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Making the same different

We often photograph the same events every year (we do this for some good reasons and some bad reasons. But that’s another discussion). It’s one of the challenges faced by newspapers, especially those in smaller markets such as the Yakima Herald-Republic. It’s a challenge to have a fresh take on the same event year after year.

We’ve got a couple of different ways of dealing with the year in/year out monotony of covering the same events. If possible, we try to have a different person photograph this year’s event than photographed last year’s event. If there’s an story which accompanies the photos, perhaps we can take a different tack on the story which would, in turn, would most likely provide different photos.

But sometimes neither approach works. When that happens I think the best approach to shooting the same event in consecutive years is to first have a good cup of coffee and then take on a good attitude about the assignment (“it’s not a problem. It’s an opportunity disguised as a problem.” Or some such management-speak)

Also, it helps to know what photos were published from previous coverage.

Given the opportunity/challenge/opportunity to shoot an education awards ceremony I had a grande, non-fat, extra-hot Starbuck’s latte to put me in the proper frame of mind. I still remembered the photos I shot of the ceremony last year so I knew what to avoid shooting. And with Starbuck’s help I was able to take up the challenge with a good attitude.

The photo from this year’s awards ceremony:

Dave Walter, center, was all smiles after receiving a Crystal Apple Award from the Yakima School District Tuesday, April 27, 2010. Walter, one of five Crystal Apple recipients this year, is the director of Instrumental Music at Eisenhower High School. At left is Steve Wright, assistant principal at Eisenhower and right, Chris Walter, Dave's wife. The awards are given annually to outstanding educators in the district.

Last year’s photo:

"Wow! Ohmigosh!" exclaimed teacher Christina Carlson after learning from Dave Dion, right, she was receiving a Crystal Apple Award for outstanding teaching in the Yakima School District. Carlson was surprised with the award at a Tuesday, April 28, 2009 meeting. She is a fifth grade teacher at the Discovery Lab School. Dion is a co-chairman of the award committee.

–Gordon King

Public speaking

The other morning I gave a talk and slideshow on photojournalism and photography at the Yakima Herald-Republic to the Yakima Sunrise Rotary Club.

The Yakima Sunrise Rotary Club

I enjoy speaking to civic groups because it’s always nice to de-mystify the news business for the layperson. Equally important, it’s a chance for me to hear the ideas and opinions of “regular” folks on our photography, picture selection and photo content. It’s a good reminder how we, as professional photojournalists, sometimes lose touch with the visual needs and wants of our readers (i.e. our “customers”).

I had one particularly interesting exchange with a gentlemen representing a local youth golf instruction program. He disliked a photo I shot during one of the program’s instructional sessions.

Kira Alexander, 11, reclines on a golf bag as she waits her turn to hit golf balls at The First Tee golf program at Fisher Park in Yakima, Wash. July 6, 2009. The program teaches youngsters core values and life skills along with golf skills, says Del Rankin, the executive director of the Yakima chapter of The First Tee Program. This is the second year of the program in Yakima and this year there are 248 youngsters enrolled in the 10-week-long program, double the number of youngsters in last year's program. Two hundred are attending the weekly sessions at Yakima-area parks and golf courses with 48 attending sessions in Granger. This is the first year Alexander has played golf.

A little background on this photo. I had about an hour one morning to find a standalone photo for the front page of the next day’s local section. It was a lazy, warm sort of summer day here in Yakima and I was hoping to capture an image which reflected this (though, truth be told, I was ready to take just about any photo as my available time began to dwindle).

Coming upon a group of youngsters and several supervising adults giving golf instruction I got the photo opportunity I had been looking for and I shot the photo of the girl reclining in the sunshine. I thought it captured the weather and mood of the day.

However, the Rotarian who’s one of the program’s principals, thought the photo did the program a disservice and did not accurately portray the mentorship nature of the program.

I explained to him my motivation and visual needs that morning and that we had done a photo and story on his program the previous year.

Students in The First Tee program, left, from center, Joel Ford, 13, Andrew Devine-Wolff, 11, Taylor Newquist, 11, and Dayinera Weber James, 11, listen to instructor Del Rankin, far left, before hitting a basket of balls at Suntides Golf Course on Thursday, July 17, 2008.

Still, the Rotarian wasn’t satisfied with my explanations.

I respect his viewpoint though I don’t agree with it.

But with this conversation I was reminded how some readers and viewers don’t always agree with the photos we choose and don’t understand why we do what we do. And I’m not saying our visual decisions should be guided solely by what one reader says. However, we should at least respect our readers’ and viewers’ opinions and remember for whom we’re working.

–Gordon King

It may be cheap but is it truthful?

A couple of days ago a very interesting article on the shrinking market for commissioned photography was published in the New York Times. It’s an article all photographers should read. It paints a pretty bleak picture of the future of professional photography. YH-R photographer Sara Gettys neatly summed up the story. “It’s really depressing,” she said.

Stock photography may satisfy the bean counters and photo managers with ever-tighter budgets but a cheap photo may ultimately cost the publication much more than the price of the photo.

“The quality of licensed imagery is virtually indistinguishable now from the quality of images they might commission,” said Jonathan Klein, the chief executive of Getty Images, a stock photo agency.

Sure, a stock image may be good (enough) but is it truthful? How will the reader or viewer know if a photo in a news publication was an image set up and orchestrated by the photographer or a real, unrehearsed photo captured at the right time by the photographer that reflects the situation?

Or does it even matter to the reader whether the photo is real or fake?

I believe it does matter. It matters a lot. I believe in the authenticity of news images. Photos should capture reality as much as possible to accurately inform the reader or viewer. I’m talking about photojournalism here, pictures which, or at least appear to, show a real event or person.

And while there’s no guarantee that commissioned photography is indeed accurate and truthful, I believe a photo editor working directly with the photojournalist is much more likely ferret out any false images.

So a stock photo may be cheap but it may end up costing a publication much more – that publication’s credibility. To me credibility is worth much more than any savings gained by purchasing a cheap stock image.

–Gordon King

Giving back

Each year the Herald-Republic, along with a couple of other organizations, puts on a one-day journalism workshop for high school students. The Valley Workshop, now eight years old, gives the students a taste of journalism and photojournalism. Students are paired with journalism professionals for the day as each participant reports and writes a story or, in the case of photographers, shoots the photographs for one of those stories. The morning is devoted to reporting and shooting while the afternoon is given over to editing with a strict 4:30 p.m. deadline for stories and photos.

(L-R) Valley Workshop participant Rianna Ramirez, mentor Shannon Dininny and student photographer Morgan Snyder work together at an indoor rummage sale at Eisenhower High School. Dininny is the central Washington reporter for Associated Press.

Read the story and see Morgan’s photos.

The stories and photographs are published later in the Herald-Republic.

Student photographer Mayra Mora takes a portrait of a local band that will soon play at a concert to benefit victims of the Haiti earthquake.

It’s a lot of fun for the mentors and a lot of pressure on the students, for most of whom the word “deadline” is not in their vocabulary.

Workshops like this are one way we, as journalists, can give something back to the community. It’s important we show others how journalism is an interesting career and how there there is a future for journalism, despite the (hopefully inaccurate) predictions of the death of newspapers.

Mentor Pat Muir works with student reporter Kathleen Dolan, left, and photographer Mayra Mora, second from right, to craft a cutline for Mora's photograph that accompanied Dolan's story on a local

Go here to read Kathleen’s story and see Mayra’s photo.

And even if newspapers do go away, there will always be a need for quality journalism and photography. Our goal at the Valley Workshop is to give the students an appreciation for, and taste of, the work required for good journalism and photojournalism. And, hopefully, to make them want to pursue journalism, regardless of how it may be published.

And for those interested in cameras, these photos were shot with a new Canon G11, set on the program mode at ASA 800, with the photos being shot in RAW format. I purchased the camera a couple of months ago and this is the first real indoor test of the camera.

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