Eagle-Tribune Blogs: The Final Edit

In this new age of photojournalism, photographers are not just photographers anymore. With more of an emphasis on using the Web, photographers are using new tools, like digital audio recorders and video cameras, to tell our stories. When I got an assignment to shoot a Cowboy Action Shooting event at the Danvers Fish and Game Club, the reporter and editors had decided it would make a fun audio slideshow, and I agreed. I’d never been to a Cowboy Action Shooting event before, so I didn’t really know what to expect; I just knew there would be lots of guns and lots of people dressed up like cowboys.

Since we’ve started doing more multimedia at the Salem News, I’ve found that I really enjoy collecting audio to go along with my pictures. It seems to me that the pictures come alive when a reader can see what happened at a certain event and also hear sounds from the event, too. I always try to keep a few things in mind when I begin working on an audio slideshow, just to help me keep my ideas organized. It’s easy to get overwhelmed at an event when trying to collect sound and take pictures. I’m always afraid that I’ll miss a good picture if I’ve got my hands full with the audio equipment or vice versa.

First, I will try to imagine what kind of pictures and sound I’ll be able to get, and I envision what kind of story I want to tell. I already knew the story was going to be about the unusual hobby of Cowboy Action Shooting, and I knew that there would be the obvious sounds of gunshots, and I knew I would want some detail shots of the participants’ outfits and the guns they were using. So right off the bat, before I’m even at the event, I know there are certain sounds and pictures I need to get.

Once I get to the event I’m covering I take a quick overview of the entire scene, making a mental note of people who look interesting, and I listen for ambient sounds, other than the ones I knew that will help tell the story. Usually, there is a person who the reporter will interview, and that will be the main audio of the story, then I look for other things to add to that. For example, at the Cowboy event Paul McNaughton was in charge of the event and he was able to give a good overview of what was going on. That made a great base for the story. But, there was also a girl there who was only 13, and she shoots with her mom and dad and her grandparents. She was able to help give a different perspective on the sport, which added to the story.

This was just one of those events that was fun to be at. The people were interesting and I had fun learning about a sport that I knew nothing about. By the time I left I was ready to strap on a holster and take aim at a target or two.

Click here to view the audio slideshow.

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For the past 46 years, the Salem News Student-Athlete Award has been a showcase for the best and the brightest of North Shore high schools. In recent years, it has also been a time for the visuals staffs at the paper to showcase their skills and ideas. Here’s a look at how this year’s played out:

The concept was the brainchild of staff photographer Matt Viglianti, whose inspiration was the sprawling group portraits Annie Leibovitz takes for Vanity Fair. Matt’s idea was to go for that type of composition, in a library-type setting.

The setting: We couldn’t find a library that had the right look and space to handle photographing a large group. We needed a large studio, and North Shore Music Theatre kindly made their rehearsal studio available. We would use Photoshop later to make the room look like a library.

Equipment for the group photo, taken March 28, included:
Camera: Canon 1D Mark II
Lens: Canon 100mm f/2.8 for headshots
Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 zoom for group
Light: 2 Calumet power packs with Calumet strobe heads
Light shaping: Two large umbrellas to bounce light into
Two Nikon Speedlights trigged by PocketWizards for hair light
Props: “Educational texts” including Calvin & Hobbes, a random cook book, and a really boring business of photo book.
Tables, stools, chairs, and benches borrowed from the Music Theatre
“Great kids”

Composition: Matt and Boston-based freelance photographer Ellen Callaway got the equipment set up and worked on the composition of the photo, as well as putting 13 high school students at ease for the right look. Matt’s approach: “I didn’t want to give any one kid prominence; it wasn’t about a competition to me so much as it was a recognition of the hard work of a talented group of kids, so we needed everyone visible and relaxed. I tried to make everyone have fun, and to mix and match colors/heights/genders in a balanced way.”

Adding the background: Matt sent me the photos the next day, and my job was to lift the finalists from the background, so “bookcases” could be dropped behind them. In Photoshop, I made paths of each finalist and separated them into layers. Matt photographed some bookcases at Wenham Town Hall, and a wooden floor at Masconomet Regional High School. Compositing mostly involved shading and softening some overlapping edges. On the floor, the only way I knew to capture the natural shadows of our finalists was to use the Overlay layer mode; that allowed some of the funky white speckling from the Music Theatre floor to show through, but I think it was a good effect.

Web components: The night of the group photo, Matt and fellow staff photographer Linsey Tait had the finalists bring in some of their own photos — family, friends, childhood images — to go into audio slideshows. Linsey recorded the audio that night and edited it later. Matt and Linsey combined the audio and photos into the audio slideshow (using SoundSlides), which gave readers a more personal sense of the student-athletes and added some interactivity. The group portrait was assembled in Flash CS3, using ActionScript 3. The group photo and audio slideshows (built using SoundSlides) are all loaded through one Flash file, with each slideshow loaded dynamically, depending on which finalist’s photo is clicked.

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Covering the State championship basketball tournaments took some preplanning.
The Eagle-Tribune sent six photographers out to cover three state championship games in two states. We had two photographers and a photo editor at all of the games.
Just a couple of years ago we would have only covered it with two.
The internet has completely changed how we do things. We blogged, uploaded photos to Rallynorth.net, changed the score for each quarter, shot video, gathered audio and helped photographers edit through thousands of images for publication and the web in real time. We had our laptops set up on the sidelines and edited the images to let readers who could not make the game feel like they were there.

Check out the 60 photos on Rallynorth.net

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My assignment was to photograph a Dr. Seuss presentation at Shawsheen School. Students from other Andover schools read books, acted out scenes from poems and showed photos from the well-known books to the Shawsheen students. As one group was performing, four girls from Doherty Middle School sat, waiting for their turn to re-enact “Green Eggs and Ham.” Their striped hats, all in a row, caught my attention because of the contrast between them and the blackboard. I started to photograph the girls in such a way that their hats were the focal point of the picture; I did this by framing only their heads and eliminating the clutter around them. The photo ended up being a pretty funny shot. Most of the time, when you look beyond the obvious, there are little moments to capture that are extraordinary.

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I was given the assignment to shoot various outfits that could be worn on Valentine’s Day date scenarios. The idea was to have First Date Boutique in Andover provide outfit suggestions with the themes: “Dinner at a fancy, upscale restaurant”; “Cocktails and conversation”; and “He’s cooking dinner tonight.” When I got to First Date and talked to Keri, a co-owner of the store, I started to think the photos would be much more interesting if we tried to shoot them at actual restaurants instead of all in the clothing store. So I grabbed a small lighting kit with two 550 EX Canon speedlights and a STE-2 infrared transmitter and we headed off to Dylan’s Bar & Grill in Andover. The staff was more than willing to helping us out, and even poured a faux cosmopolitan to match the model’s dress. I had Keri act as the light stand and hold the flash and tried to show our volunteer model, Cassandra Leone, in mid-conversation. I was happy with the way the colors came together and told the story to go with the outfit.

Next we headed over to Palmers Tavern, also in Andover. We called ahead on this one and the wait staff had a table set for us with a fresh tuna appetizer and red wine. Not bad! I had trouble making something work on this one, so a bartender helped me out by holding his order tablet in one hand and holding a flash to light the model’s face in his other hand. Keri held the second flash to light the dress and shoes. We had some nice window light coming through, so I used that as a hair light and balanced the flashes accordingly. I was a little worried that the best shot from Palmers is too similar to the prior shot at Dylan’s, but am hoping that they can separate them nicely in the layout for the paper so it isn’t too obvious.

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I was taking photos of kids who compete in freestyle skiing at Bradford Ski Area Saturday morning. I had all the photos I needed and was walking back down the hill when a snowboarder went off a large jump and wiped out about ten yards from me. His little brother started to yell asking him if he was okay, but the snowboarder continued to lay perfectly still on the ground. I thought maybe he was joking to scare his brother, then I noticed he had gone into convulsions. I threw my cameras in the snow and dialed 911. In 2002 I had gotten an EMT license because I was considering becoming a volunteer firefighter. I asked the brother to get the snowboard off the victim in order to roll him onto his side to prevent any choking. Fortunately, the convulsions stopped before I could turn him over. In hindsight this would have been a bad idea since he had head trauma. His breathing slowed and his eyes dilated. I made sure his airway was open to breath and kept tapping his collar bone to keep him awake. I tried to get him to respond to basic questions but he was unresponsive for over a minute. The gash to his forehead started to slowly bleed. When the medics arrived he was just starting to come to and tried to talk. He seemed to be stable, but he had no idea what had happened. When I knew the medics had the situation under control and there was nothing I could do to help, I took a few pictures, then left.

As I was headed to my next assignment I felt a little shaken up by what had happened. I had often wondered what I would do in a situation where I was the first responder. Working for a newspaper you are constantly having to take photos of traumatic situations, but there are usually police, EMTs, and other emergency personnel there taking care of the problem before the photographer even gets there. Instead of helping the victims, I usually just do my best to stay out the way and let the professionals do their jobs. In hindsight, I had just failed as a photojournalist. Had it turned into a more serious situation, I would have had no photos of the accident. Not only did I not take a photo, I threw my cameras on the ground.

I remember listening to a photojournalist talk to a group while I was in college. Someone asked him what he would do in a situation where he could help instead of take photos. His response was that we are human first and photographers second. We need to respond and have compassion for a situation before we start firing off frames with little thought for those in the photos. Sometimes I worry how much compassion I have for the people I photograph in rough situations. Some days I just feel jaded. I forget that these are real people and it could have just as easily been me or even worse, one of my family members in their situation. I had an editor once tell me “If you’re going to wear your heart on your sleeve, you’re probably in the wrong business.” Maybe he had a point, but I think there is more of a balancing act to what we do instead of his all or nothing mentality.

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Getting the right photo that tells the story still takes the same skills. Digital has made lots of things easier — it’s faster and easier to edit your photos and you have a better idea if you have a strong image before you leave the scene. Like any tool, it’s just that. A tool. So Photoshop is just another step in getting the image that we see and capture transferred to the newspaper, or Web, so that our readers can then see it. I don’t think we tried harder with film, but digital has made us more sure of the mechanical part of the news gathering.

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I had just started at the Eagle-Tribune in the final days of 1977 and just over a month later covered the Blizzard of ‘78, which was a big deal for a rookie. I couldn’t leave my house in Salisbury because the road wasn’t plowed, so I couldn’t get to work. But my cousin plowed for the town and had a good-sized truck with four-wheel drive. He offered to take me around the area. Bridge Road was flooded in parts, and it looked like a bomb went off at Salisbury Beach with much of the 5 O’clock Club blown into the ocean or onto the street in front, called Ocean Front South.

In Hampton Beach, sections of Route 1A were covered with rocks the size of grapefruit and nearby several cars were piled on top of each other. The tops of the old metal seawalls were curved like pretzels, some blown off completely. Since I couldn’t drive to the Eagle-Tribune the company sent a newspaper delivery truck with three guys to nearby Route 110, which was plowed, to pick up my film and take it back to the photo chief for processing. Bryan Eaton chief photographer/Newburyport Daily News.

Click here for more photos from the Blizzard of ‘78.

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I got up and looked out and could not believe the amount of snow.
It was three feet deep with drifts covering the cars in the large parking lot of my apartment complex. There was no way I was going to get out of the parking lot. I phoned in to the newspaper to tell the chief photographer that I was snowed in and had no idea when I would be able to get to work.
A short time later I was told reporter Sally Gilman, who drove a Jeep, would come by to pick me up so I could start taking photos in New Hampshire. It was still snowing as I swam through the three feet of snow to get to the street where I was picked up and driven around. We drove mostly in Salem, N.H.
We searched and photographed whoever we could find. Not many people were out because a state of emergency was in effect and people were told not to go out and definitely not to drive. Eventually, after a couple of days, I did get my car out of the parking lot.

One of the stranger sights we witnessed was snowmobilers driving down the streets of Salem. We saw them go down Route 28 and found some at the state liquor store, which was open. Just about everything was closed everywhere, so this was a surprise, seeing the liquor store open and selling liquor to customers during a blizzard. Ken Yuszkus/chief photographer Eagle-Tribune/New Hampshire.

Click here to check out the slideshow.

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Hi Jim, thanks for the comment. Jim asked:

What kind of equipment did you bring with you to use? Is there a particular photograph you hope to make while you are at the Super Bowl?

Let’s just say I looked like a pack mule walking through the airport when I came into Phoenix. I actually had to ship even more gear to myself because I could not carry it all. To answer your other question: I would love to get a great action picture that no one else has taken during the game; but to give you an idea of how hard that is, I called the NFL to find out how many photogs are covering the game. According to Darlene Capior of the NFL, 4,786 credentials have been issued to the media — which is a record. Unfortunately, she could not break that number down and tell me how many still photographers are covering the game. My guess is that of the 4,786, more than 1,000 would be photographers, but I do not know for sure. Let’s just say that there will be a lot of photographers in the University of Phoenix Stadium, which makes my goal really hard.

Here is a list of equipment I brought with me to the Super Bowl:

1 Voice recorder

2 Video cameras

3 Nikon camera bodies. 2 D3s and 1 D2H.

5 Camera lenses: 400mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8, 14-24mm f2.8, 17-35 f2.8 and a 24-70mm f2.8.

2 Flashes

1 Laptop computer

1 Air Card (This allows me to send pictures to the paper when I am not near an internet connection)

7 CF cards (digital film)

1 1.4x extender

1 Camera battery charger1 150 GB drive to back up my pictures

1 CF card reader

2 Backpacks

12 AA batteries for flashes and other electronic devices

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