A Little News

This was not the picture I was sent for.  The story was about a horse that adopted a calf and nursed it.  Unfortunately the horse had recently stopped nursing the calf.  Apparently this is not as uncommon as I first thought because animals do sometimes adopt orphaned animals of another variety.  I can’t tell you how many times I go to assignments and the thing I was assigned to shoot no longer is going on.  That is a little bit frustrating.  You always ask the question, “Why didn’t you call when it was still happening?”  The answer is, of course, most people are not thinking about being in the newspaper and the call is usually an afterthought.  Such is life.

Zoey nuzzles Trish Brown on her farm in southern Tennessee. When Brown brought an orphaned calf to her farm, Zoey adopted the calf and even began lactating and nursed it for a while. photo by Gary Cosby Jr. 2/18/08

That is why you kind of have to keep your eyes open at an assignment.  Obviously I turned in photos of the two animals together and also one of the lady feeding the calf by bottle but the photo that sticks with me is this one.  It is not strictly reportage.  It takes a small step beyond reportage into interpretation and I wish I could say I planned it that way.  Really though, the thing just happened and I was in the right place at the right time to catch the moment.  And this moment to me speaks not of the animal to animal relationship of the horse to the calf I was sent to shoot but of the love this lady has for her animals which really underlies this whole story.

There is a little bit of a technical tale to this story as well.  I happened to have my EOS 5D with me on this day and I was really looking forward to shooting in this excellent, late afternoon light.  I kept thinking to myself that my exposure settings were really great.  I finally checked my ISO and found it was set to 1600, in direct sunlight.  I was literally banging my head.  I knew I had a great moment and I knew I screwed it up.  I was used to shooting with a Nikon D2H or D2Hs and anything at that ISO in that light would have been ruined.  I was so delighted when I opened this file in Photoshop and saw the image was not only not ruined but it was actually pretty nice.  My 5D earned a special place in my photographic heart that day.

Photo copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  This is one of my favorite, if not my most favorite, holidays.  Thanksgiving is focused on just what the name says, giving thanks.  I read a book once, okay, I have actually read several books, especially ones with lots of pictures but, seriously, have you ever seen a sentence with so many commas, I mean, really.  (English teachers, put down the pitch forks and take a deep breath.  All the editors who might happen to read this post need to know I did that on purpose.  Really.)  I read this history book that told about the ordeal the Pilgrims went through in their first year.  The rations were so tight that many times they had only a single kernel of corn to eat.  That was it.  That was known as the starving time and many in the colony perished.  Then the native Americans came to the rescue and showed the new settlers how to survive, plant crops and do some fishing.  The next year when the colonists sat down to their Thanksgiving meal with tables loaded with food they began with only a single kernel of corn to commemorate what they had come through.

This year like many others, even with a tightening economy, I will have much more than a single kernel of corn and there is no danger of me or any member of my family starving.  That is a good place to start giving thanks and to remember the sacrifices of generations that came before us who did endure some really difficult times.  My grandfathers endured the Great Depression and then served the country in one form or another through the second World  War.  My mom and dad built great lives on the shoulders of their sacrifice.  I have done the same on top of my parents shoulders and I believe that my children will build successful lives on top of my shoulders.  This is the time to reflect on those who have gone before me and to say thanks for all they have done to allow me to be here doing what I do.  So thank you to those who have gone before me that have allowed me to build on your foundation.

On a more immediate scale, I can tell you with the shape of the news industry in general I am very thankful to have a job and still be working.  Who knows how long the newspaper industry will survive.  I think it will live on but there are massive changes still coming and many of those changes will leave more and more journalists looking for work.  So yes, I am very thankful to still be working.  I am very thankful for my wife and children.  I can’t even imagine a life without them.  I was just thinking last night how horrible life would be without my family.  I can’t even imagine.  In my opinion, having my family is way more important than just about anything else I can think of including having that job for National Geographic that I once drooled over.  There is just nothing better than coming home every day and being greeted with love.

Pastor Ron Teal prays as I baptize my son David at New Covenant Church in Hartselle. Photo by Glenn Thompson

I am thankful for the year that I have had both personally and professionally.  For those of you who don’t believe in God you can cover your eyes and count to ten and then resume reading.  Just a friendly warning (grin).  I was able to baptize my son David this year after praying with him to receive Jesus as his savior.  If you have never experienced that thrill let me tell you, all other thrills pale in comparison to knowing that your children love the Lord.  God also went out of his way to confirm some things to me that will determine what I do with the rest of my life and that was pretty thrilling as well.  No details for now but someday you might get a chance to hear.  (For those of you with your eyes closed, it is now safe to reopen them and resume reading!)  Oh yeah, and lest I forget, there was that little cardiac thing that turned out so well.  Really, really thankful for that.

Professionally speaking, I had a picture published in the lead position in the New York Times, USA Today and many other big daily papers across the country and the same photo was the opening spread in the NPPA Magazine later in the year.  That is about as good as it gets for a boy in Decatur, Alabama.  Over the next two weeks I get to cover two of the biggest football games of the year as Alabama plays Auburn in the Iron Bowl and then Alabama plays Florida in the SEC Championship game.  Days of heaven my friends, days of heaven.  There is nothing I like better than the big event so this puts a smile on my face.

Finally, and by finally I mean this is not really all I have to be thankful for but I don’t want to bore you, finally there is all of you fine folks who read this blog.  It is a real pleasure to write this stuff and it is even more satisfying to read your comments.  A few of you guys even make the extra effort to communicate with my off site by email and that is a real pleasure too.  Thank you all for being part of my life.  I hope you can find something to be thankful for this year and if there is nothing else you can think of just remember that kernel of corn when you sit down on Thanksgiving Day.

This is one of those rare occasions where I am co-opting my own blog to do something that is not about photojournalism.  Go Vote!  This is about the worst presidential election I can remember in my life.  But I will go vote.  Quick memo to both parties; please find a candidate that appeals to my value system even if they are only available in the primaries.  I just need an option that I don’t have to hold my nose to vote for.  I could not find one candidate I felt like could lead our nation in either party through the entire election process so go out and shake the bushes, no pun intended, and see if you can come up with a candidate, please!

Now, on with the show.  I want to give you some things to think about as you go to the polls.  First of all, we must have a leader who can defend our nation.  Far from war being nearly over, we have hit the tar baby and we will be stuck in conflict with the Islamists from here to eternity.  BTW, if you don’t know about Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby you need to do a little research.  So be prepared, no matter who we elect for president we will not be immune to attacks from terrorists.  When we eventually pull our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan we will give them breathing space and will be attacked again.  That’s just the problem with enemies who don’t know when they have had their butts kicked, they just keep on fighting.

Second, we must have a leader who has some idea about the economy that doesn’t involve printing more and more money and just giving it away to any corporation who doesn’t have enough sense to make solid investments.  By the way, did you know that some of the companies our government will be bailing out are not even owned by Americans and they are giving away our tax dollars to do it.  Yeah, that stinks.  And stop giving me economic stimulus checks.  All that does is create an artificial bump that eventually leads to more inflation because you are printing Monopoly money.  Stop it and be responsible with my hard earned tax dollars.

Third, don’t give me all this crap about a health care crisis.  The real crisis is an insurance fraud crisis.  Insurance companies are writing the laws and creating the problems to begin with.  How about a little responsible government where insurance company lobbyists are not the ones writing the laws and then handing them to our senators and representatives.  For that matter, how about a permanent ban on lobbyists of every sort.  My congressman and senator can’t even hear my voice because it isn’t backed up by millions of dollars. Bottom line, I want some responsibility in my government and not my government trying to be my doctor.

Fourth, where did all the conservatives go anyway.  Look for a man who will cut government spending and intervention (read here meddling as in the Patriot Act).  I have supported President Bush on the war but where was the so called conservative when it comes to economic policy?  Geez, I mean the man has spent more money than any president in history and we are now about FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS in debt.  Man, I am looking wistfully for some Reaganomics.  Hey, you guys in Washington, stop spending money you don’t have.  Period!!!  By the way, raising my taxes does not appeal to me and it should not appeal to you either.  Don’t vote for anyone who is trying to raise income taxes.  If they can’t get by on what we are already sending them then they don’t need to be there.

Fifth, look for a candidate who values human life.  Abortion is definitely a litmus test for me.  While I may be able to make some exceptions for women whose lives are in danger and that sort of thing, abortion should be the exception and not the rule in the United States and the ability to kill babies for no reason at all should cause every American to cover our faces in shame.  The last time I looked no one is making folks have sex and when that does happen it is a crime.  Killing the innocent is a national disgrace especially when it is done in the name of convenience.  Look for a candidate with compassion to both women and babies.  And it is most definitely possible to have compassion for the woman without abortion being part of the equation.

Six, pick a candidate who will respect our amendment rights.  Rights such as the ones granted in the constitution.  You know, all that stuff about the right to keep and bear arms, the right to be free from a government dictating religious beliefs and a right to peacefully assemble and, of course, the right to a free press.  Someone once said we had certain inalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  That guy was named Jefferson and has nice monument in DC now.  Maybe our leaders ought to pay particular attention to our rights.  We are not a people ruled by a governmental elite with a proletariat populace.  We are a free and independent people who should not be constrained by an overbearing government but liberated by a government of the people, by the people and for the people.  Nice words that once meant something.

Sorry for the diatribe.  I will probably never do this again.  If you have made it to this point in the post you are probably as crazy as I am so let me give you one more thing.  When you look over that ballot, take a minute to pray and ask for wisdom.  Lord knows we need it and whomever is elected Tuesday is certainly going to need it too.  A really famous guy once wrote this line, “These are the times that try men’s souls…”  Those words have never been more appropriate since they day they were written than they are right now.  A little divine wisdom can only help.  Be blessed and do your patriotic duty and go vote for our next president and all the other offices who will provide our leadership in this very important time in history.

The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

One of the good things about working in a small market is I have to cover far less violence than some of my brothers and sisters in large markets.  Still, stuff happens.  This has been a pretty active year for shootings and stabbings and this weekend I covered one of each.

Officer Chris Burcham listens to witness statement following a stabbing on 10th Ave SW in Decatur Sunday afternoon. One woman received a minor injury in the incident.

There was not much left to photograph by the time I got to the scene of the shooting.  I arrived at least thrity minutes after the incident so there was not much left except a pile of clothing cut from the victim by rescuers.  This leaves few options except photographing whatever is left.  Sometimes you can work people into the photo and sometimes you can’t.  This time, I couldn’t just hang around and wait for the crime scene tech to show up so I had to shoot the pile of clothes. essentially a still life.  When that is all you have you have to work angles and other things like the shadows of the officers to pull together some kind of a photo.

Shadows from Decatur Police officers fall across clothing stripped from a shooting victim by rescuers lies in the middle of 12th Ave NW Saturday afternoon. The clothing was removed during rescue efforts.

The next day we heard a police report of a stabbing with a large crowd in the street.  I didn’t leave the office immediately because the scene was not secure.  I waited two or three minutes until I was sure other officers were on the way to the scene before I left to go cover it.  As it turns out there was not much to it.  The crowd was more of a Sunday afternoon spectator crowd than an agitated mob and the stabbing was little more than a cut with a pocket knife.  We didn’t even publish a photo.

Never the less, there are times when you go into a situation when things are very tense.  Some neighborhoods you just don’t want to be in after the police, fire and EMS people have left.  The best policy I can tell you is to play it by your own gut instinct.  I have been to places where I either didn’t get out or didn’t stay long because I could sense the mood was very hostile.  Other times I have walked right in an taken pictures without much worry.  When I feel inside it is time to leave I am going to leave.  Safety is more important than the photo and you have to have some perspective on how important the event is.

This month’s issue of News Photographer magazine has a lengthy story about media people who were arrested by police while they were covering demonstrations outside the Republican National Convention.  Some of them were pepper sprayed and some were handled pretty rough even when police knew they were accredited members of the media.  Once in a while you will see stories about how media people become targets during demonstrations, riots and protests.  In other words, you can’t  just assume you will be safe while covering big events.  Maybe you are willing to risk a little more if you are covering the RNC than if you are covering a single incident shooting or stabbing on a neighborhood street.  Maybe too, the police are more on your side in that situation than at the big event.

My general rule of thumb has always been to get what I need and get out.  I don’t hang around waiting long after the police have cleared up.  There is just no benefit to it.  I shoot, work with the reporter and leave.  If I am working with a reporter and the situation seems unstable I will either stay with the reporter for a little mutual protection or, if I have to leave, I will make sure the reporter knows I am leaving so they don’t look around and find themselves alone.  Stuff happens and we have to be there to cover it just do your job with enough awareness that the stuff isn’t happening to you.

Photos copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Every area of the country has something that makes it special culturally and visually.  Once in a while those things cross and you have something pretty special.  Such is the case with the Old Time Fiddler’s Convention held annually on the campus of Athens State University.  Bluegrass musicians gather from across the southeast and play and dance and play some more during the convention which includes competitive events and innumerable jam sessions.

Visually speaking, you can always make some nice photos at the Convention.  It is just about all outside in that wonderful fall light and the campus at Athens State is very nice too so it is hard to miss.  Vendors set up booths so there is a wide assortment of handmade crafts, food and yes, musical  instruments for sale.  You can just wander around the campus and the parking areas and you will find the finest blend of bluegrass, old time gospel music and a sprinkling of country music being played at any time.  Essentially, you are hearing the music of the Old South, of a culture that is vanishing in the fast paced world we live in where the Internet rules.

Perhaps the best part of it all is seeing the mixing of generations.  You have fiddlers who are so old they can barely lift the bow to kids just barely old enough to lift the bow making music side by side.  It is a rare thing to witness today but it is what was once a normal part of life.  Old folks playing their music on front porches across the south with the young folks soaking it in and getting ready to take their turn making the music.  I can’t play any instrument.  I am just not a musical person but I can certainly appreciate what I see going on every year at the Old Time Fiddler’s Convention.

Then there is the buck dancing.  It is a peculiar dance form that is primarily done with the feet somewhat like the Irish dance but not quite as lively and not usually done group style like they seem to do it.  If you ever watched the Beverly Hillbillies years ago you could see old Jed doing a buck dance from time to time.  It is not a dance style that is making the rounds in night clubs, let’s just say it that way.

Photographing this is not so much an exercise in technique as it is an exercise in visual editing.  In other words, deciding what to shoot is much more difficult than finding a technique to shoot it with.  Literally, every time you turn around there is another group of folks gathered to jam together.  The problem lies in finding angles to shoot from.  Groups can be packed tightly together with large crowds gathered around listening in or singing along.  Just getting in to get a shot can be challenging.  The crowds are very large but also very polite.  There are literally more photo opportunities per square inch at the Convention than at any other event I have ever covered.  Needless to say, it is always a highlight of my year.

One of my favorite things to do in this type setting is to try and isolate a musician either by framing or, more rarely, by using a longer lens.  You can do plenty of shots of musicians standing in groups playing but that gives you too many loose shots with no center of interest.  What I usually try to do is frame one or two musicians through the instruments of other musicians.  This gives me a nice foreground/background relationship and helps create a visual center.  This is usually a wide angle shot but you can occasionally do it with a long lens.  The crowd makes it difficult to use long glass because someone is continually getting in your way.  I seldom use flash because the natural light is so excellent.  It seems the Convention is always favored with excellent weather.  That leads me to conclude that God must really like bluegrass!

PS.  This is a perfect assignment for an audio slide show which I fully intended to do until the day of the job.  As it turns out I had such a short period of time, something like 30 minutes, that I did well just to get my photos much less collect sound too.  In the future I will be doing some posts on using Soundslides to produce audio slide shows.

Photos copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

To say the last two weeks in my life have been a trip would be to say that the Titanic was a little disaster.  Fortunately, my story has a better ending, or continuation, than the Titanic’s ill fated voyage.  It is still a decent analogy.  I was sailing along not suspecting a thing.  A fairly routine visit to the doctor two weeks ago ended Friday with me lying on my back in the cardiac catheterization lab at Huntsville Hospital.

Now let me back up and tell you the story.  I had been having what felt like spasms in my esophagus for about five weeks.  I kept thinking they would go away so I just ignored them until I noticed that my heart would skip a beat when I had one.  That got my attention.  I prayed over the matter and felt the Lord urging me to go to a doctor for treatment.  I got a diagnosis and meds for reflux but the doctor suggested I undergo a stress test just to be sure it was not something wrong with my heart.

I did the stress test on Friday week ago and then went in last Monday for a rest test which is the same test minus the treadmill part.  The initial report was good but the nurse called back later and said there did appear to be a problem and they had set me up a visit with a cardiologist in Huntsville.  This was last Thursday.  The visit was short and to the point.  The cardiologist told me the test showed a significant blockage.  I was absolutely floored.  He recommended a cardiac cath procedure which was scheduled for the next day at 9 a.m.

To say I left the office shaken would be an understatement.  I had had no pain whatever but the test showed a big problem.  The only comfort I had was the doctor telling me that the stress test has a fairly high false positive rate.  Never the less I found myself staring at the ceiling in the cardiac short stay unit in Huntsville Hospital Friday morning waiting and waiting and waiting.  In fact, I had a five hour wait from the time I entered the unit until I was lying under the machine in the cath lab.

Finally the moment of truth arrived and Dr. David Drenning performed the procedure.  The verdict; no blockage at all.  In fact, my arteries look great.  My cholesterol numbers are good but I will be working on them too.  Bottom line, whatever is causing the premature contractions in my ventricles is not something that is likely to kill me.  The plumbing is good and my heart is healthy and well supplied with blood.

Now, I am sure you are scratching your heads right now and asking, “What has any of this to do with photojournalism?”  Those of you who read this blog know that photojournalists do an awful lot of bad eating.  Travel, busy days and just the constant hurry of the job lead to a lot of fast food drive throughs.  Every knows that fast food is a fast way to gain weight and a ticket to an early grave yet it never seems to deter us from doing it.  I am just a day away from being 45 years old.  That is prime real estate for heart disease including sudden heart attack.  In fact, I have learned that many people never have a symptom before having a heart attack.  All too often, these can be fatal.  I spoke to a paramedic yesterday at church and she said she believed that everyone in their mid-40s should be checked.  She has seen too many bad heart attacks on people in that age range.

Even though I got a really good report, the best possible under those circumstances, I will be eliminating fast food from my diet, cutting way back on sugars and caffeine and moving my body more in various forms of exercise.  Listen, I read a book not long ago called The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin.  He said in that book that many of the diseases we suffer are diseases of choice including heart disease and cancer.  In other words, the dietary and lifestyles choices we make create the environment where heart diseases, cancer and a host of others take root.  I just got a bucket of cold water in my face that says “WAKE UP NOW!”  I will be heeding that wake up call.  Maybe you should too.  There is an old saying that says a smart man learns from his own mistakes but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.  Learn from my experience and try your best not to find yourself staring at any hospital ceilings.

The college football season has returned and I love it.  This is the time of year that makes all the other stuff bearable.  When I am shooting a job that is less than attractive I just remind myself that college football season is coming.  I was assigned the Chick-Fil-A College Kickoff game in Atlanta Saturday between Alabama and Clemson and I was just loving it.  As a bit of icing on the cake, Alabama took home a big win over the favored Clemson Tigers.  This was also one of the rare occasions where I could bring my family along.  Patty and the four little guys came with me and we visited the Georgia Aquarium during the day so we had a nice family trip to go with the football.  That’s like an ice cream sundae with the cherry on top.  Nice.

I was able to get a Nikon D3 and 400mm f2.8 for the game and let me tell you, all the hype for the D3 is justified.  That is one fine camera.  I shot at ISO 3200 and ISO 4000 in the Georgia Dome at a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec and aperture at f2.8 and those images were just singing!  The photos had the cleanest whites of any Nikon digital camera I have ever used.  The noise was just non-existent; another first for Nikon.  I was totally blown away by the image quality.  It was really that good.

As far as the game went, it was a running affair.  If you shoot much sports you know that means there were not many great images to be had.  My best games are games where the ball is in the air a lot.  Alabama did throw the ball some but the passes were primarily short throws where the receivers ran with the ball after the catch.  Clemson simply had no offense all evening.  Alabama came out running and just shoved the ball down the field on the ground.  Since it worked so well early they just stuck with it.  I have a bunch of photos of people running with the ball.  Okay stuff but nothing that will win any prizes.  I am dropping a gallery below so you can check out the take.  This is just about everything I transmitted.  I did this to let you guys see about how I work.  Many of these images were published in a slide show with the online story.  Only a few were published in the paper.  Click on an image to make it larger and enjoy.

Every now and then a job comes along that just puts a smile on your face. In this case, it was a little car, and I do mean little. This is the Smart car from Mercedes that is literally two doors and a smile. The little car looks like it is grinning at you and everywhere you go in this little car, people just stop and smile. Maybe everyone on the planet needs one!

This family is the first family to have one of these cars in our area and, at the time of writing, there had been only three or four shipped in the state. Normally this type assignment is not one I crave but I had an idea as soon as I saw the job order and it was born from a post on Strobist where he photographed a helicopter in flight at dusk. I filed away the technique hoping to adapt it to my own purposes someday. The happy little car afforded me that opportunity.

My boss said he wanted something a little different and suggested a pan shot. I have just had very little luck with panning and I struggled with a concept on the way to the assignment. Then I saw the car. And I smiled. I could now see a great shot adapted from the helicopter assignment referenced above. My problem was I was shooting in the middle of the day. I asked the owner if we could come back toward evening and try again and he agreed. Fortunately I had a little bit of time to work with because the photo was not for the next day.

I arrived back at his home at 6:45 in the evening only to find that it was still very much afternoon and there was a lot of light around. Fortunately for me, I had my EOS 5D with me which allows you to drop your ISO down to 50. My lighting set up then became pretty simple. I first established an ambient exposure that was about two full stops below the metered indicated setting. Then I put an SB800 on his dash with a Pocket Wizard to fire it and put the diffusion dome on the flash. I think I set it to something like 1/16th power.

I then took two Lumedyne 200 watt second packs with heads and placed them on light stands basically opposite one another on the sides of the street and used Pocket Wizards one these too. Now I used the 5D and a 70-200 and tuned the exposure and light positions until I was happy. The couple got a kick out of driving down the street at slow speed over and over again and I am sure the neighbors thought we were nuts.

The finished product is an unabashed knock off of the Strobist’s technique (all hail the Strobe King!) but that is okay too. What we learn from others we just add to our lexicon and use it when we can and then others will see what we did, think we are geniuses and copy our technique to make better pictures themselves. I know that I hope you guys are reading stuff here and adapting it to your own situations and using it like wild men. BTW, we will get back to the ethics discussions before too long but I have two or three really cool lighting posts to do in the mean time so hang on for more ethics and more lighting.

Photo copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

By far, the most productive way to find features is to keep your eyes open while on assignment for something else.  This is the most economical way to find a feature in terms of both your time and your gas, both important considerations.  Some of the time these features will be unrelated to the assignment.  You may be shooting a ball game, for instance, and see a really cool photo just happening right there at the ball park.  Other times, the feature will actually be related to the assigment but not be the kind of photo you can publish with the story.  Either way, I will take it.

The way to find featuers while on assignment is to watch what is going on around the periphery.  Watching edges is always productive and some of your best photos will come from the edges of an event.  Shooting edges is one of my favorite ways to get interesting photos from “boring” assignments and it is a great way to nail a feature.  I can’t tell you how often the feature I shoot from an assigment is better than anything I shot of the actual assignment.  Sometimes the photo is good enough to trump the photo I turn in for the assignment and the editors will use my found photo over the assigned picture.

The photos with this post are good examples of getting features from an assignment that are actually quite a bit better than the photos we ended up running with the story.  I was shooting an assignment about people who are riding their bikes to work.  I was following two men home from the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant to Athens which is maybe 12 to 15 miles away.  When we left the power plant, dark clouds were looming and before we had even made it half way to Athens, a wicked thunderstorm hit with amazing lightning, heavy wind, driving rain and hail.  You guys already know my love of storms so this was nearly perfect for me.  I got these wonderful photos and turned them in with the assignment.  As it turns out, they  were never used and the story ran in our living section.  This means that by the time the story ran these photos were too old to use as features.  Ahhh, bummer.

Our executive editor saw them and wanted to know why I didn’t turn them in to the news desk.  I was wondering the same thing but I thought for certain they would run with the story.  There I go thinking again!  In hind sight, what I should have done was turn in at least one as a stand alone feature to the news desk and give the rest to living.  It would not have harmed their story and we would have been able to run a killer feature from the storm.  Live and learn my friends, live and learn.

Just remember to keep your eyes open at all your jobs to see what is going on around you.  At some events that are kind of drawn out you will have an opportunity to wander around and not miss anything significant.  Use your feet and just wander a bit.  You may find a feature and you will certainly find a different perspective on your assigned subject.  Either way, it will benefit you to check the edges.

By the way, we took shelter from the the storm at an old cotton gin underneath a metal roof supported by steel beams.  As the ligthning became more and more intense we decided that it might be wiser to go inside a store across the street.  All that metal in an electrical storm quickly lost its appeal!

About the photos: I shot these images with a Nikon D2Hs and a 17-35mm lens.  There is not much to say technically just remember that you don’t fool with lightning.  It is far more deadly than you think and most people, myself included, think it will never hit me.  If you think like that, go talk to Lee Trevino, the famous golfer, who has been struck by lighting several times.  At least he is still alive to talk to.  Most people who are hit by lighting are not so lucky.  A good rule of thumb is if you can hear the thunder you can be hit by lightning so be careful.

Photos copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

After writing the post on cruise features, a reader put a question in the comments that maybe a bunch of you have about getting permission to shoot a photo.  Her question was basically do you ask permission before you shoot or after and do you reveal the purpose in shooting.  Legally, you can take a picture of anyone doing anything on public property so where you are makes a difference.  When shooting for a newspaper, you are going to need ids on the subjects so you have to talk to the people you photograph.  I explain what I am doing and who I work for whenever I approach the subject whether I have already shot the photo or not.

Anytime there are children involved, I just about always ask permission of a legally aged guardian with a strong preference for a parent before I shoot a picture.  Every now and then someone will ask me for an id or press pass.  Every parent knows you can’t be too careful with all the predators running around out there so I never grudge them this.  Anyone who denies me their name is essentially denying me permission to run their photo and in the feature situation I will just about always honor this.  A news situation is somewhat different but we can talk about that later.  If I am shooting adults in public places I usually shoot first and then speak to them afterwards.  Sometimes they see me shooting and sometimes they don’t.  If someone sees me shooting and turns away and makes a conscious effort to avoid being photographed they are sending a pretty clear message and I will usually move on unless I have made a killer image.  In that case I will approach them and try and overcome any objections they might have.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

When I am on private property the rules are a little different.  There are times when I am on private property by invitation and usually anyone there is fair game at that point.  Sometimes though, people on private property will not wish to be photographed and have a reasonable right to privacy.  Anyone in that situation that does not wish to be photographed I just pass on by.  Feature photos are somewhat optional.  If someone really doesn’t want to be photographed I can just move on without worrying about incurring the wrath of an editor.  Spot news and general news situations are a horse of a different color and I sometimes have to be much more aggressive there and get a picture whether the subject really wants to be photographed or not.

It is probably a bit more genuine to photograph first and ask questions later but you need to know that anytime you are present with a camera you have already changed the environment.  There is some uncertainty principle involved here but that is too deep for me but you all know what happens when you are shooting pictures and people see the camera.  They begin to put on their camera face.  It happens with everyone form the youngest child to the most seasoned politician.  Be as genuine as you possibly can but don’t be deceived into thinking you are not influencing the scene by your presence.

When working for the newspaper, people being photographed already know where the picture will be published so that is not an issue.  If you are freelancing or just out shooting for fun you need to be open and honest about what you are doing.  This is especially true when photographing children.  There are too many wack jobs out there.  Be professional and honest with the people or they will remember you and they will also get a tainted view of photojournalists in general.  There is already enough of that going on.  An important note here, some publications require a model release.  This is especially true if the photo is going to be used for advertising.  If you are not working for a publication and are just out shooting, you might want to carry some model release forms with you.  That way, if you make a great photo, you will be ready to obtain model releases on the spot rather than attempt to track someone down after the fact.  If you work for a newspaper you will rarely need a model release for work published by your newspaper.  Consent of the subject is enough in most cases.

The opinions expressed in the blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.