Putting in "hooks"

“The more hooks an idea has, the better it will cling to memory” – Chip Heath

I remember some years ago I watched this movie called “Hustle and Flow”. It was a wonderful movie about a group of people under tough life circumstances trying to make a rap song, hoping it would become a hit. Much of the movie was about their group effort in the studio crafting this song together despite all the ups and downs they experienced. I have very vivid memories about this segment when they thought they needed to craft a “hook” for the song in order to make it memorable. I didn’t know what it meant for a piece of music to have a hook, so I looked up its definition.

“A hook is the capstone of a well-crafted song. It’s part melody, part lyric, and most likely it’s both. It’s usually the title of the song, repeating throughout the chorus and sitting in the most prominent positions of the first or last line. Hooks often gain influence with repetition, becoming more familiar to the ear and carrying greater depth of meaning as the lyric develops. They help distinguish our song from other songs, give it a distinct fingerprint that listeners can recognize within the first few bars.”

I took this image at a local garden yesterday. It was a windy afternoon and I struggled to properly focus, but I stayed patient and took time to wait for the wind to die down for a brief moment until I could push the shutter button. I am glad the effort paid off as I took a similar image last year, but I didn’t feel I found that extra spark in the image that would grab viewers’ attention. This time around I felt as though I found the “hook” that would make the image sing with the plant life wrapped in the middle, there is that sense of emotional entanglement and it adds a little story line to an otherwise ordinary image.

I think as photographers, subconsciously we are on the lookout for “hooks” – those little emotional hints that we can add to our images, so they become more memorable. I find the point-of-view is probably one of the simplest methods when trying to establish emotion because I control it completely. My point of view is uniquely mine. I feel as photographers we often don’t explore this unique tool as thoroughly as we should.

How do we establish a point-of-view then? First, I find my choice of lens greatly influences the POV of a scene. A wide-angle lens expands distance and pushes elements apart whereas a telephoto lens compresses distance and spatial relationships. Understanding the difference in image characters coming from different lens will help establishing your POV. Your choice of positioning the camera also affects the POV. Many photographers, myself included, tend to photograph subjects from eye level. Unfortunately, that is rarely the best angle to infuse an emotional reaction into a photograph. Quite often, however, even a slight movement on the part of camera placement can add emotion and drama. Do experiment from different heights and multiple angles when you compose out in the field. Your choice of positioning the subject also affects the POV. Choosing an emotional POV doesn’t necessarily have to be ultra-dramatic, sometimes it’s just about eliminating unnecessary details until you have focused on the essence of your subject.

By putting in the effort to establish and fine tune our point-of-view, hopefully we create more “hooks” for our visual stories.