Gathering photo captions: Practicing what I preach

   This is me, a working photojournalist gathering caption information on a photo I took during an Empowerment Zone meeting in North Toledo March 3 for the Toledo Blade. (Photo Credit goes to my friend Rhonda Sewell)
   As you can see, my cameras are dangling off of my shoulders as I use my trusty pen and notebook to take down this kid's name, since I photographed him during the event.
   My Wayne State Digital Photojournalism students just completed their caption writing block of instruction, which included clipping captions from newspapers and taking a quiz. Spending time on caption, or cutline, writing is necessary in a photojournalism course because it's the journalism part of photojournalism.
   Most of the time I write down names and other pertinent information in my reporter's notebook, but sometimes I record that information into my camera, especially when my hands are too full to write or the weather isn't friendly to notebook paper. Whatever the method, taking down the who, what, where and when are the active ingredients to a good caption.
   This post is just a visual reminder that you are learning about captions because they are a part of a photojournalist's job. It is also the part that is sometimes the most challenging: Taking the photo from afar is one thing, but going up to strangers and asking them for their name, age and hometown is another.
   Gathering captions can give shy scholastic photojournalists a panic attack.
   When you are out there shooting your final photo story in the next few weeks, remember that the later half of the word photojournalism is journalism, or the art of writing.
 

Intro to PJ students now staff photographers for The Outlook

 The Intro to Photojournalism class is small, as it usually is, but it will make a big difference in the Owens community this semester.

   For the first time since I’ve been teaching this course, it’s been arranged that every student will be official staff photographers with the Owens Outlook online newspaper (it helps that I’m the new adviser).

   During the first week of class each student chose a campus beat to cover for the semester. They introduced themselves to the deans/chairs by hand delivering a letter that explained the beat system.

   Taking that big leap from concept to reality wasn’t an easy task for most of them. Here are some of the reasons why they aren't yet comfortable with their new roles as scholastic photojournalists:

·      Invasion of privacy. One student admitted he felt “nosy.”

·      Most don't like news. They don’t read, listen or watch it, and now they are the news.

·      At this point in their young lives most everything they’ve done at Owens has been for homework. Now their work will be published, making it very public and very real.

   To be fair to all involved, they will be trained before snapping a single photo. Lessons will include writing AP style captions, interviewing subjects, and how to be ethical and legally fit. This is the journalism part of photojournalism.

   As staff photographers for the Outlook they won't be limited to their beats, either. In fact, TJ Barney has already shot his first assignment for the online college newspaper. Before he shot Fall Fest last week I gave him a crash course on caption writing. He admitted to writing down names of his subjects with "shaking hands," but he said it got easier.

  So, if you see a bunch of students running around with cameras, press passes and shaky hands, just ignore them so they can do their jobs.