American Soldier

A. I believe this photo is the most powerful photo of the 3 week edition because it shows how his deployment was very hard for him as he is praying to God to help him make it through his time in the army. When a person prays to The Holy Spirit, they are in times of need and/or crisis. The fact that he is praying very seriously adds so much depth and true emotion to the picture. 

B. The images work together to tell a story because it shows Ian's change as a person from when he deployed to the end when he finally got married to his girlfriend Devin after getting back home from Iraq. The pictures show his raw emotions, his love ones and what matters most to him which tells an eventful and deepening story throughout the photo gallery. 

C. The captions enhance the photos because they give more details and background knowledge from within the photo. I learned many more details about Ian's life through the captions! I also can note that Ian matured significantly when he was deployed through what the captions state.

D. Ian Fisher applied for deployment to be overseas in the US Army, but tried to escape his deployment at the last minute through his already injured elbow. Despite his efforts, seventeen year old Ian was drafted to start his training for Iraq in June 2007. While it was very hard for Ian to leave home, he realized what he had signed up for... Fisher was very shocked by the strictness, self-discipline, seriousness and severity of training camp once he arrived and has a rough time. During his training camp, he re-injured his elbow and even then decided to stay in the army for training to deploy. Fisher had a rough time in completing training camp, but finished and was deployed September of 2008 to Iraq. Ian served for a year before coming back home. He faced many challenges that year within himself and in the war, but grew as a person greatly. Between visits home and back to Iraq, he found a woman named Devin who he later married after his year of service in Iraq.

E. The captions of the photos Ian is the main subject in are written in present tense.

F. Breaking down the captions:

• The captions are about 2 sentences on average.
• The first sentences provide the present information about the exact moment when the photo was taken. 
• The second sentences provide background information and what was going to happen right after the picture was taken. (the significant part- what the reader should know)
•   If there is a third sentence, it is usually a quote. 
• Yes! Some of the captions include quotes.
• Only the introductory picture's caption has four sentences because it gave much background information to start off the story. 
• It is possible to tell a story through only pictures and captions because if an author makes the captions detailed enough, they can show emotion through the pictures and tell a story with details through the captions.
• I think people write stories even thought they could just use captions and pictures to tell a story because captions are detailed but they are quick and general. People chose to write full articles because they want to give more knowledge besides the detailed surface.