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A deer runs across a burned field near Highway 72 in Limestone County outside of Athens, Ala., Thursday, September 2, as a brush and woods fire burns behind it. Limestone volunteer fire departments were kept busy with three major brush fires in different parts of the county all burning at the same time. North Alabama's hot, dry weather is causing a rash of brush fires. (AP Photo/The Decatur Daily, Gary Cosby Jr.)

Continuing the general theme of shooting what is not there, this post is actually about keeping your eyes open when it doesn’t appear you will get a shot.  This happens all the time.  I get a job order and think, “there is no way I am getting a picture there.”  This even happens on spot news jobs as illustrated by the first photo of the deer in the fire.  We have to cover woods fires and grass fires frequently in the spring and fall and most of them are not great.

This photo was a little different.  The fire dispatch kept on sending units to this fire so I decided to go check it out.  I was still about 12 miles away and saw the huge column of smoke rising and I began to think I would certainly get a photo there.  But when I arrived on the fire ground there was nothing much going on. I decided to walk across the burned out pasture, more out of desperation than logic, to get closer to where any fire action was going on.  By the way, walking through a fire scene is not real smart unless you know what you are doing so be careful.  Just a general safety tip, always stay upwind from ground cover fires.  This means keep the wind at your back.  Never walk in unburned territory downwind because grass and woods can burn rapidly and you can get messed up in a hurry, even in Alabama.

As I walked across the pasture, I saw a deer running across the field not fifty yards ahead of me.  I couldn’t believe it!  The deer actually crossed between me and the fire and I got several frames.  Then, five minutes later, just to be sure I got the photo, the deer ran back across in front of me!  Amazing!  I shot with a Canon EOS 1N with a 70-200mm that had a 2x converter attached.  It was shot on the shorter end of the zoom, that is how close the deer came to me.  Had I not decided to move away from the command post and walk across the field I would not have gotten the shot.  Still, it is the essence of a pleasant surprise.  (Hint, we tend to make pleasant surprises by being attentive and aggressive.)

The photo of the mourners in front of the karate studio is another shot that surprised me.  A local karate instructor had been killed by the parent of one of his students.  An editor asked me to go and get a shot at the studio.  I expected a naked store front or maybe some flowers on the step.  What I found was several people in front of the building mourning the loss of their friend and mentor.  I did the shot with the Nikon D1 which explains the grain.  It was shot available light.  I detest intruding on people in misery with a flash and will avoid it if there is any way to avoid it.  All the people were very cooperative and gave me names and even talked to me about their relationship to the slain instructor.

Next is one that was really and truly surprising.  I had an assignment to cover a summer school program.  Oh wheeeee!  Talk about no potential.  I saw that job order and despaired.  But when I get to any job I really work hard to get a good shot.  When the job has little potential, I tend to work harder than I do on jobs that are more obvious.  I came across this classroom where they were singing and the teacher was being really expressive and doing motions with the music.  Now I was all smiles because I knew I had the perfect situation and sure enough, she flexed and I had another pleasant surprise.

The last photo was from an assignment to photograph a travelling animal show.  Obviously, I knew I would have a nice picture of some kind of animal.  What was unexpected was the show bringing in audience participation.  When they brought this lady in to handle the snake, well, I had my picture.  You would be surprised at how easy it is to miss the really good stuff by just going through the motions.  If you go to a job and just do what you are obligated to do you will miss a lot of good shots and you will never grow as a photographer.  The real challenge is photojournalism is not simply being there, it is being there and being on the alert for the real photo from an event.  If you want to get the really good assignments, do a really good job on the average assignments.

Photos copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily.  The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.