American Soldier

A. I think the most powerful image from the Denver Post was when sergeant John Eldridge uses his walking stick and plays with one of the soldiers with it to encourage them during field training exercises. When the soldiers are in stressful or risky situations (war/training), an encouragement or a laugh from a superior almost always relieves the stress and the nerves. This picture also really showed unity and a strong relationship built among the soldiers.
B. The images show the environment and situations they experience as soldiers. It is easy to identify the mood and emotion displayed from the image/subject. The fact that most of the photos are black and white also factor in to create the mood of the image.
C. The captions help illustrate and understand the action that is occurring in each image. They also may provide information that cannot be identified by the image. Rather than just a couple of words, it greatly enhances the experience of the soldiers.
D. Ian Fisher was enlisted in the army at age 17. He signed up for the violence spiking up in Iraq who wanted to fight for "God and [his] country." Throughout his experience as a soldier, Fisher has faced and overcame many injuries and obstacles from the Army and himself. He has built multiple relationships with the other soldiers. Fisher's Drill Sergeant states that he got attached to Fisher during their 14 week training. After a few weeks of hard training, Fisher returns home and explains to his father that he has a drug addiction and later tell his commander. Fisher then comes home from Iraq, has a celebration, and gets engaged to his girlfriend, Devin.
E. Where Ian is present and is the main focus of the photograph, the first sentence of the caption is written in present tense, while the second sentence is in past tense.
F.
1)The captions are normally 2-3 sentences.
2) The first sentence describes who is in the picture, where it takes place, when did it take place, why the photograph was taken, and what is going on.
3) The second sentence tells the viewer the background information that cannot be identified or implied by the photograph.
4) The third sentence may contain a quote and just gives even more details about the photograph.
5) Some captions do have quotes embedded in them.
6) Captions do not have four sentences.
G. I believe it is possible to tell a complete story with just pictures and captions because the pictures demonstrate the action that is occurring and the captions provide more details and background information that may not be shown just by the photograph.
H. I think people bother writing stories because they provide more information and action that can attract the reader's attention. Individuals can acquire more information from a story than just a picture and a caption.