The Insecurity of the Professional Photographer

Watching the hearings. Just how much equipment does a professional photographer need to sit on the floor in a small room and get a few photos. The rule must be: Take everything, you never know.

Be prepared . . .

Yes, because the thing I’m focused on watching the hearing is the equipment of the photographers! Now, this being a photography site, it’s not appropriate to discuss straight politics, so maybe that’s all we’re left with, but it’s still striking that we’d come away from what we just watched with a desire to ask a question about camera equipment.

Yes, because the thing I’m focused on watching the hearing is the equipment of the photographers! Now, this being a photography site, it’s not appropriate to discuss straight politics, so maybe that’s all we’re left with, but it’s still striking that we’d come away from what we just watched with a desire to ask a question about camera equipment.

It is NOT an either/or situation.

Yeah . . . I think that I'm perfectly able to pay attention to more than one thing at a time . . .

Watching the hearings. Just how much equipment does a professional photographer need to sit on the floor in a small room and get a few photos. The rule must be: Take everything, you never know.

Yes, I'm sure they are "over-equipped". As a working pro I have frequently showed up on jobs with a lot more than I actually needed, but clients pay for results, not excuses. No matter how careful you are in checking over equipment before a shoot things sometimes happen and a reliable, professional camera or lens stops working. If you're on deadline for a national publication you reach into your bag and get your back-up camera/lens and keep on shooting (and keep getting paying jobs...).

This is besides the fact that these are professional NEWS photographers. They are paid BECAUSE they are always ready for whatever happens. Remember, if there's a shooting outside the capital or any other event that needs coverage, these photographers will be the first on the scene. I seriously doubt that any of them are in anyway carrying "extra" gear.

I always shoot anything important with two cameras - has worked well for around 50 years.

I'm; pretty sure that to be a working pro at that level, they just might know what to bring a little bit more then members of an internet photo forum.

all that gear to take the same pictures a thousand times of the same people over n over again. maybe catch one of them picking their nose?

 

ill bet those overstuffed bags next to them has a nice hero n a bottle of drink to wash it all down between smerks.

 

just seems so boring to sit on the floor with boring people in front of ya.

 

oh oh oh wait i think i just got 100 frames of a booger driping from a nose.

Ron, do you need a Kleenex?

Pro tip, while we're at it: carry a bunch of spare memory cards with you, of different formats. You never know when a fellow photographer might need one. I have used SD cards only for several years now, but I still carry a few CF cards as well. You never know.

As a professional photojournalist, you need to be ready for all possibilities at the hearing. Wide angle, mid-range zoom and long telephoto zoom on the hearing itself. Tight facial shots, a view of the entire room, the committee conversing, the possibility of a disruption, any number of things. You'll most likely need to swap cards during breaks to get your photos in the internet asap (possibly a runner to take the cards out of the room to an editor). Multiple camera bodies so you don't have to lens swap during the hearings. If I was working this event, using Nikon equipment, here's what I would want to carry: 3 D5 bodies, a 14-24, 24-70, 70-200, 300 f4 (much smaller than the f2.8) and a fisheye (for the superwide shot--makes a nice panorama shot if you crop out the lens distortion at the top and bottom of the frame). I might substitute the 80-400 for the 70-200 and the 300. As for carrying extra memory cards for other photogs...well, if they are personal friends and use XQD cards I might have one to spare, but I figure I'd need at least 8-10 cards for myself (2 card slots on each camera plus a couple extra for safety.)

Plus photographers are people too and they doubtless have opinions. Putting all of those aside and concentrating on the photography must be hard sometimes.

You hold the shutter button down and sell the pictures that make either subject look good or bad to their respective supporters and detractors.

That way you get the most bang for your buck.

Plus photographers are people too and they doubtless have opinions. Putting all of those aside and concentrating on the photography must be hard sometimes.

It is very hard to stay objective sometimes. One of the silliest lines I've ever heard in a movie was in "Under Fire" starring Nick Nolte as a war photojournalist. At one point in the movie he says, "I don't take sides, I take pictures!". Of course, every time you trip the shutter you are consciously deciding to "take a side" by virtue of what you focus on. None the less, an honest photojournalist will admit his/her bias and try diligently to work around that.

 

By the way, if you haven't seen "Under Fire", it's an excellent photoj movie. Nolte actually loaded film in his cameras for the takes as you can see the rewind knob turning when he shoots. Also, he carried real camera lenses around in his Domke bag, not just foam rubber to fill it out as most films/tv series used to do.

I’ve always preferred honesty to objectivity.

It’s the more easily achieved of the two.

And anyone who claims both has neither.

I’ve always preferred honesty to objectivity.

It’s the more easily achieved of the two.

And anyone who claims both has neither.

In the past 40 years, I've worked with hundreds of journalists and photojournalists who did both.

 

"You hold the shutter button down and sell the pictures that make either subject look good or bad to their respective supporters and detractors.

That way you get the most bang for your buck."

This would not be the way a photojournalist looks at his/her job. It's more the way a public relations photographer would look at it. Not saying it's bad, just not the way a photojournalist looks at it.

All one needs to do is review the photos of the last two days.....

In the past 40 years, I've worked with hundreds of journalists and photojournalists who did both.

Both honest and objective.

Hundreds?

Name 10.

I wonder if a lot of photojournalists would give their editors and newsrooms an array of perspectives and more bias would come in after the photographer’s done his job.

Nick Ut, Reed Saxon, Mark Terrill, J. Scott Applewhite, Hyler Cooper, Bob Linder, Randy Leffingwell, Joe Kennedy, Mel Melcon, Anacleto Rapping, Eric Draper...need I go on?

 

And yes, I know all these people personally

And their personal bias is completely divorced from their work?

The photos probably go directly to the editor. Editors call the shots, so to speak.

And their personal bias is completely divorced from their work?

Oh, there were times, but by and large, yes. Now as to your comment about the last two days, I'll have to agree with you.