Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Photojournalism (3): Elements of lines and shapes

Update as of September 18, 2023:

If you’re a high school or grade school student in the Philippines who’s joining the photojournalism contest in the division, regional, or national press conference, I’m offering two free resources to you :

A. 900-plus interactive exercises on English grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal analogy, etc (with around 200 megabytes total file size). The exercises have time limit and automatic scoring, with an average of 10 items per exercise.

Examples of these interactive exercises are: Common English grammar errors: Exercise 01 (nouns - confusions of number); Phrasal Verbs: Expressions with Go; English Placement Test (45 items).

B. 200-plus resources (JPG, PDF, MP4, etc.) on photography and photojournalism, with 600-plus megabytes total file size. For some examples of these resources, surf to the “Free photography e-books, cheat sheets” page.

For the download links and more information about how to use the interactive exercises, please surf to my “Better English resources and exercises” blog. Please inform your journalism teacher/schoolpaper adviser or your parents about these resources before downloading them.

If you have any question about downloading or using these free resources, please email me (after informing your journalism teacher/schoolpaper adviser or your parents). I’ll be able to reply to you within two to three days; if you don’t see my reply in your Inbox, check your Spam folder. Or, you can text me.

Also, if you win in the photojournalism contest at whatever level (district, division, regional, or national), you can send me your prizewinning pictures, and I will feature them in a blog post.

Atty. Gerry T. Galacio
gtgalacio@yahoo.com
0927-798-3138


Lines are the most basic component of a photographic image, and can be classified into two ways - physical lines, and imaginary lines of force and direction.

Physical lines

These lines are those that exist in the empirical world like painted lines on the streets or on the basketball court, the lines on a piece of paper and the bare branches of a tree suffering under summer’s merciless sun ... I know, I know, it’s such a corny line!

Imaginary lines of force and direction

This kind of lines exists only in our minds
like the rows of CAT cadets in a fancy drill competition below, the direction in which persons look, like these guys and girls all looking at the little girl with the pig tails at the extreme left, the dancers looking towards to the right; the direction in which moving objects travel, the imaginary lines created when we divide something up like a very real, very delicious pizza..

Rizal High School fancy drill competition 1995; vertical lines express movement and dynamism; photo by Atty. Galacio
Rizal High School Musical Theater 1993; imaginary lines of direction; photo by Atty. Galacio
Rizal High School 1995; imaginary lines of direction; photo by Atty. Galacio(Please take note that the pictures I will be posting to illustrate this series on photojournalism are more than a decade old, and thus leave a lot to be desired in terms of quality. I shot all these pictures using my Canon AE-1 Program camera and mostly Kodak Tri-X film. This film is reportedly the favorite of Sebastiao Salgado, considered as the world’s best photojournalist.)

Psychological effects of lines

Lines have profound psychological effects on the viewers;
for example, pictures containing horizontal lines evoke feelings of serenity, stability, while vertical lines have a sense of energy, grandeur. Diagonal lines, like those in the picture of the marching cadets above (the crossbands on their uniforms, their rifles, their left legs thrusting forward in cadence) express movement and dynamism.

Rizal High School Main Bldg 1995; psychological effects of lines; photo by Atty. Galacio Element of shape

Lines when joined together create two-dimensional shapes like circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, polygons, etc.
Shapes attract our attention first and foremost whenever we look at photographs. Everyday objects are rich sources of shapes; some shapes will be obvious like the painted circle in the middle of the gymnasium below, and the water hose (very first picture above).

Lines and shapes; photo by Atty. GalacioPhotography and pizza

Tim Burton is the world famous director of such movies as “Edward Scissorhands”, “Beetlejuice,” and “Batman” parts 1 and 2. One time, while he was doing post-production work on the Batman 2 movie, he got hungry so he ordered out for some pizza. He got a mild surprise when upon opening the box, he found several pictures on top of the pizza.

The pizza delivery guy, named John Pezzota if I remember right, was a struggling photographer working part time at a pizza joint to support himself. When he found out that it was Tim Burton who was ordering the pizza, he took a chance by placing some of his black and white pictures in the pizza box.

Well, Tim Burton did like the pizza, and the photographer’s dark somber style which suited Batman 2’s moody atmosphere. The result? The photographer got the job of shooting the movie posters of Batman played by Michael Keaton and Catwoman played by Michelle Pffeifer. Cowabunga!

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Photojournalism (2): Elements of photojournalism, with videos

Update as of September 18, 2023:

If you’re a high school or grade school student in the Philippines who’s joining the photojournalism contest in the division, regional, or national press conference, I’m offering two free resources to you :

A. 900-plus interactive exercises on English grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal analogy, etc (with around 200 megabytes total file size). The exercises have time limit and automatic scoring, with an average of 10 items per exercise.

Examples of these interactive exercises are: Common English grammar errors: Exercise 01 (nouns - confusions of number); Phrasal Verbs: Expressions with Go; English Placement Test (45 items).

B. 200-plus resources (JPG, PDF, MP4, etc.) on photography and photojournalism, with 600-plus megabytes total file size. For some examples of these resources, surf to the “Free photography e-books, cheat sheets” page.

For the download links and more information about how to use the interactive exercises, please surf to my “Better English resources and exercises” blog. Please inform your journalism teacher/schoolpaper adviser or your parents about these resources before downloading them.

If you have any question about downloading or using these free resources, please email me (after informing your journalism teacher/schoolpaper adviser or your parents). I’ll be able to reply to you within two to three days; if you don’t see my reply in your Inbox, check your Spam folder. Or, you can text me.

Also, if you win in the photojournalism contest at whatever level (district, division, regional, or national), you can send me your prizewinning pictures, and I will feature them in a blog post.

Atty. Gerry T. Galacio
gtgalacio@yahoo.com
0927-798-3138


Elements of photojournalism (from Wikipedia)


1. Timeliness — the images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events.

2. Objectivity — the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone.

3. Narrative — the images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level.

Elements of Photojournalism



The best photographs in photojournalism, 1943 to the present, from Pictures of the Year International (POYi)


Best of POYi from Pictures of the Year on Vimeo.

Relevant articles and downloads on photojournalism



Stacy Pearsall, combat photographer for the US Air Force:

“By the time I was considered to be combat ready, I was aerial qualified and had attended ground survival and evasion courses, prisoner of war training, water survival school and close quarters combat training.”

“From the age of 21 to the age of 27, I captured over 500,000 images from over 41 different countries. I was considered the best photographer in the military and was the first woman to have won the Military Photographer of the Year twice.” (Read the complete article or download sample pages from her book.)



Articles

The Definition of Photojournalism: Looking at Ethics in Photojournalism; Basic Principles of Photojournalism; Photojournalism Careers: Looking at Photojournalism Degree Requirements; Photojournalism Photography: Capturing Events (Pre-Shooting); Preparing for Your First Shoot as a Photojournalist

Downloads

A Photojournalist’s Field Guide: In the Trenches with Stacy Pearsall (58 sample pages; 6.97 MB); Photojournalism Curriculum Guide – Texas Association of Journalism Educators (16 pages; 119.84 KB); Photojournalism history (42 slides; 36.33 MB); History of Photojournalism - Legacy Student Media (34 slides; 2.91 MB); Photojournalism in the U.S. and Germany: A Comparative View (44 slides; 2.92 MB)

Photojournalism videos


The Power of Photojournalism





7 Photojournalism Tips by Reuters Photographer Damir Sagolj (Thomson Reuters Foundation)



Photography Techniques: Photojournalism Tips From Ed Kashi (Advancing Your Photography)



Documentary Photography: Tips & Advice by Daniel Milnor (Advancing Your Photography)



The Best Of Photography Awards Pulitzer, World Press