With graduations behind me, I’d like to thank my readers for welcoming me and having me at as many of these ceremonies as I was able to attend.
It got me thinking about some of the rules of photography that I practice, and why these ideas stay with me.
- Access is everything. The title of this post, “f/8 and be there,” comes from the film days when shooting news (usually) outdoors, whether it is a groundbreaking ceremony for a new hospital or a train derailment. F/8 was really just a suggestion, but almost all lenses are sharp at f/8, and using f/8 maintains some depth-of-field. It’s great advice to new photographer, or reporters who don’t usually take pictures. The more important part of this advice is “be there.”
- Never be “that guy.” I’ve made a point throughout my career of being polite and cooperative with everyone I encounter. No one likes it when a photojournalist is being a jackass, and why would you even want to be that guy? And yes, I’ve known my share of “that guy” over the years.
- My relationship with the community is valuable. I feel like I make better pictures when I am welcome, and I usually try to work in the shadows and spaces. The less visible I am at upbeat events like graduations and parades, the more likely I am to make more candid, less-posed images, and the less visible I am at tragic events, the less likely I will be to become part of that tragedy.
- Try to avoid the clichés. When I photographed the tornado damage in Sulphur last month, I made every effort to be respectful and sympathetic, and I tried to avoid any notion of self-importance. Sure, our readers deserved to see what happened, but never, ever at the expense of making someone’s bad day worse. One person I briefly interviewed thanked me for not asking her how it felt to lose her business in the tornado. “How do you think I felt?” she said about some television crew who asked.
- Always, and this is the biggest and best one, always have fun.
So, f/8 be there, be respectful, and have fun!
