American Soldier

A) The most powerful image is Down and Dirty, where Ian Fisher is praying that God will help make his life easier or as he says, "I've been praying that God takes this stuff off my back." I think this image is the most powerful because it shows how he fights through the pain and how he deals with the struggles that he encounters.

B)  The images work together to tell a story because they show his journey through his career fighting for his country and what happens when he comes home. The pictures display all the emotions that he experienced from happy to sad to tough.

C) The captions enhance the photos because they tell you exactly what's going on in the photos so you can better understand the meaning and what's happening in that photo.

D) Ian Fisher graduates high school, ready to join the Army and fight for his country. Fisher gets enlisted to the army, and has to say goodbye to his family before he leaves for 14 weeks of training. The beginning days in the army are tough, and his childhood injury comes back to hurt him. Fisher and his squad go through basic training and receive their guns, to then take place in a stimulated explosion of a village. Fisher's Drill Sergeant reveals that he got attached to Fisher because he was a good kid who came a long way. There are weeks of hard training, and when he comes home to his father, he reveals that he has a drug addiction, then later turns himself in to his commander. When Fisher comes home from Iraq, he has a large welcoming ceremony, then gets engaged to his girlfriend, Devin. 

E) In the photos where Ian is the main subject, the verbs are usually in present tense for the first sentence of the caption, and past tense for the second sentence of the caption. 

F) 

1. The captions are usually 2 sentences. 

2. The first sentence tells what's going on and who, what, when, where, why, and how. 

3. The second sentence gives background information that we can't tell from just looking at the photo. 

4. The third sentence gives more background information from a quote. 

5. Some of the captions do include quotes. 

6. No captions have 4 sentences. 

G) I think it's possible to tell a story with just pictures and captions because the pictures should tell a story themselves, and the captions provide more background information, which is what makes a story. 

H) I think people bother writing stories if you can make one with just pictures and captions because the stories will tell you more than you could learn from a picture and a few sentences in the caption. So, it's because a caption only has a few sentences, but a story has many more sentences that can provide more information.