Photojournalism is storytelling with a camera. Professional photographers travel all over the world to capture news and features that entertain, educate and increase our understanding of humanity. An equally important type of storytelling begins at home and is not limited to professionals.

While it’s possible to tell a story with a compact, point-and-shoot type camera, you’ll get more pleasant results by selecting a digital SLR and an appropriate lens or lenses. A relatively short episode, a birthday party for instance, can be nicely covered with one zoom lens. For inside stories I recommend the Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 Vibration Control zoom which is officially known as the Tamron SP AF17-50mm F/2.8 XR VC Di II LD Aspherical (IF). I used this lens to capture every image you see in this article.

The 17-50mm F/2.8 is the perfect combination of wideangle (the 17mm equates to 25.5mm on my Nikon) and light gathering ability (it has a fast F/2.8 aperture). Plus it zooms out to the ideal portrait length (75mm equivalent). The Vibration Control allows me to shoot at longish shutter speeds without camera shake, so I often use this glass when I’m shooting indoors or in close quarters—even without flash.

Outdoor stories, or longer stories that spill over from indoors to outside, or from day into evening, are easier to capture if you match the lens to the situation. A County Fair, for example, may require an extra wideangle zoom like the Tamron SP AF10-24mm F/3.5-4.5. Or, for the sake of “walking-around” convenience without sacrificing versatility, an all-in-one zoom like the Tamron 18-270mm Vibration Control zoom (full name AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical (IF) Macro). In a perfect world it would be best to pack these two lenses plus the 17-50mm so that you are ready for everything from wide crowd shots to the garish lights of the midway after dark.

Success requires planning, preparation and perseverance—but don’t be so serious! These are fun projects, not stress makers. Be sure that you have your camera at hand, that the battery is charged and that the memory card has ample room for tons of image files. Decide ahead of time which lens will give you the best coverage, and whether or not you’ll need to use a flash (and if so, how often).

Every well-told story has a beginning, a middle and an end, but often the beginning starts well before the actual story gets underway. A story about a ski trip, for example, could begin with the fitting of a new pair of goggles days before. In the case of the Pizza Party chronicled in this article, I chose to indicate the beginning by showing my daughter working the pizza dough by hand. Why? Because those images leave no doubt in the viewer’s mind what this story is about.

Look for details. Spreading pizza sauce and adding toppings are details that help build the middle of the story and require no explanation. The shot of Maya with flour on her nose—which happened quite by accident—makes the whole adventure more heartwarming.

Change your angle and perspective. It’s fine to shoot the same scene from different directions—in fact, that’s often the best way to tell a story. In the end, you’ll delete the out-takes, anyway, so move around and shoot from every angle.

Control depth-of-field to obscure the background and place stronger emphasis on the main subject. I selected this Tamron zoom because it has an F/2.8 aperture which allows me to be selective about what is in focus.

No narrator required. Although some slideshow software and other presentation software applications allow you to add narration, your photojournalistic goal is to provide a tight set of images that require no narration. Sometimes this means accentuating the obvious; other times it’s more potent to draw back and just imply connections, as in the case of this pizza sheet held by an anonymous oven mitt.

Shoot lots and edit sharply. Your friends and family will judge your presentation by the images you present, not the ones you deleted. Actually, when I say “delete” I really mean “set aside.” I’ve found it best to save everything—for a long, long time—before deciding which images should be discarded. I often resurrect images I might have otherwise cut, just because the storyline or my creative concept has changed.

Although it smacks of “formula,” you really need one image that tells the audience that the show is over. In the case of a pizza party, there are several options. The most definitive, I judged, is a slice of pizza, thick and appetizing and waiting to be consumed. There were other possible endings. How we end a story is one of the things that makes your family different from mine.

When you’ve shot, culled and collected your small set of images, what’s next? You have many presentation options. You can create a slideshow, publish them to a website, produce a photo book or scrapbook, or just enjoy them as the screensaver on your desktop. Or do all of the above. You have so many family photo stories to tell, you can explore each creative option and enjoy them all for years to come.

Check out my blog on Shutterbug magazine's homepage. Please comment if you like what you read.
http://blog.shutterbug.com/jonsienkiewicz/

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