Photography 101 – VFW

Each situation of Checkpoint features a callout for submissions. While submissions do are available in, most don’t have any pictures and a few with pictures that aren’t acceptable to be used.

To enhance your possibilities of seeing the great work of your Post in Checkpoint and even on the pages of VFW journal, listed below are just a few pointers to think about the following time you are taking pictures at a Post occasion.

If you have got been tasked with taking a gaggle picture, don’t line up the group towards the wall. Provide depth by bringing your topics collectively at various heights. Some can sit or kneel. Move in as shut as you possibly can to take the picture as an example crisp, clear faces. Most importantly, encourage the folks you might be photographing to be energetic and energetic, enthused to be representing their VFW Post. Perhaps you possibly can ask some to high-five or fist bump each other or some can stand back-to-back whereas turning their heads to the digital camera. Work to make the pictures fascinating for the reader.

Action photographs are greatest, however not all the time the best to seize. For instance, in case you are eager to seize a neighborhood dinner at your Post, keep away from submitting a photograph of a meals desk with no folks. Instead, transfer in shut and take a photograph of a volunteer serving somebody within the meals line. No volunteer servers? No downside. Stand throughout the desk from the particular person scooping up no matter is being served and catch her or him within the act.

As VFW continues to battle the stigma of the “smoky bar,” keep away from sending in pictures of oldsters sitting across the Post canteen consuming.

When doable, use pure lighting because the flash mode on cameras and telephones may end up in harsh lighting. 

Avoid taking pictures from eye degree. Try getting low to the bottom and taking pictures up or discover a greater vantage level to shoot down.

Make certain there aren’t any distracting parts within the background that take away from the primary topic. Common background distractions embody exit or rest room indicators.

Most importantly of all, please embody who’s within the picture, when it was taken, the place it was taken and your contact info. 

This article is featured within the 2025 October situation of Checkpoint. If you are a VFW member and do not at the moment obtain the VFW Checkpoint, please contact VFW journal at journal@vfw.org.