I Still Don’t Fully Understand Storytelling

But here’s how it made me a better photographer

Photo by Author

I met up with a friend who had just started photography, and he was ranting about storytelling.

“But I don’t get it. Most of the time, my photos are just photos. There are no stories in them. I just want to head out, rest my mind, and take pictures. What’s all this fuss about ‘photographers have to tell stories with their photos’?”

Honestly, what he said is true. Even till today, I don’t fully understand the storytelling part of photography.

I often find myself researching the topic, reading photography blogs and looking at photos that supposedly tell a story.

To them, it’s a story; to me, they’re just photos… unless there’s a caption or narrative underneath.

What I do understand about storytelling, though, is how it has helped improve my work.

Let me give you an example.

I was about 30 minutes away from Nara Park in Japan — you know, that famous park filled with deer that bow to you for crackers. Yeah, that one.

As I got closer, I was excited. I pulled out my phone, Googled the place, looked at the images, and thought, Oh man, cute deer — I want a piece of that.

Photo source: Google

Then I started to challenge myself.

If I approached the scene like everyone else

OH, A DEER! SNAP. ANOTHER DEER! SNAP.

wouldn’t I just end up with the same photos as everyone else?

So I created a story.

What if the deer were prisoners, and their job was to go out, entertain us, bow to us, so they could bring food back to their families?

Wow. Dark. Let’s do it.

“Oh God, here they come again…” Photo by Author

“Mum, I’m tired… It’s ok son, just another hour more.” Photo by Author

“Ok shhhhh, no one’s watching, let’s run!” Photo by Author

“Son, you’ve got a way to fall
They’ll tell you where to go
But they won’t know” — starsailor (Photo by Author)

How creating a story helped me

It taught me to only take photos that fit the story I was telling. In this case: dark, sad, gloomy, isolated, workers. That’s exactly how I chose to portray my experience there.

I understand that storytelling is a huge subject — very much a grey area, not black and white. What we perceive may not be what others relate to. For instance, I’m confident that if I posted my photos online without any rhyme or reason — no narrative or captions — they’d just look like normal deer photos. But to me, they mean a lot. (Do it for yourself first, always)

The process helped me think out of the box, challenge myself, and improve my technique instead of approaching the scene blankly.

How I apply this professionally

I create stories before I shoot to make things more interesting, practise my craft, push my limits, and do better work.

Corporate Event — “The Happy CEO”
Okay, the CEO is happy — how do I portray that?
I hunt for moments where everyone is laughing while the CEO is speaking, and wait for the right moment when the CEO cracks a joke on stage. I’m essentially telling the story of The Happy CEO.

To many, these are just photos of a CEO enjoying himself with the audience. But that, in itself, signals a job well done — it shows a successful corporate event where joy and engagement are visible.

Birthday Event — “Killing Me Slowly”
Let’s tell the story of a birthday cake slowly being eaten by everyone at the party.

I hunt for photos of the cake being cut — OH NO, SAVE ME! Kids with their mouths full of cake. A point-of-view shot from the cake itself — if the cake had eyes, what would it see? Parents feeding their kids cake. Everything cake-related.

Sometimes, I even craft multiple stories during the same event to challenge myself further.

The Happy CEO paired with “Let’s Take a Selfie!”

The Birthday Cake paired with Crying Kids

In short, I create stories to keep my focus in check, instead of shooting endlessly without direction. These stories exist mainly before the photos are taken. To clients, parents, or recipients, they may simply see a nice photo — or interpret their own story. And that’s perfectly okay.

So if you ask me, do my photos tell a story? I’m not sure… but they do to me, and that’s all that matters.

The goal for me is to improve, stay focused, find new angles, refine my techniques, and — most importantly — wait for the right moment that fits the story I’m chasing. That’s my “storytelling.”

Final thoughts

Most of the time, I just want to go out and shoot. Sure, I can create stories while shooting, but sometimes my mind goes blank — I just want to enjoy the process. Constantly thinking about storytelling can get exhausting.

So I divide my shooting sessions:

Today, I just want to shoot flowers.

Tomorrow, I’ll shoot flowers and tell a story.

The day after, I’ll just shoot birds.

And here’s what I told my friend:

“Just go out there and take photos. Be driven. Fuel your interest. Find what moves you. Then, slowly but surely, everything will fall into place.”

Thanks for reading!
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.