Photo by Benjamin Chesed

Photography expert, Mark Murray, shares how intentional photo planning improves yearbook storytelling. Learn how developing photo stories, using shot lists and varying perspectives help photographers and writers collaborate to create spreads where every image serves a purpose and tells a different part of the story.

Building Photo Stories That Work

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Mark Murray

Mark Murray retired in 2019 from the Arlington Independent School District in Arlington, Texas after 35 years as a classroom teacher and district technology director. For the past 38 years, Murray has served as the President and now Executive Director for the Association of Texas Photography Instructors. The organization of high school photography teachers from Texas and across North America annually sponsors photography and video contests for students and teachers. Murray is a Joseph M. Murphy, Gold Key and Centennial Innovation Award recipient from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, a Pioneer Award winner from the National Scholastic Press Association, has been awarded the Carl Towley, Medal of Merit and Lifetime Achievement awards by the national Journalism Education Association, has been named a Trailblazer and Texas Treasure by the Texas Association of Journalism Educators, the Interscholastic League Press Conference in Texas has named him one of 75 Texas Legends of Scholastic Journalism and ATPI has presented him with their highest honor, the Star of Texas award.

Jim Jordan

Jim Jordan is the former yearbook adviser at Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California, and now a special consultant for Walsworth Yearbooks. He was a yearbook adviser for 35 years, and over the years the Decamhian yearbook earned numerous Pacemaker and CSPA Gold Crown honors. The Decamhian was recognized in 2022 as having earned the second-highest number of Pacemakers in NSPA’s 100 year history. Jordan was the 1996 JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year, and has received CSPA Gold Key, NSPA Pioneer, JEA Medal of Merit and JEA Lifetime Achievement awards. He received the Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration Award in 2021. He now shares his expertise with students and advisers at workshops and conventions across the country and leads mentorship through the Adviser Mentor Program. He was among the first to embrace desktop technology in the 1980s and apply it to yearbook, and he remains an innovator in the yearbook industry. Be sure to check out his yearbook-focused podcast, Yearbook Chat with Jim that highlights the stories of great yearbook advisers from around the country.