When I showed up to photograph Maplewood High School band practice the other day I got a little nervous. They weren't where they usually practice. And the school looked pretty quiet. I thought maybe I had either bad information or I missed it. Luckily, I was just a little early. The assignment time wasn't the best time for me to be there. But I was told this was needed for a Page 1 feature story. This means the photograph had to be an impact story teller. If you pay attention to this sort of thing you'll know that the photography department at the paper has taken this pretty seriously for years. We pride ourselves with producing the best possible photographs we can and when we see our paper not holding up to this principle we get pretty upset about it. So I made sure I hung out long enough to get a picture of the band performing what they would be performing this Monday in Washington D.C. and I tried to find a way to make a picture that would demonstrate this work they were doing to prepare in the best way I could. When I heard that this story was then going to be not centerpieced on page 1 I took my case to our editor and explained that this picture would do more for page one than the picture and photograph of a first day at Conneaut Lake Park that was hampered by weathered on a Friday which traditionally isn't its strongest day of the opening weekend. He agreed and this picture appeared on the front page with a story about this small school in north western Pa. preparing to march in the Memorial Day parade in Washington D.C. in front of an estimated quarter of a million people and televised. It really is a pretty neat story and I was pretty happy that there was this little puddle of rain water in the parking lot to turn an otherwise standard picture of kids marching in their street clothes after school into something visually exciting. I liked this picture over others that took of more close up pictures of band members because it spoke about the whole marching band process and not just one or two people....which is one of the hardest pictures to get and still have it be a good photo. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer.
A super picture and the reflections are great. GOOD LUCK to the whole band on Memorial Day in Washington, DC. I will be sending only GOOD positive thoughts to you all from Florida!
Reply
Heidi
5/28/2011 11:25:57 am
You amaze me more with every photograph... and the storys to go with them sure do add to the AMAZEMENT!!!