When the photo doesn't match the story

Just saw an layout where the main story is about Podunk High's baseball team blowing out a cross-town opponent to clinch the league with Podunk High pitcher having a huge game. Story is good, but the main photo shows a Podunk batter striking out?

It's not a "make my jaw drop" shot or anything...just a simple batter swinging through pic...you can't tell me there's not a basic shot of the pitcher or at least a shot of a Podunk highlight that would be a better fit.

 

I used to always tell our photogs -- first thing, get standard (decent) shots of each starting pitcher. You never know. And if Conference Foe High hurler tosses a no-hitter, I'm using that, either as main art or as secondary, depending on what we'd have.

 

We did this recently. The headline was "Pitcher Perfect" and the secondary had something to do with the opposing pitcher threw two complete games (both wins) and a no-no against the home team. The photo? A shot of one of the two home pitchers. Nothing was confusing, per se, as the secondary headline had the opposing pitcher's name in it, but I just thought it was awkward.

 

When the photo doesn't match the story, the answer is simple. Just don't release it. [/ObamaAdministration]

 

Happens to us all the time. Most of the time the photogs shoot 3 innings and leave, so they never have the climactic moments. First half of hoop, football, first period of a hockey game, whatever. Don't devote the time until the playoffs...just too short staffed. It makes the page look bad, most of the time, but the philosophy from above is "art is art." Deep sigh.

 

Not alone in these frustrations. We've tried all sorts of things, including having photog go to the second half of games, shoot both teams, etc. Track and field seems to be the worst. Photog loves a shot of, say, the pole vault, while writer wants to focus on the sprints. And the poor desk editor is trying to assemble a halfway decent page while keeping World War III from breaking out in the newsroom.

 

Maybe I'm speaking out of school here, but do others find most of the photogs to be, um, different kinds of individuals? In my time at newspapers, our staff probably had one photog who wasn't a bit, well, um, "off".

 

Like a casket?

 

I was hoping this to be about wild art running next to the "wrong" headline.

 

Like this?



But as for the thread, yeah, I hate it, but there's really not much you can do about it. Rarely do the photos match the thrust of the game story.

 

Oh for fuck's sake. Was it really absolutely necessary to pollute a shop-talk thread with a cheap political jab?

 

That's what I'm talking about!