Just a little commentary on this photo of my nephew and a trend in my storytelling acuity.

Lately I have noticed that while working on a shoot that I’m familiar with, that familiarity might be impacting the type of visuals I chose to capture.

The above image is the latest example of… what should I call it… hmm — maybe ‘method photography.’  Kind of like method acting, but with a camera.

method acting : noun
a technique of acting in which an actor aspires to complete emotional identification with a part, based on the system evolved by Stanislavsky and brought into prominence in the U.S. in the 1930s. (dictionary)

Yea, this sort of works for what I have been feeling lately.  That when I have a subject, like swimming, to which I have over 15 years under my belt as a competitor and coach, I unconsciously avoid shooting common/banal moments.

Instead I look for things that strike a chord with a particular memory, sensation, setting or mood. I try to find moments that are uniquely tied to the subject’s emotional truth.

That’s where the staging photo resonates for me.  I didn’t bother shooting the start, the curled up tension before the starter buzzer or the act of swimming as a still photo.  They were old-hat.  Been there, done that.

In that moment I saw myself, sitting in the shade with a breeze putting a chill on the excitement of championship swimming.  Young enough to see the pool length as an ocean.  Nerves on edge, toes upturned, knees knocking while rubbing arms to beat back the shiver. Focused, looking down the lane past the starting block drowning out the crowd noise.

For me, the moment right before being called up onto the block was surreal and especially so during my first couple years competing.  These were emotions that I understood and capturing them felt gratifying.

This scene portrays a moment that may be a bit too insider.  But to a former competitive swimmer they should evoke small, unique memories of times past.

At the end of the day, however, I fear images that have storytelling layers known among a small group fail for the general population.

method photography : noun

a technique of capturing a moment that is emotionally unique to it’s subject, however understanding its complexity escapes the general public. (TJ)

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Some of the most profound storytelling images provide a path for everyday viewers to put themselves into.   I feel that on stories that I really know, I sometimes miss the photos that people can identify with and readily understand the layers within the image.

If I go to shoot something I’ve never been exposed too, I find myself approaching it as an everyman.  Ya’ know — ‘just tell the story stupid’ — kind of direction.

Then on the flipside when I’m investing time with something dear to me, I push hard to capture those few, sometimes fleeting moments that not everyone may understand.  All the while muddling though the moments most people can identify with because I’m in pursuit of that unique moment.

Ultimately  — on known subjects, I want to provide that insider/unique perspective to the public and I’m concerned that because of that desire I am not making the everyday blue-collar photo stronger.

This is probably something that I will be talking with the great people at the herald who are willing to lay it down when I need help.

Who knows, maybe I’m doing fine. But I will be paying closer attention to more general subject images after my time-off this week.

]]> http://wearemytown.com/2010/08/swim-staging-solace/feed/ 0 http://wearemytown.com/2010/04/were-monitoring-3-go-to-kimandtj-com-for-updates/ http://wearemytown.com/2010/04/were-monitoring-3-go-to-kimandtj-com-for-updates/#comments Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:26:25 +0000 TJ Mullinax http://wearemytown.com/?p=576

Listening in on baby #3.

Yup, baby #3 is still cooking, past due by 1 day. Since this site was set up more as a mobile blog focused on journalism topics and new media stuff I have re-launched (long-overdue) our family Web site; Kim and TJ — http://kimandtj.com.  It should look similar but it will contain family content and updates.

As for why you should care in the next few days especially?!?  Because the refreshed kimandtj.com site will contain baby #3 updates, photos, videos, etc.  Maybe even a live video feed (not of the birth mind you) or two before and after baby is born.

I also plan on posting a bit more to facebook since work has slowed down a bit for me, so you may see some of these cross posted there.  Talk to you later!
-TJ

I’ve been catching up a bit on strobist.blogspot.com and the more I read the more I wish I could duplicate the great techniques for fun around family and maybe non-editorial work.

What I like about the strobist talk is use of light, not just the gear head stuff but how to use light well, and the occasional tweaking of it.  Getting down to this post; I took the boys to the Playdate expo at the convention center then over to Dairy Queen for a treat, giving mom a break.

I took an open seat near a window and played with the natural light and lucky for me the lights in the place were not on, dropping the background light off nice and dark.  Also closed the depth of field to nil…

I brought the photos into photoshop and they were beautiful but I wanted to try out a couple post-processing experiments… how should I say… to magazine contrast it up.  I think it worked out OK but I wish the depth wasn’t soooo tight now…

It’s been a while since I made a post, but my furlough time is up and I’m back at work.

It’s been nice doing family things, taking iPhone pics and also getting sick. You can find some of the photos in the mobile gallery on the left.

I hope to write a post about a meetup of NPPA regional folks by the weekend.

Today was a day about as varied as any I have had at the YH-R.  Thankfully it involved most of my day inside because it was coooooold today.  My photo day pretty much went from shooting a convicted sex offender at his place of residence to a portrait (and video) of a Christmas light fanatic outside in the snow with his lights going crazy. The full day walk-through is below the photos.

This photo of one of the Tourist Motel residents and his cat will not run in tomorrow's paper, but it is one of my favorite of the day.

The final shot of the day, froze my and reporter Pat Muir's collective butts off in the snow waiting for the lights to animate just right with the background music of the "Transiberian Christmas" song... I had about a quarter inch of snow on my head when it was all finished.

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Once I got in, went through the 20 odd e-mails from people letting us know about their crazy Christmas lighted house, then added them to our google map for the public.

Went to the morning budget meeting, found out that a news story about a particular “motel” in town had probably closed leaving residents out in the cold.  It’s a pretty big story considering this was essentially a follow-up story that we broke about the place being riddled with code violations and another knowing we were greatly limited for art because no one from the property wanted to be on camera.

So I headed off armed with the shop 400 2.8 and my kits to the motel, was lucky enough to catch officials talking about the closure of one building, not the whole thing, as we first believed.  Moved on to ask said code enforcers what happened, interviewed him with my iPhone, then met up with the reporter to talk to managers and residents about the relocation of people to other vacancies at the motel.

The residents varied from mothers with young children, immigrants from as far away as India and of course an unintentional shot of a multiple child sex offender.  That’s where the photo comes in at top.  He wasn’t being moved, but was part of the color I saw living all around this motel.  I didn’t think of asking ‘are you by chance a sex offender’ while I asked questions, but after returning to the office our cops reporter recognized the name and so this photo now becomes part of the Web gallery.

Continued plugging along after getting the photos and gallery set on that assignment to work on Web work, iPhone app testing (for our YH-R beta test app) and getting packed up to shoot a night portrait of one of the crazy Christmas light setups in the community.

The assignment had a narrow work window because the guy who set this music animated house up was only around for a couple hours this week.  So a night shot was in, the house was in full glory and the music blared Elvis’ “Blue Christmas” and music from the Transiberian Orchestra.  The only thing… it was cooold and snowing, a lot.

So much for the big stobes. Go to the backup equipment and the gaffer tape.  After the interview, I had our intrepid reporter Pat, hold an extended light stand with one of my flashes mounted on it with cardboard gaffer taped around the end to give it a spotlight effect from above.  Then I put the camera on a tripod and handheld another flash with a softbox on it for fill.  After I got the one shot I was confident was in focus (because of the pitch black without the flash and the snow foiling with the AF) and with the house lit up in the most complete manner, I put the still equipment away and pulled out the video stuff.  I went ahead and shot the house musically going through “Blue Christmas” about four times from different angles then put it away to shoot secondary stills — inside.  Overall, I’m OK with the outdoor portrait, but the snow was coming down and our willing victims were freezing.  Ultimately it was a challenging situation that I made it through but know I will do differently next time. (Once I do the video I will post it here)

Now that I’m home and warmer, I can say that it was a strange day where the weather changed dramatically in a short amount of time, the subjects were all over the map and I was able to adapt to the environment at hand.  If only I had more time in the day…

-TJ

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And the reaction of those who have never heard of this classic visual story.

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Yup, it's way up here -- in the Rockies.

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Thankfully Andy picked up the early Toppenish game so I could sleep in from the previous night/morning.  I had to make up some hours for the past few days so I could cover the championships Saturday.  Here’s the video and it turned out pretty well and I used a mascot shot after the closing bumper for fun.  In hindsight I probably would not have used it if I were editing it today.

Here’s the story and the video.