Jennifer Southee

A Journalism Experiment

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    • onMason Round-Up – 4-30-12 April 30, 2012
      Here’s a selection of interesting posts from across onMason. “Federman Beats Cancer” by Gregory Connolly Gregory Connolly’s article takes a highly sympathetic and insightful look at Jacob Federman, a junior sports management major at George Mason who has twice beaten Hodgkin’s lymphoma. After first beating the cancer in high school, he experienced a relapse as a freshman at Mason, […]
    • onMason Round-Up – 4-23-12 April 23, 2012
      Let’s check out some of the most interesting posts from last week throughout onMason. “An interview with Mason Dining’s Dietitian Lois Durant” by Nicole Merrilees This interview with Lois Durant provides insight to the life and hard work of a Mason employee who likely often goes unrecognized for her role in maintaining the high quality of life students […]
    • onMason Round-Up – 4-10-12 April 10, 2012
      In the new onMason round-up we take a look at some of the most interesting posts throughout onMason. “Tragedy and Twitter” by Karina Schulthesis This is an account of how social network sites like Twitter have changed the way people respond to and deal with school shootings. In order to make her article more effective, Karina begins with an […]

Briggs Review 6: Photojournalism

Posted by jsouthee on February 25, 2011

Just the same way that anyone can be a journalist, anyone can be a photojournalist (just take a look at Flickr). You just need to be at the right place at the right time with either a camera or a cameraphone. But news is different things to different people, so any picture could potentially be photojournalism.

Here are a few pointers to make photos more professional:

  • Lighting is important! Make sure it is not too bright or dark wherever you are. Natural light is preferable to flash light.
  • Get close to the subject! Move around if you need to get a good angle
  • Do what you can to keep still. Put your elbows on something or lean on a wall.
  • Focus on the subject and cut out all of the clutter that could distract a viewer.

Photo editing is important too. Most times your picture will be a little too dark or blurry, etc. and you need to make the image as clear as possible. Here’s an example of a photo I took at the Chinese lantern festival at GMU:

Original Photo

Edited Photo

See the difference? It might not be perfect, but most times a little editing will make the photo much more clear and easier to focus on what’s important in the photo.

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