Recent content by f8andbethere

Im taking a huge leap and leaving this industry in a little over one week. I'm burned out, sickened by the incompetence, and frustrated by the low-pay. Ironically, I realized that I was getting out of the biz in almost exactly the number of years it took me to graduate college to get into this...

I don't write much, except for the occassional spot news story. But we had a funny inch story in last night's paper. Main story today's sunday 1A page was 20 inches. There was also a sidebar - that was 51 inches. Yes, a 51 inch sidebar.

Hah! I've got a friend at the Manfield News-Journal. Not only is their pay mediocre (25-27K-ish for a photographer with 8 years there), but a while back they eliminated the monthly camera allowance (you had to buy your own gear, so they gave you an allowance for it). Now, they don't get an...

My last interview, at a paper about 4 hours away, the deal was that I pay for the hotel, gas, etc. and they would reimburse me. They wanted the actual gas receipt. I didn't get the gig - after not hearing anything for 6 weeks I kept pestering the ME, and was told they read something on an...

Honestly, I'd like to see less harshness. Everyone who's shot a night football game in a podunk stadium knows how difficult it can be, but to me, I see a bit too much flash pop.

Here's a couple of images that are among my personal favorites. Peak action! I've always thought this was one of my best football photos. You don't see too many same team pitcher catcher collisions. The were both going for a bunted ball. From a toughman competition. Ahh...shooting...

Any news shooter in the US should know this is unacceptable. To others, something like this might be considered minor, but to us, it's not.

The sun has gone to shirt. Paxton took over and squeezed the forker dry to compensate for paying $100 million + for a 40,000 circulation paper, a number which has declined 15% since they took their massive shirt on the newsroom. A colleague told me that at the same time their circ numbers were...

I have mixed feeling about this as a photog. At my paper, we do put photos online. Not really for extra editorial content, but pretty much just as a commercial venture. On the other hand, I've worked as an event photographer - and had exclusive contracts. Nothing worse than the event...

And if the boys are still in high school? From one of the schools he covers?

My current sports editor is gay. Came out one night in the newsroom and just announced it. Kinda weird,the way it happened, but no one makes a big deal about it. I can't remember the last time he was in the field reporting, and when he was reporting, he had not outed himself. A bigger deal...

I actually thought it was a decent article. He clearly layed out that he was friends with Hardaway. The whole life-preserver thing was a bit too much, but I didn't mind it. And the questions themselves were fairly tough, I thought. And Hardaway's answers, I thought, were genuinely insightful...

My tivo doesn't know any better.

Not only did I miss Monday's playing of "NFL films: Grim Reaper", because ESPN decided to blab for an hour at 3:30AM about T.O, I missed Today's showing because of the Torre press conference. WTF is the point of regular programming if you are not going to ever show it? Put this crap on ESPN2 or...

It wasn't a G4 laptop, it was a G3. :P  I hear it hasn't been used in years.  Paxton is a pretty cheap company.  If you can get past that, I think your work experience will largely depend on the ME at that particular paper.