Each day is different when you’re a newspaper photographer.

Note: A message in our talkBack section asked about what a typical day was like. Dick Kraus, Tom Burton wrote new journals on that subject, and Susan Markisz wrote one last year.

Some days big news dictates your life while other days are a series of common events. Sometimes it’s just photos to illustrate standing features. This is what Thursday, March 25, 1999 was like for me. . .

8:41 a.m. in the car, driving to the first assignment.: I had called the manager of the International House of Pancakes the day before to set a time, knowing I could quick-hit this assignment on my way into the downtown office. It is the first of five assignments for the day. I listen to the car radio. NPR is giving a long report on Kosovo.

8:58 a.m. arrive at IHOP: Walking into the restaurant with my camera bag over one shoulder and a Nikon on the other, I ask for Larry the manager. The photo this morning will illustrate a weekly feature called Family Dining where one of our reporters takes her preschool kids to various restaurants and writes a review. Our reader surveys indicated that some folks need this kind of information since they have hectic lives and often will stop to eat out one day week rather than try to cook at home.

This photo is meant more to break up type than to provide a truly interesting photo. There are few “decisive moments” or significant stories being told in Family Dining photos. But I do try to get something that works without spending my entire day at the assignment. I ask Larry the manager if he could have the kitchen prepare the Funny Face pancake from the kids menu 9:05 a.m. at a table in the IHOP The Funny Face pancake arrives and is placed on an empty table. In the background is a booth with a family of tourists. (They had to be tourists because no one else eats breakfast on weekday with their kids at 9 a.m. Plus, they were wearing shorts and had sunburns) Funny Face is a chocolate pancake with a whipped cream smiley face on top.The wide-angle 24mm lens is the first choice, but I switch to a 35mm after a few frames so that the booth in the background is more emphasized. Bounce flash off the ceiling offers some more light on the food. On color negative film, it’s a quick f/4 at /15 sec. and I’m out of there

9:19 a.m. in the office IHOP was about six blocks from the office so I get in early. The film pops into the Fuji film processor and I begin to check phone mail, ATEX computer messages, two different snail mail boxes and double check with the assignment editor to be sure he doesn’t need help.

9:42 a.m. digital imaging area Almost all of our photos are scanned by a crew of digital imaging techs. They take our film and scan it into a computer fileserver system and use Photoshop to tone the images for printing. I stop to scan my negatives for my weekly A&E Gallery photo feature. I scan these photos myself because I want the photos to have a custom, B/W look similar to what I could have achieved years ago when I worked in a traditional darkroom. The burning and dodging effects are very personal choices and for one feature a week, I prefer to make the time for this custom toning (which takes more time than a tech can devote to the job) . The photos were shot Monday night at an opera rehearsal. I scan two photos and finally decide on one showing a dog about to take the stage as everyone else seems to ignore him.

10:23 a.m. at another computer terminal The A&E Gallery piece not only requires me to find a subject and make an interesting photo but I also have to write the short story with the photo. I begin to put my notes into the computer and wrangle the words for a good lead. I have about an hour before I leave for my next assignment but the story isn’t done when I leave.

11:46 a.m. in the car Driving to the assignment, I eat a ham and cheese sandwich. Photographers at my newspaper aren’t scheduled with lunch breaks and we eat as we can. Sometimes it is on-the-run.

11:56 a.m. Venus and Mars, an alternative clothing store. I had seen the reporter in the newspaper’s parking lot, so I know she is close behind. The store owner is not there and the clerk seems lost. The music sounds likes the stuff my middle school son listens to, although it’s not really that bad.

12:03 p.m. Our writer has arrived and we find the model an agency has sent to wear the clothes. The assignment is a quick fashion shot showing cargo pockets on dresses. We have another assignment down the road in a half an hour.

The dress is black and I’ll have to take the girl outside in the direct sunlight to get enough contrast to show the pockets on the dress. The photo will run small and in black and white, so I’ll need every bit of contrast I can get. The writer asks the model which school she goes to and she names a local middle school. I think this is the first time I’ve shot a fashion model who could be in class with my oldest son.

The writer leaves so she can catch the beginning of a fashion show we both are going to. She asks me if I can also shoot the model in a tube top outfit before I go. I shoot the black dress first, finding that a low angle seems to work best to emphasize the pockets. The girl changes and the tube top photo works better in the open shade with the background waaaay overexposed.

12:29 p.m. in the car Making a quick cell call to my wife while eating cookies. We have to coordinate our real lives, such as picking up kids later in day.

12:38 p.m. Stein Mart department store. The fashion is in the back of the store and has already started. I make my way back there and find a display bed to rest my camera bag. I find a green filter for my flash to balance its color with that of the flourescent lights overhead. Though I could ask the runway model working the show to pose for me, I just shoot candids as the show progresses. The moderator is animated and the photos work well.

I notice that I am the only male within 200 yards, casting me as a distinctive outsider as the moderator talks about the proper undergarments for certain tops. I remember two other assignments where I was the only guy in a large group of women. Once, I covered Dr. Ruth talking to about 500 nurse midwives. She was talking about the percentage breakdown of orgasmic responses. And years earlier, I had covered the first day of sorority rush at the University of Florida. There were about 2,00 young ladies in the auditorium. The organizer was going to ask me to leave when she thought I was working for the student paper but when I showed her my Gainesville Sun ID, she let me stay.

1:21 in car Fashion show over and it will be the only “real” event of my assignments this day. Talk radio is churning with Kosovo opinions. One caller is calling the attack a show of Imperialism.

1:48 in office writing , film developing

More film in the processor. The earlier IHOP assignment was delivered to the editor before I left for the fashion assignments.

I spend about a half an hour talking with a television producer that works for our newspaper. The Sentinel is in the midst of a project where the newspaper photographers shoot video on some stories for broadcast on a local 24-hour news channel. I have to talk with Anne Marie about the work of another photographer who has been having problems. Because I’ve recently been sent to a workshop for video training, I’ll be having to coach this photographer.

2:15 p.m. Back writing the A&E Gallery. I have a solid lead and the story is flowing more smoothly. It starts;

“He’s one of the new actors, and he doesn’t have many friends yet. It’s not because no one likes Griffen. It’s that the other actors aren’t allowed to like him.”

2:55 p.m. I receive a phone call from security that “ a gentleman is here to see you.” I know it must by Jerry the Clown. I found Jerry in the yellow pages and have hired him as a model for a photo illustration. He is wearing a dark gray double breasted suit and a blue wig with full makeup. He will be model for a story on having fun in the workplace. I explain to him the story, saying that for some jobs people need to find creative ways to make their jobs fun. Of course, we agree that clowns and photographers don’t have to work at having fun at work.

3:33 p.m. Jerry is a real pro and we finish quickly, I shoot the picture on a white background and choose a high angle with a 24mm lens to make the photo more comical.

4:05 p.m. I send the copy for my column to the editor and work on editing a homes interior shoot from two days earlier. It’s a cover story for our Sunday magazine and I shot slide film for the extra quality. Because more than 90 percent of our work is color negative, we don’t keep a chemistry line for the slide film so I had to wait for out-of-house processing.

5:02 p.m. I meet a guy with a “soul patch” beard thingy. It’s that patch of hair right under the lower lip some guys are wearing these days. I make a photo for the fashion editor, cropping very tight and using a 180mm lens to make a more dramatic cropping 6:08 p.m. out of office. I have gone through the final edit of my copy, cutting lines so that it fits the space without cropping the photo (a backwards method compared to most newspaper procedure).

I drive the county fairgrounds to wait for my sons to finish their soccer practices. tired of talk radio, I pop in a Temptations CD and relax.

Today, I saw no real news and didn’t capture many “moments.” It wasn’t journalism, really, but it was the kind of photos more and more newspapers are using to illustrate “news you can use” consumer stories. I wouldn’t bother me at all if I never had to shoot another Family dining photos, but I accept that I have some days when this is just a job because I know that tomorrow will bring something different.

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