Photosphotosphotos! (Reflection of lecture 3)

Sorrow at parting-U.S. Army Sgt. Brian Keith sits with his wife, Sara, and their son, Stephen, 6 months, before he is deployed to Afghanistan with other troops from Fort Drum, N.Y., on March 29 2010. 

Flies surround a sick girl who is a flood victim, at the relief camp set-up in Sukkur in Pakistan's Sindh province on Aug. 31 2010. The United Nations issued warnings of waterborne diseases, including typhoid fever, shigellosis and hepatitis A and E and vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever.

'A picture speaks a thousand words'. Photography plays an important role in helping to engage and further inform a reader about the story they are reading. From the third lecture, we learnt that good framing, focus, angle, point of view, exposure, shutter speed and capturing ‘the moment’ are what makes a great photo. The same applies to a great moving picture. I believe that the photos above are well-taken. They grabbed my attention, right away! The photographers managed to capture ‘the moment’ in both the photos.

There have been many developments in photojournalism. We learnt that digital manipulation is one of them. Photo editing programs such as Photoshop aid in the digital manipulation. While it may be okay to digitally enhance photos to make them look better, I believe that it is wrong to falsify images. For example, a photographer may digitally add a dramatic sunset to a beach scene, in order to produce a fascinating final image. Hence, leading people to believe that they are looking at a scene that really occurred.

Digital capture and upload is another interesting development in photojournalism. I own an iPhone, and I always snap photos, which I find interesting using my phone, and upload them at the very moment, onto the Internet. It is really convenient now that a whole lot of people own smart phones! Photos of events happening around the world can be captured and uploaded at the very instant onto the Internet. Digital publishing enables us to have access to media, through our laptops, iPads, iPhones, anytime, anywhere!

In my opinion, an article without a picture is not as exciting as one with an attention-grabbing one. Photos help articles come alive and engage readers to the story. Hence, they are very important. I would like to leave you guys with a quote which describes photography, for communications, brilliantly.

" Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution."- Ansel Adams