Well, here goes: How an entity (company or periodical) handles issues like photo captions might be more of an issue of style rather than effective communication. Style in this sense means how they handle photo captions, spacing, names of sources, et al—think of the various style manuals: APA, MLA, AP, Chicago Manual of Style, NYT Style etc.
I would argue effective communication is different—it’s the art of using language expressively and strategically to communicate a message for a particular purpose and for a specific audience. I do agree though that effective communication is a skill that has to be practiced—but it’s not unattainable. As to the order you describe, maybe—and I’m just guessing here—the order is based on the assumption the viewer looks at the front row first then moves towards the back, so this becomes reflected in the order of names in the photo caption. I had meant to respond to the school photo point you originally posted. A friend wanted me to take photos of her children, and I agreed to take a few candids. In conversation, she mentioned school photos were so boring etc etc. Gently, I expressed my view that school photos are actually quite important. In a no nonsense, no fuss way, they capture the student at yearly intervals—depicting physical development and if lucky a bit of spirit—a bit of personality. Watching the development from year to year is amazing—and heartwarming in my view. Now I’m not suggesting this is an either/or situation—both professionally taken family photos, candids, at home Kodak moments—and school photos all have a place in the mix of documenting kids—they are all important—and fun to have! The thread also made me nostalgic, and I pulled out all my old school photos, which for grades 1-8 were always group photos. We never had single portraits in grammar school—always class group shots. There were a few closed eyes, but nothing really consistent. For the most part, we all just looked at the camera and smiled. I love the group shots—especially in grammar school, since you spent an entire year in class with the same students. Individual portraits make more sense in high school given the structure of U.S. high school. I have no idea what tricks the photographer used to get the overwhelming majority of students to settle down and pay attention to the camera—but the photos show nothing fancy—just get the shorter kids in the front rows and the taller kids in the back. The boys always wore ties, and the girls dresses—though that changed in 1972, when the Chicago Public schools allowed girls to start wearing pants to school, so in 7th & 8th grade, some girls wore pants. If I was a parent and the photos were consistently bad with respect to eyes closed etc., I’d complain, especially if the portraits are individual head shots rather than group shots—though I do appreciate the challenges of shooting school photos. Maybe the teachers have to be more involved in helping the photographer get the younger ducklings to settle down—a kind of team effort. I don’t know if that happens these days. Still, if you’re not hiring skilled talent and/or it’s all rather assembly line, well, it makes it kind of hard on a competent photographer to get the best results. Cheers, Christine > On Feb 23, 2018, at 2:07 PM, Igor PDML-StR <pdml...@komkon.org> wrote: > > > > Good Communication is a hard skill. > Effective Communication is yet even harder. > (Christina A., who is, IIRC, a specialist in Communication can probably vouch > for that.) > > I am always surprised when fairly standard things are done awkwardly. > The school group photo I mentioned a few days ago has a "caption": > three lines of names for the three rows of people in the photo. > That's nice, so you don't have to painfully think of the name of that guy > that kept taking your pencils without asking your permission. > > But, the order of lines is in reverse, i.e. the "Front row" is written on > top, and the back row is at the bottom. Why? To make it more challenging to > match the names, so that you would feel more rewarded in the end? > > Argh!... > > It reminded me of the "Ahead Stop" practice for the road markings in the US: > https://xkcd.com/781/ > (Read the comment that appears on "mouse-over") > > Cheers and have a good weekend! > > > Igor > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
