Writing a Photo Essay

I've been chatting to some friends about photo essays and someone sent some information I thought I'd share with you.

A photo essay, or picture story, is a photographer’s way of showing a more complete story than is possible with one image. It is a collection of images that work together to tell a story. Generally, there are between 5 and 15 images, although more or less images are sometimes appropriate.Sometimes these images have captions, other times they do not. While there are no concrete rules for how photo essays must be created, there are several common ways that a photo essay can be developed.

• Time Sequence
  Time sequence is the very beginning of a photo essay. Photo essays began as photographers began showing a sequence of photos to chronicle an event. This is often like looking at a series of still images from a movie. This type of photo essay is best used where there is an obvious path of time. Illustrations of linear events in compact areas such as cliff diving, fire fighting, and a bird hatching are all examples of this type of photo essay.
  
  Time sequence photo essays can also be expanded to cover longer amounts of time in less compact areas. These essays have much larger gaps of time between images than do basic time sequence essays. Concepts such as police chases from crime to capture or a life from birth to death can be covered in this type of essay.
  
• Location
  Location photo essays seek to capture the feel of a location through glimpses of people and places within a set location. Locations can be compact such as a school or garden, or vast such as a country. This type of photo essay is often non-linear from a chronological standpoint but does not have to be non-linear. Location essays often start at one physical point and travel outward, much like a tour of the area in question would progress.
  
• Idea
  Idea essays often feature very diverse images that all have a common thread of one theme or idea. Topics such as hope, love, and work can be covered under idea essays. Because idea essays do often feature diverse subjects it is a good idea to have a common thread travel through the images. Using a common prop or following a color scheme can help to visually bond the images together. For example, a photo essay on breast cancer might use the familiar pink ribbon symbol in the form of a pink headscarf worn by a subject in each image to tie the set together. Or an essay on work might tie images together by flowing commonality. That means the first image might be a ditch digger with a restaurant in the background. The second image would then be a cook. From there the third image might continue the food service theme and show a waiter serving the meal to a man in a nice suit. The fourth image could then pick up on the customer in the previous image and move to a lawyer in a courtroom. Each image suggests the next.
  
• Event
  Event essays tend to incorporate ideas from the other categories. Event essays cover a specific happening (such as a building fire or a wedding) but are not bound to a specific method of image sequence. Many event essays follow a time sequence outline but some are more fluid in their presentation. Event essays should at least show the major parts critical to the event. For example, a wedding essay without a bride or groom would not be complete.
  

Like any art, photo essays have basic guidelines but some very successful pieces deviate drastically from the “normal” rules. A photo essay basically puts a photographer in a director’s chair. The story is there, the photographer must creatively decide how to best convey the story to others.

The Mountain Bike Built via Ebay, Yahoo and YouTube

There are little things that we have in our lives that can bring a smile to our faces. One of those for me today is the completion of my mountain bike. After having my previous bike stolen a few months ago, it was time to stop swearing about the loss and go get another one.

So, instead of just going out and just buying one,I decided to build one from scratch. The up-to-date bike scene hasn't been on the radar for 10 years, so I really needed to find out what was going on. Bring up a search engine and start looking for bikes, start reading the specifications, the reviews, and find out who the competition is for each component or brand I was looking for.

The first item that took my interest was the Groupset. The groupset is the cranks, dérailleurs, brakes, shifters, chain etc. The Shimano XT was the way to go, so jumping around the net looking for one ended up on Ebay.

You might be asking, why on earth anyone would be looking to buy the groupset first. Basically, I found a decent price on one. Whether you the frame first or the handle bars, you can't ride the bike until it's all finished. It was certainly unconventional, no doubt about that.

Once that was received, the search was on for a frame.

This was the difficult part. Finding the right frame without knowing much about them. Again, more searching and reading about the different types of frames from steel to aluminum to carbon fibre. Each has it's benefits and weaknesses so making a decision is not a cut and dry process.

Since this bike will be mainly used for road use with some cross country trekking, the decision to pick up a carbon fibre frame was made. The frame that was eventually settled on weighs in at just 1.25 kgs. It's important to make sure that if buying from Ebay, you do so from reputable dealers. DO YOUR HOMEWORK.

The frame is very strong, and austhetically, looks sensational.

The frame has been married up with carbon fibre forks and seat pole, a pro headset and stem, light weight alloy wheels and hybrid durable tires. Other bits and pieces complete the setup.

So after doing the Ebay thing with all the separate components, putting the bike together required frequent visits to YouTube. It's highly recommended to have a look at a few different videos when building something you're not sure of. You'll get slightly different ideas from each video.

I'll take a moment here to say I GREATLY appreciate the time and effort these guys take to make the videos. They've been invaluable with this project.

The whole bike now weighs in at about 10kgs. A little heavier than was original plan, but I'm certainly happy with the final product.

There is a schedule in the calendar for a mountain bike photography tour in Sydney in October 2009. It's a great way to intermingle photography, bike riding and a bit of socializing while we're at it. The D300 with a couple of flashes, a small reflector and the Tamron 90mm macro.

I highly recommend people do their own little bike tours. Pick out a place that will have some scenic views, pack a picnic, and take the camera. Do some planning if you do this and keep safety in the forefront of your planning. It may sound crazy, but just taking a little time to think before you do, can make a difference.

Most of all, have fun with it all.