There are two…wait, no, at least three, ways to use your camera to tell a story.
One is to use a storyboard. Show a series of pictures to tell a story. You can do this in Photoshop, Elements, any scrapbooking software, on paper, in Lightroom, with an app….the sky’s the limit!
A second is to have your camera capture as many details as possible. Landscapes and pictures like those by Norman Rockwell are the most common ways to do this.
A third is to capture a detail that tells a story.
Hudson went through the knee on his jeans. A pain because it means he needed new pants immediately, but more than that, to me it’s a sign that he’s growing into a new stage of little-boy-hood.
There’s a subset of work involved in creating this third kind of picture.
The hole in Hudson’s pants are visible no matter what he does. but this picture doesn’t SAY anything.
So I took him outside and took a picture of just his legs. Draws the attention to the pants…but still lacks oomph, wouldn’t you say?
Next I had him squat down. This was easy, because I was squatting for the shot, so I told him to do what I was doing. BINGO!
I used my 50mm f/1.8 for this, which gave the rich, dreamy out-of-focus background. If you’re using a cell phone, you can use the various editing apps to give your background some blur. Or you can do it in Photoshop/Elements if you don’t have a “nifty-50” lens or photo apps! It really helps bring your eyes directly to the subject of the picture: his knee!