I am in JOUR 425 this semester, and one of our projects is to take a picture. That task seems simple enough, right? Well, that's what I thought going into this project. However, this picture had to be newsworthy - something that could possibly go on a front page. It had to tell a story, rather than show what something looked like.
I started out on my mission to get a photograph (I should have started sooner). I stopped in at Bevier Cafe and took a few pictures of the staff working. I got a great picture(at least what I thought was) of the Chef working. However, this picture was simply the Chef chopping up vegetables. People could see he was working in a kitchen, but it did not tell a story. Yes, it was a "pretty" picture, as the bright green lettuce contrasted very nicely with his black and white apron. But it was not a newsworthy photo.
I never realized how difficult it is to take a great picture for a newspaper. I recently heard somebody talk about "snapping" off some photos. Immediately, I thought to myself..."snapping pictures?!" After completing this assignment, I see it more as capturing a moment that tells a story. It can take as little as a half an hour or as long as an entire day to take a great photograph. Patience is of essence.
Therefore, from this point on, I have so much more respect for photographers. It truly is an art that takes practice, time and patience. Hopefully I can find these attributes to get a good grade on my re-do photo assignment!
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I too am guilty of underestimating the time and patience involved with getting a newsworthy photo. I thought that the assignment would be easy as well, but it turned out to be one of the most challenging projects I have done in my journalism coursework. I definitely have more respect now for photographers who can capture these moments and tell the real story. Since I am not a patient person, I probably will not be pursuing a career in photojournalism too soon.
ReplyDeletePhotography is an art, and a lot of work, as I have learned in my multimedia journalism course. Not only does it take a long time to find and capture a newsworthy subject (I agree with you that it is not a "snap") but it also takes people skills and quick action to get enough information about people's names, ages and hometowns to put in a caption. Since a photo supposedly is worth 1,000 words (more than twice the length of a typical news story, in The Daily Illini, at least) maybe it takes as much work for someone who's used to writing news stories to take a newsworthy photograph.
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