Another photo issue

There was a photog that when I was first hired couldn't stand. He came over to the SE who was just hired and said photogs get the first two stalls to park in because of equipment they had to carry in. SE said "Oh sorry, I didn't know." Photog responded: "Now you know." He questioned designers putting that photo in. He took a buyout shortly after Gannett moved design studio . He couldn't take it and questioned there moves even more (can't say that I blamed him). But he ended up being one of the best I have worked with in the last 10 years. He wasn't the come show up and shoot first quarter and bolt kind. He stays and gets celebration shots etc. Cared about getting good photos. If I were you I'd tell the photog to F off. Then say if you want to help leave me do my job and we can be co-workers. Now you're just being a prick and helping no one. If that doesn't work and he doesn't want to work together and still be a prick and worry about what you eat etc..tell him don't talk to you. Do your job and I'll do mine.

 

Here's the latest thing. I think I may have mentioned that he doesn't seem to grasp the idea that a photographer and a reporter's jobs are different and that if the only reason I have to do something is because someone else has to do it, I don't really have to do it.

This afternoon, the day after a very busy day of state tournament games, he chided me for going to just one game and staying until the end. He went to two of them and left in the middle of one. Obviously, because the photography department is short-staffed, they sometimes have to leave one game and go to another one or another non-sports assignment.
He wondered why I couldn't do that.
I told him that I have to stay for the whole game because the whole pint of me being there is to report on what happened during the game and that means how it ended.
He said that has to as well, because he needs to get reaction shots. Well, to me, while reaction shots are a good thing to have, we can use action shots from earlier in the game and it would still be OK to run with game coverage. It would be better if we had reaction shots, but they're not essential. Being able to find out how a game ended is essential.
On the other hand, if I leave mid-game, how would I be able to report on who won?
He said I could call the coach.
Well, if that's what I would have needed to do to find out who won, what was the point of me going to that game in the first place? If a reporter can't stay for the whole game, why go at all?
Does anybody here, for staffing issues, sometimes have to leave one game and go to another? If you do that, how do you make it work?
Because if the photo department has to do it, maybe I will also have to do it, I guess.
(As far as the other games I was not at are concerned, I used a stringer for some of them, probably putting myself out of a job, if I'm to believe the photo editor, and relied on another paper in the company to cover another. For others I called or emailed coaches).

 

If you go to more than one game, that's more time spent in your car. On the road.

That's reason enough not to do it.

 

Well-played.

 

As mentioned before: Just quit listening to this dumb fuck. Shut him out, for real. The amount you wrote about this interaction is TEN TIMES the amount of mental anguish and/or attention you should have spent on the prattle of this fucking idiot.

 

What I hated when photographers constantly griped about layout was I then didn't know when to take objections seriously. If they picked their battles and then went to bat for a photo needing more space or a layout suggestion, I would value that opinion and listen and even go out of my way to make changes even late in the process because I trusted their judgment.

 

Don't take advice on how to report on a game from some idiot photo editor. I'd imagine you have to stay after and do post-game interviews, too, and maybe keep stats and get some color and context that you can't get from a phone call.

Tell your boy to stay in his damn lane. Writing a worthwhile story about a game is more complicated than than showing up, snapping a few photos and bolting. Too few people, even many in the industry, seem to understand that and yet we wonder why so many papers are struggling.

 

Slash his tires.

 

Driving in front of him would be worse.

 

We have done this at our shop, but we don't even have a photo editor on staff, so we try to maximize coverage on nights we're short-staffed. It works best with a coach we know is dependable enough to get a hold of for stats and quotes. If the coach doesn't usually send in results, we really can't afford to leave in order to get good coverage.

 

Shouldn’t this guy be busy fucking off?

 

SJ LMAO moment of the day. Thanks!