Holding Up the Fort

Being an Associate Photo Editor has its benefits. You don't have as much pressure on you to do well, less responsibility, and less time in the office (if you consider those benefits...). Sometimes I forget just how much the Photo Editor actually does in a day. Everything becomes automatic: images are always just assumed to be edited and ready to be laid out, pictures always looks good, and everything just IS.

So when everything is dumped on you because your Photo Editor is out with a terrible illness, things come in to reality.

Cup check? You betcha.

I got the news from my editor Tuesday night in a text message. I was informed that he would not be in because of an emergency, and that I would need to edit all of the images and make sure shit gets done.

This didn't really concern me until I realized what was actually happening: I had to be Photo Editor for a Wednesday production day. Wednesday. The day I have class from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m., straight through, stopping only for an hour between band and Photojournalism class.

So beginning production day was easy. I was just going to edit the images (I feel like I have a decent eye for what needs to be done to an image, at least for my amount of education on the topic) and go on my merry way. It's amazing what a phone call can do, though.

My EIC calls me 5 minutes before my 11 o'clock programming class and says that no one has taken an assignment and that she needs a photog, ASAP, for 11 a.m. Having never skipped the class, and knowing that nothing was going to be done, I skipped and did the assignment. Nothing hard, but something like that will definitely shake up your day.

Fast forward to noon.

With an absolutely AMAZING finish to last Saturday's football game against the Hofstra Pride (that you can read about on www.thetowerlight.com), Kiel, sports editor here at The Towerlight, decided to do a feature on quarterback Sean Schaefer, hero of the game.

The entire week my editor had this idea of setting the ball on fire and having Sean hold it upright against a sunset with some 3D lighting going on.

But when your Photo Editor falls ill, your circumstances change.

At first I thought that we were just going run this story as an inside without a portrait. When Kiel approached me and asked me if I could cover it, I said yes enthusiastically, but inside I was nervous. I had NO idea what I could do with one strobe and make it as effective as what was was originally planned.

Up top is what ran in the paper, and below is another shot that I like for different reasons.



Which do you like better?

This was a big deal for me. It being my first sports feature image, I wanted to "do it up" as they say. I think I could have done much better, but for the circumstances I was in I think it turned out well.

This story does have a happy end. The paper was printed, as usual, and none of the photos were a sloppy mess (yay!).

I give myself a PAT on the back, along with the rest of the photo team who helped me get 'r done.

Next up: my explorations into high ISOs, fog, and drunk college kids. No, not tailgating in the early morning: concert photography!