Thought Piece #3

The first thing that caught my attention when doing the reading for this thought piece was the caution of humor. I love using humor but it is a very touchy thing even in real life where not everyone has the same sense of humor. I may find one thing funny and someone else may find it hurtful. I have done a lot of mental health photography because it is something that I personally struggle with and I often try to find humor in my situation as a way to cope and show that it is not always so bad. I have unfortunately gotten a lot of negative responses due to that though. On page 35 it says to keep a sense of humor but also to be cautious that you do not hurt anyone. To me this also relates to ethics, not everyone has the same mindset and while it is legal, it may not be ethically right to photograph something. 

On the same note as humor, emotion is also really important. I absolutely love photographing emotion. It shows so much in one picture and can tell a story. I love doing this with sports because you can determine the mood of a situation just by looking at a picture. If someone is smiling you can tell they are happy. I did a lot of this in my internship especially after goals. My favorite thing about professional sports is that they have more goal celebrations and show way more emotion. 

I appreciate that LaBelle provided a lot of pictures for examples, however at the same time it takes up space. For example pages 36-37 were just blank pages essentially with no information and I would have rather seen a bunch of pages like that all together at the end of the book. Even though things like that can be boring and wasting space it can also show comparison. On pages 44 and 45 the pictures on each side tell a story showing both perspectives not just one. 

LaBelle talks about photographing interaction and while it is very impactful it can sometimes be hard. I personally do not think I could photograph a really sad situation like a funeral or anything of the sort. It is important to know boundaries wen photographing interaction. I like to photograph the positive parts of interaction. Someone talking to their friends and family, playing with their siblings, kids, animals, all of that stuff is what I prefer. It shows the good in life not the bad and the ugly which yes that stuff does need to be told but I am just not the right person to do that.

At the end of the reading required for this piece LaBelle touches on personalizing news. This can be from the state level or even federal level. How to make something work for your local community. I have never really had to plan this out since I do not do a ton of news photography, but I can see how this would work in sports as well. At my high school we have had several guys go on to play in the NFL. I can see someone taking that and making a photo story on his journey from going to high school in North Carolina to going to the superbowl. Local stories always impact more people but are just harder to get to the root of for me.