Just what's in the viewfinder

On my last trip abroad to Haiti I realized not knowing the language keeps me focused on just looking for images. This is great in many respects because I am trying to understand what is going on by watching visual cues and listening to the tone in people’s voices.

Since I do not really have language to clue me in about what is taking place, I am really more focused on what I should have been doing for years. I am seeing the situation my viewers will be seeing it. They cannot hear the conversations through the printed pages or on the web.

I spent a lot of time looking for interesting visuals because I had no idea what they were saying. I would smile and nod to those who I made eye contact with. Amazing how close I felt to people when I couldn’t talk to them.

This has helped to remind me the audience cannot hear and pick up on what is going on in a still image. I must really look for those moments which communicate visually intimate moments which bring the viewer closer. Photos get better when I realize I must concentrate on what is in the viewfinder. Sure understanding what is going on can help me anticipate better, but the end results still must be what is in the frame of the viewfinder.

Team Photos

Nikon D2X, Nikon 24-120mm ƒ/3.5-5.6, ISO 100, ƒ/16, 1/200

There are many ways to approach team photos for posters. For Georgia Tech's football team the theme for the 2006 year is "Take Your Best Shot." We made the photos at a boxing gym. What really made the photo was the players getting into the concept.

I have always thought people look their best with pleasant expressions or smiles in portraits. However, getting male athletes to smile has proven difficult in the past years. They all want to look tough and having an attitude like we see on MTV.

We embraced their attitude and what they want to portray about themselves in this photo. I think it works because it is a peak into their dreams.

Nikon D2X, Nikon 24-120mm ƒ/3.5-5.6, ISO 100, ƒ/14, 1/8

Women athletes smile much more than their male counterparts. They enjoy being the princess or queen for the day. Here they are on top of Atlanta with the Skyline behind them. It is like the last photo of the Disney movies where the Prince and Princess ride off into their kingdom. Their kingdom is Atlanta in this photo.

Cades Cove - Personal Retreat

Knolan Benfield, my uncle and professional photographer, and I took a few days to do what we love to do—photograph wildlife in Cades Cove.

“It is great to take time like this to put all those years of honing your craft to make a living and then spend some time shooting for yourself like this,” Knolan commented just before we finished our time in the Great Smoky National Park this past week.

When I first picked up the camera I shot for myself and it was a lot of fun. I then pursued this as a career. Over the years I knew I could do a better job, so I continued to go the workshops, seminars, read books and did a lot of self assignment tests to sharpen my skills.

It had been a while since I spent time photographing nature like this—back when all I shot was film. I would shoot and then look at the back of the camera, evaluating the image. I would pull up the histogram and look to see if it could be improved. We played with different white balance settings to see the outcomes of our efforts.

We just had fun.

Only another photographer would put up with all of our long shoots with 1 deer and a tripod. Most of our friends would think “haven’t you got enough already?”

What I noticed the most was the memories in my mind of conversations, bears we saw that turned and went in the woods before we could get our camera up and funny moments rejuvenate the soul.

I hope I do not take as long between this adventure and the next time I just shoot for myself.

Group Photos

Every once in a while you just have enough good things come together to turn a standard photo like a head shot or group photo in this case into something pretty good.

I was pleased with the result. The two key leaders of the design firm are out front leading their team at this Victorian home in Marietta, Georgia.

I really enjoy spreading out group photos where you can see everyone. You may have to use a larger photo to see everyone, but it is a much more interesting photo.

The strength in the photo to me is each person is an individual portrait all put together for the group photo. For me this makes me want to look at the photo longer and see each person.

Prayer

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 28735, ƒ/5.3, 1/100

Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

Christians everywhere study prayer for many different reasons. Some want to harness the power of the prayer in Matthew 16:20:

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

We want control. We want to be able and talk to God and for him to respond to our needs. We also see so many situations which we believe we know what is best.

I am sure you can think of many other reasons we pray. What struck me about the topic of prayer is how much we study prayer to be able to control it.

Nikon D2X, Sigma 18-125mm f/3.8-5.6 DC OS HSM, ISO 1600, ƒ/5.6, 1/80

Debra Williams, D.D. did a study called “Scientific Research of Prayer: Can the Power of Prayer Be Proven?” Here is a link to the study http://www.plim.org/PrayerDeb.htm. Her research does show us even when people do not know they are being prayed for there still is an impact. Who wouldn’t want to tap into this healing power?

If our friends all got together and compared their notes on how to communicate to us in order to get what they want—how would this make us feel?

Is the purpose of prayer to get what we want or is it really about the relationship with God?
This is why I really like what is said in Romans 8:26 (see above). It paints the picture to me of a relationship which is so good and intimate it may resemble a couple who have been married for years and are in retirement and their movements with each other resemble a dance. Words are not always said, but they know each other so well as to not step on each others toes.

Isaiah 56:7
“these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations."

Christians in Photojournalism’s strength is in our prayer life. While individual prayer is our first priority, it is often when we are with those who are on a similar path in this life that we can learn from each other.

Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

Complete Acceptance

This is the season of weddings. Weddings are one of the highlight events of our time here on earth. Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding and he used the wedding as a metaphor in his parables.

John 3 ²⁹The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.

There are very few people who can interrupt whatever I am doing and have my full attention. Each of these people is what I call my closest friends.

You can even know when someone else is interacting with a close friend. The mood changes and you are seeing a glimpse of the joy in their hearts when they interact with their friend.

Jesus talked about what friends will do for one another.

1 John 3 ¹⁶This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

What is so special about friendships that we stop what we are doing and give our full attention to these relationships?

Forgiveness is at the core of friendship. Tom Peters says corporations should actually reward people for failure, because failure means risk; and without risk there can be no success. In Laura Beth Jones book, Jesus CEO she relates a story:

I was once in a self-discovery group where people were not mincing words. One man, sitting very stiffly and quietly, was a candidate for promotion within his organization. His body language was a picture of caution and fear. Finally, a woman gave him this sound advice: "You just need to fail a few times. Then you will understand that people are going to love you even when you are not perfect."

We have all taken risks with people in the past and for many of us we have been sorely disappointed. We found out who wasn’t our friend for sure. Most of us then learned to take fewer risks so we would not feel the pain of the disappointment.

God did not rest until he created mankind in the Garden of Eden. He wanted relationships. Being his workmanship we were created in his likeness to desire relationships as well.

As we read through the Bible each story centers on the character’s relationship to others and to God. God allowed Job to be tested because he knew how strong the relationship was to begin with.

James 2 ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"^[a] and he was called God's friend.

The footnote in my Bible for “God’s friend” says, “This designation (see 2Ch 20:7) further describes Abraham’s relationship to God as one of complete acceptance.

It has been said to have a friend you must be a friend.

The Review

2 Peter 1:10 (Contemporary English Version)

¹⁰My friends, you must do all you can to show that God has really chosen and selected you. If you keep on doing this, you won't stumble and fall.

The portfolio review is one of the tensest times for most photographers. Most everyone we show our work to is someone we would like to work with and therefore anything less than I would like to use you is disappointing on some level. You are exposing your soul for review.

Some photographers have devised great presentations which help package their portfolio’s so the editor can see the images, know the skill of the photographer, how they see and have little trouble visualizing how it would look in their publication.

In photography there are generally stages of development. At Southwestern Photojournalism Conference Gary Fong and Jeanie Adams-Smith reviewed on stage three different photographers: student, pro with less than five years of experience and pro with more than five years of experience.

Gary asked how long they had been shooting and with the student he said this is good for your experience, if you had been shooting another year, not so good. With the seasoned professional photojournalist Gary and Jeanie both agreed the work was professional and technically superb. They wanted to see more intimacy in seasoned photographers work. They pointed to one photo which was a slice of life where the viewer feels like they are part of the experience and how much superior this was to the rest of his work.

At some point for the Christian photojournalist the shaft of God’s light shines brightly on you and reveals how your portfolio is a reflection of you. Are you personable? Do you get your hands dirty and into others lives? Jeanie Adams-Smith talked to one of the photographers how their photos showed their ability to get dirty.

My mentor Don Rutledge had two skills which I admired about his photography. The photo makes you feel like you are in the room with the subjects. The other skill was how Don could make the most cluttered environment coherent and beautiful. While these are excellent they were only framework for the content of most all of his photos—love. You would see straight into the subject’s situations and feel compassion for them or joy from what they were doing.

Our portfolios must “show God has really chosen and selected” us. We must do everything technically the best it can be and then we need to have our father’s eyes. We need to pray God will help us see his children as he sees them.

Photojournalism at its best is about relationships. It shows mankind interacting with one another. By doing this at our best then the world will begin to see the world as God desires and the world will know you are his disciple.

John 13:34-35 (Contemporary English Version)

³⁴But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you. ³⁵If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.

John 17:21 (Contemporary English Version)

²¹I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.

The Secret To Good Communications--A Well Told Story!

We will sit on the edge of our chairs, laugh until we cry and forget the time of day when someone tells us a good story.

There are many ways to tell a good story--my favorite is the cinema and running a close second is the theater. Both of these use more of the senses than the printed page.

Don't get me wrong, I still love a strong "decisive moment" with a still image. I even love a good story around the camp fire or bedtime story, but when all the elements are there I am transported out of my world into another realm.

Some of my favorite movies have been the ones dealing with a cross cultural experience. I love the movie "Finding Forester." I love how the classic story where two people from different cultures find a common ground and through this interaction become better people for the experience.

"Remember the Titans," is another movie which also compels me to re-exam my own life.

Great stories don't just entertain--they change us. They help us to be more human by making us see our faults and frailties. It is through the storyteller that by being transported for a while into another world that as I return to the reality of the present I am different and look at my own culture in a new way.

Sometimes I appreciate my life more and other times I am reminded of my pride and lack of compassion for my fellow man.

What is exciting for everyone is hearing another person’s personal journey. We can hear the passion in the voice which awakens our on souls to respond. Our response is what can move the relationship to the intimate. A dialogue is started where our story is requested.

As we get older we are able to polish our story because the spectacles we use to look back over our life have had time to examine and focus on the details to see the colorful thread which is in the fabric of all our lives.

We can see our gifts and how they have been used to bless others. At first we didn’t know we could do anything really well and now we see we are not better than those around, but unique. The combinations of those things we do well and don’t do as well make us different from those around us who may even have a similar profession.

The cool thing for me is when I see how my story is more of a development of a character in the bigger story of community. It is when we come together in community to share our individual journeys we are able to see how we each are part of everyone’s story.

Trauma

It has been over 20 years, but those images still haunt me. The images are from plane crashes, car wrecks, fires, lost children and others which I was covering as a newspaper photographer. It was my first job right out of college at the Hickory Daily Record.

Having just graduated with a degree in Social Work, I was probably better prepared than my colleagues who went to journalism school. Social work had trained me to deal with emotional issues. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s book On Death and Dying had introduced to me the stages of grief. She outlined the following stages in her book:

1. Denial and Isolation
   
2. Anger
   
3. Bargaining
   
4. Depression
   
5. Acceptance
   

I actually was using some of this to process the traumatic events. Probably the best thing I was doing was talking with other photographers about my experiences. I was processing.

Today we understand even more about these events and how to avoid Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD). Processing these events through journaling and talking with someone is very important.

The Dart Center(www.dartcenter.org) was setup to help journalists know how to deal with trauma and cover trauma. It still is not being taught in most journalism schools, so today there are many journalists suffering from PTSD. We need to raise the awareness of this problem and get journalists prepared so they do not become the victims of PTSD. We also need to help many heal from the disease.

Here are some ways to treat PTSD:

Behavior Therapy

The goal of behavior therapy is to modify and gain control over unwanted behavior. The person learns to cope with difficult situations, often through controlled exposure to them. This kind of therapy gives the person a sense of having control over his or her life.

Cognitive Therapy

The goal of cognitive therapy is to change unproductive or harmful thought patterns. The person examines his or her feelings and learns to separate realistic from unrealistic thoughts. As with behavior therapy, the person is actively involved in his or her own recovery and has a sense of control.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Many therapists use a combination of cognitive and behavior therapies, often referred to as cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT. One of the benefits of this type of therapy is that the person learns recovery skills that are useful for a lifetime.

Relaxation Techniques

Relaxation techniques help people develop the ability to more effectively cope with the stresses that contribute to anxiety symptoms, as well as with some of the physical symptoms of anxiety. The techniques taught include deep breathing and exercise.

It is best to seek professional counseling. If you are a journalist, then prevention is also a good course of action. Check out the resources at the Dart Center.

The Truth Needs No Ally, However Conservatives May Need One

The conservatives see the American Media’s role as Public Relations for the Executive Branch of Government. Pat Buchannan on NBC’s Today Show said the media’s role was to help bolster the troops' and the country's moral.

The media’s role isn’t public relations for the conservatives. However this is the problem with this group in power. They have continued to bash the media. I believe if the media shows them in negative light they believe the media is wrong.

The media has pursued telling the facts. They are giving Americans the facts about the conservatives and liberals.

Throughout the Clinton years the media uncovered Clinton’s infidelity. Today the have uncovered the false statements for invading Iraq.

Weapons of Mass Destruction was one of the main reasons we invaded Iraq, to be sure these weapons were not used against the rest of the world and predominately the US.

One of the flaws with this was in the best case scenario they couldn't directly launch missiles to deliver these on America.

Another fact uncovered by the media was the 9/11 terrorist were not from or connected in any way to Iraq or Sadam Hussein.

The conservatives would like you to believe they were the silent majority due to the media. This is easily dismissed as false. They have always had a voice and been visible. Today their tactics are not to only be heard, but only their perspective heard by all the media.

The conservatives could not elect a candidate of their own without a media. They got their message out through the media.

The conservatives see by the "media" exposing our flaws to the world as a way we become vulnerable. The cause is important to pursue and if the "media" would show the positives (PR role) then we could accomplish our objective.

The ends justify the means. Therefore if there is flaws in the process this doesn’t matter as long as we establish a democratic state in the Middle East to help bolster Israel.

I believe what is finally starting to happen with the conservative’s media bashing and sticking to their mission no matter the flaws is the American public will not support blindly as they have done. The number of lives being lost daily is causing people who believed in the ideals of the conservative movement to question their validity for the first time.

Bush cited how many of Iraqis Sadam killed (Kurds for example) is one of the reasons he is labled a terrorist. By using this reasoning, we have killed more civilians than Sadam due to our preemptive strike in this last war with Iraq.

“Senior Muslim clerics said Thursday (March 23, 2006) that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity should be killed regardless of whether a court decides to free him.” Now Americans are upset they sent their boys and men to fight for a group who will put to death a person for becoming a Christian. Finally America is getting they cannot force another culture to accept our culture of freedom of religion.

It is quite ironic that we believe the only way for democracy to prevail is by preemptive force.