I did not have to produce stories for our Loyalist Photojournalism publication (The Pioneer) this week but this is the time to chase new stories.
As I’m finding out through our regular production of The Pioneer, journalism is a constant struggle to find and chase relevant stories for our readers. As photojournalists, we also try to always get good visuals to accompany our stories as well. And that is not always easy for some stories, and especially now during a global pandemic.
The main source of stories is often the multitude of events that happen in a community, like sports, concerts, family events and other such events. These are always good to write about and capture good visuals as well, but the pandemic has put severe restrictions on any events and for those that are able to continue to take place, many do so online which does not make for very exciting visuals. I’ve had to carry out a number of interviews either on the phone or online with the visuals often having to be done outside to meet the public health guidelines.
But that’s OK because it forces us to think outside the box somewhat. Despite the pandemic, our class of photojournalists have been able to produce quality stories with good visuals that are relevant to our communities. That is definitely something to be proud of.
And one area we can always focus on is feature photojournalism. This type of photojournalism is about human interest and can relate to community events, the arts, business, science, or even just the weather. It allows us to be creative and show some aspects of our communities with an image.
Below is a couple I took over the last couple weeks. The first one on family day appeared in last week’s Pioneer while the second one is on the weather we experienced this past week.
Photography and Storytelling 