Celebrating 10 years of "The Week In Pictures"

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Informative or Just Eye Candy?

Before our children could even read, they could identify restaurants by their logo. Our oldest son was in the back seat singing “… the Simpsons,” when he saw a sky with a lot of cumulus clouds. Most everyone involved in communications understands how the audience is enticed by images.

Sometimes logos conjure up other thoughts. For many folks ATT’s logo is called the “death star.” This is another topic for another time though.

For many people working as communicator for corporations, nonprofits, or in the media they see the visual as the “hook” to their written story. The concept of using visuals as “eye candy” is a way to make you stop and at least start to read the article.

Love her or hate her, Catherine Zeta-Jones helped shape the image of T-Mobile during her first run with the company. To celebrate the launch of their Mobile Makeover advertising campaign, she's back again. The ads use her as the “eye candy.”

No question this works in advertising, but how does it go over with corporate communications or journalism?

My opinion is that those that use imagery as “eye candy” are like the tabloids or car magazines with women on the hood of the car. This approach must work or these types of media wouldn’t be doing so well financially. However, they are not taken seriously for their content.

You can use the imagery as the message itself and not just a hook. In journalistic example are the photos of the Twin Towers being hit by the airplanes or on fire? Michael Phelps touching the wall first with others still behind him is another example.

In journalistic media we also see visual “hooks.” We see mug shots which accompany an article, but tell us nothing about what the story is about. How is this a hook? On sports pages peak action moments showing the looser looking like they won is a hook.

I’ve learned the best images leave the viewer asking a question. “Why are the Twin Towers on fire?” is the question people asked when they turned on their televisions. It kept us glued to the coverage to understand and help us heal. Is this the photo of Michael Phelps winning the 8th gold medal or what race is it?

We can learn from the “eye candy” photography. If the image is interesting and has visual impact it will hook the reader. You need to surprise your audience. I have talked about this in past e.newsletters. Getting a unique perspective like a worm’s eye view or the bird’s eye view is a great “hook.” Making photos from the standing position straight on all the time is what amateurs do. You can make an informative intriguing image of most content to help tell the story with your images.

I shoot for different audiences. I often shoot for Associated Press, magazines, corporate publications, websites, college recruiting and alumni publications, and many other mediums.

When I shoot for AP, I must tell the story in one photo. I must shoot tight, which means close-up and filling the frame. The users of AP images may run the picture really small and will not want to use the photo if it isn’t close-up. It needs to have impact. They may run it on a front page of a paper to help tell the story, and sell the newspaper.

At an event where an AP photographer is there and I am there shooting for a magazine, I have to take a different approach. By the time a magazine comes out the readers will have seen the AP images of the event. My coverage must be more than one impactful image. I have a variety of angles, from close-up, to medium and overall shots of the story. I will use lighting to help influence the image even more.


I am shooting a lot of multimedia packages lately which require 30 – 60 images for a 2-minute piece to run on a website. I need photos like I would do for a magazine, and I need transition photos. I need photos of noises you may hear in the audio to help the audience understand those noises are seagulls in the background near the subject. You still need strong images, but they can help tell the story and compliment the audio.

Most communicators today are using the same content in multiple places. They send out a printed newsletter, post it on a blog, put it on a website, or send out an e.Newsletter . All of the pieces point to the website where more content and images can be placed, than before this existed.

If you do a good job of telling the story using visuals you will now have just started telling your story. That’s right—just started. People like to be in dialogue and comment on your stories on-line. This outlet wasn’t available in print.

In the most recent Scientific American Magazine there was an article on Celiac Disease. When you went to their website the article was there as well, but now will comments like this, “The illustrations in this article delivered to my mailbox today, allow the complexities of the science of gluten intolerance to be easily understood by everyone.” Here is a link for you http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=celiac-disease-insights&page=6.

Is your material getting as many comments as this article? Are your visuals helping your audience to understand the topic? Using visuals effectively and not just as a visual “hook” will improve how your message is communicated.

Stanley is available as a consultant to help you improve your visual communication for your organization. Give him a call or email him to set up a time for him to work with your team.

Shooting Slide Shows: Behind the Scene With Stanley

Nikon D3, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 w/ 1.4 converter, ISO 200, ƒ/5, 1/1600

This is a really simple way to do Slide Shows with audio. I prefer interview people as I did here. Watch the first one which shows what I did for a client and the second one is some photos of me shooting the package by my friend Ken Touchton.

Watch this one first

Then watch how I did it.

Do Your Photos Provide Context For Your Subject?

Professional communicators work hard at getting a message across. But first they must get the audience’s attention. There needs to be a “lead” or “hook” to stimulate their interest in the story.

Ted Koppel said that during his 25 years as anchor for Nightline, they spent the majority of their pre-broadcast time on the first 10 seconds of the show.

The hook is all-important. If it doesn’t work no one will hear the message.

A tactic used by writers to grab the attention of readers is to lead with a quote. This is a powerful literary tool for hooking an audience. It is often misused. Quoting out of context is done quite often. There are two known common practices of misusing a quote - the straw man argument and the appeal to authority. Both of these can undermine the message.

Photographers are also guilty of taking photos out of context to create impact for a visual hook.

If a writer or photographer uses the hook appropriately they will deliver context or story within the hook.

Wire service photographers have used impact as a visual hook (to the detriment of the story-telling photo) for so long that we rarely see good examples of photos with any real context. The context has been handed over entirely to the writer.

Extreme close-up photos have extreme impact but, out of context, may lack any story-telling ability. Relating the subject to its surroundings can help tell the story of the subject, but impact is still needed.

A good example of the type of photo that can contain both impact and context is the environmental portrait. The subject is shown in their environment and the surroundings portray the person and help tell their story. A simple headshot shows what someone looks like, but the environment portrait can speak volumes about the person.

I grew up watching missionaries give slide shows in churches. Invariably most of the pictures they showed were tight headshots of some person looking into the camera. A friend of mine characterized these lacking-context-pictures as “People Who Need the Lord” photos. The pictures show what they look like, but tell me nothing about who they are.

Today I am often asked to speak to these missionary groups about how to improve their photography of their mission trips. My chief complaint about mission teams going somewhere and then showing their photos is the lack of environment in their photos. They have many “People Who Need the Lord” photos, which could have been made almost anywhere. Their photos don’t tell a story, they have little context. What does the county look like? How do they live? What do they eat?

I suggest to these groups that they make pictures that tell something about these folks. Show the mother in her kitchen making a meal. Show the man at his job – what does he do to earn a living. Show the children and what they do for play.

Think of the photos as an introduction. How do we in America do introductions? After we exchange our names we usually ask what they do for a living or we ask about their family.

A real advantage of photography is how much story can be told without having to speak a word. True masters of the craft use light and composition to make sense of all the clutter and show how things in the frame relate to one another. When the photo includes people expression and body language add even more context to the image.

Here are six simple steps to help bring context to a photograph.

1. Determine the purpose of the photograph.
2. What is the mood for the photograph to be?
3. Determine the subject.
4. What should be included or excluded around the subject?
   a. Do I include some of the environment in front of the subject?
   b. Am I making an image that is just graphically strong or does the space around the subject give context?
   c. What is in the background?
   d. What is beside or on the same plane as the subject, giving it equal importance?
5. When do I press the shutter?
   a. Are they interacting with another person?
   b. Do I show a serious or light moment?
6. What about the light?
   a. Do I use the natural light?
   b. Do I bounce the flash?
   c. Do I use professional lights?

Put your subjects in context when you photograph them and your pictures will truly be worth 10,000 words.

Pete Souza - White House Photographer

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Photos of the house

Our Home is for Sale

1420 Parkmont Drive
Roswell, Georgia 30076

Price $158,000

• Foyer with Coat Closet Welcomes Your Guests
• Dining Room is Open to Living Room
• Cheerful Kitchen Views Family Room w/Fireplace
• Breakfast Area with Sliding Door to Back Yard
• Inviting Master Bedroom Features Built-In Desk/Vanity, Walk-In Closet & Private Bath with Shower
• Three Additional bedrooms, also on Upper Level
• Laminate floors
• Full Bath Off Hall w/Ceramic Tile Floor
• Laundry Closet Conveniently Located Off Kitchen
• Double Garage with Electronic Door
• Low Maintenance Aluminum Siding
• Backyard Fenced For Safety of Pets/Kids
• Energy Efficient Thermal Pane Windows
• Storm Door on Front Entry
• Sealed Burner Gas Range
• Trane Air Conditioning Unit
• New energy efficient Hot Water heater
  
• New Furnace & Evaporator core
• New attic stairs
• Master bath shower new
  
• ADT Security System
• Terminix Termite Plan
  

The Vendor Client relationship - in real world situations

I had to post this one after I saw it. It reminds me of some people's perspective on hiring photographers.

I believe all artists need to see this, but internalize this feeling and then think of new ways to communicate their prices.

Learn to stay firm on your price. Just because the client thinks the price should be lower or even for free doesn't mean you have to honor that request. 

Sights in the past week

Fayetteville, North Carolina Eiffel Tower An 80-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower marks the corner of two Fayetteville streets where Bordeaux Shopping Center is located. The tower is 1/12th the scale of the original in Paris, France. I photographed this out of my car window driving by on Thursday while I was in town for a photo shoot.

With its dedication and opening in 1991, the Fuller E. Callaway, Jr. Manufacturing Research Center building became one of the foremost facilities for manufacturing research and technological innovation in the country. Designed and built to accommodate and readily adapt to the vital research agendas facing both the manufacturing industry and academia, the 120,000-square-foot building maintains state-of-the-art laboratory facilities that support research, education, and technology transfer.

I was there on Friday photographing a researchers 3-D injet printer head.


This is an array of 400 nozzles for a 3-D print head for use in dental applications which I photographed on Friday.

Social Networking

The World Wide Web was born in 1993. Websites began. Connecting to the world was no longer just through email. You could publish photos on the web and put up storefront businesses. This was the beginning of the .com era.

In 1994 podcast took hold. A Podcast is a series of digital media files, usually digital, audio or video that is made available for download via web syndication.

In 1997 the weblog was introduced. It simplified creating a website and helped people publish material in a user-friendly matter. By 1999 the name was shortened to blog. The ability of most anyone to have a website was now so easy that the web exploded with blogs.

On October 28, 2003 Mark Zuckerberg, while a sophomore at Harvard, concocted Facemash. This became Facebook. The concept of Facebook is you invite friends to see your blog and you control who sees your material.

Twitter entered the scene in 2006 as a microblog. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page. They are delivered to other users (called followers) who have subscribed. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. The difference between a Facebook and a Twitter page is one is exclusive and the other by default inclusive.

About ten years ago, Donald O. Clifton led a team of scientists at Gallup to begin a dialogue on what is right with people. In 2001 they published the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment that, after taking the test, a person lists the top five talents/strengths they possessed out of a possible thirty-four categories. The difference with this assessment tool is its emphasis on people learning to play to their strengths rather than concentrating on their weaknesses.

In 2007, Tom Rath, one of Clifton’s team, updated the assessment and wrote Strength Finder 2.0. You can find out about it at www.StrengthsFinder.com.

In 2008 Seth Godin published Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. Godin has written about being a change agent in previous books like Purple Cow and The Dip. In his book Tribes, Godin helps us understand how all this technology of websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter are places where leaders can rise up if they are willing to lead. Good leaders create Raving Fans. Ken Blanchard the author of the popular management book The One Minute Manager also wrote the book Raving Fans.

Godin talks about how it is easier today, because of the web, to find others who think like you. We can build upon these strong connections with others. Godin takes the concepts of Strengths Finder (of playing to your strengths) to finding your niche by doing so your fans will find you. This group is what Godin calls a tribe.

A CROWD has many weak connections between people. TRIBES have strong connections. Organizations that play to the Tribe rather than the crowd will create Raving Fans according to Godin.

Godin talks about leveraging all these tools of blogs, websites, Facebook and Twitter. He gives an example of how Scott Beale, owner of Laughing Squid, uses all these tools and more to market. Beale was able to leverage his tribe when at a conference in 2008 “… he got tired of waiting to get into the Google party. He found a deserted bar down the street, grabbed some tables in the back and fired up his cell phone. Using Twitter, he announced: ‘Alta Vista Party at Ginger Man.’ Within a few minutes eight people showed up, then it was fifty. Soon there was a line out the door.”

Godin explains how Beale didn’t just sign-up with Twitter, tweet a message and the party began. The party took four years of marketing using the tools and by having a following he was then able to leverage this Tribe of his into a spontaneous event.

A few of my friends use the social networking tools to create workshops, sell their self-published books and many other ways of connecting with their tribes.

Networking was around long before the computer. Those people who understand how to connect with others have always done well in business.

Today you can build a tribe for almost nothing compared to the days before the computer. Social networks are free to join. They can connect you to the world. Marketing 101 teaches that if you talk to one thousand people only about one hundred will be interested in your idea. Of those one hundred only ten will buy.

The marketing challenge has always been how to reach enough people to connect with those who will buy.

One more aspect of connecting with your audience is getting your name in front of the repeatedly; usually six to eight times before the deal is sealed.

The web can connect you with the world. The web allows repeated connections via email, tweeting, blogging and inviting people to join your exclusive club.

One last observation - people are tuning in more to things like Youtube and HuLu than going to places with nothing but text. The problem with Youtube is there is a lot of junk there. So while it is visual it is also mostly amateur. Hulu is all about quality video. The difference is clear, advertisers are lining up to advertise on Hulu and Youtube doesn’t compare.

Today those who will brand themselves the best will no longer accept amateur communications - they hire professionals to help shape their message.

Give me a call and I’m eager to help you tell your story to your tribe.