Why we editors hate portraits

 Most newspaper editors have come across a photo which is so good only that its sin is the height is longer than the length. Technically, that photo is called a portrait.

 

An image shot in landscape rich it detail of what the activity is about. Photo/FILE

The opposite is a landscape which is more detailed and deeper. Despite many photo editing apps coming up, none has entirely cured the curse of portraits. Most media illiterate folks excitedly send photos to journalists when told to have some courtesy contributions but the photos have to be cut to fit the house style guide.

Most of this comes at the expense of distorting the pics.  Some may come off as irregular oblongs.

It is now an open secret that we editors hate portraits. We do. Because they don’t say much. Because some are shot from shadows. Others are blurred. Even worse, some lack focus.

There is no sense and detail in those shots.

Then when patience is tested and all the portraits are lined up in a horizontal line, they don’t exactly make a landscape even if that was the aim of the creator.

When I see people smiling for group photos, cheeky crowds getting to shoot a memory photo that will create nostalgia of moments spent, I often see some being condemned to portraits-which we have no love lost.

I shouted at an amateur that they should make their smartphone slide sideways before taking those shots. Because it was a repeated mistake. This cost them a smile of the next photo but at least it was shot in landscape. Not portrait.

By MUSYOKA NGUI

The author is Editor-in-Chief, Mwingi Times

 

Do something for yourself

Today I was woken up by two good morning texts which did not need a reply. One was from my bank and the other one was from a fintech which is allowed to lend.

 Happiest birthday bro, friend and colleague in the infamous meat wrapping enterprise

Musyoka

Ngui

. May you live longer to reach the apex of the trade. - Benedict MUTUKU.

Much later, the telco which eats more of my data than YouTube remembered as an afterthought that Musyoka is having a big day today. And it did the necessary.

But the messages that I will humanize are that from my friends and family. One of my friends asked how old I am. They then said I am young. But I do not agree.

I have not reached an age where I am concerned about legacies and memories. But I already have some.  

In an AlJazeera English sitdown with Nigerian Poet Wole Soyinka, Folly Bah Thibault asked the Nobel Laureate what he would wish to be remembered for.  He shook his greying beard and said “Simply the recollection of the fact that I passed through”.

 Now, as an author who has won a national award and mentored many upcoming reporters, I have a few words for those who want to join my industry.

When we were in high school, our teachers advised us to put a lot of efforts to be better. There were motivational speakers and career coaches. But I dare hold that some advice given then has been overtaken by time and technology.

A decade ago, I formed a website called Youth Issue. I believed that the forum will be used to air the views of the young people who are lied to by politicians that they are leaders of tomorrow in a country where retirees take up government jobs which the youths have spent decades specializing in.

Today I got a glimpse of how people can describe me if I go missing. Silent, young man, serious and unassuming.

Today I take this opportunity to tell everyone my age that they should do something for themselves. Be it a hobby, art or a business.

I do not think most of us have passed our sell by dates.  Reform years of self-rundown in drugs, dangerous leisure and wastage.

This is the time to re-evaluate your priorities. Cut the chase. If you’ve been spending time and money on something, examine it and see if it works. If it doesn’t, follow your head not heart.

Listen to those who have gone ahead of you. Mostly, majority of the competition want you to succeed. It is only that you will render them irrelevant that makes them insecure.

Brush your image. Dress well. Meet people and make worthwhile friends who will help.

Be contented with what you have. That way, you will not steal and you will return something that belongs to another person if it lands on your desk.

I have not achieved some of my own goals in life but it doesn’t mean that I won’t try again.

I will celebrate and do something for myself.  I won’t forget myself.  Yours. Truly.