I kept thinking about the Neil Young song called 'Union Man' today. I changed the words around a bit. Young's song say's 'Live Music is better, bumper stickers should be issued.' My version today which went over and over again in my head was this'live events are bettter....'
The newspaper seems to be more interested in coverage of events to come on our front page. Stories done in advnce to let people know what is going on that they can attend. Its a good service to provide. I've argued for years that these are good stories to do, but not as centerpieces on page one. For one a centerpiece on page one needs a photograph. You cannot photograph something that hasn't happened yet. So we're called upon to get pictures of some sort before the event or to find pictures of the event from previous years. Neither option is a good one when you're the photographer. We thrive on covering news and sports that are happening in front of us--it is what we are good at and its why we get paid to be where we are. Today was a perfect example of this in my mind. I covered two events. One a child who advanced to a yellow belt in his martial arts class and received his honor with his dad nearby who was recognized by the class for his upcoming service to this country in Iraq. This will appear in the Meadville Tribune on Monday. The other was the fashion show in the Downtown Mall with cancer patients as models. In both cases I felt really good about the images because they were real images caught and there was no fabrication or asking someone to meet at point A for a picture doing something related to the story. This was a joy today. Today I photographed real life happening before my eyes! Meadville Tribune photographs by Richard Sayer
The newspaper seems to be more interested in coverage of events to come on our front page. Stories done in advnce to let people know what is going on that they can attend. Its a good service to provide. I've argued for years that these are good stories to do, but not as centerpieces on page one. For one a centerpiece on page one needs a photograph. You cannot photograph something that hasn't happened yet. So we're called upon to get pictures of some sort before the event or to find pictures of the event from previous years. Neither option is a good one when you're the photographer. We thrive on covering news and sports that are happening in front of us--it is what we are good at and its why we get paid to be where we are. Today was a perfect example of this in my mind. I covered two events. One a child who advanced to a yellow belt in his martial arts class and received his honor with his dad nearby who was recognized by the class for his upcoming service to this country in Iraq. This will appear in the Meadville Tribune on Monday. The other was the fashion show in the Downtown Mall with cancer patients as models. In both cases I felt really good about the images because they were real images caught and there was no fabrication or asking someone to meet at point A for a picture doing something related to the story. This was a joy today. Today I photographed real life happening before my eyes! Meadville Tribune photographs by Richard Sayer