Over the past couple of weeks, Photoblog has been a place for Post photographers to discuss what they did over the summer and the work that they created. This week serves as a turning point. As we get further into the school year, our photographers have been creating more content for The Post, and we want to start talking about it.
From now on, photographers will be talking about the content that you’ve already seen in print or on the web, and maybe some content that didn’t make the cut. We’ll talk about our experiences creating photos, what we like about them, and why they matter.
To kick things off, I’ll be talking about a couple of my favorite photos shot by myself and the rest of the staff so far.
DJs
Oliver Hamlin’s photo for a story on DJs is grainy and motion-blurred, but it works. The photo conveys the emotion and hectic nature of the performance while color and light in a way that catches your eye and keeps you looking. We usually try to photograph people from the front, but this photo breaks that convention while still contributing to the story.
Gymnastics
This is one of my favorite photos from a story I covered on gymnastics in Appalachia. The image is graphic, has a clean background and follows the rule of thirds, all of which make it very comfortable to look at. The close detail also gives a viewer a different perspective than they might typically get from gymnastics – I, for one, had no idea what wrist guards looked like before covering this.
Hockey Profile
Lighting can have a huge impact on the mood of a photo. A great example of that is this portrait, shot by Lauren Bacho with some lighting assistance from Patrick Connolly, for a profile of Garrett Jenkins, a freshman hockey player whose brother died when Jenkins was in eighth grade. The image has a somber mood and focuses on Jenkins, while still giving some context with the dimly lit hockey gear in the background.
Bartenders
Hannah Schroeder’s photo for a story on new bartenders in Athens is one of my favorites because it is shot from an unusual angle. We’re used to seeing things from eye level and when photos are shot from above or below, we get a new view of the situation that can be a lot more interesting. This photo is also a great example of a moment that captures the subject’s emotion and it uses color to draw the viewer’s eye to the important parts of the image.
Greg Windham
Photographers often get stuck in the habit of shooting from a medium distance. Michael Johnson breaks that habit with this portrait of Greg Windham by filling the entire frame with Windham’s face and helmet. This lets the viewer get an up close view of a person they probably don’t often interact with and it forces them to connect on a level that a photo of Windham playing doesn’t quite reach.
Farmers
Patrick Connolly uses the layering of leaves in this photo — shot for a story about farmers in the area — to create a visually interesting photo and show the subject’s environment. This photo is composed in a way that draws the viewer’s eye to the most important part of the photo, but also leads the viewer around the frame with the pattern of leaves.
I hope you’ve enjoyed our content as much as I have thus far. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @thepostvisuals to keep up with our work.
