Yesterday I was assigned to capture some photographs of runners and cyclists using trails in American Fork for an article on the city’s planning.  As I was perched high up on a hill in some tall grass waiting for unsuspecting people to cruise by, I began to think about how unusual I must look to others.  I imagined what it must have been like for them to be running and sweating in work out clothes only to turn a corner and find a photographer firing off photos of them.  And on top of that, the photos end up in the next day’s paper.   

Regardless of the situation, please know that we are human too and try our best make sure that the wishes of those photographed are treated with respect.  If you say you don’t want to be photographed, we won’t publish any photos of you, even if it makes our job harder.  And if you feel awkward being photographed, so do we.  It’s not easy putting a camera in a stranger’s face (unless of course they’re politicians or athletes.  Then it’s fair game.).

I love being a photographer for a newspaper but I’ll be the first to admit that we have some peculiar behaviors, whether it be taking photos behind trees or taking a ridiculous amount of pictures from the same scene.  However, rest assured that we have a method behind our (odd) madness.  With all that said, I would like to take this opportunity to explain some of them.

“I’m Not Hiding From You.  I Promise”

-This one usually cracks me up because I am almost always aware of how stupid I may look.  Simply put, photographers will sometimes use foreground objects as a way to spice up a photo for composition’s sake.  Personally, I use it quite a bit when shooting golf.  While the added elements can often improve the photo drastically, it just looks plain creepy for people witnessing the act of a photographer shimmying their way into a thick tree for no apparent reason.  I can hear everyone thinking, “why is that photographer in the tree when it’s the only one around?”

“The Fly On The Wall”

-We want you to ignore us.  No, really.  Forget I’m there and ignore the camera blasting away.  That’s what we hope for anyways.  As photojournalists, we aim to capture genuine moments that both tell the story and elicit emotion to viewers.  So while I appreciate your offer to blow out the candles again so I can get another angle, I just can’t ask you to do it again.  Trust me, there’s always a part of me that thinks my portfolio would be infinitely better if I could just pose and recreate moments, but it just wouldn’t be true journalism.      

“Just One More”

-It’s usually a lie.  Sorry.  If we had it our way, we would be there another hour shooting innumerable photos of the same scene just to perfect the photo.  Saying “just one more” really means “I acknowledge that you may feel uncomfortable and I can sympathize, but it will benefit the both of us if this photo turns out really nice, so please be patient.”  We want to nail the lighting, composition, and moment so we will be proud to put our name underneath the photo in the paper.  However, we also want to make sure that we don’t publish an unflattering photo of you so that you can be excited to show friends and relatives that you were in the paper.

“Tall, Blue Stripe, Blonde”

-In order to publish photos of people in the paper, we almost always have to have the person’s name to put in the caption.  If it’s a big deal assignment or involves a lot of people, the number of names in our caption pad can be exhausting.  That is where “tall blue stripe blonde” (or any other seemingly random series of adjectives) comes into play.  Prior to getting someone’s name, I write down several adjectives of what the person looks like so that I can identify them when I get back to the office.  These are not judgmental words, just simply ways to remember which name belongs to which person.    

“What Do You Do, Why Do You Do It, And What Does It Do For The Community?”

-The ol’ three questions at once.  Sorry if it comes off as overwhelming but we just want a good quote for the article.  It’s a classic journalism strategy to avoid fragmented answers that aren’t quotable.  Simple as that.    

Hopefully these explanations help.  If not, well, feel free to continue to stare.  It’s only fair because after all, our job is to stare at people… through a camera.