A picture is worth a thousand words, this post probably isn't even worth half that much

Charles Austin

Like an endless field of lush, red strawberries during a season when the harvest is particularly plentiful almost to the point of overabundance, David LaBelle's writing contained an overabundance of similies. I know this is probably not the kind of thing we're supposed to be commenting on, but being more of a word guy than a picture guy, this observation struck me more severely than any other. LaBelle might say it struck me with a severity that was not unlike an entire pride of lions that snuck up upon me in the dead of night, when their thirst for blood was conveniently veiled by a foreboding darkness that engulfed the Earth, save for the crescent moon which seemed to hang so ominously in the otherwise clear night sky.

But I guess my infamiliarity with photography only goes to show how much I have to learn from these galleries and tips.

As a general rule throughout reading this assignment, I felt like there was a lot more to learn from the photos themselves than from the text that accompanied them. This did finally change almost 30 pages into LaBelle's document, when he did indeed throw in some pretty nifty (or "crunk" if you will) tips on ways to think up ideas for photos, which in reality were great ways to think up entire stories. Some seemed like they wouldn't pay off very often, such as eavesdropping, though the notion that I might one day overhear where someone hid a dead body or a pot of gold probably makes it worthwhile even if it pays off only once. The newsletter idea is increasingly antiquated as interest groups move online, but in actuality this only makes it even easier, as all you have to do is write your email address and click submit.

There was definitely at least one thing I could garner from each article. David Snider's photos were a great lesson in what to look for when doing (or attempting to do) a shoot, as they all had a clear focus and were pretty interesting. The scans made David LaBelle's photos look like a pair of jeans from Abercrombie that come pre-ruined at conception, (I really am not as good at these similes as he is) but the lessons contained in the second half of the document made it all worth the while.