FINALLY!

I’ve been whining for weeks to anyone within earshot. I am so tired of “head shots” and “real estate” photos and I ache to be able to take a meaningful photograph. My nerves are frayed and I have been getting into pissing matches with my photo editors about things about which I should know better. Like getting left to rights on the dozen people sitting around the table, half of whom I couldn't see because they kept moving back and forth behind other people. I had to force myself, the next day to get left to rights on the 8 Greek scientists with the long, difficult names that I shot at the Brookhaven National Lab. Gawd! I used to complain about three in a rows. Now I’m shooting 8’s and 12’s.

Please don’t tell me that I shouldn’t shoot these terrible photos. I know that. But, this is what the assignment called for and I didn’t have time to work on it to try to make something innovative. (Whine, whine, whine. See, I told you.)

I have a friend in tv who keeps telling me to "Take good photo’s, Pix,” whenever I speak to her. I tell her that I will, but, I guess I don’t. Finally, today, she sent me a wonderful column from one of the many tv web pages that she reads. It was from a tv cameraman who talked about his career. How he started like a house afire, and worked long hours for meager pay and found glamour in everything he shot. He spoke about the thrill of seeing his images appear on the news each night. Then, he said, he went to an NPPA TV Short Course and some very talented photographers taught him something about technique and quality and he started winning awards.

But, then, the assignments all seemed to be the same and there was no glamour in the business, anymore. And, he realized that he had become a typical “burnout.” But, he vowed to rise out of the ashes. And his words and my friend’s urging me to “Take good photos, Pix,” made me want to be a good photographer, once more. I wanted to do something meaningful. I wanted to feel good about my work.

And, finally....it happened. I had an assignment to photograph the last two people living in houses on a block in Bay Shore that had been condemned to make way for affordable housing. Everyone else on the two block street had moved and their homes were in various stages of destruction. These two old people refused to move and were still in place, defying the Town and County.

With my friend’s admonition ringing in my ears, I asked the old woman to sit in her cluttered living room, and I set about trying to capture this poor soul’s attempt to maintain a shred of dignity. Instead of the normal close-up showing her care lined face, I opted for a longer shot to show her in her surroundings. I wanted the mood that was cast by the one lamp and some grey light coming through the curtained window. I put the camera on sticks so that I could shoot at the 1/2 second exposure required to get some detail in the room. The lighting was contrasty and she was pretty much side lit from the lamp and back lit by the window. So, I set my Nikon SB-24 flash to give me one and a third stop less light than the ambient light in the room. I didn’t want to wash out the atmosphere of the room light. But, I needed to open up the woman's face a bit. Even with that, I had to do some more lightening in Photoshop, but just a little.

Finally.

Behind the Viewfinder - A Year in the Life of Photojournalism
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