To Beantown and Back

[Jeremy Goodwin]

Chicago Tribune photographer leaves Chicago early Saturday, flies to Boston to cover the Bulls-Celtics playoff game, flies back to Chicago, then covers the Hawks-Flames playoff game.

From the final photo caption:

Whew! What a day! Two playoff games in two time zones, 20 hours of work, 7656 photos and two Chicago victories. Almost forgot. Seven Diet Cokes.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-090418-bulls-blackhawks-playoff-pg,0,6250386.photogallery

I thought it was a cool piece, and would like to know who came up with the idea and some background behind it. I like how there are small bits of audio throughout the slideshow.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I'm sure management is quite happy that the photog didn't need to spend money on a hotel room.

 

[trifectarich]

7600+ photos? What did he do, sit on his shutter?

 

[RickStain]

7600+ photos? What did he do, sit on his shutter?

That's a photo every 16 seconds for four hours per game (including pre and post-game time).

Who has time to filter through all those and see which ones are good?

 

[Andy _ Kent]

I'm sure management is quite happy that the photog didn't need to spend money on a hotel room.

Baron, you took the words right out of my mouth. Call me a cynic during these trying times but all I got out of this piece was, "Look, Mr. Zell. We thought of a way to **** over the worker bees even more and put their health and sanity at risk by packaging a 20-hour work day into a neat online story. Woo hoo!"

And you can't tell me the photographer's quality of work didn't suffer thanks to this insane assignment. Go back and compare the shots from the Bulls-Celtics game to the Hawks-Flames game. I give Scott plenty of kudos for going all out, but common sense will tell you that the human body and mind can only take so much.

Oh, and in spite of his valiant effort, would anybody here be even a bit surprised if we found out that Scott got dressed down by management for upgrading his return seat to first class?

 

[93Devil]

I love using the web for extra photography. This is something that the web can give you that the print cannot.

But I just looked at this for free and I never even glanced at the ads. This type of content should have a subscription fee.

The digital camera is a wonderful thing.

 

[steveu]

Andy, call me a cynic too, but if said worker is hospitalized due to exhaustion on Monday (or even worse, a heart attack or something like that), then is this a good idea?

What was the photog's age? If he's in his 20s or 30s, I mean obviously it doesn't bring health considerations into it.

I don't wanna crap on what was obviously an innovative way to shoot two games, but at what point does "more with less" translate into more hare-brained stuff like this?

 

[Andy _ Kent]

Andy, call me a cynic too, but if said worker is hospitalized due to exhaustion on Monday (or even worse, a heart attack or something like that), then is this a good idea?

What was the photog's age? If he's in his 20s or 30s, I mean obviously it doesn't bring health considerations into it.

I don't wanna crap on what was obviously an innovative way to shoot two games, but at what point does "more with less" translate into more hare-brained stuff like this?

Head of the nail, meet hammer.

And even someone in his 20s or 30s could be at risk, especially on the drive from the airport to the United Center, or more likely the drive home after the game.

It happened to me once during a "more with less" weekend that began with a high school football game on Friday night, then a 7-hour drive the next day to cover a college football game, followed by a full NFL Sunday and then the 2.5-hour drive back home. I nodded off at the wheel and drove full speed into the back of a semi. Luckily, the semi was moving and not stationary, but my car was pretty much totaled. The impact is what woke me up.

 

[JBHawkEye]

I thought it was an interesting feature.

I'm sure his work did suffer a little bit at the hockey game, but he likely wasn't the primary photographer for that game. I thought he had some good action shots.

 

[RickStain]

Most businesses would have the good sense to try to hide it when they have workers do something like this.

 

[ServeItUp]

Andy, call me a cynic too, but if said worker is hospitalized due to exhaustion on Monday (or even worse, a heart attack or something like that), then is this a good idea?

What was the photog's age? If he's in his 20s or 30s, I mean obviously it doesn't bring health considerations into it.

I don't wanna crap on what was obviously an innovative way to shoot two games, but at what point does "more with less" translate into more hare-brained stuff like this?

Head of the nail, meet hammer.

And even someone in his 20s or 30s could be at risk, especially on the drive from the airport to the United Center, or more likely the drive home after the game.

It happened to me once during a "more with less" weekend that began with a high school football game on Friday night, then a 7-hour drive the next day to cover a college football game, followed by a full NFL Sunday and then the 2.5-hour drive back home. I nodded off at the wheel and drove full speed into the back of a semi. Luckily, the semi was moving and not stationary, but my car was pretty much totaled. The impact is what woke me up.

One more cynic weighs in:

I wonder how many hours he'll record for that day.

 

[JBHawkEye]

Most businesses would have the good sense to try to hide it when they have workers do something like this.

I think he probably offered to do it.

 

[RickStain]

Most businesses would have the good sense to try to hide it when they have workers do something like this.

I think he probably offered to do it.

That's not generally a defense in labor issues.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Andy, call me a cynic too, but if said worker is hospitalized due to exhaustion on Monday (or even worse, a heart attack or something like that), then is this a good idea?

What was the photog's age? If he's in his 20s or 30s, I mean obviously it doesn't bring health considerations into it.

I don't wanna crap on what was obviously an innovative way to shoot two games, but at what point does "more with less" translate into more hare-brained stuff like this?

Head of the nail, meet hammer.

And even someone in his 20s or 30s could be at risk, especially on the drive from the airport to the United Center, or more likely the drive home after the game.

It happened to me once during a "more with less" weekend that began with a high school football game on Friday night, then a 7-hour drive the next day to cover a college football game, followed by a full NFL Sunday and then the 2.5-hour drive back home. I nodded off at the wheel and drove full speed into the back of a semi. Luckily, the semi was moving and not stationary, but my car was pretty much totaled. The impact is what woke me up.

This guy flew.

 

[mediaguy]

That's an eight-hour day at my shop.

 

[Andy _ Kent]

Andy, call me a cynic too, but if said worker is hospitalized due to exhaustion on Monday (or even worse, a heart attack or something like that), then is this a good idea?

What was the photog's age? If he's in his 20s or 30s, I mean obviously it doesn't bring health considerations into it.

I don't wanna crap on what was obviously an innovative way to shoot two games, but at what point does "more with less" translate into more hare-brained stuff like this?

Head of the nail, meet hammer.

And even someone in his 20s or 30s could be at risk, especially on the drive from the airport to the United Center, or more likely the drive home after the game.

It happened to me once during a "more with less" weekend that began with a high school football game on Friday night, then a 7-hour drive the next day to cover a college football game, followed by a full NFL Sunday and then the 2.5-hour drive back home. I nodded off at the wheel and drove full speed into the back of a semi. Luckily, the semi was moving and not stationary, but my car was pretty much totaled. The impact is what woke me up.

This guy flew.

Yeah, but that doesn't diminish the impact of that much travel in such a short period of time. He had to wake up at around 3 a.m. and was going non-stop from there, arriving in Boston just in time to get to the arena about an hour before tipoff, and then landing in Chicago with barely enough time to pull into the arena moments before face-off. The average NHL hockey game lasts about 2.5 hours, so you figure by the time he edited and filed his photos and then packed up and got back in his car it was close to midnight, maybe 11:30. Your driving ability is going to definitely be impaired.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Andy, call me a cynic too, but if said worker is hospitalized due to exhaustion on Monday (or even worse, a heart attack or something like that), then is this a good idea?

What was the photog's age? If he's in his 20s or 30s, I mean obviously it doesn't bring health considerations into it.

I don't wanna crap on what was obviously an innovative way to shoot two games, but at what point does "more with less" translate into more hare-brained stuff like this?

Head of the nail, meet hammer.

And even someone in his 20s or 30s could be at risk, especially on the drive from the airport to the United Center, or more likely the drive home after the game.

It happened to me once during a "more with less" weekend that began with a high school football game on Friday night, then a 7-hour drive the next day to cover a college football game, followed by a full NFL Sunday and then the 2.5-hour drive back home. I nodded off at the wheel and drove full speed into the back of a semi. Luckily, the semi was moving and not stationary, but my car was pretty much totaled. The impact is what woke me up.

This guy flew.

Yeah, but that doesn't diminish the impact of that much travel in such a short period of time. He had to wake up at around 3 a.m. and was going non-stop from there, arriving in Boston just in time to get to the arena about an hour before tipoff, and then landing in Chicago with barely enough time to pull into the arena moments before face-off. The average NHL hockey game lasts about 2.5 hours, so you figure by the time he edited and filed his photos and then packed up and got back in his car it was close to midnight, maybe 11:30. Your driving ability is going to definitely be impaired.

Maybe he took a cab home.

 

[CUinthenewsroom]

I think some of you are overreacting. I'm sorry, but if having a long day like that every once in awhile puts your life at risk, you need to live a healthier lifestyle. The human body can do wondrous things -- but making two flights and sitting and taking photos at two sports games isn't that strenuous. The people running the Boston Marathon are doing more to their body over a shorter period of time than this guy did.

I really liked the package, it was a cool way to make an apparently life-threatening situation more interesting.

As for taking 7600+ photos ... he shot at two games and shot before, during and after the trip. I'm not shocked he took a ton of photos.

 

[Joe Williams]

These types of stories are a bore.

What does the audience care if the same guy covers or shoots both games, vs. two people doing one game each (and maybe doing a better, less fatigued job of it)?

This is something done for each other, those in our newsrooms and those in other newsrooms. And, maybe now, those in the executive suites, who will be happy about having one person do the jobs of two people.

It's a gimmick without much appeal. Would any of us have missed it, if the Tribune had simply done the job of covering the story -- rather than becoming part of the story?

Just like a lot of things made possible by technology, just because we can do something (oh, like tweeting from a kid's grave site) doesn't mean that we should.

I'm less concerned about the shooter dropping dead from exhaustion and stress than I am the "look at me" aspect of covering stuff this way. The games existed, it was physically possible to be at both thanks to jet travel and ... so what? A yawner.

 

[93Devil]

These types of stories are a bore.

What does the audience care if the same guy covers or shoots both games, vs. two people doing one game each (and maybe doing a better, less fatigued job of it)?

This is something done for each other, those in our newsrooms and those in other newsrooms. And, maybe now, those in the executive suites, who will be happy about having one person do the jobs of two people.

It's a gimmick without much appeal. Would any of us have missed it, if the Tribune had simply done the job of covering the story -- rather than becoming part of the story?

Just like a lot of things made possible by technology, just because we can do something (oh, like tweeting from a kid's grave site) doesn't mean that we should.

I'm less concerned about the shooter dropping dead from exhaustion and stress than I am the "look at me" aspect of covering stuff this way. The games existed, it was physically possible to be at both thanks to jet travel and ... so what? A yawner.

I think running 20-30 extra photos from the game online (in full resolution) is a great idea. I agree, though, about the photog being part of the story.