Why You Need a Lede

I was doing a photo shoot and layout for MaryLee Herrmann's theater performance of Schmaltzy and Princie: Diary or a Not-So-Great Daddy's Girl, and as I was building it, I remembered my newspaper days and thought, "I have to have a lede photo," one photo that's larger than the others that can anchor the whole...

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It? (Then Three Tell It Better!)

Perhaps. Sometimes photographs in series tell a better story than a single photo. But not always. Here are two series of kids playing that I think work best as a photo story with more than one photograph, because it shows the moment unfolding--a pair of girls playing jump rope with a branch instead of a...

Welcoming the Muse in the Sandbox

I was reading quotes from famous artists, and one of them said something to the effect: "When I go to the canvas with a preconceived idea, those are usually not as good as the ones where I go with no idea what I will paint, and just paint." Effectively, going to the sandbox to play. ...