I’ve been a professional photographer for over a decade now and I’ve taken thousands of photos over that time. However, I have a handful of photos that stick out in my mind. These are photos, that even years later I still remember the circumstances that led up to the moment that is photographed.
The photograph I chose to tell a story about was this one of a herd of horses in Montana at sunset.
Summary:
It was the first day of a cross-country road trip from Alberta to Ontario, going through the states. My mother had flown out to join me on the trip and I was really looking forward to all the amazing scenery along the way.
The plan was to drive through Waterton Lakes- Glacier International Peace Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a small border crossing between Canada and the US. When we crossed, the border crossing agent told us that we shouldn’t expect much about Helena, our destination for the night.
This part of Montana is pretty sparse, with not a lot of town centres along the way. That’s why I was worried about what the agent told us.
As we travelled, the mountains gave way to rolling hills and wide-open skies. Montana is known as Big Sky Country and it’s easy to see why.
We hadn’t seen many people on the road at all and it was quickly getting dark. The sun had set alighting the sky in vibrant hues. On a ridge, my mom spotted a herd of horses, standing there, silhouetted against the pink sky.
We stopped, checking that no one was around, then reversed back up the road to get to a better vantage point. It was then that we spotted one lonely car travelling toward us. As it got closer, we realized it was a cop.
But this sheriff just passed us, completely ignoring the fact we were stopped in the middle of the highway.
With the sun now set, we still had one more mountain range to pass through before reaching the “small town” of Helena. As we rounded a bend, the lights of Helena came into view and we were shocked to see how big it was.
Turns out, Helena is the capital city of Montana.
Storytelling principles
To tell the story behind the photograph of the horses, I applied storytelling principles from our latest modules.
First, I structured my story from the beginning, the event, the middle, the climax, the end before expanding the story to include necessary details.
| The Beginning | I was on a road trip back home from Alberta with my mom. |
| The Event | We crossed over into Montana at a small border crossing, where we were told Helena was a small town that didn’t have a lot going for it. |
| The Middle | We drove along the roads of Big Sky Country, admiring the views. |
| The Climax | We come upon horses, silhouetted against pink skies, making a perfect picture. A cop drives by. Despite our weird behaviour, they pass up without even looking at us. |
| The End | We arrive in Helena, realizing that it’s actually a city and the capital of Montana. |
Then, since my story was about a photo, the imagery was important to set the scene during the Twitter thread. I chose, not just the featured image, but two more images that helped establish where I was in my story.
I also included GIFs to add imagery to some of the moments during the story to convey emotion, such as the sweating person GIF to convey nervousness about the cop cruiser.
Lastly, I also applied suspense writing techniques to add to my Twitter story.
Dramatic irony: Helena is actually quite large and is the capital city of Montana. However, we at the time did not know and had no way of knowing until we got there. The audience would know (or it would be easy for them to find out) that Helena was not the small town the border crossing agent described.
The cliffhanger: I decided to end the story with a cliffhanger. The road trip took four days, and the first two days were eventful! But the haunted hotel story didn’t fit with the theme of the photograph story, even though they were connected by the road trip.
The haunted hotel will be a story for next time!
My American Old West road trip post goes into more detail about the rest of the trip, for those that cannot wait.
EXSM 3989 - Digital Storytelling Class Blog 