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| Automobile junk yard. (Photos by Eric Seals) |
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| Eric Seals |
For photojournalists, that means mentoring our youth, or
going into classrooms to share what we’ve honed throughout our careers.
Sharing with others is something that Detroit Free
Press photo and video journalist Eric Seals has been doing for the past 15
years.
He wrote on his website that he believes in the ‘reach one, teach one’ philosophy. He
does that through doing job shadowing, mentoring others, and teaching at
workshops and seminars around the country to those interested in this “amazing
profession.”
Hired by the Free Press in 1999, the Southfield, Michigan native
has spent most of his career at the Motor City, home of rapper Eminem, Chrysler
and Lake Erie. It is also a city recovering from bankruptcy, and suffering from
high crime and neighborhood blight. But the good and bad of the city gives
Seals plenty of stories to cover.
Seals earned a degree in journalism in 1993 from the University
of Missouri School of Journalism. He is a two-time MPPA Multimedia Photographer
of the Year winner, a national Webby Award recipient, and has earned several
POYi wins, NPPA-BOP awards and 10 Michigan Emmys.
As part of his teaching philosophy, Seals has been
busy both shooting and mentoring. He
recently returned from teaching at the University of Maryland School of
Journalism. He also showed his Great Lakes shipwreck documentary that was
selected for viewing at the Utopia Film Festival in Washington D.C.
Over the past several months he has been busy teaching
about video storytelling at the NPPA Multimedia Immersion workshop at Syracuse
University, and at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St.
Petersburg, Florida.
I am proud to welcome Eric into my Wayne State University Digital Photojournalism classroom on Oct. 29. And then on Nov. 19 he will use Periscope to
give a virtual tour of the Detroit Free Press, bringing his beloved newspaper
to us, in our classroom.
To celebrate this wonderful collaboration between WSU
and the Free Press, Seals has been chosen as my seventh Q & A subject for this blog.
Q: When did you first become interested in visual storytelling?
A: I became interested in visual
storytelling I guess when I was a kid who grew up reading the Detroit Free
Press and looking at the pictures in the newspaper. After a while, I got to the
point where instead of looking at the pictures I wanted to see the moments with
my own eyes. I wanted to witness it for myself. Photojournalism was the only
way to do that, and be creative while being that witness. I took a photography
class in high school, which started me on my fun, challenging and amazing
journey into the world of visual storytelling.
A: I don’t know if there was anything that
inspired me to get into video storytelling. It was more like the Free Press
gave me a traditional video camera in 2008 and said, “We want you to start
doing video for freep.com.” I just took to it, and spent lots of time doing
self-teaching from watching lots documentaries and learning on YouTube and
Google.
I loved going to movies as a kid, and still do now.
Perhaps I see what I do as an extension of “making movies,” but I do it with a
journalism twist; telling truth with a camera unlike movie directors who do
take after take.
We have several talented photojournalists on staff who
shoot video stories, so it’s nice to be able see their work and bounce ideas
off each other.
Q: What’s your opinion on
shooting stills and video at the same time? How do you determine which one
works best for the situation?
A: It depends on the assignment or story to
be honest. Sometimes doing both just needs to be done. I recently had an
assignment at the Detroit Zoo, where I had to shoot thousands of crickets that
are fed to the various animals. I knew a short video clip of the crickets was
needed, especially with that cricket chirping sound, along with a short
interview with the cricket caretaker. I also knew I needed stills for the paper
and the web. It’s all about prioritizing what’s needed when, and for how long,
in terms of shooting stills and video.
Other times, especially when I’m working on long form
video storytelling, the video takes priority over stills, and when needed I can
always pull frame grabs off the video, seeing how the quality of video is so
much better these days. And sometimes I’ll have one camera with one lens to
shoot stills instead of switching back and forth on the same camera.
Another good think to do in long form storytelling is
allow yourself an hour or two off and on to just focus on stills and not video.
This works well when you’ve got good command of the story, it’s structure and a
good body of work in terms of b-roll, etc.
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| Giving back to students. (Twitter screen grab) |
A: I use a variety of tools from Canon
HDSLR’s to Canon C100’s, GoPro’s and sliders for video storytelling.
I’m a big camera gear geek, and yes, various tools can
get in the way of storytelling if you let it. What needs to be done is keep
your eyes focused on the main thing - the story, the story, the story! Besides
the story you also need good characters, good audio and a really good edit to
keep viewers hooked into what you are trying to tell them.
You can have the best gear known to mankind but if
your story isn’t good, doesn’t make sense or have a good focus then viewers
won’t stick with it and move onto something else.
Q: What advice can you give
aspiring photojournalists today?
A: I’d say find and study other
photojournalists whose work makes you think and feel something, work that has
moments and emotion to it. It’s that kind of work that viewers want to see or
watch.
Go get a coffee, head to a library or a bookstore,
find the photography section and plant yourself. Pour through the books, study
how composition, graphics, light, layering is used by some of the amazing
talent out there. Even right here in Detroit at the Free Press we have talented
photojournalists who are very nice, willing to share what they’ve learned.
Show and share you work with others who are better
than you, those that set the bar high for you to reach. Ask for a critique of
your work. Keep an open mind about what they say. Take their constructive
criticism well; learn and improve yourself based on what they say, then go out
there and put it into practice.
Fail and fail again, and learn from it - that’s how
you get better.
Embrace video. It’s so important if you want a job at
newspapers these days. Watch lots of documentaries; find video journalists
working at newspapers whose work you also like and watch their work; and reach
out to them for help and advice. You have to be really proactive if you truly
love what you do and want to get better at this amazing profession.
I’m constantly sharing my video stories to those out
there who set the bar high for me. I get torn down when they look at my videos,
but with those little pieces I learn, grow and can put those pieces back
together.
I often say, “Don’t tell me my strengths, show me my
weaknesses.” THAT is how you get better!
Follow Eric on Twitter and Instagram: @ericseals
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| Waiting for marshmallows. |
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| Proven innocent. |
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| Eric's visit to the Wayne State digital photojournalism class Oct. 29. |
