A tale of two tours

Posted by Gordon King on Aug 12, 2011 | Comments Off

My job as a photojournalist is full of contrasts. I may photograph squalid housing one day and an opulent home the next. One day may include an assignment to shoot college football and the next, a request to shoot Grid Kids (the football equivalent of Little League baseball).

And one day earlier this week I photographed two politicians. Each on a tour of a factory. Both factories in Yakima on the same street only a quarter-mile apart. But that’s where the similarity ended. It was the yin yang of political coverage.

The first tour – a carefully-choreographed media event by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (a Democrat) at GE Aerospace. The media was notified way in advance of the Monday morning tour. All the Yakima media turned out for the tour – three television stations, one radio station, two reporters from our newspaper, myself and the Associated Press’ central Washington reporter.

Herded into a small room we were given a safety briefing and  issued personal identification badges, safety glasses and slip-on safety shoes.

The media was allowed to tag along for about 10 minutes of the scripted tour.

The plant manufactures aircraft components and apparently some of those components need to be kept secret so we could photograph only people and machines but no parts. The media could ask no questions of the senator or talk to employees during the tour.

The media followed Sen. Murray for those 10 minutes (AP reporter Shannon Dininny likens it to a flock of ducklings following ducks) before being ushered to an area with a podium and, of course, an American flag backdrop. She continued on the tour for a while longer before making remarks at the podium, in front of the flag, about job training. Only after her speech could the media ask questions of the senator.

Scripted, well-organized and tidy.

I had to leave early in Murray’s tour because another politician was getting his own tour. And while the second tour was only a quarter-mile away at virtually the same time it couldn’t have been more different.

The newspaper received a brief e-mail notifying us of the second tour a couple of hours in advance. The tour was at a local RV manufacturing plant, not a semi-secret plane parts maker.

Rep. Doc Hastings, a Republican, wanted to know more about the business so he toured the plant with the operations manager Jeff Gaskell.

It was decidedly low-key. Hastings was accompanied by only one staffer. There were only two members of the media present – me and a Herald-Republic reporter. There were no prohibitions on where we could go or what I could shoot. It was just Doc and Jeff with no scripting, no pre-placed visuals (like an American flag), no pretense, no prohibitions.

It appears as most of the workers didn’t know who the well-dressed visitor was.

 

 

I was even able to climb into a pickup camper with Doc.

I’ve photographed for more than 15 years and he’s obviously comfortable with me and my camera being around him.

Access to our subjects is absolutely critical for us, as photojournalists, to do our jobs well. Access to our subjects gives us the opportunity to more accurately portray the subject to our readers and viewers. More access = better photos (usually).

In this tale of two tours, I was given much better access to Rep. Doc Hastings than Sen. Patty Murray.  Because of that, my Doc Hastings photos are much better than my Murray photos.

 

–Gordon King