1/100]

James and I enjoy sharing our experiences with workshop participants. We discovered getting each person as much hands on time doing a project and our walking alongside them as they work is much better than a lot of lecture time.

Be sure to go to the website and read more about the it and then sign up. Looking forward to seeing you in Mexico.

Tom Kilpatrick 72 years old and still learning

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 1/200

This photo of Tom Kilpatrick caught how I see him. He is such a kid. He just loves to explore and have fun.

He has taught photography for more than 30 years and been a photojournalist for even more years and yet he decided to join us in Romania for the Storytellers Abroad Missions Multimedia Workshop.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 100, ƒ/5.6, 1/125

Here Tom shows his wisdom by not getting on the roof of the car like James Dockery.

Tom brought to the table the skills of shooting great still images, but had not put together his images with video and controlled the entire project.

Tom interviewed a Romanian pastor who had a vision for creating a evangelistic outreach for the Romanian Baptist church.

Here is the interview that Tom did and his package.

God's Vision for ROMANIA from Storytellers Abroad on Vimeo.
On the last day we were in Romania Tom's computer decided to crash. It took a few days for us to recover all the work that Tom had done. After James Dockery worked on the external hard drive the package was recovered.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 1800, ƒ/4.5, 1/100

You can see Tom working hard here while one of his former students from his days of teaching at Temple College Jon Franz is busy working on his project.

Tom worked really hard and stretched his comfort zone a great deal.

When digital photography finally became economically feasible for most photojournalist to switch from film Tom was not the first to adopt the new technology. Actually he was thinking this was just too much for him to do and was willing to walk away from photography.

Tom's heart couldn't let him give up on storytelling with pictures. He bought a new camera system and pushed himself to learn the new technology.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 12800, ƒ/3.5, 1/60

Tom loves helping missionaries tell their stories. The most likely place to find Tom is in some country other than the USA shooting photos of missionaries and the people they are working with each day. Tom loves to capture the love of God being shared through people's lives the world over.

Now Tom will be helping the missionaries to tell their own stories in their own voices through the power of multimedia.

If you have experience in the industry like Tom Kilpatrick, but just haven't had the chance to do it all by yourself, then send me an email and I will put you on the list to tell you about the upcoming workshops I am doing next year just like this workshop. Here is my email address Stanley@StanleyLeary.com.

Creative Director used to large crews chooses to go alone to Romania to cover Gypsies

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 9000, ƒ/6.3, 1/100

Jon Franz, senior creative director for Kimberly-Clark, was a joy to get to know on our trip to Romania. This is the first time that I have had a role reversal where I was teaching a creative director. Normally creative directors hire people like me and give them direction.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 100, ƒ/4.8, 1/160

As you can see from these first two photos Jon likes to have fun. In the second photo is James Dockery, senior editor with ESPN on the left and Tom Kilpartrick, adjunct professor of photography at Covenant College and Lee University and Jon Franz is photo bombing. Tom Kilpatrick was one of Jon's teachers at Temple College.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 100, ƒ/5.6, 1/160

Here Jon is trying to get some moving b-roll from the top of the car as we were driving into a Romanian village.

As hard as Jon liked to play, he also put as much effort into hard work.

Nikon D750, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 1800, ƒ/5, 1/100

Jon spent a lot of time reviewing his work and looking for ways to improve it and then would go back out and shoot more b-roll to help refine his project. Here he is working next to Hannah Strayer.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 7200, ƒ/4.8, 1/100

You can just see how much Jon was reviewing his work here with workshop leader Jeff Raymond. Jon went to all three instructors to see how we reacted to the package. Each of us had an opinion and then Jon would decide how to proceed. Sometimes taking our ideas and other times that just inspired him to come up with another way to help fix a problem.

He had a difficult job of capturing a Romanian pastor who was doing work with the Gypsies.  He wanted to capture their poverty, but also maintain treating them with honor, dignity and respect in how he told their story.

Jon went and found some stock photography that he had rights to use for the project to help tell the past history. I think he did a great job of blending b-roll with his audio. Take a look at his project.

Romania Gypsy Ministry from Storytellers Abroad on Vimeo.
Maybe you are like Jon Franz. Jon had directed major projects, but had never done it all himself. He also realized that if he wanted to help out his church covering missions they wouldn't have the budget to send what was his normal working crew for him to direct. Jon used this trip as a way to learn how to do it all by himself as a one man communications force.

If you have experience in the industry, but just haven't had the chance to do it all by yourself like Jon, then send me an email and I will put you on the list to tell you about the upcoming workshops I am doing next year just like this workshop. Here is my email address Stanley@StanleyLeary.com.

Doing a multimedia package when you can't show the subjects faces

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 800, ƒ/3.5, 1/100

Hannah Strayer listens to James Dockery as he gives some editing suggestions to her project on Romanian Prostitution story she put together during the Storytellers Abroad Missions Multimedia Workshop in Bucharest, Romania.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 10000, ƒ/3.5, 1/100

Hannah who is a recent graduate of Baptist Bible College and doing short term missionary work already was looking to have opportunity to do missions and learn how to put a multimedia package together by herself.

Hannah took on a difficult assignment of working with a lady who had been a prostitute and is now working with prostitutes trying to help them off the streets. She couldn't show the prostitutes faces and had to find creative ways to create b-roll for her project.

Using music and some creative photography she put together a great project. Take a look at it here.

Romania Prostitution Outreach from Storytellers Abroad on Vimeo.
Hannah was using many different techniques of creating a mood. She was adjusting exposure on her photos to be sure she was capturing that night atmosphere of the women working on the streets. Picking music that fit the piece was also difficult.

I think she did a great job and can't wait to see her next project.

If you think you are ready to learn to put it all together and want to learn how to do multimedia, then send me a note so you are on my email list. I will be shortly putting up my workshops for next year. Here is my email Stanley@StanleyLeary.com.

Romanians Winning Their Jerusalem

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 12800, ƒ/8, 1/320

Meet Rob Krieg, IT Director, who was one of the workshop participants in Storytellers Abroad Missions Multimedia Workshop in Bucharest, Romania.

Rob had been a news photographer earlier in his career. He loved photography and wanted to add to his skills the ability to tell stories.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 1800, ƒ/5.6, 1/500

Rob had the smallest camera system out of everyone doing the workshop. Rob shot his entire project using the Fuji X-T1 or the Fuji X-E2.

photo by: James Dockery

Rob was just knocking it out of the park getting b-roll. He understood the visual side of storytelling just fine.

What Rob worked on the most during the workshop was understanding the audio portion of the project. He had never been responsible for asking the questions for the interview and helping to direct the story.

What made the story more difficult for Rob was while he was getting the story concept the subject really didn't see how they fit into the bigger picture. No matter how he sequenced the interview there was just something missing.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 360, ƒ/8, 1/500

After taking some time to talk with Rob about the story James Dockery, Jeff Raymond and I advised to interview our host and missionary Tom Graef. Tom is here talking with the priest for the Orthodox church in Herăști, Giurgiu, Romania.

Now the most difficult thing was to then intertwine Tom's comments with the subject Simon Bayrakcioglu. It would be easy to just stay with Tom's comments because he was more articulate, but the comments of Simon gave the story more power.

You see the one thing that Rob learned was the whole point of getting someone's comments recorded is the power of the first person narrative gives authenticity to a story.

Listen and watch how Rob was able to blend the visuals of Romania with the interviews of Tom and Simon.

Romanians Winning Their Jerusalem from Storytellers Abroad on Vimeo.
Rob discovered through the process that he had to have someone speak into the story. What also Rob learned was the importance of persistence.

By the way Rob was one of the perfect candidates for the workshop. He had already mastered photography and was looking to add the skill of storytelling using multimedia.

Send me an email if you are interested in taking a multimedia workshop next year. Here is my email address for you Stanley@StanleyLeary.com.

Romania Orphan Ministry

Fuji X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 400, ƒ/3.6, 1/2200

Last year I met Korinna Waggoner for the first time. She was one of the participants of the Lisbon, Portugal Storytellers Abroad Multimedia Workshop.

She liked the experience so much that she wanted to do this again, so she joined us in Bucharest, Romania this year.

While hearing all the content for teaching was mostly a repeat, hearing it for the second time was beneficial to Korinna.

Fuji X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/60

Last year Korinna experienced more bumps in the road with access to the subject. With all the preplanning we do there is still a chance scheduling may need some adjusting. This year Korinna's subject was more accessible and made for a much better story.

Here is her story from this year on Orphan Ministry in Romania.

Romania Orphan Ministry from Storytellers Abroad on Vimeo.
When asked the most important things learned she learned this year, Korinna had three that rose to the top:

1. Video/Storytelling Confidence
2. How I can do storytelling on my own
3. Social Media

After doing this 2nd workshop Korinna was saying sign me up for storytelling for missions. 

I believe that after doing two of these workshops most people would be ready to adventure out on their own. If you are mid career in the communications field or towards the end of your career you could probably take just one of these workshops and be ready. 

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 12800, ƒ/8, 1/250

One important aspect of a successful workshop is feeling like you can just be yourself. Now I am hoping this was what was taking place as we drove to different locations. I think Korinna was having fun. Ha Ha Well I was at least.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 2200, ƒ/4, 1/100

Here Korinna is talking with James Dockery, senior editor with ESPN, about her story. Having these one-on-one times with each workshop participant is where James and I feel like we were able to help the most.

photo by: Jeff Raymond

We also did some lectures, but this was only about 10% to 20% of the workshop. We needed everyone to be hands on and learning from doing rather than by being lectured to. 

You can go online and listen all you want to tips on how to use software and see lots of examples of how to do multimedia projects. What the workshop helped all these students is having someone walking beside them every step of their journey. Having someone who pulled from all their experience and not just doing it all alone for the first time.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 900, ƒ/3.2, 1/500

This is Korinna shooting in the village Herăști, Giurgiu, Romania.

Korinna’s advice to those considering a Multimedia Workshop:

Do it! What you will learn on this trip is far more than you can ever expect!

Send me an email if you are interested in taking a multimedia workshop next year.

Transitioning From Photographer to Storyteller

photo courtesy of Knolan Benfield, Jr.

One of my earliest memories with our family is my grandfather, whom I called Daddy “B”, with his slide projector sharing his latest trip with all the family. The photo above is with my Daddy “B”, Nana “B”, my mother, sister and me wearing an indian hat watching a slideshow.

Once I started shooting myself I also got a slide projector and would have similar shows in our home.

In my second job with the International Mission Board I helped missionaries know how to construct a slideshow so that it told a story. I also was producing slideshows to music. This was in the late 1980’s.

Here is one I produced showing Don Rutledge’s coverage of Russia:

I was taught how to shoot “Photo Stories.” Here is what I was taught to capture:

1. Opener: Sets the scene for the story
2. Decisive moment: The one moment that can by itself tell the story
3. Details: Besides being like visual candy to the story, help often with transitions--especially in multimedia packages
4. Sequences: give a little variety to a situation
5. High overall shot: Gives a good perspective to how the elements all fit together
6. Closer: Besides the classic shot of the cowboy riding off into the sunset there are other visual ways to help bring the story to a close
7. Portraits: These photos are great for introducing the characters of the story

I was always working with a writer who captured the story as text and together our packages were produced in magazines or newspapers.

Looking back I would say I was getting elements of the story and really not responsible for the complete package.

In 2006 I bought a digital audio recorder, which changed my career trajectory. I produced my first package that I was responsible for all the parts to help tell a story. My friend Susan Shaw had started a business combining her art with love of farm animals.

Here is that first effort of mine to capture a story in 2006:


I was learning the craft of the storyline. Up until this point I was focusing on capturing the HOW? and WHAT? of the story and now I am laser focused on the WHY?.

One of my favorite stories where I could see some of the changes taking place was my first coverage of the Daddy Daughter Date Night at Chick-fil-A. Here is this story package I did in 2008:


Today I am producing on somewhat regular basis small two to three minute packages that are small stories.

Here is one of the latest stories I did recently for Honduras Outreach Inc.:

Here is what they have as their mission statement on their website:

HOI is a Christ-centered short-term mission organization working alongside people of developing countries who desire to implement sustainable development partnerships. We organize mission trips to Honduras and Nicaragua. 

HOI’s vision is to create life-changing relationships between the people of developing countries and North Americans, while promoting community directed and integrated spiritual, physical, educational and economic development of men, women and children in the developing world through the promotion of dignity, mutual cooperation and self-sufficiency.

My goal with the package was to help communicate the emotions and the heart of HOI.

This process has taken me more than thirty years to learn. Twenty of those years were learning how to produce compelling photo stories and the last ten have been executive producing storytelling packages.

I want to invite you to go with me to Romania to learn how to do this in just two weeks. We still have some slots open. Here is the link to that workshop www.storytellersabroad.com

If that doesn’t work for your calendar give me a call and let’s plan a personal workshop or group one for you.

Summary of my teaching points I had for Lisbon Multimedia Workshop

I just returned a week ago from Lisbon, Portugal where I was teaching a Storytelling Workshop with Jeff Raymond of ABWE and James Dockery, coordinating editor for ESPN.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 800, ƒ/9, 1.3 sec

I taught the students the elements of a storyline, which then they used as they interviewed their subjects.

I have written a blog on storyline and breaking down each of these components if you want to know more about it here.

You can then break down this storyline into a shot list, which all the students worked on to put together their multimedia package.

• Opener: Sets the scene for the story
• Decisive moment: The one moment that can by itself tell the story
• Details: Besides being like visual candy to the story, help often with transitions--especially in multimedia packages
• Sequences: give a little variety to a situation
• High overall shot: Gives a good perspective to how the elements all fit together
• Closer: Besides the classic shot of the cowboy riding off into the sunset there are other visual ways to help bring the story to a close
• Portraits: These photos are great for introducing the characters of the story

Before they even started we had them tell us who the audience is for the story. We want them to reach into the audience and pull on the experiences of that “specific” audience.

Audience

When I was telling the story on the coffee cooperative I was keeping the audience broad. I could have easily just targeted the Presbyterian Church who gave money to support the missionary who was instrumental in funding the cooperative. I could have also targeted the Catholic Church because they too had a role in starting the cooperative.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/2.8, 1/50

I chose to keep it broad enough, but yet I had those audiences in mind. I told the story with those people who are concerned about immigration and looking for a solution. The story was to establish the conflict of illegal immigration with the resolution being the cooperative. 

I have worked on stories for mission organizations many times through the years. The goal of those stories was to get the audience to: Give; Go; or Pray for missions. 

Who, What, Where, Why, When & How

In Journalism 101 the five Ws and H are taught as the questions whose answers are considered basic in information-gathering. Importantly, none of these questions can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no".

Before the formal interview each person was interviewed to gather and determine the story. If you didn’t do this you would be editing forever your project.

B-Roll

B-roll is the supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot in an interview. People are generally not going to sit and watch a person talking in a video for very long. This is why you shoot lot of B-roll so you can show this while the subject is talking.

Our students quickly discovered the story needed to revolve around the now and not the past or future or you couldn’t shoot much B-roll. 

Here is a photo of me doing an interview in Lisbon.

photo by Jeff Raymond

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PhotogenX DTS

In a couple weeks I am teaching another Visual Storytelling Workshop in Kona, Hawaii. I will be teaching students Visual Storytelling before they head out for coverages around the world: orphanage in Cambodia; poor in India; working with prostitutes in Thailand; and finally coverage on the street children in the Philippines. Go here to read more about the program.

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