Reminders and Upcoming Dates:
Thursday, March 9: Editing and production day for Photo Essay #1. This class will be a chance for people to check in one-on-one with everyone.
Tuesday, March 14: Photo Essay #1 due
The photo essay should consist of 15-20 images, with detailed captions, including at least two direct quotes from the sources you photographed and interviewed. They can be in either slideshow or scrolling format. The story can be related to the topic of your choosing, but there should be some news element to the story, and it should have a clear angle.
For today:
We’re going to have more of an interactive class. Together, we’re going to take a look at the photos that you and your classmates filed from the various Ukraine anniversary events around the city and put together a collaborative photo essay that we can potentially get published on Dollars & Sense. We have to pitch it to them, though, and it’ll be their decision whether or not to run it.
So for the next hour and a half, this is a newsroom on a deadline. Here are the different roles we need people to play:
Photo Editor, Editorial
The team of editorial photo editors will review all the images submitted, and their captions, and determine which ones will run with the story. In making these decisions, you’ll need to consider a few things: Which are the strongest individual images, which ones show evidence of strong reporting (ie, captions include first and last names and other relevant details), and the overall arc of the story we’re trying to tell. For instance, we might not want a lot of shots that are too repetitive, and to the best of our ability, we want to show the full breadth of protests and events that took place. You’ll send your final picks to the Lightroom team.
Photo Editor, Lightroom
These photo editors will look at each image that makes it through to the final edit. In Lightroom, they’ll do a final pass on the post-processing of any images that are a little dark, need white balance correction, etc. You’ll export and send the final images to the layout team.
Writer
The team of writers will be responsible for writing a brief intro for the photo essay (250-300 words). It should include a basic lede and nut graf—enough detail to give the reader the context they need and the scope of the events they’re about to see depicted in the photos that follow.
In order to write this effectively and accurately, you’ll need to read all the captions and talk to the various photojournalists/ reporters who were there, at each event, to find any relevant information that is necessary to paint a clear picture of what happened. You can also use social media and other online sources to fact check/confirm any details that you need to paint a clear picture of what happened—like the number of people who were there, who organized the event, how much money was raised, etc.
A transition sentence may be necessary like “Baruch College photographers fanned out across the city to document the events marking the anniversary.” You’ll send your draft to the editor team.
Editor
The editors will go through the written intro and do an edit, checking for proofreading errors and any missing information. They will give the writers their notes and corrections, and once both teams are happy with it, the final edit will be sent to the layout team.
Layout
The layout team will compile all the different elements into a post that will be published on Medium. Consider starting with one very strong lead image, and then include the written intro, and then follow it with the photos accompanied by captions. You can bring your artistic eye to this, deciding what order makes sense (chronological? geographical?) grouping several photos in a small batch if it makes narrative sense to do so, or grabbing a pull quote to stand on its own in a larger font. Once it’s all pulled together, you’ll have the copy editors take a look.
Copy Editor
The copy editors will take a final pass at the Medium post, correcting any typos, making sure there’s a date and a byline, making sure all the photographers are credited and all their names are correctly spelled. When satisfied, hit publish.
The finished blog post should be emailed to [email protected].
Photo editors can access the images here: