I recently photographed the protest march in Dallas for an agency that Ive been with for several years. The event was remarkable - about a half-million people protesting proposed immigration policy changes - mentioned just as fact, not to make this into a political debate. Back to caption-writing: I happen to like writing captions ...if I only didnt have to do it with deadlines swinging lower and lower over my desk like a that darn food processor in the "Pit and the Pendulum."
I would simply like to hear how you work - little tricks that you use, when you do your writing (vs. shooting more), how you stay organized, etc. Someone here said that they use the spiral bound index cards - thanks, that tip was useful. Gotta love that thick paper.
How I work: I write a generic caption, then batch dump it into all the images, then go in and customize it for specifics. Then I add an intro sentence for the specific image, and I save captions as templates in PS CS2 and call up others for the event at least as a starting point. Its a starting point, and often the generic caption goes out the window for images that are unique. I FTP 10-40 images per story to the agency in NY. I still use PS CS2 as its a swiss knife (sorry, EU ;-) and its convenient. My agency has some syle requirements such as using the date in the caption, etc. that I follow. Also, I use the AP Handbook, but we do not adhere to it as dogma; I just like the section on captions and sometimes read it when I waiting for paint to dry, etc.
Any good caption writing resources on-line? There is a good short aricle on Sportshooter. Here is another, at APPM:
http://www.apphotomanagers.org/Words_and_pictures.html
Write on!
Paul
Linear Mode
