A day in the life.

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.

In regard to your questions about the mechanics of how we get our assignments and how we proceed from there, allow me to explain how things work at my paper, Newsday (Long Island, NY). I am sure that our procedure isn’t much different from other daily papers.

Our photographers are expected to phone in to contact the photo editor one hour before the start of their shift. There are occasions when an editor will call a photographer earlier due to a breaking news story or other staffing requirements. At Newsday, we work a seven hour day, five days a week. Some shifts require working nights and at least one weekend day. This is handled according to seniority.

One other photographer and I work the earliest shift, starting at 8 AM and ending at 3 PM. We don’t get a lunch hour, but we can grab lunch whenever the opportunity presents itself. Since I start at 8 AM and the Day Photo Editor doesn’t come in much before 7 AM and needs time to work out the schedule, I usually make my phone call at 7:15 AM.

The Photo Editor will read me my assignments. If there are a lot of complicated instructions, he may fax them to my computer so that I can have a printout with me. They are working on a system where our assignments will be posted to a web page and we will be able to access them in that fashion. This will be of great value to the photographers, because in reading our assignments over the phone, there is often some important information left out which would make our work a lot easier.

When I have my assignments, I am free to start from my home. Often there is a perp walk at some police precinct that requires me getting there before my 8 AM start. In this business, the clock doesn’t have much meaning and I frequently am in place, taking photos before 8 AM. That’s the nature of this business. And many times I will still be in the office, scanning and doing captions well after my finish time. Most of the photo staff are “Time Report Exempt” meaning that we don’t get overtime, but can get “comp” time off.

If there is no immediate assignment, I either go to the office, which is fifteen minutes from where I live. I can get a second cup of coffee, read the paper and chat with the editor, before going off on my jobs. If my first job is in another county, I usually go to the press room at the Supreme Court and do the same thing and chat with the other newsies who operate out of that facility.

We are connected to our Photo Desk by two way portable radios as well as pagers. If anything changes while we are on the road, our desk can contact us via any of those communicators. In the course of an average day, things happen to force a change in the schedule. Some assignments may have to be postponed or cancelled as more immediate things happen. This is a very fluid environment and you learn to adapt. Nothing is ever written in stone.

We used to average one or two assignments a day. But, with cutbacks and an industry that is driven by economics, we are now covering an average of four, maybe five assignments a day. The biggest complaint among the staff isn’t the extra workload. It’s the fact that we don’t have the time on each assignment to really do a quality job.

The Photo Desk tries to bring us back to the office about two hours before the end of our shifts in order to give us time to process our film and do the scanning and captioning. Sometimes it happens that way. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Most of us are using Nikons or Canons and color negative film. We have a pair of Fuji Film Color Processors in our department and the photo staff is responsible for processing our own film. It’s just a matter of taping the film leader to a plastic leader sheet and inserting it in a light tight compartment and shutting the compartment door. In about twenty minutes, the processed film comes out the other end, dry and ready to be selected.

Eventually, our entire staff will be equipped with digital cameras. Right now, those staffers who work on deadline (at night) or sports or who work in our bureau on the eastern end of Long Island, use digital cameras.

When our film is ready, we call over a Photo Editor to go over the film. The editor makes the selection with input from the photographer. If there is disagreement about a choice of frames, both frames are usually selected.

The negatives are sleeved in plastic and the photographer goes into the Scan Room, which is equipped with Kodak film scanners and IBM computers loaded with Photoshop. We did use Macintoshes until recently, but the paper wanted all of the computers in the building to be the same, so we had to switch to PC’s. Most of us would like to have our Mac’s back. The negatives are scanned and called up in Photoshop on the monitor screen. We have 22 inch screens which makes our job easier. The photographers are expected to do simple adjustments in the way of cropping, color balance and tonal control. We haven’t been formally trained to utilize the densitometer functions in Photoshop, so we mostly eyeball the image. We are told that everything we do to change things removes vital information from the original scan and if any further corrections are required to be done by Scan Technicians, they will be unable to do much if there isn’t enough original information left in the scan. However, since I have seen far too many of my photos appear in the paper without any correction because the technicians were overwhelmed with work, and since my name goes under the photo, I have learned to do some of the more sophisticated corrections. We are not permitted to add anything or take out anything that would alter the truth of the photo. Most of what we do is in the realm of ordinary darkroom work, such as contrast, brightness and color balance. Also dodging and burning are allowed, just as we did in a wet darkroom. And spotting out the inevitable scratches and dust spots.

There is a caption function in Photoshop which allows us to attach a who, when, where, what information field as well as our name, date and whether the image was made with film or digital camera. Add the department requesting the photo (i.e: News, Sports, Feature, etc) and when we hit the “Send” button, the image and caption are sent to a server where it resides until the paper is laid out and an editor can call it up and size it and place it on the page. The photographer also hits a “Proof” button and the image and caption is printed out in black and white on an HP printer in the scan room. This proof is placed in the envelope with the negatives and is filed that way in our morgue (library.)

When that is done, we usually grab a coffee and sit around in the scan room and shoot the breeze with other staffers who have come back and are scanning. We tell our lies and war stories and sometimes may even offer to help another photographer who may be stuck with a bunch of negs to be scanned.

All of the photos taken by staffers belong to Newsday because of the fact that we are salaried by the paper and our film is supplied by them and our equipment is owned by them. This includes any negatives that are not selected or photos that aren’t used. The public may purchase any photo that is published. If I shoot something that wasn’t assigned, I can offer it to Newsday and then it becomes theirs. If it is something personal, they don’t have to know about it, and I can keep it for myself. However, it would not be in my best interest to shoot something on Newsday’s time, with Newsday’s fim and equipment, and offer it to some competing media. I wouldn’t have a job for long. And, I have been pleased to work here for almost 40 years.

And, that’s about the way it is. I hope that I have answered your questions.

Dick Kraus Newsday

Staff Photographer

Behind the Viewfinder - A Year in the Life of Photojournalism
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