This says it all

Some of you know about my ongoing SID battle and how I sometimes dig my hole

deeper and deeper. Tonight I got the shot that explains my frustration. I was

always a little upset that no one covered the women's basketball game. Lately

they've been sending different people to shoot the game, they stay 15 to 20

minutes and then leave.

 

Tonight they had a shooter that actually left her camera on the court and went

and sat in the stands with friends.

 

<img src="http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f158/mharris660/Shooterweb.jpg">

 

Lonely Canon

I have not been following your past, but what is your frustration?

 

I assume you are referring to THEY as the newspaper. The paper typically just needs one image to print -- so if they send a photographer all they need to make sure of is a couple decent images. They don't have to stay the whole game.

I wonder if that's the same model they use for say football or men's basketball? Forgive my sarcasm but I've shot all three and I don't see many photographers leaving men's games after they get one or two shots.

I wish I had the money to just walk away from my equipment.

Those stands that the photographer was sitting in were probably about 20% full for the

women's game. Less interest means less coverage. You may not like it, but it's a fact.

 

You said that previously, no one covered the games and now different shooters are there

for 15-20 minutes. At least they're covering the games now, right? Sounds like they're

making progress.

 

As to why any photographer would leave her camera on the floor like that, I have no

logical explanation except that it must be the paper's camera and not hers. I don't know

anyone who would do that.

Oops. No caption.<div></div>

<i>This says it all </i><P>

Actually, the photo doesn't say much of anything. Without your text, it's simply a snap of a camera on the floor. Even with your text, it's unclear exactly what point you're trying to make. Don't confuse the meaning that you impose on an image with the meaning it will communicate to others.

Mike I'm imposing absolutely nothing on you.

<i> Mike I'm imposing absolutely nothing on you.</i><P>

Uhhhh, okay. I didn't claim that you were. Perhaps you misunderstood my post.

You're right Dan, progress is being made. There have been photographers from the paper as well as the school now. A couple of games even had higher attendance. I know it's a "fact of life" that men's sports garner more attention but we don't have to like it.

 

If we opened up a debate about it where could we begin? I think a good starting place would be the media, if they don't cover it the people won't see it. I think we should blame ourselves.

 

Mike I misstated my response to you, let me make it a litle more clear. There are people whose ideas and knowledge I respect greatly, yours is not one of them.

I don't expect you to take my assessment on faith. Perhaps you should show your photo (without a paragraph explaining it) to people whose ideas and knowledge you do respect, and see whether they think it "says it all." Just email them a copy and ask them to tell you what, if anything, it says to them.

Dan I just read this:

 

"PULLMAN, Wash. - When June Daugherty signed on to be the head coach of the Washington State women's basketball team, her ultimate goal was to have more community involvement in the program and to improve attendance numbers.

 

Cougar fans have done just that since her arrival, improving home attendance by 363 percent from last season. WSU is averaging 1,824 fans per home game this season, up from 503 fans per home game in 2006-07."

 

That is really good news, maybe things are slowly changing. I know a few of the football players and are at every single woman's home game, that is very nice to see.

>> I wonder if that's the same model they use for say football or men's basketball? Forgive my sarcasm but I've shot all three and I don't see many photographers leaving men's games after they get one or two shots.

 

Well, sometimes a photographer has two or more games to cover in one night. I've many times shot the first half of a BB or FB game and then had to run to another school to shoot the second half of another.

 

I'm still not understanding your frustration.

Mike,

Good to hear that Washington State's attendance is up. However, at 1800+ per game, that

probably only fills 10-15% of their arena.

 

The media can be accurately blamed for a lot of things, but I don't think lower attendance

at women's sporting events is one of them. For whatever reason, women's sports simply

do not have the same attraction for the public as the same men's sports. The effect is the

same for both male and female fans. It's not fair and it's not politically correct but it is

what it is. Sports editors react to this and allocate their scarce resources accordingly.

I agree Dan, it is what it is. I do think though that media is a little to blame though. Is it possible through better coverage excitement could grow? In a small town such as Pullman support for women's sports could be reported a little better.

 

Dave I mean this with the greatest respect when I address your not understanding. Our nation is poised to elect maybe it's first female President and a person in the media doesn't see my frustration? These young women work very hard day in and day out, the photographers who cover them also cover men's basketball. At the men's game they don't leave after 15 minutes.

 

With that said, who and how does it get changed? It gets changed by us, by the fans, and by a community. How does the community get the word? From us.

Typically, even if I don't have anything else to shoot, I get my couple of good shots and move on.

 

Sometimes, I'll stick around if the game is physical or low scoring because I know it might be a shootout. Since everyone else left, my shots might be the more important stuff.

 

That said, for editorial use you only need 1 good shot, maybe 2 of each game. If the photog was sure she got the shots she needed than it's time to move on. Nothing like having to filter through 500 images when 100 will do. The exception would be if your building a portfolio than of course shoot every minute of every game.

 

In college I volunteered to cover the womens stuff and the lower rung sports because I knew I'd get photos in the paper. Typically they sent the beginners to those events but the good photogs got the mens big time sports. Since I WAS a good photographer I figure rather than battle with someone else, I'd have the venue to myself, get high quality images and more often than not get published. No shame in being a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

 

Your battle with the SID seems a bit played out. Sometimes just shutting your mouth and being polite is the right thing to do. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't fight the fights worth fighting but it's sometimes better to suck it up and move on.

<i>With that said, who and how does it get changed? It gets changed by us, by the fans, and by a community. How does the community get the word? </i><P>

When living in Nashville, the Vanderbilt University women's basketball team generally had good attendance and media coverage (print and broadcast) when they were having a strong, competitive season. During weaker years, attendance and coverage dropped.<P>

I just checked the statistics for WSU: the men's basketball team is 22-7, and nationally ranked at number 22; the women's team is 2-16. I would argue that the relative lack of coverage is because of the low level of excitement currently generated by the women's team, not that the low level of coverage is holding down the level of excitement.<P>

To answer your question quoted above: I think the level excitement (and coverage) gets changed by the team winning some games.

Justin I was never not polite. This whole ting started with someone approaching me at the game and telling me I could get a pass. At the next event I was denied rather rudely. If what I'm doing makes the local pro shooters work harder then so be it. If my free images help the team then all the better. I'm not going to stop.

 

Sports is only exciting if a team is a winner? I'm so glad that's not true.

I see a lot of sports, I attend almost every sport I can between two universities. No one looses as much as University of Idaho. With minutes or even seconds left in every game those kids are out there trying their hearts out. 99% do it for the love of the game, there are no pro offers for them. For a fan, or a sports writer to trivialize that effort to me is is a disservice. I've been on my share of loosing teams, we played for us and the "good fans". We didn't have a lot left in out hearts for the "fairweather" fan.

We're not all going to agree, this is the internet after all. I'm a little soft-hearted for young people who work hard:

 

<img src="http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f158/mharris660/StanfordWEB2.jpg">

<i> I'm a little soft-hearted for young people who work hard</i><P>

Perhaps you should start lobbying the papers to run regular stories about the students who are working a couple of part-time jobs in addition to their full university schedule in order to put themselves through school--students who don't have their tuition waived, who don't get free housing, who don't get free tutoring, and who don't get to reschedule classes because they were playing a game. There are lots of students in universities who work just as hard and try just as hard as student athletes, but who get absolutely no media attention.

Wow...you nailed that on the head!

 

I never feel bad for athletes. As hard as they have it ;-) they get a free ride. That's $75-150k at most schools.

 

The difference is as a photographer it's not sexy to shoot the kid working at Arby's to pay for their education.

While that's outside the scope of the sports forum and a discussion about student athletes it is a good idea.

MIke, I do think papers should run some human interest stories like you describe. To their

credit our local does very occasionally run these type of stories. People need to know more

about the students and colleges than what they see on the sports page.

 

Justin, not all athletes get the free ride. That comment describes what most people think

and that is that NCAA Division 1 is the be all and end all of college athletics. I shoot

Division 3 sports. There are no athletic scholarships at that level. These kids are very good

athletes who happen to be just a bit smaller or slower so they "pay to play". No red

shirting. No 5 years to play 4. You graduate in 4 years.They are often better academically

than D1 athletes. They play for the love of the game. I feed all kinds of information to our

paper about local kids playing D3, but the paper won't give them the time of day.

 

On a side note Justin, your outdoor stuff is great. Do you do a great deal of climbing /

backpacking? Have you heard of the website summitpost.org?

Thank's Daniel, great input!

 

<img src="http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f158/mharris660/supportWEB.jpg">