American Soldier Slideshow and Captions

1. The photo that I found most powerful throught the slideshow was when Ian was walking in the streets of Iraq, and in the background there was this painting that read "never forget 9-11." Out of all of the photos in the slideshow, there wasn't really any photos that made me say, "whoa...that's something" and this one particular photo is true because nobody wants to forget that one day when terrorists attacked us and thought they were going to get away with it. It represents why many soldiers sacrifice their lives whether they're young or old, day after day and the reason why they are true heroes like Ian who is just a teenager.



2. In my opinion, the last sequence of photographs (coming home) were the most powerful to me because I kinda reflected the situation onto my personal situation, like just thinking how my sister wanted to join the army,so it's like seeing the future, her enrolling and just getting to see her for a little bit and there she goes, leaving for duty.



3. The images work together to tell the story by showing the actions and emotions of how it was for Ian to enroll into the army and how he had some ups throughout his life in the army and how he had his downs like how he let go of his girlfriend and found a new one in the end and ended up getting married. He had ups too, like how he got over his drinking problem and he had a fun time in the army despite how sleepy and stressed out he may have been at times. There were times where Ian would be a teenager and other times where he would be a complete soldier, meaning that he would act mature and on his game. His emotions would express how he felt for example, when he was training, he felt tired and hot from the sun and worked out, it was saying how much he was going through and felt like just giving up. There were also the happy times when Ian was with his friends and family and was partying and his emotions showed it as well as how the photographer captured the action of him fooling around with his buddies.



4. In the photos in which Ian is the main subject, the verbs are usually written in the present tense form.



5. The captions enhance the photos in a way that it makes the reader understand the photo and know what's really going in on in people's mind. It takes the photo to another level in which you get to know what's going on behind the image.



6. Chapter 6:In the country- 7th picture
Ian prays to god while in his room, wishing to see another day and praying for his loved ones hoping they're okay.

7. The other features enhance the photographs by adding the full story towards the picture, like for instance, if you just see the picture of Ian with the sticky note that said "Army Recrurter", you don't really know more to it except for the fact that he might be thinking about it or something, and then in the video, his father says that, "He thought about it out of the blue and he might have been thinking about it for a while." That gives you more of a statement that yeah he's been thinking about it and he's made up his mind. These other features allow you to do that, meaning that it will give you more of the story and why he felt like that, just by looking at the pictures, you might have not known that Ian and his dad are like BFF.

8. As I have said before, the videos are better than photographs because they let you know more than just by looking at this simple image that might give you questions.My example: In chapter 10: Coming Home, in the beginning it shows how there's a bunch of people waiting for their loved ones and a bunch of banners and a lot of soldiers were expected and you could see the soldiers departing from the plane to the families. In the pictures, all you see is Ian smiling and like happy to come home (DUH!), but you would never have known how much his parents were proud of him and all the emotions running through everyone and each of those who are proud of the soldiers and for them to come home.

9. The photographs are better than the videos because of the emotions that are caught in the moment. You know how they saw that a photos speaks for itself and it's worth a million words? (or something like that), well that's how it is at times because yeah the videos might say what's going on and what leads to that photo. My example: Chapter 10: Coming Home, (I was comparing the video with the photos) when Ian is in the table with his family, you can see that he's exited and anxious to tell his stories and get caught up with the 411 (haha lol!).