Unlisted players on a roster

Had a photo editor once who, whenever someone might say, "take pictures" he would correct them to: "make pictures." Kind of ridiculous.
Had a recent photo editor who insisted we run a particular photo from an NBA playoff game. But the photo did not fit the story. So, the argument began. Finally, photo editor says, "Well, the writer should have consulted with the photographer before he wrote his story so his story would fit what we shot." Yeah, that'll happen about once in a lifetime.

 

This would be a fairly typical "file info" we would get with a football shot:

Thanks a fucking lot. We never could have figured that out.

Of course, they don't include the roster -- they just assume we have it.

 

and this asshat wasn't publicly mocked, why?

 

We should never publicly mock our co-workers, even if they are asshats. But we privately mocked that asshat.

 

As long as we're piling on the photographers, let me get this one off my chest. Two words:

Celebration shots.

In general, there's nothing wrong with celebration shots from the closing moments of the game or immediately afterward. But don't bring me back an endless string of shots of absolute nobodies whose primary responsibility all season long was to sit on the bench.

We had one stretch of games during the basketball postseason maybe 15 years ago when photogs mindlessly submitted (and layout editors used) celebration spots on the cover something like four times in six days. If there were a total of 10 kids in those four shots, I guaran-fucking-tee you that they scored a combined 12 points during the season.

Give me pictures of real players making real plays. Absent that, give me pictures of real players celebrating. If said content isn't available, give me a prompt heads-up and we'll run creative white space where the photo was going to go.

 

when i said publicly, i meant in front of him and in the newsroom. no, not in front of sources or customers.

 

BINGO!

I can't stand photogs who shoot pictures and grab the roster etc. I copy down the roster and make sure everything matches, is it that hard to do the same? I don't help them in this regard. I give them the coach's number.

Name ID is a part of their job.

 

Um ... her ... and she got promoted. We don't have to deal with her as much.

 

HELLO ... What the hell happened to photogs wanting to be known as photojournalists?

 

They don't. Instead, some (not all, UT) want to masquerade as soft-core porn shooters.

 

I think this is how this situation ended up happening. The kid in question was probably a JV callup who did not even play in the game. For some reason these kids always seem to find their way into celebration shots.
As I said, this probably doesn't speak well of me, but unless the kid actually played in the game and did something of consequence, if I were covering the game, I probably wouldn't have thought to find out the kid's name.

 

Another story to go along with Smallpots' tale of woe.

Covering a state semifinal Wednesday night. Game is played at Team A's field, even though Team A is considered the "road" team (it didn't have the better record).

Team B wins in overtime. I call the desk with the score. File.

A half-hour later I get a call.

"Hey, wicked who won that game?"

Turns out that the photog had transposed the names in cutlines, since he/she automatically assumed Team A would be wearing whites. Normally, this would make sense. Someone on the desk noticed the jersey colors were off, though.

I don't know if I can really blame the photog in that instance, since it was screwy that the host school was officially the "road" team.