NOW PLAYING: Phormer Photog

2 May, 2002
This past weekend, The Wife and I made our annual appearance at the Southern Short Course in News Photography, to which we donate some of our time, effort and money. It allows us to keep in touch with our friends from the world of photojournalism. Wifey and I are both former photojournalists. Actually, she would take issue with that, saying, "You're never a former photojournalist; you may be currently inactive, but you'll always be one!" I suppose she's right. I heard much the same thing from a guy I met this weekend when I mentioned that I "used to be" a news photographer. Let us say, then, that we are not "working photojournalists" at the present time.

We have plenty of friends around the country who are, though, and this seminar is usually the only time during the year that we get to see them. For three days we get to catch up on what's happening with the photographers we know, hang out and talk, drink beer (well, Wifey didn't get to do that this year!), see a bunch of great photography and listen and learn from some of the best in the business. When I was a Working Photojournalist, these kinds of seminars inspired me and made me strive to shoot better pictures.

A typical "feature" picture of a couple of girls playing on the statue of Johnny Appleseed on the Duke University campus. If it was a slow news day or we had "nothing better to do," we had to cruise around looking for interesting images to fill space in the paper. Some photographers loved to do this sort of thing and they were really good at it. It wasn't my favorite kind of assignment, that's for sure. Nikon F3 300mm f/2.8 EDIF Nikkor lens Kodak Tri-X

I never really set out to become a photographer — it just sort of happened. I'm capable of creating an image with a pencil, a paintbrush, a computer or a camera. It never really mattered to me what I used, and the camera was just another tool that would allow me to express my creativity. I started down the path of "serious" photography one afternoon in my high-school journalism class. The teacher asked if anybody in the class was interested in taking pictures for the school newspaper and, for whatever reason, I raised my hand. I didn't have my own camera, but with the school's Pentax K1000, I was on my way.

The adage "I'd rather be lucky than good" proved itself in this photo of President Ronald Reagan taken during his visit to Raleigh, NC. After his speech, a zillion balloons were released from the ceiling and I simply let the motor-drive on my Nikon run. Luck was with me and I caught the delighted look on the President's face through a gap in the falling balloons. I was a sophomore in college at the time and this was my first time at a "major" news event. Nikon F3 180mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens Kodak Tri-X rated @ 800

When I arrived at UNC, I joined the Daily Tar Heel as a staff photographer, and during the second semester of my freshman year became the Photo Editor. I also began making some pretty decent money with my cameras, enough, in fact, to not only pay for most of my tuition and living costs, but also allow me to buy some better gear. I moved up from my K1000 to the then-brand-new Nikon F3 and Nikkor lenses. I sold my images to the University's Sports Information department, did freelance work for Soccer America and United Press International as well as for other folks who needed images in and around Chapel Hill.

I loved shooting field sports like lacrosse and soccer. The action was fast and I was allowed virtually free rein to shoot from anywhere I wanted. It helps to have a long, fast lens to get a shot like this one of a battle between a couple of Duke and UNC lacrosse players. Nikon F3 400mm f/2.8 EDIF Nikkor lens Kodak Tri-X

The summer of my sophomore year, I was hired by the Herald-Sun in Durham, NC to help them cover the Olympic Festival for two weeks. I was a pretty decent sports shooter by then, having had two years' experience photographing all the different sports that UNC had to offer. I had a great time shooting all those different events, and my pictures were good enough that the paper wanted me to continue to work for them part-time. So I spent most of my Friday nights and weekends for the next two years working for the newspaper. Looking back, it's interesting to see how the other news photographers soon accepted me as one of their own, as opposed to being "one of those students with a camera" even before I was being paid and being published in a "real" newspaper. It probably didn't hurt that I quickly got to know most of them at all the sporting events I'd worked, and I tried to be as professional as possible, even as a "lowly student."

One of the countless basketball images I shot along "Tobacco Road." This one happens to be of Quinn Snyder (r) making a steal. Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium is one of the best places in the world to photograph a college hoops game. Nikon F3 300mm f/2.8 EDIF Nikkor lens Kodak Tri-X, rated @ 1600 ASA

When I graduated, I was offered a full-time position at the Herald-Sun, and I worked there for almost three more years. The Wife and I actually first met at the paper when she was a photography intern — she says I gave her a ride to a Carolina football game I had to cover. I don't remember that at all, so I have to take her word for it. Anyway, I was laid off in a newspaper-wide staff reduction (last hired, first fired) and headed to Atlanta to become a commercial advertising photographer. Wifey eventually ended up in Atlanta, too, working for the Journal-Constitution. I gave up on the photo world after determining that the life of a commercial photographer was 90% selling and 10% camera work. If I'd wanted to be a salesman, I'd have taken a job at a car dealership.

I went back to computers, which is probably where I would have gone in the first place if I hadn't taken a 10-year "detour" into photography. It's possible that I missed out on making a bunch of money as a young programmer by instead being a young photographer, but I don't regret it. I got to see and do things that I never would have done as anything but a photojournalist — at the same time, I don't really miss it now. A few years ago, I remember feeling a longing for that old job as I listened to a speaker at the Short Course, but I'm over it. The Wife asked me as we left the seminar, "Do you want to go back to being a photojournalist again?"

"Nope," I replied. "I'm happy with the way things are now."

But I still have all my old photo gear.

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