alittlenews

Athens and East Limestone firefighters battled a blaze in a business on Nick Davis Rd. Sunday afternoon which destroyed the building. Lt. Mark Walker works inside the structure in an area where the roof collapsed while firefighter David Kress sprays down a hot spot. Photo by Gary Cosby Jr. 3/22/09

When I came in to work on Sunday, I heard on the scanner there was a fire in progress but it had evidently been in progress for at least an hour and a half.  I also found that we had already sent a reporter with a point and shoot camera at least an hour earlier.  I decided not to bother going.  Then, I reconsidered.  I didn’t really have anything going on anyway so why not go?  Plus, I am always leery of a reporter shooting any pictures, much less pictures that could potentially be the centerpiece.  So I went knowing that the fire would be out for all intents and purposes by the time I arrived.  The fire scene was at least a half hour drive and I could tell by the radio traffic that they were just hitting the remaining hot spots.

Okay, slow Sunday so here we go.  I arrived about a half hour later and there was really very little smoke left, not a good sign as far as getting photos is concerned.  I used to be a firefighter and I knew from experience that, in a big fire, there is an extensive overhaul operation that must be done before you can really say the fire is out.  There was some potential there but I knew our reporter would already have shot the wide stuff showing the smoke and possibly the fire engines.  I decided to shoot  for details and just worked to make some photographs.  I actually had an Athens Police officer check my press credentials.  It was pretty laid back to be sure, but that is fairly unusual in our area.  We have really good relationships with most of the area police and fire departments.

Whenever I am walking up to a fire scene I am always looking to start shooting early.  This goes for any news scene too because you never know when someone is going to tell  you to leave or will make you move to a position where you can really see nothing at all.  Shooting early also gives you a bit of a scene setter.  One of the big mistakes you can make when covering a fire is to get caught up in just shooting the scene shots, especially at a large fire.  The genius of photojournalism is in the details.  Don’t be so distracted by the scene that you forget to shoot anything else.  I have done this before and you will want to avoid this trap.  So I get my scene setter out of the way while approaching the fire ground.  When I actually get into a good position I am ready to look for those photos of the individual battles of man against fire.  Remember, conflict in your photos is very important.  Man against fire is such a great conflict you would think you couldn’t go wrong but it is possible to get distracted and miss the good stuff.

Even after a fire has essentially been extinguished, there is still a lot of work to do so going late, at least to a big fire, is still a decent idea.  When firefighters do their overhaul work, they frequently uncover pockets of hidden fire.  These pockets get exposed to air and they will flame up giving you an opportunity to grab a good shot or two.  There is also the peripheral shots such as firefighters picking up hoses or resting after battling the blaze.  One note of caution, even though the fire is out, there is still some inherent danger.  Walls and roofs can still collapse and fires can flare up unexpectedly so listen to the firefighters.  I tend to be a bit more bold than most on the fire ground because I still have a good idea of what to do but I don’t disobey the orders of a firefighter.  I might miss a photo but I do want to go home at the end of the day.

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

Former Alabama Governor Guy Hunt lies in the Mount Vernon Primitive Baptist Church near Holly Pond Tuesday during visitation. Hunt preached at the church during his life. Photo by Gary Cosby Jr. 2/03/09

Every now and then something happens to put you in a really bad situation not of your making.  This happened to me yesterday.  I was assigned to cover former Governor Guy Hunt’s visitation prior to his funeral today.  The Governor passed away late last week and a visitation was held for him in one of the churches where he used to preach.  Our reporter had been in touch with the funeral home that was handling the visitation and they told us there were no restrictions to media activity.  You already begin to see what is about to happen?

I walked into the church and began shooting pictures as discreetly as possible.  I shot about eight or nine frames over the course of about ten minutes and was approached by a man who was very polite and informed me the visitation was private.  Now I am feeling like a total heel with nothing I can do but apologize.  It turns out he is the Governor’s son which I didn’t know as we talked.  He politely asked for my film and I had to explain that I was shooting digital.  So he then asked me to delete the images in his presence.  I had no choice but to comply.  As I began deleting frames, he saw a couple that he said were okay so I left with a State Trooper who was also very polite and had served as Governor Hunt’s body guard during his time in office.

He took me down in the cemetery to where the grave stone was and I shot there.  We had a very nice conversation and I asked him to please apologize to the family for the intrusion.  It was then that I found I had been talking to Governor Hunt’s son.  I was even more flummoxed than before.  I explained that we were really misinformed by the funeral home and he assured me he would explain it all to the family.  The situation was not one of my making but there I was anyway, right in the middle of it and feeling like a total jerk.

Normally, a governor’s funeral and associated activities are mostly open to the public.  In this case, Governor Hunt was also a Primitive Baptist preacher and he and his family have deeply held religious beliefs.  Apparently photographing the open casket during the visitation violated their beliefs which just made the situation worse.  There was a public ceremony today prior to the burial which we did not cover.  While everyone was extremely polite during  a situation that could have been very tense, I still marvel that I could have been in the situation at all.  I hated violating the family’s privacy but it seems to have turned out okay.  The Governor’s son allowed me to keep a couple of images that did not show the open casket which let me have a photo to turn in for the paper to run.  I am very grateful for his graciousness during what must have been a difficult time for he and his family.  While I hate that I was in the situation at all, I am grateful for the outcome.

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.

Faces at an Auction II- He wan’ts how much?, originally uploaded by Chris Frear.

A Little News reader Chris Frear lives in Scotland and freelances for the local farming press. What follows is Chris’s description of his shoot on a sheepdog sale where he captured this captivating image of farmer’s watching the sale. Last year, I did a post on shooting the edges of an event, not just the event itself. This photo is a perfect example of a photographer keeping his eyes open for photos outside the main event. Nice work!

The “faces” photo was taken at a sheepdog sale over in Moffat last September. The basic gist is that farmers turn up in a muddy field and watch a series of young sheepdogs being put through their paces with a small flock of perhaps five or six sheep. After each dog is run, it is auctioned to the highest bidder. The better it runs, the higher the price. The whole thing lasts about 4 hours on a good day. I was there covering the event on a freelance basis, selling some action shots to the farming newspapers.

The farming press usually only require a single photo of the highest priced dog. But four hours doing the same shot of the higher priced dogs over and over is mind numbing. To keep alert I would often photograph candids of the people in the audience during the bidding. Once I get home from an event, I download the cards into the PC, emailing off the pictures for the papers. I had forgotten taking this image until that point. I found it and several other candids, which from my point of view I liked much better than one of a dog.

The event is held every six months, and the Farmers were grumbling at the recent sale in April as it was being held during lambing season. It was also bitterly cold. The reporter standing next to me disappeared to warm up in the nearby cafe, coming back about an hour later asking if she’d missed anything. She had, the highest priced dog had fetched over 2,000 Guineas! All livestock auctions across the UK are still done in guineas, a guinea is worth £1 and 5 pence, or about $2.10

Being a country/rural photographer is different from being a photographer for a London newspaper. You still have to earn a living wage. But you’re considered part of the community first and a photographer second. You have blend in but be remembered. And most importantly you have to be prepared to get mucky and to help out. If you can manage these requirements you’re going to be OK.

I get invites out of the blue to events or requests to photograph a family gathering from people I may have met once weeks or months ago. The “joke” in the family is that if I come home mucky and/or wet through then I’ll have got a super image. I broke my foot last year in a local river trying to get a shot and ended up, up to my arm pits in freezing water. There was no point in getting out as I had no icepack, so I stayed there in the water for 20 minutes, got the image I was after. By the time I got out, the cold water had minimised any swelling in my foot! I was lucky not to get hypothermia, but hey I was having fun! I had to help wrangle a flock of sheep last autumn. The shepherd and his wife I was photographing just couldn’t do it on their own, they needed a third person (me) to help move the flock up the pen so the shepherd could man handle the sheep one at a time through a footbath. A week ago I had a call late on a Friday night asking me if I was busy on Sunday, I said no (I really should learn), so there I was last Sunday in waterproofs covered in mud, in the rain getting action shots of dogs at an agility day. Did I enjoy it? You bet. It was also great for marketing/networking. This is dog, rather than cat country.

Please check out Chris Frear’s web site and his Flickr photostream.
On his main web site you will see some of the most magnificent panoramic landscapes you could hope to see. It is beautiful work and I highly recommend you check it out. Chris’s entire site is very nice but don’t miss those panoramas.