This was a weird post today--but I posted the pictures I took underneath my earlier question mark. The thing that is truly weird about the work we do for a newspaper is that we really don't know what we're going to encounter so we can think of the shot we want to get, but really what we have to do is make sure everything is working right so when we see the shot we need to get--we get it. Today I showed up to the track event and had the wrong lens on when I got there and a race was ending--at the time I didn't know it was really my only chance at a picture because there was a lull in the action and I was on a tight schedule--so my track picture lacks a great deal. I did get a little chance to experience the pure joy of photography, but today was about running. My four assignments that I wrote about below turned into five(I haven't downloaded the fifth yet) So it was a long day of trying to bounce from one thing to the next and then get them processed and captioned. I know my old friends in the business would say 4 or 5 is nothing--and I would agree, but its really not. Its a great thing, but difficult thing to shift gears and still find story telling images in interesting ways. These were some of my images from today. The stories were a healthy kids day event in Diamond park, track and field at MASH, Egg decorating in Venango and a beer tasting(which I couldn't partake) that is part of a college level class at Allegheny College. My extra assignment came from the story on beer--one of the students was brewing a batch of Irish Red tonight and helping a friend bottle an oatmeal stout(again--did not partake!) It was a good day!
I have four assignments that I know about today and I'm about to head out the door right now to start on them. I think sometimes, what if all my best pictures are behind me? Seems sort of pointless maybe to continue if this is true. Luckily those are fleeting thoughts and I realize that even if it is true, that the best picture I will ever take was in 1999 when the Lions softball team won a district championship, or in 2005 when a man lay dying in a bed by a window with his daughter touching his hand or any of the other pictures I've taken, that the stories I'm about to embark on telling are the most important picture I will take--everyone's story is important and as long as I keep this in mind and give my best effort, it doesn't matter if it is a better photograph in my portfolio. It really doesn't. And even though I'll continue to try to get 'the best picture I've ever taken' I know that its more important that I get an image that communicates the story. So today, we'll see, I'll post my best pictures from my four assignments later on today, so check back. Question mark on white 2011 by Richard Sayer(and ad ons from the day posted over 12 hours later).