If
there's one thing that a photograph can do well it's to tell a story in
a single picture. Think of all the great images in history: Alfred
Eisenstaedt's photo of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on VJ
day, Edie Adams' horrific image of a man being assassinated in the
streets of Saigon--these are images that have burned themselves into
our collective consciousness and recorded important moments in history
in a single frame.
You may not be witness to such iconic moments
in history, but there's no reason you can't use your camera to tell
powerful stories. All it takes is a ready camera and an awareness of
those interesting vignettes in life that happen around us everyday. I
took this photo of the famous "Love" sculpture, for example, while
walking in Manhattan one afternoon. As I approached the statue I saw
this young couple (on the right) posing for a friend with a camera,
then I noticed the homeless person sleeping on the sculpture. It seemed
like such a vast contrast in how people were relating to the sculpture:
to one it was a romantic venue, to the other, a bed. To the left
businessmen were passing by, seemingly oblivious to the contrast in
life experiences happening a few feet away from them. The whole event
happened so quickly that I didn't even have time to put the camera to
my eye, I simply aimed the camera from the hip and fired two quick
frames. The photo was later used in my book The Joy of Digital Photography
and has gotten a lot of comments from readers. Of course, some people
that look at the shot only notice the sculpture, which astounds me! I
guess they are like the businessmen: completely jaded to human moments
in the city.
Telling stories with you camera is great fun and
even if you don't shoot for a living, you can share these pictures with
the world through your own website or Flickr photostream.
Interestingly, you have almost as much of a potential audience through
Flickr or another photo-sharing community as Eisenstaedt or Adams did
via the front-pages of newspapers and magazines. The Internet has the
potential to make photojouralists out of anyone that is in the right
place at the right time to tell an interesting story. And if you do
happen to stumble into a major news event, the many opportunities you
have to share your photos instantly with major news agencies, via
programs like CNN's "iReports," offer huge potential to have your
photos seen by the world. The Internet and global television stations
have created the most democratic journalistic opportunities in history.
Take Cool Night Photos
Entire Site Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Wignall
An Ambitious Dogs Production In Association with Boo Boo & Mama Cat Films Please also visit my Photo Tip of the Day blog.
