On Assignment

With no home Michigan football game last Saturday, I was able to attend for the first time Michigan’s high school state cross country finals, held annually at Michigan International Speedway. It was my first time at MIS and I definitely caught the NASCAR bug (not as a fan–but as a photog).

Stephen Walker of Midland Dow sprints towards the finish line to claim first place, Saturday, November 1, 2008 during the Division 1 State Boys Cross Country Finals, at Michigan International Speedway, in Brooklyn, Mich. TONY DING/Special to the Free Press

Rochester’s Megan Goethals crosses the finish line first in the Division 1 Finals.

Runners sprint towards the finish in the Division 2 Boys Finals

Megan Goethals of Rochester leads Shannon Osika of Waterford Mott and third place finisher Rebecca Addison of Grand Haven into the final stretch of their Division 1 Finals.

Shannon Osika of Waterford Mott finishes second in Division 1.

Runners sprint towards the finish line in front of the MIS grandstands in the Division 1 Boys Finals.

The photogs were trucked around in two 15-person transport vans from the woods back to the finish-line. We took to the banked curves (opposite NASCAR direction) 8 times…topping 80ish mph…

Jackson Citizen-Patriot photographer Erik Holladay, left, and my other van-mates hang on for dear life…

We never did make a move on that first van…

I got tired of shooting from the ground, so i snuck up to the (very high) press box above MIS.

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Its true, and its been said before, but I don’t think i’ve seen it more so than this past year in the industry where photographers on staff at mid to large newspapers are absolutely working their tails off. Great example of this came across my browser today when I found this feature article on the Associated Press Photo Managers website about the multimedia projects by the Indianapolis Star:

Without judging the merits of their work, which is pretty good and certainly valuable to the newspaper’s online content library, it amazes me how these Indy photogs have to do all of the following at one road game assignment:

1. Shoot footage of pregame fans
2. Capture sound and interviews from pregame fans
3. Photograph the game in both traditional stills and rapid-shutter burst modes.
4. Film the post-game press conference in video
5. Edit the post-game press conference video and upload to website on deadline
6. Edit the game still photos on deadline for next-day paper
7. Edit and produce from all the audio captured, fan interviews, and rapid-burst photos a multimedia slideshow.

And not a single one of them have probably gotten paid more for all their extra new responsibilies than in the old days (2-3 years ago) when they probably only had to do #3 and #5 on that list!

When I look at how papers I’ve dealt/worked with have been moving their photo staffs into multimedia journalism, I’ve at least seen some reasonable separation of duties in the field. For example, the Free Press and Detroit News both produce a ton of videos now for their websites, shot by staff photographers—but when they’re covering an event (say the Auto Show), they have staffers that are solely filming video and editors that are solely producing them, and separate staff photographers (more veteran ones) shooting the still pictures.

As a wire photographer who still only focuses on getting the single, defining, STILL, picture from my assignments, its scary to think of how much more is demanded of a photojournalist in this online multimedia world in the future—-or scratch that: TODAY.

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So, last night my assignment was to take photos of the xmas lights at this house being featured in a Detroit newspaper (can’t say which one cuz it hasn’t gone to press yet…) for story on people who go nuts decorating for the holidays…

My problems: It was really really cold, 18 degrees F, it was in the boonies, the yard was still buried in a foot of snow, and did I say it was really COLD!!??

So my solution: Threw my Canon 40D on the end of my monopod, threw on my 15mm fisheye lens, attached the wired remote cable, and for the first time since I bought this camera I put the LiveView feature to good use. With the live preview on the LCD, I was able to easily compose my shots of the stupid lawn ornaments and snap some shots with the camera extended on the end of my monopod without getting myself into the snow.

That penguin thing above was 6 inches off the snow, where I basically stuck the camera extended on the end of my monopod in front of it……where otherwise I would’ve had to lay down in the snow, get wet, get dirty, and freeze my nose off.

Thank you Canon, LiveView rules.

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Had a lot of fun yesterday covering the championship game of the Junior League World Series in Taylor, Mich. Who knew this thing even existed, much less have been held in Taylor every year since it started some 25 years ago. The ball park, Heritage Park, is really nice, with posts lining its inner circle driveway with signs for every series winner by year, and the field itself is well kept, with ample bleachers and even a good sized 3 story brick press box. I especially also liked being able to stand in the team “dugouts” behind home plate to shoot through the fence. Very easy.

I did get caught with my pants down so to speak when the game ended as I was transmitting pictures from the press box. I didn’t figure out the innings correctly (home team didn’t need to play bottom of 7th) and missed the opportunity to be down on the field to shoot the celebration… Oh well, lesson learned.

Check out more of my shots on the Detroit Free Press site.

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We all know the summer time is for baseball and the boys of summer ain’t wearing pads and tossing the pig-skin around too much. For Michigan Football fans, this means a drought of Blue from April’s Spring Practice until Media Day in August.

Thats why I was very happy to have had an opportunity to catch some of the Wolverines on the field AND at the Big House couple weeks ago when Michigan hosted its annual Lloyd Carr’s Women’s Football Academy. [See more of my less-silly photos on the Free Press web site]

Is it me or does Greg Mathews look like Tracy Morgan here?

Its very obvious Mario Manningham is Lloyd’s favorite…

I hope Mike DeBord doesn’t see this or he’ll probably eat me alive.

Is that Adrian Arrington on the left? Yep. Looks like Carr is letting him back on the team. And how funny is this picture, these two guys jokingly ganging up on the old lady in tackle stance.

Finally after the women had lunch, they had a chance to scrimmage on the Michigan Stadium turf. And of course DeBord went all nuts with actual plays and offensive strategy! He was the only one…

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