Helping others avoid the temptation to go the easy path

A few days ago, a peer at a newspaper in New Jersey talked about a photo contest they were planning to sponsor with Website visitors judging the best photo of the month. He went on to say that the prize was being narrowed down to providing a family portrait to one of the voters by one of the staff photographers.

That rankled me quite a bit.

Not that there is anything wrong with doing portraits. I love them. I love the challenge of taking the simple set up and evolving it to fit the person or persons I am photographing and revealing their identity. Its necessary in this business and a daily thing for newspaper photographers. But many newspapers use it as a crutch. Its more often than not the backup photo for a story in which the action has already happened or not enough planning was implemented to get something more compelling. I mean, do you want to see the hero firefighter of the month sweating and working, DOING the thing that made him a hero, or a simple portrait of him leaning against a fire truck? I am all for the former. And with the photojournalists laboring hard to keep their jobs in today's newspaper market that crumbles around them, sometimes fighting to remind their colleagues and newspaper owners that they are journalists every bit as much as they are WITH the added skill to tell a story with a photo, series of photos or even video, is it fair to marginalize them to simply be little more than a studio portrait photographer when the day is done?

I suggested that they try a little harder to benefit their readers, and thought about what I enjoy doing when I am not snapping the shutter, and that's helping other people do a better job snapping THEIR shutters!

I can't count how many times I've been shooting on assignment, and on a lull, had people come up ask me about how to use their point and shoot cameras. I always enjoyed explaining the aperture/shutter speed/ISO relationship (and comparing it with how much squint/blink/and light sensitivity of the eye is related) and watching them "get it" and seeing that spark of enthusiasm light up in them, busily snapping away.

So who would be better than to offer up a one or two hour lesson in understanding your camera or just take better pictures yourself than the highly talented and community saturated photographers of the newspaper?

The photographer warmed immediately to the idea and I sure hope that, if they do the contest, they go with it. Its a great feeling when not producing great images myself, to help others unlock that potential in themselves.