If you're so clever.....

[h._p.]

As it seems a bit quiet around here, how about some tales of the

opposition outdoing themselves? I'll kick off with an example.

 

Picture an RAF base in South West England some years ago. It's a nice

cloudy bright day and the RAF's doing a photocall to promote the Black

Hawk, which is basically a standard jet trainer with a coat of glossy

black paint in place of the normal matt gray. The theory as to why

this is interesting is lost in the mists of time but there I am, in

the line up.

 

Now everyone else, agency chaps and staffers alike, have either a

brace of Eos 1s or a pair of Nikon F4s. Yours truly is toting a Mamiya

C330. Mystified glances are exchanged followed by (barely) stifled

guffaws. Enter the pilot and press officer and everyone makes

exagerated motions to indicate that I should take my pictures first,

on account of needing the chance, before the men with the real cameras

get to work. I take them up on the offer. Then the circus commences

while I stand back and chat to the press officer.

 

The pilot gets ready and takes the plane up for a few flybys. I stick

a 180mm pair on my Mamiya and take a few shots, much to the amusement

of my colleagues who are shooting with 300mm high speed lenses. The

plane lands, we thank the pilot and press officer and depart, everyone

else still having a jolly good laugh at my expense.

 

The following day, in come the opposition issues and I take a look at

my dear friends' efforts. The best showing is a three column four

incher of the plane in flight on page seven. I turn to my own comp

copy, which has the flying shot on the front page as a teaser, and

open it to page three. There's my picture of the pilot and plane

across well over half a page.

 

Of course, what I had neglected to mention to my, oh so cheerful,

friends was some usefull inside knowledge. A little bird in

advertising had told me that the normal page three half page display

had been pulled. As management didn't want a filler, there was room

for something glitzy on the page and a picture of one of our brave

lads in blue with his trusty steed could be made to look like a

serious story, hence the big neg for a big print.

 

Who was it that said 'knowledge is power'?<div></div>

[edward_h]

That's a first-page story?

 

Must have been a slow news day...

 

:9

[press_photog]

I thought a Blackhawk was a helicopter. Surely the RAF ran short on names, and stole that one...

[lex_jenkins]

Good show...ing!

 

I watch old boxing matches on ESPN Classic whenever possible. I get a kick out of trying to count the number of Rollei TLRs, Speed Graphics and similar cameras along ringside.

 

Having tried my Rollei 2.8C in a journalistic manner for street photography (actually composing and focusing, not cheating), I have to admit it's more difficult than I'd expected.