Taking a trip with Grandpa
Youngster gets a red wagon ride from Grandpa through Uptown Westerville. My Final Photo for June 15, 2013
Sugar Snap Peas are new at the market
First sugar snap peas of the season are My Final Photo for June 12, 2013
The Difficult Moments Now Decorating Walls
Families bury six children killed in house fire. Photo copyright The AP
Earlier today one of my Facebook friends pointed me towards a New York Times story with a remarkable photo of a lone person walking through dust and debris in a canyon of buildings destroyed by the war in Syria.
I always enjoy our online conversations because each of us have strong opinions, don’t always agree, respect each other, and love photography.
Today we agreed that it’s very difficult for a photographer to express pride or contentment having to shoot photos like the one he pointed me to. It’s not an enjoyable task, shooting disasters and deaths.
I spent almost all of my photojournalism career shooting moments that weren’t necessarily very enjoyable. There’s plane crashes and auto wrecks. Funerals for police, firefighters, children, military, the famous and infamous.
The photo at right is one of those moments where journalism overcame emotion and fear in an attempt to communicate to newspaper readers the gravity of burying six children at the same time.
There were only three frames of film from this viewpoint. I’d left my other cameras with telephoto lenses in the car and walked up to the crowd of mourners carrying one camera with a wide-angle lens. I stood quietly at the edge of the crowd gathered tightly against the edge of the tent covering the families and the caskets. I stayed quiet, my camera concealed under my winter coat, until I could see through the space between the heads of several mourners that emotion had reached its zenith.
As the parents hugged and the pastors said the final prayers I reached over the crowd positioned my camera in where I hoped it would be a good angle and fired three frames. No motor drive. This was film days and cameras still had a thumb drive for moments just like this.
As soon as I shot the three frames I returned to my car and left.
I knew I had photos to help tell the anguish of a funeral for six children. Also, I didn’t want to explain my actions to anyone who was offended.
My actions were cold and calculated. I anticipated one of the reactions would be anger at me. Still, the story needed to be told. I am a photographer. I did what was needed to tell the story.
No one chased after me. No one complained. There were no nasty letters from readers.
I did receive congratulations for succeeding with a good photo in such a tough situation.
I thought of this photo when I had my Facebook conversation this morning. Especially after what had happened the night before.
Young couple pose for iPhone portrait – My Final Photo
One of my granddaughters visited last night wanting me to give her a bunch of black and white prints from my archive so she could decorate the walls of her room. Among her choices, in addition to the dogs, cats, and skunk photos, were photos of Jerry Rubin, Jane Fonda, Stokely Carmichael, a couple of presidents before Clinton, andassorted spot news photos. Sandwiched in the collection now covering her walls are old news photos showing disasters, insurrection, injury, and recovery.
All are now decoration for a teenager’s room. They are not even the poignant records of events forgotten in time except for the participants, and the photographers who were the observers.
They are decoration, wallpaper in black and white blurred to the grays of history.
At right is My Final Photo for Monday, April 8, 2013.
Second floor street scene, with sign painter
Uptown Westerville Amish Originals Furniture sign painter
I’ve a slightly long story about an AP photo stringer assigned to shoot a standalone feature photo of windy weather on the streets of downtown Columbus.
This was quite a while ago when newspapers ran more feature photos and The AP supplied an ample stream of standalone photos for newspaper editors to use for filler on open pages or to squirrel away for the day when the paper needed to fill the news hole, usually on the same day the food advertisements ran or the Sunday paper.
Some standalones could be held because they weren’t tied directly to a news event that would be too old to use in several days. The usual fare for this type of photo were kids, animals, sunsets, weather, or just plain silly moments.
The stringer’s assignment was to find a nice feature photo of someone being affected by the strong winds bringing a storm into central Ohio. Didn’t need something spectacular although that was always the underlying and unspoken goal of any photo shoot.
“Shoot for the front page.”
After about an hour the stringer returned explaining that it was windy, but he couldn’t find a good photo. Not even a photo that might have played on an interior page. He’d failed, and was embarrassed.
To shorten the story all you need to know is I went to almost the same location from where the stringer had just left. I spent less than five minutes and returned with a photo of someone using a parking meter to prevent themselves from being blown into the street.
Now the stringer was even more embarrassed , and I didn’t let him forget that I’d sent him out on a simple photo assignment where he’d spent more than an hour and failed.
I’d spent five minutes and shot a photo that played in every major daily in the state and several out of state dailies.
I’ve always said that I’m very luck finding more than ordinary photos in ordinary events. Today was no different. My trip to Uptown Westerville was supposed to be brief. Just long enough to check on my photos at the Ohio Art Market before traveling to St. Paul Church for another photo for the 40 Days of Lent series.
It was unusual to see several unoccupied parking spots on State when I realized they were empty because a construction van had just pulled into one of the three and had cleared the orange cones from the other two. The van belonged to a sign company which would be using a bucket arm for a painter to finish the new sign over Amish Originals Furniture Company.
It was a great opportunity for a standalone feature photo depending upon how the arm would be positioned and what part of the sign was going to be touched up. Shot outside first as he painted a lower section. When he began to move the arm higher to position it so he could paint the top of the sign I knew I’d have to run to the rear of the recently redecorated store and then to the front to have enough time to move furniture so I’d have to open a window, thrust my camera out and up as far and high as my short arms would reach for a photo. There was enough room to lean out the window, but it was just low enough that I would still have to stretch in a very uncomfortable position and get no higher than my outstretched arm would reach.
Still, in about five minutes including running through the store, I got a different angle of Uptown Westerville. Using luck and that unusual ability I have to discover these simple moments.
At right is the new stained glass window in the front of the church. Will have to wait until they change the lighting behind it or carry a strobe and remote to shoot it properly lit. It is slightly distorted because it is so high on the wall and I a l;arge hanging light makes it impossible to shoot without standing almost directly underneath it.
Second floor street scene, with sign painter
Uptown Westerville Amish Originals Furniture sign painter
I’ve a slightly long story about an AP photo stringer assigned to shoot a standalone feature photo of windy weather on the streets of downtown Columbus.
This was quite a while ago when newspapers ran more feature photos and The AP supplied an ample stream of standalone photos for newspaper editors to use for filler on open pages or to squirrel away for the day when the paper needed to fill the news hole, usually on the same day the food advertisements ran or the Sunday paper.
Some standalones could be held because they weren’t tied directly to a news event that would be too old to use in several days. The usual fare for this type of photo were kids, animals, sunsets, weather, or just plain silly moments.
The stringer’s assignment was to find a nice feature photo of someone being affected by the strong winds bringing a storm into central Ohio. Didn’t need something spectacular although that was always the underlying and unspoken goal of any photo shoot.
“Shoot for the front page.”
After about an hour the stringer returned explaining that it was windy, but he couldn’t find a good photo. Not even a photo that might have played on an interior page. He’d failed, and was embarrassed.
To shorten the story all you need to know is I went to almost the same location from where the stringer had just left. I spent less than five minutes and returned with a photo of someone using a parking meter to prevent themselves from being blown into the street.
Now the stringer was even more embarrassed , and I didn’t let him forget that I’d sent him out on a simple photo assignment where he’d spent more than an hour and failed.
I’d spent five minutes and shot a photo that played in every major daily in the state and several out of state dailies.
I’ve always said that I’m very luck finding more than ordinary photos in ordinary events. Today was no different. My trip to Uptown Westerville was supposed to be brief. Just long enough to check on my photos at the Ohio Art Market before traveling to St. Paul Church for another photo for the 40 Days of Lent series.
It was unusual to see several unoccupied parking spots on State when I realized they were empty because a construction van had just pulled into one of the three and had cleared the orange cones from the other two. The van belonged to a sign company which would be using a bucket arm for a painter to finish the new sign over Amish Originals Furniture Company.
It was a great opportunity for a standalone feature photo depending upon how the arm would be positioned and what part of the sign was going to be touched up. Shot outside first as he painted a lower section. When he began to move the arm higher to position it so he could paint the top of the sign I knew I’d have to run to the rear of the recently redecorated store and then to the front to have enough time to move furniture so I’d have to open a window, thrust my camera out and up as far and high as my short arms would reach for a photo. There was enough room to lean out the window, but it was just low enough that I would still have to stretch in a very uncomfortable position and get no higher than my outstretched arm would reach.
Still, in about five minutes including running through the store, I got a different angle of Uptown Westerville. Using luck and that unusual ability I have to discover these simple moments.
At right is the new stained glass window in the front of the church. Will have to wait until they change the lighting behind it or carry a strobe and remote to shoot it properly lit. It is slightly distorted because it is so high on the wall and I a l;arge hanging light makes it impossible to shoot without standing almost directly underneath it.