Make the scene
Artists’ photography can be landscape or portraiture or tableau, natural or surreal. Artists get to be choosy. Photojournalists make choices, too, but not about subjects, rarely about settings, and never effects. In my work, I’ve tried to convey the enthusiasm I’ve felt for every assignment I’ve taken.
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Faces I remember
A photojournalist is given an assignment to “shoot” (unfortunate industry lingo). There’s little more direction or opportunity beyond the still subject. At times, there’s no activity. No motion. It’s up to the photojournalist to layer the focal point of the shot (the subjects, but specifically their eyes) with other objects near and far, left or right, or to stoop low or reach high to lead the viewer on a very momentary, very subtle visual ride.
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The play within a frame
In my work as a photojournalist I’ve covered many more galas, gatherings, art openings and theatrical events than courtrooms, police chases, weather destruction or demonstrations. I’ve always seized on a moment that might, however ephemerally, give a newspaper reader some sense of the frisson attendees felt in that moment the night before.
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Photo potpourri, or 'Best of the Rest'
In a newspaper, photos picked to anchor a 1-A cover are typically narrative. That is, multiple elements there in the frame collude to give readers a notion of what happened, what’s important. And wouldn’t you like to find out more? That’s as it should be, but some of my favorite photojournalism is inside the pages. There, editors pick photographs that are detailed, sometimes quizzical, unclear, even costive.
Video is the radio star
Whether a public radio editor or an inbound marketer, communicators are orienting toward video features. Survey data of marketers suggest 9 in 10 are confident video, despite production time and money, presents a high return on investment. On social media and elsewhere, video can influence traffic, generate engagement — and subscriptions, sales! — and reach new audiences.