Reading Reflections - Broccoli, KFKD, and Jealousy

BROCCOLI

The idea that broccoli tells you how it wants to be written reminds me of my first MPW. I was having my portfolio reviewed by Scott Sines and we were talking about how to crop images. I asked him when he crops if he tries to keep the photo to, relatively, the original proportions. He said, “A photo will tell you what size it wants to be.” I think this fits perfectly with the idea of broccoli telling someone how it wants to be eaten. However, I don’t like broccoli so I will use the photo cropping reference in the future.

There are times while photographing that people can overthink what they are trying to do. Rule of thirds! No cliché silhouettes. DON’T CROP HEADS! If we are beholden to the rules we will miss so many opportunities to make great photos. This also reminds me of a quote from Alan Watts. The quote was originally about faith but I think it still applies here. “…Trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.” Photography can be simple and it can be super complex at the same time. Before anything can be constructed, framed, shot – we must first see, and then let the rest fall into place.

KFKD

This section was accurate and also not at all. The idea of self-doubt is as universal as life itself. There are the proverbial angel and demon on the shoulders. The little voices that say either “Turn back immediately” or “You totally got this!” The challenge is trying to balance the two voices and making sure one doesn’t get more attention than the other. You are not invincible, but you aren’t made of glass either. It is important to take risks from time to time. But they should be calculated risks. This applies to creative endeavors as well. If you shoot the same thing every time, you won’t grow as a photographer or as a storyteller.

What was wrong with this section was how she said metal music is a distraction. NEGATIVE! It might be a distraction to her, but instead of generalizing it to “a music you dislike” she picked heavy metal. Everyone has there one style of music that they can’t stand, however, metal seems to be the one that is picked on the most. That’s fine; we are just fine without you!

“Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.” – Sitting Bull

JEALOUSY

I think this one fits photography and photographers like a glove. We are often critical of other’s work simply because we didn’t get the shot or didn’t find that assignment. Instead of raising each other up in a time where we are getting laid off left and right, we make negative comments and slam one another to other photographers. Jealousy is ugly. However, it can be used as a motivating factor to be better than you were the day before. If it is used to increase the desire to be better then, by all means, be jealous! But if it only makes you complain and tear down, please check the attitude at the door (or we’ll confiscate your camera!).

Generations

The story that I ended up with wasn’t the story that I pitched. The original story about the Armenian herpetologist fell through after he failed to respond in time. As I was leaving to photograph the assignment that I am submitting, he answered back saying that he wouldn’t be able to participate. It’s a good thing I was already on the road to another assignment.

The story that I photographed is about Jake Gleason and working on his family farm. I didn’t have much time to work with since it was my backup option. I left on a Thursday and they were having their biggest livestock sale of the year the next day. It worked out because the sale is a big deal on their calendar. What didn’t work was that they had already finished all of the work to prepare for the sale, so there wasn’t much for them to do the few days I was there. I wanted to avoid shooting the sale as an event coverage assignment, but it ended up turning into that. I was able to focus on Jake and I think it worked out well with the shots I got from the sale. I was also able to get a few shots of him working with the pigs that his family raises.

It’s funny how things workout. I went to school with Gleason, and competed against him 4-H. I never thought about doing an assignment like this before I came to Mizzou. It’s as if you have to get away to see where you were standing. I am glad that I was able to photograph this assignment. It was challenging because of the changing conditions from going inside to out. And the editing was also a challenge because of the different times of day and changing locations. That was my biggest problem. I was having difficulties transitioning from one place to another. I shot in three different buildings, three different locations, and three different times of day. It was a challenge, but I think I was successful with what I came away with.

Another issue that I had was that I didn’t read the instructions on the assignment sheet. I was basing my work off of what was discussed in class. I ended up with a video containing 36 photos. It was only after I spoke with Halee Rock that I discovered that I had enough for two assignments. Maybe two chapters? Maybe not. I cut the video down to 20 photos and could potentially remove one or two more, but I think it works great the way it is.

I am not sure what I would change if I could shoot this again. I would have defiantly liked to have been there the weekend before and shot them getting everything ready. If that had happened I would have definitely submitted this as my 30-day idea. It is a little far, but the spring is when most farms explode with activity. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to do a story that far away for that amount of time. I am happy with what I came up with. It was challenging, but just like farming, the challenge is part of the reward.

For some reason Blogger won't let a Vimeo link to be embedded. This is the link

https://vimeo.com/160046441

POYi Reaction - They got it right! Well, in one category at least

This year’s Pictures of the Year international competition featured over 1500 picture stories. This seems to be higher than last year, but I am not exactly sure one that. One negative found after looking through the numbers was that the Newspaper News Picture Story category only had 37 entries and the Newspaper Issue Reporting Picture Story only had 44. This appears to be a reflection of the downsizing of many newspapers and how photographers were and still are the hardest ones hit by these cuts.

Now we move from the negative to the less negative. Overall the judges seemed to be unhappy with the quality of the work that was submitted this year. Many of their complaints echoed complaints from years past. The one big one was the lack of proper story editing. A few of the judges would speak highly of a story, but would later vote it out because the edit wasn’t tight enough. In the final rounds, they said editing will make a story rise to the next level, or leave it behind.

A second, seemingly annual, complaint was the lack of visual variety in the stories. As the later round progressed, the judges would view all the photos from one story on the screen at the same time. This allowed them to compare the photos all together. On several occasions, a judge would make a comment about the size of the subject’s head being the same in all of the pictures, or how the photographer always seemed to the same distance from the subject. The judges said this made them loose interest in the story very quickly.

Another critique that I heard that was more prevalent than I remember from the previous competitions, was that the photographers were not getting close enough to their subjects. This is from a personal, emotional standpoint. Many of the stories that were voted out quickly in the later rounds were done so because the judges felt that the photographer was just there to shoot a story, not necessarily getting to know the person, or allow the people viewing the photos to get to know the subject.

A final, over-all, comment that was made was about the differences between a picture story and a photo essay. This isn’t a knock on the photographers more than an observation about the organization of the categories. The felt that it was very difficult to compare one against the other, or as Rick Shaw would say “comparing apples to tacos.” What I gathered from this discussion was that the two are obviously different in the way the are shot and constructed, they are also very different in the way they are consumed by viewers. This idea will help me in the future when deciding between a story or an essay and how I will cover each one differently.

Moving to a more specific realm, I am choosing to focus on the stories from the Science and Natural History Picture Story Category. I am sure most of my fellow classmates will speak to the other pictures story categories and I am happy to let them do so. This category had a large range of coverage. Topics went from natural disasters to more long-term issues such as drought and poaching. On of the stories consisted of light painting in which someone would draw the creatures that were native to the area. It went out quickly, but it was neat to see something that gave pause for a little bit because of its uniqueness. One story that stuck out to me was the one titled “Porcine Royalty and the Hunger for DNA Superiority.” It was about how the meat industry in the Philippines is being reshaped because of increasing demands. The story wasn’t necessarily that great of a draw, but the way in which the photographer shot it was. The story was black and white and a lot of the images were very harsh and high contrast because of the uses of direct, unmodified flash. This created an uneasy feeling as if the viewer is looking at something they are not supposed to see. It is dark and the only light comes in short bursts. It is a great example of how the story is important, but the way it is shot is also important. If this was all shot during the golden hour and had beautiful colors (like the mangrove forest story), it wouldn’t be nearly as effective. 

I had no complaints about the stories that the judges chose as their award winners. After seeing what was in the category I think the narrowed it down to the best there was. The mink harvesting story that was awarded first had everything a story should have. It had visual variety and it had a story arc following the animals through this process (it also worked as a process story).

After listening to the judges and seeing what kind of work is being done, I gained a better understanding of what it means to be a visual storyteller. It is much more difficult than some may think. But in that same regard, it can be much more rewarding as well.