Until you step in my shoes

I sent a photographer an hour away this weekend to shoot a football game. She came back with four pretty good photos, nothing good enough to scream from the mountain tops, but good. Now keep in mind that we had an NFL game and a pro baseball team get eliminated this weekend (all AP stories and art). So I downplay the local football game, run it across the bottom and end up using just one photo.

She tells me, "Maybe you shouldn't send me that far away if you're going to use just one photo." This sets me off a bit. Because until you step into my shoes, don't tell me how to do my job.

This happen to anyone else?

 

Yeah, I took some photos at a game once and they only used one.

 

Was she donating her travel time in order to get good clips? [/crossthreading]

 

Exactly, the way I see it, you still get paid no matter if you shoot an hour away or outside the office.

 

You might also want to stop editing copy since every written word is valuable.

 

I've dealt with more than one photographer with this attitude. What goes unsaid is they'd strongly prefer the paper to be filled with nothing but photos, preferably theirs. They neither know nor care about the importance of stories.

 

YG, I think you're confusing that with "every sperm is sacred"

 

Yeah. Photographers complain all the time. Sometimes with good reason, sometimes not.

Not sure your market and all that but just in the way you worded your post, though, I would tend to try not to "downplay" local stories in favor of AP stories and art, myself.

The way the world is going that local story and photo might be the only reason someone decides to read your paper or website.

 

I've been friends with a lot of photographers in my day, but I've absolutely found them to be the most high-maintenance members of any newsroom staff. Not even close. Size. Placement. It never ends. Prima donnas, big time.

 

I definitely hear what you're saying, and 9 times out of 10, I wouldn't. I try to blow up local (depending on how good the art is. Ironic, no?). But this was a package under one big headline of the NFL team losing and the baseball team being eliminated on the same day.

Oh, and the football game was Saturday. We're a six day.

 

You forgot "cropping."

I've never been chewed out by a coworker like I was chewed out for daring to crop a local photo from a tight vertical into something closer to a, uhh, vertical rectangle.

 

Also, look at it from the shooters' viewpoint. If you are the one making the assignment and putting the photos in the paper, who else should she complain to?

If she came back without photos of the star player, would you say anything or keep quiet since you haven't stepped in her shoes.

You've got to process all the input you get without getting your hackles up. Sometimes you might have screwed up and could do better next time. Other times it's just the breaks and how the business works and you can't sweat it.

But you never learn if you act like people can't criticize your decisions.

Sometimes people will call and complain and act like real idiots. The hardest ones to take are the ones who are right.

This being a day old, I can see it. I would just try to consider her viewpoint and maybe explain your thinking instead of being defensive.