Going into assignments, I often find myself anticipating what the lede photo will be and how to best capture it.  What photo will be the one that tells the whole story?  Ideally, this will be a combination of a nice moment or interaction with a contributing background that tells the story in one single photo.  These type of photos are harder to capture than you might imagine but that’s what makes a great photojournalist.  

Last Friday I was assigned to photograph the annual flag retirement ceremony as part of America’s Freedom Festival at Provo.  The event started at 8pm and with deadline only an hour later, I tried to envision the shots I would get and hopefully get the photos to the copy desk at a reasonable time.  Naturally, I assumed the lede image would be a photo of the boy scouts placing the flags in the fire.  Simple enough.

Throughout the ceremony I shot plenty of frames and hustled back to my car.  Quickly flipping through the photos, I wasn’t quite thrilled with the images of what I thought would be the lede photo.  Maybe there was something else that I had simply overlooked.  Another flip through and it was right there.  A simple photograph of a scout saluting the flag as it burned in the flames.  The expression on his face summarized the evening that recognized Utah families who had lost a family member in the ongoing War on Terror.  Excited, I hopped out of my car and raced back to the ceremony and got the scout’s name knowing that it would most likely be on the cover of tomorrow’s paper.

I spent the drive home after work reflecting on what happened.  Is it good to try and predict what will be the lede photo or is it best to shoot around and select the best from the take?  What happens if you fail to get the one that tells the story?  Plenty of hypothetical questions without concrete answers.  Regardless, I was reminded that night to be open-minded to other possibilities and take a risk.  The resulting image might just end up going to print.