Knowing how to use photographs to tell your stories can provide you with a number of benefits. In this episode of The Photo Flunky Show, we'll talk about why you want to tell stories with your photographs and cover a number of ways to do it.

Why Use Photographs to Tell Your Stories

This is a bit of a theme for me. Not just the part about saying that your photographs should tell stories, but also recommending that you don't think of yourself as a photographer.

We love our photography, but ask yourself why it's so important to you. I'm guessing that it's because you enjoy doing something creative.

If that's the case, there's more to creating a photograph than just apertures, shutter speeds and technical skills. We love beautiful subjects bathed in beautiful light. No doubt.

Yet there's something more possible for a viewer.

Your viewer can glance at your photo or maybe look deeply into it for a long time. What makes the difference?

A story.

We're programmed in our DNA to love stories. It's why we have movies, books, plays and music. The most compelling entertainment moves us with progression. We want to understand it deep in our soul.

Stories provide that connection with your audience. Even if the story is brief. A lonely person drinking coffee. A baseball player who just hit one over the fence. A bride and groom making a commitment. A place we want to visit. Food we want to eat.

All of those are potential stories we can tell with our photography.

Yet there is more to storytelling than simply one photograph. That's why we have photo essays, wedding albums, travel books and other collections of photos wrapped around a theme.

Together, they comprise moments in a larger story.

What Makes Up a Story?

When you look at a photograph, what is it that makes you linger or just pass it up?

We can determine if something isn't interesting at a glance. It doesn't take many brain cells to recognize something that just doesn't appeal to us.

However, we stop and look at something that has the potential for appeal. Why is that?

If you're expecting me to tell you that it's because of a story, that's not quite it. A story is a supporting character here, but not the main object of obsession.

We stop and look when we can relate to the photograph.

The quality of the photograph definitely helps, but technical quality alone doesn't make a photograph interesting. I can show you a technically perfect photograph of a pothole in a parking lot, but most of you aren't going to spend time on it.

We're drawn to photographs that relate to us within a context we understand, admire or appreciate.

That's why we have so many genres in the arts. Some people love portraits, others love landscapes, wildlife or food photography. There are people who really enjoy and appreciate URBEX photography.

I am not one of them.

Yet even though it's not my favorite type of photography, I understand that there's an audience who appreciates that genre. To them, it exemplifies the unknown, a sense of adventure, or even an aesthetic for high contrast.

When you look at photos of an old, dilapidated building, it may pique your curiosity. What was this place? Who was here? What did they do? Why did they let it go, or where did they go?

There's a sense of history in every URBEX photograph. The word “story” is an integral part of “history.” This is how we engage, learn and appreciate.

A story is something that helps your viewer relate to a photograph. Stories evoke a sense of curiosity, familiarity and adventure. Knowing how to use your photographs to tell a story improves your odds of making someone stop and look at your work.

How to Use Photographs to Tell Your Stories

There are two ways to use photographs to tell your stories.

* Each photo tells a brief story of its own