The Beauty of Details in Storytelling

I wrote this article 3 years ago, in 2018 when I first discovered Hello Storyteller. It was one of my very first blog article proposals and I still remember how thrilled I was when it was accepted! It’s been so lovely reading back over it again 3 years later, my twins now 6 and well past the toilet training stage! All of these images are still among my favourites and my love of details has continued since then! My “Details By The Dozen” project mentioned below, has since grown to sit alongside This Detailed Life hub & magazine as our monthly Editor’s Choice Award. Since launching the TDL print magazine in May 2020 during the first lockdown, I’ve been blown away by the support and love we’ve received from photographers around the world, including the wonderful team here at Hello Storyteller who’ve helped us get the word out from the very beginning.

So basically I’m just going to share some of my favourite detail photos and my thoughts, as rambling as they may be, and hope it inspires at least one of you to look a little differently sometimes and get in closer, capture those magical details and love them as I do! I’m Bex Maini and I’m a sucker for details. I love those crops getting right up close, some of my favourite photos are actually of random body parts and I seem to have a fascination with feet!

Details are such an important part of storytelling for me. As well as little toes, I love seeing the way children hold onto things, their little fingers gripping tightly like in this example below of my daughter on the beach trying (and failing) to keep up with her melting ice-cream in the mid-day sun! You don’t need to see her face to feel the joy in this photo, she’s enjoying that ice-cream so much she’s unaware of the long trickles flowing over her little fingers and down her arms. Real childhood, messy, fun and not a care in the world.

Tales of summer from our garden often include bubbles and the paddling pool, I love this shot of a tiny bubble which landed in my daughter’s hair, framed by the sunlight.

It’s so important for me to record the little details I know I’ll want to remember which includes my 3-year-old daughter always having a bum cheek hanging out of her swimming costume or pants!  I don’t know how she always manages it but it’s so cute.  The second shot was taken on the day I started toilet training my twins, I got through it by documenting our day at home, their first in pants.

As much as I adore colour and often tend towards vibrant shots, I also love rich deep tones.  As well as the bright happy summer shots I also love to use shadows to bring the focus to the details like my daughter touching her lip while home poorly one day or my son’s shoulder during one of his first “successful” showers when he actually started to enjoy the water falling on him.

Want to learn more about capturing details? Check out our course “Minutiae: Documenting Life’s Subtle Details”

I always try to include some detail shots in my storytelling sessions. Details in an album so much more interesting and varied. Details are where the magic is and they bring so much to the overall story. You can see the magic in these spreads I’m currently designing (please excuse the poor quality screen grabs).

Sharing my love of details is so inspiring! Recently I started a new project with 11 other photographers who love details too. The group Details by the Dozen is where we share every month. We’ll be sharing our favourite detail images to help us inspire each other. We want to keep pushing ourselves to find creative ways to capture details.

There’s some amazing talent in our group. Most of whom I found via my @ThisDetailedLife hub. This is where we feature our favourite detail photos from the hashtag #thisdetailedlife. We’d love it if you joined our community of detail lovers.

 

Check out This Detailed Life Magazine, here!

And don’t forget to follow the “This Detailed Life” IG Hub!