Pat Shannahan, photographer for the Arizona Republic, pictured right, shared some incredible photos with us today which can be seen on his website www.patshannahan.com .
Many journalism teachers struggle with getting our students to create aesthetically pleasing photos, and more importantly photos that tell a story. Something which may be helpful to share with student photographers is Pat’s process for doing a photo shoot:
- Show up early
- Observe / walk-around; pay attention for good lighting, interesting background
- Take subject to that space
- Work in baby steps…let the creativity process flow; experiment with a variety of photos
- Ask a lot of questions: this will not only get the subject to relax, but may also spark ideas to bring a personal connection into the photo
Pat shared that most of his job is “waiting; anticipating moments”, in essence: being alert and being patient.
Andrea Krueger
Centennial High School
Circle Pines, Minnesota
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This is precisely what I'm going to teach my students on the first day my newspaper class tackles photography. I'm even going to steal his high school teacher's idea to give them a topic assignment and see what they come up with for a picture that fits. This was a really nice talk for journalism teachers--inspiring, practical, and informative.
ReplyDeleteJuli Stricklan
Rigby High School
Rigby, Idaho