My career as a news paper photographer has been short, comprising in total less than twenty days, spread over a couple of months of two day weeks with my other photographic hat* being worn the rest of the time, but when your editor says “This story may be the front page, no pressure”, you need to rise to occassion.
The story was a box in a town square on a rainy day.
At the time, I slipped into “get the principals near the object and compose decently” train of thought, which to be fair is part of the PICS** tool I use for these occassions, but unfortunately it lacked enough of the the “I”, which is interaction. Pinning all of your creative needs on three faces and a box is a big ask. Few people carry that kind of pictorial “grunt”, even when they are two local artisits and the City Mayor and box, even one filled with artwork, is still a box.
I left thinking, and this is the unforgivable part, that I had little to work with, so a fairly straight, painfully safe take would uphold the integrity of the paper, the people and the context of the story, even if it did not set the world on fire.
Connor from the cast photos for the school production I shot yesterday, playing the part of the butler in “Clue”. It is rarely this easy.
So how come I can think of at least seven more creative options now, at 2 in the morning?
Looking at the problem from a damage control perspective, simply stole away my creative thought stream, which in hind-sight needs to be revisited. I think I need to come up with a more detailed and potentially fruitful process.
National Deputy Treasurer, Stephen Jones taken earlier in the day. Candid can get the pic, but it is hard to rely on.
What did I have to work with?
Two friends who had not seen each other in quite a while, both artists, one with a photographic background, who were reluctant to stand in front of a TV camera, but seemed more relaxed with stills.
One mayor, who had recently announced his retirement so was relaxed and is a decent sort if a little stiff in front of a camera, as most of us are in the moment.
A modified shipping container in all its stoic glory, complete with art, rain covered and with a reflective glass front on an overcast day. Not exciting in itself.
Plenty of room to move.
Time, I had time.
If this type of job is handled using the following formula, I feel there is hope.
Take the people and create an interaction.
Make the interaction interesting and contextural.
Compose for the subject(s).
This interaction can be done physically (the two artists and maybe the Mayor collaboratively “pushing” the 2 ton box into place, or looking around the corner “finding” it and its treasures), using perspective tricks such as the classic Leaning Tower of Pisa foreground tourist holding up the toppling edifice, or holding the box in their hand(s), or even a little more mystically, using refected faces (a bit of clarity brush work could hold detail in the glass and beyond).
If none of these work, maybe a more artistically contemplative take one using the two artists, one resting" her head on the others’ shoulder looking whistfully at the contents from side on close, or from behind compressed with a long lens. Lets also not forget angle, light, lens perspective, but you get the idea……..think, intuit, create. Look at the elements and let them help you.
Bugger, the more I think about it, the more I come up with!
My favourite would be the most invested and photo aware artist “holding” the box confidently in her hand using a near-far perspective trick, Pisa style. The artist in question was impressively tall with long elegant hands, so all the elements were there and she would have sold the feel of it, it just needed the photographer to man up.
PICS is a good enough mantra, but more emphasis is needed on the “I”.
Interaction in context is all. Someone holding something like a loaf of their own baked bread is fine. Holding a bunch, or holding it on a tray or peeking out from under a pile of loaves can get cheesy (context), but adds that element of connection, which is a triangle formed by you between the subject, their interacion with the object and the viewer.
With this in mind I have changed my mantra slightly to PICCS;
Person, Interaction, Context, Composition then Shoot, with the “I” writ large.
Next time.
*School photographer, which is in many ways a lower octane, but more intimate take on news photography.
**Person, Interaction, Composition, Shoot.