Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Turn one portrait into two


Photos by Mark M. Hancock / © The Beaumont Enterprise

(Above) Brothers Jeremy (left) and Matthew Garza (right) pose for a portrait at their home in Beaumont on Wednesday, June 1, 2005. Jeremy will enter his senior year at the U.S. Naval Academy this year and hopes to become a pilot. Matthew was also accepted to the academy and will begin his training in the fall.

(Right) Brothers Matthew Garza (top) and Jeremy (bottom) pose for a portrait at their home in Beaumont on Wednesday, June 1, 2005.

I should have fill-flashed the top image to set the details of his face better. I thought I was shooting fast enough, but I guessed wrong. You live, you learn.

This is a fairly good example of using 100 frames. After the standard "safe shots" of them standing in the front yard, I was forced to think of ways to show these men are in the Navy. They didn't have any military paraphernalia, so I needed to be creative.

I like the pilot idea, even though it's not to my satisfaction. The pool shot looks like a swim team sportrait, but Navy = water and the pool was available.

The point is to make the portraits look drastically different. A feature story tends to get more space to flesh out the information. This means the story jumps (refers to an inside page). If portraits look too similar, it would be redundant to have a second portrait inside.

However, if the portraits are different enough, a second image can run on an inside page. Since inside pages tend to be gray space receptacles (text only), it's good to break up the monotony.

For magazine freelancers, who are paid on space rate, a good business practice would be to maximize your income by providing multiple, non-redundant images. Yes, the subject is the same. But if the images look different enough, it means the PJ gets twice the space fee for a few more minutes of work at the same location.

Enough for now,

Deadline pop quiz: Where in the AP Stylebook can a journalist find the guidelines to write the name of military educational institutions and its students?

The answer is in the comments section.
 

9 comments:

Mark M. Hancock said...

The answer is "military academies."
FYI: Students in Army, Air Force and Coast Guard academies are cadets. Students enrolled at the Naval Academy are midshipmen. Note the deviation between the Coast Guard and the Navy for this one instance.

Caleb said...

I got one for you...
Is it "Indy race car driver", "Indy Race Car Driver", "Indy racecar driver" or "Indy Racecar Driver". I was not able to find it. All I found was NASCAR.

Caleb said...

oh yeah, I am also curious how many takes it took to get the kid jumping up like an airplane?

Laurie said...

I've been waiting for you to post the trampoline photo! When I saw it in the paper, I just knew it was taken by you. It's my favorite so far.

CarmenSisson said...

These are really great. Just goes to show that portraits don't have to be boring.

Mark M. Hancock said...

Caleb,
I always go with "IRL driver" or "Indy Racing League driver."
We tried the jump image about a dozen times. This is actually one of the early frames from the series.

Buttershug,
He said he wanted to be "a pilot." I imagine his navel would go wherever he aviates. ;-}

For the record, here are the only guidelines:
pilot Not a formal title. Do not capitalize before a name.
aviator Use for both men and women.

Carmen and Laurie,
Thanks. :-)

Caleb said...

Thanks Mark, that actually makes more sense.

Gnapp said...

The jump-picture is really quite fantastic. I like it a lot.

Mark M. Hancock said...

Originally posted June 9, 2005.