PHOTOGRAPHY FOR FIELDWORKERS*
CREATE POWERFUL IMAGES AND AUTHENTIC STORIES IN THE FIELD
Phone photography training for humanitarian, development & environmental field workers
FIELDWORKERS
Create compelling images and stories that engage people in your programmes, with nothing more than a camera phone and a few hours training.
COMMUNICATIONS TEAMS
Tell even better visual stories with more powerful photographs from the field that really engage your audiences with the work your teams are doing.
By helping fieldworkers dramatically improve their photography, and be more involved in the storytelling process, Photography for Fieldworkers helps organisations like yours tell evocative stories that connect with the audiences that matter to you.
Better images and stories from your programmes lead to:
More effective campaigns and reports.
Increased engagement, understanding and support from your target audiences.
This is a short, accessible online training which addresses the specific challenges that
people face in creating good visual stories on the ground.
Photography for Fieldworkers saves your organisation time and money and engages more people in your successes and challenges.
This helps to raise your organisation's profile and funding.
*We are aware that the concept of 'the field' is problematic, but haven't yet found a succinct replacement. If you have suggestions, we'd love to hear them!
WHY ORGANISATIONS LIKE YOURS NEED TOP QUALITY PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE FIELD
Strong images and authentic stories that move and captivate audiences consistently are essential for any organisation that needs to:
Attract and maintain funding, staff, and volunteers
Convey the impact of its programmes
Inform beneficiaries and customers of services, campaigns or products
Maintain a regular engaging social media presence
Increase revenue
Fieldworkers are uniquely positioned to create these images and stories because they know the situation and people on the ground better than anyone.
With a foundation of kindness, empathy and humanity, this course helps participants to identify, photograph and tell meaningful stories that capture the relationships, transformations and challenges of programmes on the ground.
Fieldworkers across your organisation can then create high quality, well-captioned images with informed consent reliably, regularly...and very cost effectively.
This helps communications teams build libraries of high quality images for use across platforms to explain, connect, move and engage.
IN 4-6 HOURS, THIS COURSE HELPS FIELDWORKERS
TAKE BETTER PICTURES AND TELL COMPELLING STORIES
WITH THEIR PHONE CAMERAS... AND ENJOY DOING IT!
By the end of this online course, participants will:
Confidently create informative, well-lit and well-composed images
Be able to identify and tell powerful visual stories in a single image
Be confident and connected with people and create powerful portraits, with informed consent
Know the 3 essential shots to simplify any situation and get results quickly
Take pictures of events that show people looking engaged, interested and enthusiastic
Know the essentials of captioning and organising images to maximise their value
These new skills
Save valuable time in the field
Help to amplify the voices of beneficiaries and stakeholders
Support local people to tell their own stories
COURSE CONTENT
We have proven that people can dramatically improve their photography very quickly, given the right stimulus and encouragement.
Photography for Fieldworkers has a strong emphasis on making photography simple, enjoyable and engaging.
The five modules are specially designed to help fieldworkers quickly become confident with the essentials of photography and visual storytelling, and everything is underpinned by the key questions:
What is the story, and how do we tell it best?
MODULES
The Camera – use the controls of your phone camera effectively and intuitively, and maybe learn some new functions.
The Image – how to direct our viewer’s attention in an image, so we tell our story effectively.
Composition, Light, Timing, Distractions
The Shot – simplify any situation by using 4 key shots: portraiture, documentary style, general view.
The Story – how to identify and source a good story and tell it ethically
Storytelling, informed consent, ethics, captions
The Edit – selecting, processing, captioning and sending images
Optional Module: Mindset – short breathing and meditation exercises that support good mental health.
TRAINING PACKAGES
BECOME MORE CONFIDENT USING YOUR PHONE TO TAKE POWERFUL PICTURES AND TELL STORIES THAT ENGAGE PEOPLE IN YOUR PURPOSE (AND DELIGHT YOUR COMMS TEAM!)
Learn in your own time, with a comprehensive set of easy-to-use learning resources including:
4 hours of easy-to-understand videos on our online platform
Discussion of professional photographs and visual stories
Hands-on practical exercises to embed the learning at your own pace
Downloadable tools and resources which you can use in the field
Behind-the-scenes video of a professional assignment
A forum to connect, share and ask questions with Jonathan and fellow members
Course cost: €247 per person
Complete the course in just 5-6 hours.
Optional 1-1 mentor calls with Jonathan Perugia - €200 per hour
Bursaries are available - please contact us for more details
ORGANISATIONS
TRANSFORM YOUR VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS BY TRAINING YOUR TEAMS IN THE FIELD TO FIND AND PHOTOGRAPH AUTHENTIC STORIES THAT RAISE AWARENESS AND REVENUE.
WE CAN CREATE YOUR OWN BRANDED COURSE, WHICH CAN INCLUDE:
Tailored content, incorporating your visuals, policies and brand guidelines
Video created by your organisation
A dedicated forum, where team members share images, questions and get feedback from colleagues and facilitators
Individual and group mentoring, supporting participants to embed the learning into their daily work
'Superuser' training - working with selected members to help them support their colleagues
Follow up workshops for comms teams and fieldworkers to facilitate communications and help with specific challenges you are facing
Your organisation’s bespoke branded platform
Book a call to discuss your requirements and get a quotation.
Testimonials
I worked with Jonathan to develop a virtual mobile photography and storytelling training for UNICEF Ghana national professionals working in the child rights development sectors.
It was a fantastic experience as I found Jonathan to be creative, very flexible and responsive to our needs.
I hope to continue the relationship in various forms.
Highly recommended!
Lely Dhuhari
Advocacy Capacity Building Manager,
UNICEF New York
Jonathan offers a comprehensive, value for money course for NGOs looking to train their staff in the basics of photography.
The materials are compelling and accessible, and he goes the extra mile to ensure the live sessions are fully tailored our needs.
He is a committed, sincere professional, with a deeply ethical approach and a thorough understanding of the modern aid sector.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and we hope to run further sessions as we continue to build a culture of ethical photography.
Tom Phillips
Senior Media Officer
Plan International UK
Photography for Fieldworkers really had all I needed as a comms / fieldworker to take and edit better photos with a phone.
It's taught in an engaging and thoughtful way, with an overview of everything to consider and how to open your eyes and explore when looking for an image.
Great exercises and video content and valuable 1-1 and group attention from Jonathan.
It's really improved my photography skills in less than a month.
Katherine O'Shea
Marketing & Communications Lead
Opportunity International
Photography for Fieldworkers is a really great introduction to photography and content gathering.
It has been so useful learning photo skills from both a technical and a storytelling point of view.
Great to get to grips with phone cameras as these are the most accessible for our teams.
Information on things like composition and lighting were really handy too.
Would recommend!
Katherine Harvey
Social Impact Communications Lead
Twinings Tea
Jonathan is someone I strongly recommend as a committed and gifted top-quality specialist in humanitarian photography, filmmaking and facilitation.
He worked closely with me at UNICEF facilitating workshops with young people marginalised by poverty, conflict and natural disasters, documenting their own lives using photography and storytelling.
This had tremendous benefits for my fundraising efforts.
Stephen Woodhouse
Former UNICEF Regional Director
South East Asia
Jonathan led an excellent workshop for our team helping us to improve our photography of our work in various different countries.
His presentation was incredibly clear, enthusiastic and gave us lots to think about and ideas to help us improve our photography and storytelling in a realistic and manageable way.
I can definitely highly recommend him.
Thank you Jonathan!
Melissa Campbell
Senior Programme Manager
Just A Drop
Why Gaia Visual?
Photography for Fieldworkers is specifically designed for fieldworkers by experts in visual storytelling for humanitarian, environmental and non governmental organisations.
Gaia Visual has over 30 years’ experience in creating award-winning, solution-focussed visual stories on development and sustainability issues for organisations including the UN, UNHCR, WHO, IISD, Solarcentury, the BBC, VoA, AJ+ and the Guardian.
I'm Jonathan Perugia, director of Gaia Visual. I’ve been a photographer for 30 years and have extensive experience in devising and facilitating photography training. I’ve helped many different clients improve their photography, tell compelling stories and explore their creativity in fun, engaging ways.
These include workshops for Save the Children; UNICEF; Internews; the British Council; communications and creative agencies; aid workers; researchers; journalists; mental health professionals; and people in conflict and disaster situations.
