Final Portfolio
Photos like these below made me interested in photojournalism.
I have a passion for sports and I have a passion for media. My ideal job would involve both sports and media. Photojournalism is a form of journalism that tells a news story through photographs. These photographs are powerful, and creative, they make you feel like you are where the story is. These photographs bring the story no matter what it is to the next level and adds to the impact the story can have. The main objective of photojournalism is to tell the story of the text it is often accompanied with, the photos should have relevance and meaning to the story. One should be able to look at the photo and have a good idea what the story is going to be about.
Photojournalists are often known as news photographers. A photojournalist’s job is to shoot photography and capture news events. They should tell a story with their photos. Photojournalists must also write captions and sometimes even lengher text to provide further detail of their photos. To be a good photojournalist one must be a people person, creative, adaptable, fast, and be able to meet hard deadlines. The biggest difference in a modern photojournalist and a traditional photojournalist would have to be technology. The way we can take a photo on our phones and have it uploaded in seconds changes the game for news. Everything is right at our fingertips therefore, photojournalists today have even more pressure on them to take the best photo possible now that nearly everyone can take a photo from their phone.
The fact that anyone can take a photo doesn’t take away from the technique photojournalists have. This does put pressure on the time aspect on taking photos. A photojournalist today must be quick and efficient. Today a photojournalist must not only be where the news is but also must be prepared to get the photo out in a timely manner.
Hands down the photo of Brandi Chastain, a U.S.W.N.T player celebrating her penalty kick with her shirt off influenced me to appreciate sports photography. Without the photo capturing Brandi Chastain celebrating beating the Chinese women’s team in the 1999 Women's World Cup in a shootout, that win might not have received the attention it deserved. With that being said photos can also cause controversy. Brandi did receive sexist criticism for taking her shirt off out of pure excitement and adrenaline. I was born in 1999 but that didn’t stop a young soccer player like myself from learning all about the 1999ers. That team paved the foundation of girls soccer for myself as well as thousands of other girls. I remember seeing this photo for the first time thinking wow what a powerful woman. Now I look at the photo and see both the power of the woman and the power of the photo itself.
Photography brings stories to another level. As a visual learner I always appreciate text accompanied by photo or video. When a photo or video is available it helps me engage with the actual story. I also find media helps draw an audience in, having a photo can easily bring a viewer to your story.
I plan to use photojournalism in my career by knowing how to properly take a photo and how to edit the photo in post. This course helped me improve on my adobe photoshop skills a lot. I now know how to adjust the tone, color, brightness and contrast of a photo. I learned how to use filters in Adobe photoshop as well such as the sharpen tool. I personally find the sharpen tool very useful. I edit a lot of sports photos and find adding the sharpen filter even to a photo that isn’t messacry unsharp adds an effect I really like. I hope to earn a job in sports media, in that case knowing how to take a photo, and what makes a good photo will definitely come in handy. Knowing how to edit and caption my photos will surely be key for a job in sports media. Knowing about aspects such as composition and depth of field of a photo has improved my photos so much.
Though the Corona virus had a huge impact on life, especially school I am so glad I was able to take and complete this course. Taking photos, finding events to shoot, and actually being able to get there and do it all safely was definitely a huge challenge. Though at times it was extremely stressful to complete certain assignments in the long run I know these challenges I was able to overcome are going to help me so much in the real world. Even in a pandemic photojournalism did not stop. If anything photojournalism was one of the few jobs that kept going throughout the entire pandemic. Because of this class I know I am ready for what the real-world has in store for me as I look for a job.
