The update came from some friends in China whose young daughter had just successfully undergone heart surgery this morning. Obviously, that is scary, a lot of emotions are involved, and words alone are usually all we get through e-mail updates from friends. Ok, maybe we get some snapshot. This too was a snapshot, but a powerful one. Photography can be so incredibly powerful, if wielded well.

In the photo, a nurse is holding the six year old girl soon after surgery. The nurse and a couple more nurses behind the girl (in the center of the shot) and the mother are all beaming with joy, clearly saying with their expressions that the darkness of their fears has been washed away and the joy of the morning is dawning. The moment is perfect.

The photo is also dynamic. There is a subtle hint of movement in the mom, toward the girl, but the girl is fixed, clear, and the center of the joy. The blurred, far-background nurses make me feel that all else keeps moving, but for the girl and those around her, all time has slowed so they can drink up every joyous mouthfull of this perfect moment.

And it even has vignetting. Too cool. I am sure this is just the “inferior” qualities of the extreme wide angle of a compact camera, but it further brings my focus to the center of the photo.

These folks are not photographers. This photo is a total fluke. Anyone can take a wonderful photo, but we have to strive to capture all of this on purpose. That is a tall order. There is so much of that photo which cannot be made or forced. It has a lot to do with the settings being second nature so that when that moment comes, you do not think about how to capture it, you just capture it.

Anyone can shoot a great photo, but only the fearless can be great.

My boy is utterly fascinated with the moon.

All day long, though he knows it is rarely visible in the day, my boy is asking about the “mooyn”. Every circle is a moon, not a ball or even a sun…it is a moon. Even my SmugMug camera strap, which features a simple smiley face (two dot eyes and a crescent looking mouth) is a moon and two stars to him.

I rarely post family-related photos here, because I want to keep my focus. I make this exception, because my focus has changed! I making more of an effort to use documentary photography, telling the stories of life around me instead of just taking isolated, nice-looking shots. Well, when I’m 64, I sure hope I can look back with pride at having told the most important story to my very best: my family.

I take photos of my boy lining up his toy cars; it describes how he thinks. I take photos of his sweat drenched head with a little chuck of fried chicken stuck to his forehead. I know my little girl smiles, and I want to have a photo to show to her grandmother (who lives on the other side of the world). I even have silly things like a photo of the first time my boy clapped his hands.

As a quick aside, I feel very sorry for my children when they have to put together one of those wedding slide shows…it will take them months to work through even the favorites…that is, if I have told those stories well!

It is great experience too. I experiment a lot on my family. In the shot above, I was playing around with the lighting balance between my boy (simple bounce flash off the balcony walls) and the sunset. I should have started earlier, but still managed to squeeze a little sunset out. I was also trying out different angles, trying to use the geometry of the photo to draw more attention to my subject, but also itself to tell more of the story.

So, that is all to say, in my quest to tell the stories of life, I cannot overlook the stories I know the best, to which I have complete access, and which will probably mean the most, in the end: the story of my family.

“Photojournalism” is probably the most well know of those terms. We think of news photographers, war photographers, and the like. That one, even if it does have some other definition, already has a practical definition in the minds of common man.

As with many of the definitions these days, though, I think the lines are blurring. It goes along with issues like professional and amateur. If that blatantly uncreative studio portrait dude in our local Whatever-Mart is a photography professional, then I am the first to despair in this wonderful art of photography. Similarly, I am utterly shocked with the caliber of photos I see from “amateurs” with a little browsing around Flickr and the like. Maybe Whatever-Mart could not handle them! Let’s get back to our definitions in question.

Now, I would be the last to know, because I am not “in the industry”, but maybe the appearance of “editorial” and “documentary” came from the inadequacy of one word to cover so many meanings. Maybe they designate a particular focus within photojournalism, something more specific. And maybe some guy just thought he would come up with a clever new word as a marketing ploy. I don’t know.

All I can do is look at the words themselves and let the English language tell me what they mean…I might add, like most people out there will have to do to try to understand what photographers are talking about. “Photojournalism” says to me, “using photos to chronicle” something. “Editorial” says “I work for the news media and want to say what I want to say, my way”. And “documentary” brings all the connotations of documentary film and seems to say “I use photos to dig to the roots of a story, to understand and explain it to others”. And “photo story”…this one is easy, is “telling a story with photos”.

So, where do I, Cooper Strange, fit in and what kind of photos do I shoot? Well, not that I really care to have one appellation or another, but it depends on the day (or maybe how good my coffee tasted!). I think I am a little of all those, except for maybe editorial, sometimes more than one, and sometimes none of the above.

I am just thinking out loud. I cannot find any good definitions, but maybe some of you out there know. I would love to be corrected or instructed on the differences. So, here’s to Journo-edi-docu-story-ism. That is my kind of photography!

Cooper Strange I feel like I am starting a whole new photographic journey. WHY do I shoot? http://bit.ly/klT7Y

****** I feel like I am starting a whole new photographic journey. WHY do I shoot? (via @CooperStrange) Whatever makes you smile and feel satisfied

CooperStrange @****** I sure hope my photography accomplishes more than making me feel satisfied. If that is it, I quit. Just find a good book.

****** @CooperStrange You’ll accomplish whatever you set out to do if you’re passionate about it.

CooperStrange @****** Not true. I can be passionate about the moon coming up every other day, but it will not happen. All is checked by truth.

And that was that. I sure do not want to be rude (thought the 140 character limit sure makes us blunt whether we like it or not), but this is just more of the the same pop-psychology babble I have heard so much (especially from Americans). We buy in without even thinking it through.

Sure, it is ok to be passionate about some things. Fine. And yes, I do enjoy photography a lot and that is a great side benefit, but it is not the purpose. I personally want my life choices to do more than just tickle my fancies. I strive to find the meaning in everything and to make sure every word and action achieves an eternal purpose. If I just want to be pleased in this life, I am headed for a meaningless and painful future…’cause it ain’t gonna happen.

Then, within a day, a friend asked me a question on Facebook that really challenged me. She hit the core of this whole topic, and I did not totally know how to answer because I am right in the middle of figuring it out myself.

“So, why the intense investment in the photographs and websites? Total hobby or more? I enjoy looking.”

And here was my nice sounding, but not so reasonsed response:

“Good question. Photography is more than just a hobby. I approach it professionally, but it is not a profession…in the sense that is does not make me any money and probably never will. I was about to say it is useful to others on this side of the world to help them communicate the local situation and just family portraits and such, but that is not it totally either.

“It is a form of communication for me. It is also capturing that which I know will soon be lost. It is about telling stories of life that are going on everyday, because those stories are valuable.

“Hm…I need to think more about that.”

These are just some of the thoughts from a guy who lives overseas, away from his family, and wants to communicate what life it like here. However, I also realize, this visual communication of mine is helpful in more ways that just between me and my family and friends. It does have a deeper purpose still, but putting that into words is the tricky part.

I used to think to myself, “I want to capture what life is really like for these people so future generations can have the record”. It was my gift to posterity. There is still an element of that, but now it is slowly evolving into something much deeper. For as I said above, if all photography does is give me some superficial satisfaction, I might as well grab a good book, because that is a lot easier and will take up far less time and energy.

I never intended to actually use the photos. More than likely, I thought I would browse them, glean a few storying pointers, and file them away. And that is what I did.

To further develop the story, I would want people. I was able to follow the string into gutters and wrapped around spirit houses, mixed among the already busy power lines and webbed in trees, but to really make the story interesting, I want to know who put them there, why they put them there, how much time and money it cost, and maybe how many people were involved…because this stuff was everywhere I went in an hour long walk!

Honestly, knowing I was not going to process the photos any more than browsing through them freed me to shoot and experiment. I do not want to waste time on the photos, because it was not the photos which were important, but the opportunity to follow a story. I learned some technical pointers (maybe for another blog post) and, as I have already said, what ingredients I would need to tell this story more fully.

It was a fun, learning project.

Feel free to leave your own comments below. And please, leave some negative comments. Positive comments are only good for buffering the hard stuff.

Looking for the Time Card

This was her favorite. Good thing, because I like to start strong. She liked the action, watching this guy hunt for his time card. She also likes (foreshadowing her dislikes) that he does not know I am there, primarily because she does not want think about a photographer in the scene, but to just be a part of the scene.

She also liked the framing. When she mentioned it, I realized the door looked very distorted. My mind started thinking through if it was barrel distortion because of the lens or just a strange angle that caused it, and then how to fix it. She liked it precisely because it was curved. It was not interesting if straight. Ok. I will leave it.

Punching In

I was personally waiting to see if the hand was too hard to notice, if a glace would pass right over it, but she did not have any problem there. She did not want to be this close in, though. She wanted to see the person checking in, not the hand only. She felt the focus was the clock and not the people. It made her feel like this person knows the photographer is right there, and it took her out of the story.

Talking Before the Shift

This was my personal favorite, but not my wife’s. Actually…the more I look, the less I like this one…do not know why. Again, she felt these two were almost posing. They know the photographer is there and are not natural. Interesting comment. It is totally natural. They knew I was there, yes, but were just talking. I do not know what other think, but I still find the comment interesting, because often the truth does not matter, the perception of what is going on is truth to the viewer.

Heading into the Factory

Her only complaint here was she wanted to see more people. Just one person did not cut it. I liked the lonliness of it…it is the midnight shift, after all, but I could not convince her.

Midnight Means Going Home for Many

Again, she wanted more people. I did too, for this one, but they left one by one, so there was little I could do. She did not dig the foreground parked motorcycle.

Standing Guard Till Morning Comes

Again, she felt like these two guys were almost posing. Again, they knew I was there, but I am pretty sure they did not know I was taking a photo. She (nor I) was very fond of the lack of action or their stance or whatever you want to call it instead of pose. They walked out and walked in. I thought I was going to get something else, but it just did not happen.

Overall, this story could be much stronger if I hit the shift change a few nights in a row. All these reflect about 20 minutes outside, with a good 15 minutes sitting around waiting for the shift change bell and some movement to happen. It was a helpful experiment for me, though, and is one more step in developing those story telling muscles.

I have been thinking a lot about why I shoot. It could be the frequent reminders from my wonderful wife to keep my priorities in check (Wouldn’t it be horrible to have a wife who adored photography and did not ever question my over zealous investment of time in it?). That helps, but I do not think that is it. It is a long progression of thought, beginning a decade or so ago, and now leading me down this interesting new path.

When I was traipsing around the Chinese countryside with my all-manual film camera and my 50mm lens, I remember some of my thinking toward my photography: I wanted to capture the things I saw that nobody else saw. I did not want fancy lenses to add some effect. I simply wanted a lens that captured what I saw.

When I moved to digital in late 2003, I think I lost sight a little bit. Not until early 2007 did the juices really get flowing again. I have developing my approach a little, but my thoughts now are clearly decended from my film days in the Chinese countryside.

The other day, though, while reading an e-mail (posted online) between the Strobist and the dude at Momenta Workshops (which I have already talked about), something really began to dawn on me. As the Momenta dude explained their approach to teaching young documentarians, I kept hearing him talking about me. A desire to capture that “decisive moment”. A love of telling stories. A passion for the stories around me, which will go untold if I do not tell them.

So, if you have been reading the past few weeks, you have heard me talking about telling stories through photos and not just taking one super shot here and one pretty picture there. It has led me to a decision, though.

As a photographer, I need to learn more and more about telling stories, yes, with photos, but certainly not limited to photos alone. This blog will reflect that focus. Up till now, the only theme to the blog would be the random thoughts from my head that might be useful to other photographers out there. That is not very focused, obviously.

I have probably also been riding a horse a bit too big for me. In other words, accidentally talking as if I knew anything. It is way to easy to slowly create an online alter ego, to begin thinking of ourselves as pro photographers, when really we are two-bit amateurs. To quote Chief Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood) in A Perfect World: “I don’t know nothin’…not one damn thing.” Spoken like a truly experienced pro.

So, I am starting over. I am an amateur photographer. I want to explore the art of telling a story through my photography. And I figure some of what I learn might be of benefit to others out there, so I will share excerpts of my adventure in learning here. It helps to think out loud sometimes; I cannot count the number of times I have realized something as I wrote it here in the blog. So, it is a creative outlet and tool in my learning process, and you are welcome to come along for the ride to learn along with me.

Ladies Talk Before Going on Shift

I uploaded the gallery from the midnight factory shift photo story. As I mentioned a few days ago, I really wanted to treat it like a film shoot. I left the photos unseen for several days, trying to break my LCD habit and to start thinking more when actually taking the photos.

Also, when processing them, I honored my initial decision to make them black and white, as if I had chosen a roll of film. Meaning, I made one black and white conversion and applied it to all of them.

This is only reflective of 20 minutes of shooting, mostly waiting around for the rush right after midnight on only one night, so the story is quite undeveloped. Still, it was a good exercise for my storytelling. I want to seek out the stories around me and tell some of them in photos.

And one last comment. I am not too fond of my framing in a couple of these shots. I realize I really need to think more about framing and how it compliments the story. What I include and exclude can radically change the story. I have gotten into a quicky framing mentality, and that is fine, but there needs to be more thought in the process to capture more of the story.

Enjoy Graveyard Shift.

To me, focusing on a Cartier-Bresson style basically frees the photographer from the need of much gear. You need a camera, and the smaller the better. Therefore, the supersized SLRs are really fighting against you on this point. Though point and shoot cameras are smaller, I think they can almost be totally disqualified for another reason: you need instant response. When you press the button, the camera fires. Period.

Even the most basic DSLRs will do that. I would suggest that frames per minute, or how fast you could take these shots, does not really matter much either. It may help at times, but more than likely, you will slowly get lazy, knowing you can fire off five or six shots, in hopes that the decisive moment was in there somewhere and that you might have hit it. You simply need to be able to release that shutter when your instincts say the moment is going to happen.

As for lenses, a variety of lenses in the bag can help, but speaking of Cartier-Bresson who basically only used a 50mm, you do not necessarily even need anything more than a 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4. For years, I captured photos on an all-manual film camera with my one 50mm f/1.7 lens, and I still feel the photos I took then have something my newer photos do not…but that gets into another topic. Why use me as an example, though. You have Cartier-Bresson and a host of other greats.

It is more about the moment than the gear. I have looked at some incredible photos. They were overly contrasty, full of grain, and out of focus, but they caught that moment. You know the famous Normandy Beach photo, right? I cannot think of a better example. Vietnam has it’s share, too.

I will not get into the rangerfinder versus SLR debate, but from the criteria above, clearly, both have a place, both have inherent strengths and weaknesses. Use what you have. Focus on capturing that moment instead of what gear you need.

As I said before, I am tired of shooting one-shots day in and day out, disconnected photographs, maybe speaking to an overall theme, but never delving into the story in progress. I want to tell stories. I want to learn how to dig deeper and put together an overall story. And instead of crying about not having enough time (too cliché, anyway), I decided to keep my eyes open to the stories around me and start telling some of them.

So, there I was, not 100 meters from my wife’s parents’ door, at the front gate of my father-in-law’s factory. As I waited for midnight and the sound effect I wanted, I watched dozens of workers coming in the front gate on bicycles and motorcycles for the start of their shift. There was story content everywhere: locals who all know each other, motorcycles, friends punching in friends time cards, the factory dog greeting his favorites, and workers disappearing into the powder-filled air of the factory.

Can you hear it? “Cooper…come…shoot the story.” Yeah. I heard it too.

Now, I may be crazy to pick a project that starts at midnight when I have little ones who will wake up at the same time as always the next morning, but I certainly am not going to be a total fool: video is out. One experimental video at a time. I will just photograph it. There is just something about it that really draws me in, because I am from a small town. Even in the “big town” nearby, I never met anybody on a night shift at a factory. That is just foreign to me.

It has those key elements I figured out before, the ways amateurs can pull of stories without budgets or jobs helping them do so. One, it is close. Shoot, it is right out the front door. Two, timing. I may not have a professional job allowing me to do this, but given it is at midnight, I can still do it. And three, access. Ok, I have not mentioned that before, but it sure helps to be a trusted person. It is my father-in-law’s factory, after all.

I am going out on a limb this time. One, I really have no idea where this post will end up…I have just started and am hoping for the best. And two, there may not be anybody out there who feels the same way. So, I might be talking to the wind, but if for nobody else, I think it will be good for me.

Surely, telling my own stories is possible. My gut feeling is I should not have to be a professional or get paid to do so or even have a huge amount of spare time. I just have not figured it out yet.

I think the thorn in my photographer’s flesh is that I feel like I am constantly just taking one shot here and one shot there. That is great and helps me grow as a photographer, but I so rarely get a chance to piece together a story. Multiple shots with something to say.

My first thought is that I get the honor of telling the stories of everyday life for my children. So, yes, I do have some stories that are readily accessible. I genuinely feel sorry for my kids when they try to make one of those cutesy slideshows at the wedding, because they are going to have thousands and thousands of photos. However, capturing the loves, joys, growth, and so on, of the children is capturing a story. It is just a very long term story.

What about other stories? Some of those that I mentioned above and some others I have thought up, really are conceivable. So, why do they not get told? Well, it does take time, but I could pick stories that are doable…as Bob would say, “baby steps” to storying. Maybe I just need to pick something and work it through, even if it takes weeks to put together enough material to tell a simple story.

Now that I think of it, my old trump card might come into play again: I live here. Photojournalists are in and out, lots of traveling, days of prep so they do not waste time once on location, and all that. Me? Well, I live in storyland; the stories I want to tell are all around me. So, I have the advantage of being able to work on it some, adjust, take a different route, and basically just take my time. Of course, I could get so side tracked that I have no coherent story in the end, but for the most part, this is still my trump card.

So, there we have it. It is no grand revelation, but if I just pick a story close by, close relationally or close geographically, and just decide to do it, it is still totally possible. I will not be covering AIDS in Asia or anything so grand, but I can tell the stories of the folks that live behind my building in shacks built over a smelly canal. I am just getting sick of picture after picture of isolated stories; it is like reading one chapter of a book.

Anybody else interested in storying with photos?