As Canoga Park, California’s main thoroughfare, Sherman Way is the first impression visitors get upon arrival in the shopping and art haven. When the city’s streets began to look a bit colorless and tired, Kiwanis-family members went into reputation-saving mode and freshened planters that line the city’s 12 streets.
The volunteers replenished 17 planters with new soil and planted dwarf Japanese mock orange shrubs, surrounding them with flowering lobelia and adding a handful of plant food to each pot. The group also weeded and cleaned several parking lots. 
Photographer: Cheryl Kobashigawa,
Kiwanis Club of Canoga Park, California
Strengths:
- Up close. The photographer moved in, getting down on the ground. Many people tend to take pictures from too far away.
- Faces. Cheryl photographed the students’ faces, not their backs.
- Less is more. Cheryl filled the frames with faces, arms, hands, and the plant. There was no need to include legs, feet, ground, parking lot, Kiwanis banners, or other unnecessary items, because they would have detracted from telling the story.
- Action. Cheryl did not line the volunteers up and stand them next to a bush.
What could make it better:
- Lighting. The faces are in a shadow. Have a helper hold a piece of white cardboard or commercial reflector to bounce light back into the faces. Don’t use flash when you’re this close.
- Come out of hiding. The face of the Key Clubber in the middle is somewhat hidden. Cheryl could have moved an inch to the left to catch his face.
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