Photojournalism (31): Photo essays and sequence shots

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

“Hit or miss, trial and error, better luck next time, try and try again, next time make sure you’ve got film on your camera before you shoot, okay?”

These expressions best describe the emotions, the frustrations, the experiences you’ll have as you start to learn about photography. Some experiences you’d rather forget, some missed shots you’ll regret forever but just like life, photography is one activity where learning means building up through your experiences, growing by stages ... As rock star Alanis Morissette said in a hit song many years ago, “You live, you learn!”

Select your shots

One stage that you’ll go through as the photography bug hits you, is indiscriminate shooting. If you see something, you shoot it. If it’s out there, you shoot it. If something moves, you shoot it. You buy some more film, you shoot again ... As your skills improve however, you’ll become more selective in your shots. Your standards will become higher, and you’ll also realize that you don’t have enough money to buy all the film you need or want! (The high cost of film and processing, and the immediate results are some of the reasons why digital photography is such a big hit these days.)

Example of sequence shots

Remember our discussion of types of pictures and sequence shots? A sequence, as the term denotes, is a series of pictures of one subject, shot one after another. A photo sequence may or may not illustrate a certain idea or theme, but the series of pictures provides the viewers with more visual information about your subject. (Later on, you will learn that you can create a photo essay out of sequence shots.)

A. “Thoughts on graduation day” (photo essay using sequence shots with captions)

In the following pictures, I asked my Class 1990 yearbook staffer Eric to pose by the dike at the back of Rizal High School in Pasig (formerly credited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s biggest high school). I was on the 3rd floor of a building with my beloved Canon AE-1 Program camera fitted with a Vivitar Series 1 70-210 mm zoom lens.

I wanted to express the contemplative mood and loneliness a senior normally goes through as graduation time comes near. I just wanted two elements in my picture - Eric and the still waters of the Marikina River flowing behind the Rizal High School campus in Pasig City. The first two pictures of the scene below were the ones I needed to express what I wanted.

But then, I saw the tugboat coming from the left. I switched on the power winder of my camera. I shot about 20 frames all in all as the tugboat passed Eric and created ripples on the water. Serendipity! I had a photo essay that could be used to illustrate life cycles, transient moments, peace and serenity, consequences and change!

We have spent four memorable years here in our beloved school, and the days leading to our graduation day have seen a thousand questions tumbling in our hearts and minds. Where do we go from here?

For some, the future beckons brightly as they are blessed not only with talent and intelligence but also with open doors and countless opportunities.For some the future looks dark and dreary, as innocent adolescent pursuits give way to serious concerns for jobs and financial security, with a college education merely a mirage in the dry desert sand of our crushed hopes and ruined dreams. And still for some of us, there is simply no future to speak about.

Still other questions haunt us as we rush from one graduation practice to another, from one class party to another …Will our friends in high school remember us through the passing of the years, through the changes in our lives, and through the distance of separation made more poignant when no letters come and birthdays are forgotten?

Will our friends still be there for us when problems come and solutions seem so elusive? Will our friends remain true to us even as they meet other people and encounter new experiences, or will the friendship we thought would never end, prove finally to be weak and temporal?

Will the joys and pains, heartbreaks and happiness we all shared be simply swept aside, never to be remembered, never to be allowed even a little space in our memories? Will the hopes and ambitions, the secret dreams we have dared to share only with our truest friends, be simply forgotten or revealed to others in careless, thoughtless ways?

Will our names be remembered? Will our friendships last? Will our friends still be our friends? Life oftentimes has a cruel way of frustrating our dreams, of crushing our ambitions, of ending our friendships …

But our friends have made a promise always to remember … Life indeed must move on, to bigger things, to better places … and we grow up, physically, emotionally and intellectually, and we will no longer be the kind of persons we were in our high school days …

The saddest truth in the whole universe is that time changes everything.

But our friends have made a promise always to remember …

But as we lie awake at night, the caressing wind carries to our consciousness the melodies of songs that brought wonder and meaning to our lives, songs that signified every turning point in our destinies, songs that we once shared and sang together as friends …

Slowly, the half-forgotten lyrics become clearer and they bring us back to our high school days …

Indeed, we have promised always to t remember. We can always remember. We must always remember …

Pssst, Eric! It has been eighteen years since 1990 when I asked you to pose by the dike. You can move away from the dike now, and go on with your life, okay?

B. The pictures below are sequence shots of a senior class having their yearbook picture taken.

I shot these pictures way back in 1991 with my beloved Canon AE-1 Program camera fitted with an FD f/1.8 50 mm lens, a yellow-green filter, and a power winder. After I shot the formal class picture, the fun began. If you mouse over each picture, the caption will appear for a few seconds.

Photojournalism (29): Shooting at night

When darkness sets in, beginning photographers like some of you, would just pack away your cameras and go home to watch your favorite telenovela. Some of you, however, might automatically turn on your camera flash. While your flash is an oftentimes indispensable tool, it creates harsh shadows, and there are situations when your flash output won’t be enough to properly illuminate your subject.

Free articles and cheat sheets from Digital Camera World: Night photography: how to shoot popular low-light scenes Night photography: set up your camera to shoot anything 12 common errors of night photography (and how to fix them) Night photography tips: 9 essential steps for beginners

In this kind of situation, you have to use the B-setting on your SLR camera’s shutter speed dial. With a lot of camera models, the slowest shutter speed is 30 seconds. After this number, you’ll find the letter “B” on the shutter speed dial. With some advanced camera models, there’s no longer any B-setting. Instead, you will find slow shutter speeds of 45 to 60 seconds or even more.

(I have been using a borrowed amateur model digital camera for only a short period of time. So I don’t know yet how to shoot pictures at night using a digital camera. But once I learn how, I will tell you about it, okay?)

Here’s how to use the B-setting:


(1) Place your camera on a tripod, a table or any sturdy structure.

(2) Attach a cable release to your shutter release button.

(3) Focus on your subject.

(4) Fire the shutter, lock the cable release.

(5) Release the lock after you reach your desired exposure time.

Use a watch with a seconds hand to time your exposures. Keep a flashlight handy also, so you can always check on your settings and surroundings. Make sure you’re not stepping on a snake or something, okay?

Reciprocity failure

Take note that with long exposure times, "reciprocity failure" will occur. What does this mean? The effective ISO rating of your film decreases, resulting in underexposed shots. What’s the solution? Adjust your lens opening; using still longer exposure times will only worsen the problem. (If you're using a digital camera, there's no need to worry about reciprocity failure, okay?)

Believe it or not, the picture above (which I took way back during the 1993 National Secondary Schools Press Conference held in Rizal High School in Pasig) became controversial. When we published this picture in our yearbook, a lot of people said that the three people on the lower left hand corner were ghosts! They said, “Look at their clothes, they’re like those worn by our Spanish ancestors. And look, their images aren’t solid. They’re transparent, the light just goes through them.”

Look at the picture above. These aren’t ghosts; they’re my staffers whom I asked to pose underneath the lamp post. I used f/5.6 as lens opening and 30 seconds as shutter speed. Somebody walked by, between my staffers and my camera which was set on a tripod. But where is he in the picture? No matter how and where you look, you won’t find that guy. Why? He did not stay in one place long enough to be recorded in my film.

Coming back to the controversial picture above, these three people (delegates from Region 10 or 12, if I remember right) stayed in their place long enough for them to be recorded on film. But since they were moving about a little (I used f/8 at 45 seconds), their images aren’t solid but blurred, almost transparent, lacking solidity. This kind of images is called “ghost images.” Ghost images, not actual ghosts, okay?

Light streaks and trails

If your subject includes fast moving vehicles, you won’t be able to record them on film since they wouldn’t be staying in one place long enough to be recorded. But you will be able to record their lights in terms of streaks and trails. If you’re shooting color film, the light trails will be red (for brake lights) and yellow (for headlights).

Auras and Kirlian photography


Psychics believe that every person projects an “aura” which are visible to them but not to others. “Kirlian photography,” a process developed by the Russians (I stand to be corrected on this, okay?) is said to be able to record on film a person’s aura. Actually, this process records electrical discharges emitted by the human body.

How to focus when shooting at night

Because of the darkness, you might find it difficult focusing on your subject. Solution? Try focusing on distinct points of light near your subject, like the streetlights in the picture below. I took this picture of the floodway in Pasig sometime in 1997 or 1998. I used my beloved Canon AE-1 Program camera and a Vivitar 28-210 mm zoom lens to take this shot. The streetlights seem a bit out of focus; that’s because I took the shot from the middle of the Legaspi Bridge spanning the two banks of the floodway. A lot of vehicles were moving across the bridge, and, although mounted on a sturdy tripod, my camera would shake a bit as vehicles passed by. (As motorists passed by me, some would tease me by saying, “Kami na lang ang kunan mo!”)

Also, you’ll notice that when you have locked your cable release, you wouldn’t be able to see your subject through the viewfinder. This “image blackout” occurs because the rapid return mirror is blocking your view of the image.

Bracketing your shots

It is really only experience which can tell you how long your exposures should be. Always bracket your shots, therefore. This simply means to take several shots using different exposure times. (Of course, with photo editing software, you can edit and manipulate your images to your heart’s content and to achieve the look you want.)


If you use small apertures or lens openings (more on this topic later on), you’ll create cross screen patterns similar to the effect created by starburst filters. In the picture above, you can see these patterns in the lights hanging on the trees.

On the bottom portion of the picture above, what can you see? Oh, my ghosts!