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When the photo doesn't match the story

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by flexmaster33, May 5, 2011.

  1. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    YankeeFan can't help it. He's never worked on the newspaper side of things and can't otherwise contribute to shop-talk threads.
     
  2. ColdCat

    ColdCat Well-Known Member

    I used to work with an SE who would pull this kind of thing all the time. He would just look for the first halfway decent pic of the local team's best player and run that, even if the kid had a bad game.
    To me, this always came off as laziness- he didn't want to go to the whole trouble of looking through a bunch of photos to find one that fit the narrative of the story. If you're a writer, a lot of times it comes down to communicating with the shooter. If you know the inside game in basketball or running game in football is the key to the game and will be the focus of the story, tell your shooter, "hey, get me a shot of that." Most of the photogs I've worked with actually appreciate having some communication.
     
  3. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    With digital photography, it should be so much easier.

    Now looking at developed negatives? That was a bitch.
     
  4. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    A lot of it is time, plus, baseball and softball aren't sports that create a lot of photographic moments if you're not there for the whole game. And during the regular season, it's hard to get that, even for a rivalry game, if the shooter has to run off in the middle of an inning, even with the bases loaded, to go to the third grade paste-eating semifinals at Podunk Elementary. Sometimes ya just gotta settle for the pitcher/pickoff play/stolen base photo.

    What I'd like to see shooters do is get mobile. I'd swear there are dents in the dugout where some shooters have been setting up for years, which is another reason we keep getting the same shots. Earlier this year, we did a feature on a softball catcher who's partially blind. The shooter got out the long lens and shot from behind the outfield fences ... great shots.
     
  5. Gator

    Gator Well-Known Member

    This is my situation, to a T.
     
  6. Den1983

    Den1983 Active Member

    Ditto. The "photo doesn't match" has probably happened to us a few dozen times in my four years at my current shop, but it's irritating simply because, MOST of the time, the photogs shoot an inning, maybe two, and then jet. We had a photog who would snap 5-6 pics and then leave. He loathed shooting sports. Thankfully he's no longer working here.
     
  7. Gator

    Gator Well-Known Member

    It's not that they hate shooting sports, it's that they don't know how to do it. God bless her, but man, I had to tell her that when a runner is on second, and the batter hits a single, DON'T FOLLOW THE BATTER BECAUSE THERE WILL BE A PLAY AT THE PLATE! Or in football, position yourself so the team we're covering is coming at you, now running away from you.
     
  8. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    I get the short-staffed thing...but stay an inning and shoot stuff of each side. Weird in this case because I went online and they have a slideshow with a better shot of the highlight pitcher in that mix. Maybe their appeasing an upset parent or publisher or something...who knows???
     
  9. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    Speaking of short-staffed, zip in, zip out sports photography...here's my best story...
    During football our staff photo will hit one or sometimes two of the local games for us. This last season, he's held up finishing up newsroom stuff and shows up to the local field with about 2 minutes left in the first half....typically, he'll shoot the early part, leave at halftime and I have photos waiting for me when I get back to the office...clockwork. So he shows up a bit frazzled because he's already running late and pretty much resigned to the fact he's going to have to stay at the field for the second half.
    He finds me on the sideline (our regular routine), and asks what I think might be coming. I check the field, see the alignment, check the downs and point about 10 yards beyond the first-down marker..."it's going to be a pass" I tell him. He just gets there and points his camera and sure enough, the call is spot on...QB leads the WR a bit far, he hauls in a diving catch for the first down while getting clobbered.
    Shot comes out great (best of the year in my opinion)...he's on his way home after just one play!!!

    Of course this was a case where the team we expected to win was well ahead and did indeed end up winning by a comfortable margin.
     
  10. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    *shakes head*
     
  11. So I'm the only one that wants to run the best photo possible, and not a half-assed photo just because it matches the story? Now, granted, there's certain situations that I understand photo matching gist of the story is important. But I'm not picking some run-of-the-mill guard driving past a defender photo just because he's the crux of the story if I have another photo I think is great. But that's just me, I guess.
     
  12. apeman33

    apeman33 Well-Known Member

    No, I don't think you're the only one. It's that most of us don't get the best photo. My photog is having a tremendous amount of difficulty staying around for longer than a half of football or basketball or 3 innings of baseball anymore. He wants to shoot but he's also got to shoot other things and there's a no OT edict. Not much that can be done, although I can shoot most sports myself and still write a gamer. But it hurts in football and basketball.
     
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