Army photographers

The following message is being shared on behalf of MSG Sparks….

My fellow Senior PA NCOs,
I'd like to share my individual opinion regarding the AAR comments, particularly, "Technically, a number of photos had either soft focus or were completely out of focus, and color levels were not adjusted. Finally, many photos failed to truly tell the story, either lacking a clear subject or having no subject at all."

For quite some time the quality of photographs taken by Army photographers (I don't include the 25V) have been on the decline from a technical standpoint. As we know the overall emphasis of photography taught at DINFOS during the Basic Journalist Course is not enough. Currently, students spend a total of 88 hours broken into 17.5 Lecture, 21 Performance Exercise, 5 Written Examination, and 44.5 Performance Examination on learning photojournalism. From my conclusion, most of what these new photographers understand is turn the camera on and shoot using autofocus. This is their mentality and if they're lucky to get a good shot, then so be it.

Trust me, I understand that DINFOS is nothing more than the institutional foundation to teach the basics of photography, and the rest is up to us - the Senior PA NCO whether at Division or higher. Herein lies the problem. I'm not sure how many of our Senior PA NCOs take the time out teach this very important craft. Also, we have a high number of NCOs who have reclassed into the field and outside of the BJC course, I'm not exactly sure how many have acquired additional photography training, so who is supposed to teach our new troops this craft? For example, I had a brand new troop arrive to Korea straight out of DINFOS and he was promoted to SSG the day he graduated. When that troop shows up for an assignment, no one knows he's a brand new SSG right out of school, they see the rank and have a level of expectation when it comes to the final product. We, Senior PA NCOs, have to rapidly hone the skills of these young sergeants because in a short matter of time, they'll be the Senior PA NCO with very little expertise in their craft.

We have to look at other ways and methods to get our Soldiers trained, whether it's getting funds to send a troop to a week-long photography workshop or we become better as the SME to teach. For example, I ensured during our mandatory Sergeants Time Training while assigned to 2nd Infantry Division at Korea that one Thursday was dedicated to MOS specific and we had an entire day of photography training. Most importantly over the years, I had my Soldiers enroll in a photography class if the local university offered the course so they can get "hands on" training twice a week from a professor which enhanced their technical knowledge of photo composition.

Also the high frequency of deployments is not allowing so many of our Soldiers attend the Intermediate Photojournalism Course. When many of our Soldiers return, how do we tell them to go away for an additional 10 weeks to Fort Meade when they've already been away from family for a year. Add on the time to reset and prepare for redeployment which is supposed to be their dwell time and now you have a disgruntled Soldier and family members.

I've ranted enough, but this problem of photography has become rampant throughout the CMF. We have to find ways to get these sergeants trained either at IPC or Syracuse, because this very critical craft is a key enabler for us to communicate our (Army) messages to our key audiences.


MSG Donald Sparks
Public Affairs Chief
U.S. Special Operations Command - Europe