Net Results

Working for a daily newspaper is so much fun. Every day is the same, in the sense that you come in to work, grab your assignments, go out and shoot them, and then come back in and get them out to the editors. Yet at the same time, every day is different. You travel new places, meet new people, shoot new events, and come back with new experiences. All while getting paid to have a camera in your hand five days a week, and get better at what you love to do. Cool gig!!!

Last Monday the paper sent me out to get a stand alone feature photo. A photograph that is really a "Photographer's Choice" picture. It does not go with a reporter's story, just the photograph and a photo caption, and it usually is not hard news. Rather it is a slice of life type of image, that news photographers get to capture while most of the world is trapped inside their work cubicle, hating their boss and co-workers, and counting down the minutes till happy hour. God I love my job!!!



I drove around Hagerstown looking for a photo, it was freezing, and no one was out. So I dropped in to one of the local Boys and Girls Clubs. I checked in with the director, I asked what was going on that might lend itself to a nice pictiure, and was told "nothing really." At that point photographers have two options, either bail out, or look beyond the obviuos and find something a little different.

I found Jeremiah shooting hoops in the gym after he finished his homework for the day. Nothing unusual there, EXCEPT FOR THE GIGANTIC SHADOW OF THE BASKETBALL NET ON THE WALL BEYOND JEREMIAH. No need to show the net itself in my image, I had it all over the background. A D3 at 1600 ISO, a 80-200 zoom lens, a motor drive at 11fps, and the spelling of Jeremiah's name was all I needed to get my shot and get back to the Herald-Mail.

The photo ran 3 columns wide on the front page Tuesday. Like I said, sometimes you bail out, and sometimes you just look harder.