So, after watching another half-inch of rainfall in Georgia I was feeling kind of jealous of my neighbors to the north who got snow. Lots of it, apparently. I went off in search of some snow coverage at the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper's website. I found lots of pictures there and the usual coverage you'd expect to find of a major snowstorm moving through the Southern Appalachian ridgetops. Road closings, events cancelled--good stuff.
I also found some great photos from Friday night (29 January 2010) that were taken by, I'm guessing, staff photographers at the Citizen-Times. Nice photos of downtown in the snow with folks walking around, cars on the move and various public landmarks covered in snow. At least that is what I gathered from the first of the 41 photos. The second part of the batch has no cutlines (captions to non-newspaper folk) other than:
"Snow continued to fall steadily on downtown Asheville Friday evening."
Yes, 23 photographs that all had the same information attached to the them. The other photos in the package are nicely differentiated by information provided by the photographer as to location, what's going on in the photo, etc. The usual kind of stuff. Photographer No. 2, however, doesn't seem to like having to go out in the snow nor does he think much of having to actually help out his readers by giving them some information about what he took pictures of. Phoning it in. Why do all the work? Why bother? Why have a job? I will say some of the photos are nice and, for all I know, the second photographer could be an intern. I don't know. But what I do know is that he did the work, took the pictures and left the reader hanging. Twenty-three photos all with the same cutline.
Maybe I've got a theme going here. Maybe I'm becoming a cranky old guy like I always knew I would. But to work on writing and words requires some effort. And the same holds true for transmitting a story through photographs. A Friday afternoon snowstorm is a nice photo essay topic. Towns in the mountains like Asheville see snow but not like those in, say, West Virginia or New Hampshire. A heavy snowfall in Asheville is news and it presents some great photo opportunities and the ability to convey that is enhanced by the web and it's lack of space restrictions.
The problem with phoning it in is simple. If you, the one doing the work, are thinking "Why bother?" it is a certain bet your reader will too. And, if that's the case, why bother?
Understanding the Trinity: A Practical Guide
8 months ago
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2 comments:
First, a word of thanks for your comments and suggestions about clogged pens. Much appreciated!
Well, I must say the snowy views of Asheville are picturesque and sort of make me want to visit, but I'm with you on the business about photos 19 through 41, which offer no meaningful captions. Since the previous 18 photos all have precise descriptions, I have to wonder how the final 22 vaguely captioned photos got past the senior editor (?). However, I am not at all sure how a newsroom works, so maybe editors don't check photos for meaningful captions. But even so, isn't Asheville beautiful?
Asheville is one of my favorite places. I know newsrooms have changed greatly since I left more than 15 years ago. And the Internet and the shrinking circulations along with the economic squeeze has probably radically changed what each job does. But there should be an editor of some kind who reviews what goes up and I do hold editors responsible for final published content. Strong editors would have pushed back on the photog and said to get some information to go with the photos. Lovely pictures, though, from a lovely place. I just wish they had done it ever so slightly better.
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