Making Your Photos Tell a Story

Joan Rudder — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:30:00 -0400

I hope your Independence Day holiday was an enjoyable one! Since there are usually so many activities during the summer months and the approaching Fall holiday season, I thought it appropriate to address ways to use story-telling techniques for your photographic endeavors.

When you have somewhat of a plan as to the story you want to convey with the images for the event or occasion that you're photographing, it actually makes the picture-taking process easier, yielding more pleasing results because you're not leaving getting the right pictures to chance.

Let’s put you in the role of a photojournalist. You are on assignment to capture an event that will only happen once. Indeed, most of the events that we capture do only happen once. Even if it’s an event that repeats (such as an expectant mom having multiple baby showers for the same pregnancy --such as the case of my former assistant who has had three to date) there will be changes in the details—people attending, weather conditions, locations, etc. A story can be better told with a series of photographs, and not just trying to get one perfect picture—though that one perfect picture can be the icing on the cake--however, you want to make sure you have that foundational cake made from the ingredients of images that capture the moments that make the story.

Therefore, in planning your story, what are the two important things that a story needs? A beginning and an ending, of course, with a variety of images in between. So to start, you can think of what would be appropriate for a beginning photograph, and also what will be your parting shot.

I’ll share from the event I attended this past Independence Day at White Park in Riverside, CA. The Riverside County Philharmonic Foundation held a July 4th Patriots Concert, honoring the military armed forces of the area. The four -hour event included a catered meal for VIP participants (of which I was privy to since I went with a friend who had tickets for the VIP meal and seating), an award ceremony, a musical program featuring the Riverside Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus, with the evening ending with a fireworks show put on by the city of Riverside.

So keeping the festivities in mind and having an idea of how I wanted my story to go, I was able to plan the equipment I was going to take. Since I decided I wanted to end my story with fireworks, I knew I would need to take a tripod with me to support the camera during the longer-than-normal exposures that would necessary to capture the fireworks the way I wanted to. My goal was to capture the essence of the evening, documenting the highlights while telling the story.

So here's my story: We arrived about 6 in the evening to an event that was already in full swing with music playing from the orchestra stand, the grassy areas already populated with people who brought their lawn chairs and blankets, staking claim to their spots for the evening . My beginning shots are of the entrance arch to the park, and of the young lady who greeted us by handing us a small flag and program.

There was a large, nice display of the honorees so I took a photo of that as an additional anchor shot.

To capture the essence of the event, I took a wide view of the people and surroundings, and then throughout the evening took in closer, more intimate shots.

Can't miss the food! That's an important part of this festivity!

An announcement was made that a procession of bagpipe players would start at a certain time. To my chagrin, I didn’t prepare myself to be a the right place to capture that, so I missed that photo opportunity (it happens). I did capture images that expressed the tone, the purpose of the event through photos of the military personnel, the orchestra, and the fireworks later.

To give another example: A customer of mine is planning a first birthday party for her daughter. Two grandmothers and an aunt are flying in from different parts of the country to participate. How can she capture the memories for cherishing now, and also with her daughter when she is older? She can have her camera ready to take ‘pre-party’ images. . .capturing the grandmothers and aunt when they arrive; their first interactions with the toddler they haven’t seen in a while; subsequent interactions as they feed her, play with her, etc. The day of the party, the preparation scenes and images of the birthday girl as she is being made ready. Then of course the festivities of the party, capturing candid images of all of the attendees. She can plan to end her story with a group shot of all in attendance with the birthday girl in the center; or she could take pictures of the birthday girl surrounded by her gifts.

Some points to remember to help the planning process:

Think of yourself as a photojournalist sharing with an audience the moments of the event
Plan the beginning and ending shots for your story
Take a wide view of to capture the essence of the event, as well as close, intimate shots of attendants
Make your photos of people be natural ones, where they are interacting and not looking at the camera
Think of the story you want to tell, and then get the images that help you tell it.
Photograph using various angles.
If you are in the company of others, have a group shot taken of all of you. You can set your camera on a tripod for a time exposure, or you can usually get a passerby to take the photo for you.

Happy Shooting!

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Making Your Photos Tell a Story