May 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 34

Is Your Park Ready for Its

CLOSE-UP?
Promoting your park and recreation agency through quality photography

By Vitisia Paynich

sk most professional photographers how they would describe
the merits of storytelling through photographs, and their response likely will be: " A picture is worth a thousand words. "
But if that image lacks focus in quality and context, its value
could be diminished to a single word - uninspiring.
For park and recreation agencies,
using imagery can help to market
and promote their vast portfolio of
parks, sports facilities and recreation
programming to community members. What's more, compelling stories that clearly convey a community's wants and needs allow agencies
to make a case for increased park
and recreation funding and future
capital investments to stakeholders
and elected officials.
" Residents enjoy seeing pictures
of people, places or events that
are familiar to them. Whether it's
a photo of a park, trail, recreation
center or someone they know, it always helps for our residents to make
a connection to the services that we
provide through an image, " says
Cynthia Booth, senior public affairs
analyst at Durham Parks and Recreation (DPR) in North Carolina.

What's Being Conveyed?
Generally, the marketing and
communications team at a park
34 Parks & Recreation

| M AY 2 02 1 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

and recreation agency will hire
professional photographers to
capture images. However, given
the sheer number of events and
programming an agency might
produce on a regular basis, they
must be selective about the projects that warrant professional
photography, as marketing budgets may be stretched.
" We use a professional photographer for our larger events, as
the marketing team is typically
busy engaging with participants
and cannot capture all components of the event, " notes Booth.
" For our regular programs, activities or events, the marketing
team will take pictures or ask the
staff who plan the activities to
take photos. "
Kim Mabon, founder and creative director of Creative By Design, suggests offering guidance
and training to staff beforehand.
" More often than not, when the
staff are taking the photos, they

don't have the end-use in mind, "
she says.
Paige Donahoe, a professional
photographer and owner of Inspired
Marketing & Photography, agrees. A
lot of times, people just take pictures
as an afterthought, she says. Thus,
staff need a clear direction.
Capture candid moments at a
park or facility. For example, if
you're taking photos of children
in a park using a splash pad during
summer, Donahoe says the best
photos would be of two or three
children running around and enjoying the splash pad. However,
with your camera, you want to get
a tight shot of a few of them playing and laughing. " Get that shot
as tight as you can, but not to the
point where the designer can't crop
[the image], " she advises.
Mabon says that when you're
going for those candid shots of
people, " make sure that you angle
the camera to where you can see at
least half of their face, [especially]
if they're doing something. " Photos
that capture engagement, emotion
and experience of people are the
most powerful because that emotion
engages the audience, she explains.
Photos also should reflect the

May 2021 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2021 - Parks & Recreation