Clearly explain the group’s topic and goal.
Allow participants a few minutes to think.
The teaser attracts by arousing curiosity in the reader. This wordplay can be challenging and fun.
Motivate your photographers by supplying them with the necessary tools to assist them in creating memorable visual images.
Basketball tends to be a difficult sport to shoot because it is played in a gymnasium. Most high school gymnasiums are not well lit, thus it is very difficult to get a shutter speed high enough to capture the action unless you use a very high ISO film (3200).
Before you begin to write, read over your interview notes and gather related terms and important information. Listing and clustering start the juices flowing; they put you in the writing mode.
Volleyball is one of the easier sports to photograph for most scholastic photojournalists if they know the correct shooting positions and have access to the proper lenses. The court size is fairly small compared to playing areas of other sports. Since it is played indoors, however, lighting problems may still occur. Using fast films will help. So will using lenses with large aperture openings (F4, F3.5, F2, etc.). While some photographers may use flash, it can be quite bothersome to players while they’re concentrating on their next move.
Tennis is one of the most interesting sports to shoot but it can become the most frustrating as well if you’re limited in your shooting positions. During matches, photographers are usually not permitted to shoot within the fence unless it is from a court that is not being used. Most student photographers do not have the access professional photographers have at court side; drool over those wonderful Wimbledon and U.S. Open photos in Sports Illustrated but be realistic about what you can capture based on your access to the court while a match is underway.
Most of the action takes place at known points-the bases and the batter’s box-but distances are great, and a 300mm or 400mm telephoto is usually necessary. Flood-lit games at night are common, and call for high-speed film and ideally, a wide-maximum aperture. One of the classic baseball shots is of a player sliding into a base in a cloud of dust. This is best caught with a ground-level position. Pre-focusing on the base may help.
One bad habit that just drives me nuts is misplacing things. I even put my keys on a big, pink, stretchy bracelet only to get in the habit of taking it off everywhere – in the darkroom, by a computer, at the overhead projector…. Many staff members seem to have similar habits requiring them regularly to hunt for notebooks and pens.
Sometime before the first grading period is over (alas, sometimes by the end of the first week) the realization may come that you made a serious error in allowing someone on staff. Of course, in schools where counselors provide the line-up, you have no choice. However, many yearbook sponsors select their staffs, and still live to regret it.