Link to story: https://umainenewmedia.net/nmd343/story/project-1-story-progress-growing-in-a-place-that-grows-ryan-waryck/
Description of Story:
This is the story of reconnecting with the yard of the house I’ve lived in for two decades,
and learning to reconnect with myself alongside it. Noticing all the small ways that the yard has
changed that I would have never noticed had I not specifically gone out to look for this story.
Reflection:
In terms of story techniques I could’ve developed further, I think it’d be better if I was able to interweave a bit more of the
personal aspect alongside the photos in the middle of the story. I really like the ending portion, but I’m unsure what I could’ve
done in order to make it more seamless throughout the story. The way that I have it now it feels almost like an epiphany at the end,
which I think works, mostly because that’s how it actually was in the moment, but I think It would be better narratively to have it be
a little bit more interwoven. Photography wise, I would’ve liked to get better pictures of the wildlife. I am not a wildlife photographer,
so I had to rely on photos I had already taken, or had taken in quick moments once I realized It would be good for this project
(The pigs, the finch, etc.). I would’ve liked to have more variation of shots, and done a few more unique angles or techniques, as well.
What I Like the best about this story is honestly maybe the ending, as I think the rest of the story can feel a little meandering and
without purpose, but once you reach the end I think it can be re-contextualized a little bit better to make the rest of the story suddenly
seem worth it, and potentially applicable to the readers own experiences. I also think that the division of each section works pretty well
in terms of pacing for the story, and the ‘chapters’ per-say work better than I had expected them to in the final product. If I had more time, I
would like to potentially add another section, or add more to each section. The way I have it now, there are essentially 3-4 slides for each
section, but I think fleshing each one out a bit more could’ve potentially been helpful in ways I didn’t fully have time to explore.
I Think the most important technique I learned was simple photograph composition, and maybe that’s a bit basic to say, but a lot of the photos
I had taken for this project had turned out a lot better than I had expected and I ended up liking the end result more than I thought I would.
Simply taking the time to notice what would make a good photograph, and then being able to apply techniques learned in class was most
helpful. In terms of story techniques, a tip from other student projects that was helpful was to use minimal words and let the photos do
most of the talking. I ended up relegating words to the beginning and the end, and only had a little bit of text at the beginning of each
‘chapter’, alongside a short caption of each photo giving minimal context, which I think made the story work infinitely better than the
original draft.