Behind the camera.
Last week I stopped by the Clay County Republican newspaper office to renew my subscription and to shoot the bull with Smitty also to tell him I'd be shooting some high school baseball games this spring. That conversation lead to how often photographers take a picture but didn't see the play. He told of a friend who would ask him what he thought about one of the plays. His replay was, I was shooting and I don't remember that play. One day Smitty put a camera in the guys hands and had him shoot a game. At the end Smitty asked him about a play, and the guy couldn't remember it. When I look through a camera I am removed from what is happening. I am focused (no pun intended) on getting the picture. To me it's almost like watching an event on television. I've heard conflict photographers say the same thing. Bullets are flying, bombs are going off. But they are only concentrating on getting the picture. That is why some many of them are killed and injured in their line of work. It's the same with crime scene photographers who photography a horrible gruesome crime. As long as they are behind the camera they don't realize what they are shooting until later when they are home. That's when what they saw that day hits them. In 1981 when I was at the first launch of the space shuttle I was on top of a van shooting pictures. My camera was a Minolta XGM that I had just purchased. At that time there wasn't a motor drive available for it, so I would focus and shoot then wind the film (later when they were available I did purchase one). So I'm on this van shooting as fast as I can during the launch. But I don't remember seeing it. What do I remember about it? The sound and the wave of heat that hit us. It wasn't until I got my film developed that I realized what I had watched. When my step daughter played high school basketball I would take my camera and sit in the stands shooting pictures of her playing. My wife couldn't understand how I couldn't get excited and show outward emotions. I learned when I started shooting games in high school that if I got emotional I would miss the picture, so I trained myself to not get wrapped up in the game. Once again I was just trying to get a good shot of her. Had I gotten emotional I would of missed a good picture of her, because my brain would of been in the fan mode and not the photographer mode. I do remember one shot I missed, which would of been a great one. Why do I remember it? Because I missed it. One time when my wife and I were in Hawaii we stopped at a small road side park because there were some whales in the bay. I start shooting as the whales come up out of the water and go back down. One of the other persons standing there watching said, "Did he get it?" My wife looked at me and said "Yeah he got it, he always gets it." Since I was shooting digital I could immediately see what I had watched through the view finder. And yes I did get it.
Have I missed out on important happenings in my life, while I was looking through a view finder? I'd have to say no. While I may not of been aware of everything going on around me. All I have to do is pull up the pictures and I can see the main event all over again. Ironically of the thousands and thousands of pictures I've taken, a majority I can remember. If I can't remember I can usually take a look and tell you if I took it or someone else did. So the next time you see a photographer taking pictures at a game and you think how lucky he is with his place on the sideline just remember you'll probably remember more about the game than he will.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Friday, January 1, 2016
NEWSPAPERS
This morning on NPR "Morning Edition" they were talking about the LA Times newspaper and it started me thinking back when newspapers were a main source of news.
As a child growing up our house was full of newspapers. My parents took the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, The Decatur Herald, The Wall Street Journal, The Effingham Daily News, The Clay County Republican, The Flora Daily News Record, The Wayne County Press and The Clay City Advocate Press. The Globe and Decatur Herald were morning papers. The Flora and Effingham papers were evening. The Clay County was a weekly and I don't remember how many times the Clay City paper was printed. So there was never any shortage of papers to read in my house. As a child I started reading the comics, especially Peanuts. As I grew up I started reading more news stories. My first exposure to a newspaper office was in grade school when we took a field trip to The Clay County Republican to see how a newspaper was made. The type machine made a big impression on all of us, with it's molten lead pot and the reversed letters. I will never forget seeing the masthead which looked to be gold, although it probably was brass, but as a kid it looked like gold to me. That was back when most papers did their own printing; although I don't remember if we got to see the press run. That was also the time of paper boys delivering papers to people's houses. My parents always wanted the Sunday Globe which you had to pickup at someone's home or a restaurant in my home town of 1000 people, as they did not have home delivery on Sundays. In a few years that stopped and we had to travel seven miles to Flora to get one. One Sunday after a big snow storm my dad and I piled into my four wheel drive Jimmy and drove to Flora to get a paper. Probably not the smartest thing to do but we had fun. The Sunday Globe was at least an inch thick or more, which was mostly coupons and store ads. Oh and color cartoons. I understand that today you can't buy any Sunday papers in Flora.
Later when I was in high school I was asked by the editor of the Clay County Advocate Press (the Advocate Press bought out the Flora Daily News and changed their name.) Jack Thatcher to shoot basketball games for him. It was my first paying photography job and my first time being published in the newspaper. I will never forget how proud I was when I saw my name in print. Jack would stop by the high school office the day after a game and pick up my film leaving me an new roll for the next game. This also taught me to get the shot, because if he didn't use any of my pictures I didn't make any money. By the time basketball season was over there were editions where my photos filled a page.
I thought about going into photojournalism at that time but my high school English teacher told me I couldn't write and never gave me a grade above a C on any paper (you may agree with her after reading this). In college I found out that she was teaching an outdated style of writing that no one used anymore and by the end of the quarter I was getting A's and B's in my writing class. When I transferred to Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, I stopped by the office of the photographer for the school to introduce myself to him. He was from my home town and his mother insisted I stop by his office. We talked photography for a while and for a brief moment I almost asked him how I could get on working for him. That was a different time in news photography. The term "photojournalist" was being used to describe photographers who also wrote the story. I was never interested in writing the stories so I did't ask him for a job or change my major to Journalism.
Today many newspapers have eliminated their photography departments. As well as cutting the number of staff just trying to make a profit and stay alive. Their reporters use iphones so they can shoot their own photos and papers buy the work of freelance photographers. I have not helped out the industry. Like most people I now read my news on the internet. The only paper I subscribe to is The Clay County Republican which is emailed to me every week, so I don't even get it in print. We will never again see the time when big city newspapers were published sometimes twice a day, and the newsstand is also becoming a thing of the past. However, I will admit when I stay in a motel that has that provides USA Today I will pick it up and read it, even though I also have it on my ipad. I guess there is just something about the smell of news print and getting ink on your fingers.
As a child growing up our house was full of newspapers. My parents took the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, The Decatur Herald, The Wall Street Journal, The Effingham Daily News, The Clay County Republican, The Flora Daily News Record, The Wayne County Press and The Clay City Advocate Press. The Globe and Decatur Herald were morning papers. The Flora and Effingham papers were evening. The Clay County was a weekly and I don't remember how many times the Clay City paper was printed. So there was never any shortage of papers to read in my house. As a child I started reading the comics, especially Peanuts. As I grew up I started reading more news stories. My first exposure to a newspaper office was in grade school when we took a field trip to The Clay County Republican to see how a newspaper was made. The type machine made a big impression on all of us, with it's molten lead pot and the reversed letters. I will never forget seeing the masthead which looked to be gold, although it probably was brass, but as a kid it looked like gold to me. That was back when most papers did their own printing; although I don't remember if we got to see the press run. That was also the time of paper boys delivering papers to people's houses. My parents always wanted the Sunday Globe which you had to pickup at someone's home or a restaurant in my home town of 1000 people, as they did not have home delivery on Sundays. In a few years that stopped and we had to travel seven miles to Flora to get one. One Sunday after a big snow storm my dad and I piled into my four wheel drive Jimmy and drove to Flora to get a paper. Probably not the smartest thing to do but we had fun. The Sunday Globe was at least an inch thick or more, which was mostly coupons and store ads. Oh and color cartoons. I understand that today you can't buy any Sunday papers in Flora.
Later when I was in high school I was asked by the editor of the Clay County Advocate Press (the Advocate Press bought out the Flora Daily News and changed their name.) Jack Thatcher to shoot basketball games for him. It was my first paying photography job and my first time being published in the newspaper. I will never forget how proud I was when I saw my name in print. Jack would stop by the high school office the day after a game and pick up my film leaving me an new roll for the next game. This also taught me to get the shot, because if he didn't use any of my pictures I didn't make any money. By the time basketball season was over there were editions where my photos filled a page.
I thought about going into photojournalism at that time but my high school English teacher told me I couldn't write and never gave me a grade above a C on any paper (you may agree with her after reading this). In college I found out that she was teaching an outdated style of writing that no one used anymore and by the end of the quarter I was getting A's and B's in my writing class. When I transferred to Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, I stopped by the office of the photographer for the school to introduce myself to him. He was from my home town and his mother insisted I stop by his office. We talked photography for a while and for a brief moment I almost asked him how I could get on working for him. That was a different time in news photography. The term "photojournalist" was being used to describe photographers who also wrote the story. I was never interested in writing the stories so I did't ask him for a job or change my major to Journalism.
Today many newspapers have eliminated their photography departments. As well as cutting the number of staff just trying to make a profit and stay alive. Their reporters use iphones so they can shoot their own photos and papers buy the work of freelance photographers. I have not helped out the industry. Like most people I now read my news on the internet. The only paper I subscribe to is The Clay County Republican which is emailed to me every week, so I don't even get it in print. We will never again see the time when big city newspapers were published sometimes twice a day, and the newsstand is also becoming a thing of the past. However, I will admit when I stay in a motel that has that provides USA Today I will pick it up and read it, even though I also have it on my ipad. I guess there is just something about the smell of news print and getting ink on your fingers.
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