How to tell better stories in your photographs

Hosted by Daniel j Gregory

May 3, 2021

Episode Number:

What the heck is this week's podcast about?

Episode 321

One thing you will hear a lot when you get into making good photographs is storytelling. Images should tell stories. Collections of images tell stories. What story are you trying to tell in your work? For the most part, I agree that good images tell a story, but other times great images are just pretty but that’s for a different day. In this week’s podcast, we talk about the way to tell a better story in your photographs and how to approach storytelling in your images. Don’t worry there are not technical notes to take or settings to learn, as storytelling has little to do with the gear.

As always, I hope you and yours are safe, and please remember to keep safe and wear your mask.

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Gear used in the podcast

Rode Boom Arm
Rode PSM Shockmount
Rode Podcast Mic
Focusrite Scarlet 2i2
Adobe Audition (part of creative cloud subscription)
Macbook Pro
OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock
Headphones

Working With What the Photograph Wants

This episode explores the idea of working with what the photograph wants rather than forcing our intentions onto it. Once an image exists, it carries its own visual logic, weight, and rhythm. By slowing down, noticing what the photograph is already doing well, and letting accidents or imperfections remain, editing becomes a conversation instead of a correction. When we listen to the photograph’s internal voice, we discover a truer, more honest final image than the one we first imagined.

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Interpretation and translation

In this episode of the podcast I explore the idea of editing as translation. Rather than treating editing as technical cleanup, I look at how it becomes a way to interpret the lived moment of making a photograph. The camera captures facts but not the emotional truth, so editing bridges that gap. By shaping color, tone, and atmosphere, we translate experience into visual language and create images that feel honest, expressive, and connected to our intentions.

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What it means to share your work

In this episode of the podcast, we explore the quiet tension between the solitude of making photographs and the importance of sharing the work we create. Photography often begins in private moments of deep attention, yet that same solitude can drift into loneliness and self-doubt. We talk about why showing your images to others is a vital part of the creative cycle, how feedback and connection help clarify your voice, and why your work deserves to exist beyond your own hard drive. This episode invites you to embrace both the stillness of seeing and the community that completes the photograph.

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