Photojournalist - Dick Kraus - Behind the Viewfinder

October 30 , 1998

SOME DAYS ARE GOLDEN
By Dick Kraus
Newsday
Staff Photographer

I suppose that every newspaper photographer has had long stretches of time when nothing seems to go right. I know that I have had my share of them. You know what I’m talking about. Those weeks/months where the only assignments seem to be head shots. There are talking heads, environmental portraits, studio mugs and so on.

And you even begin to think that a shot of a building for the business page would be an improvement. And then along comes an assignment that allows you to flex your creative muscles and the sun comes out from behind the clouds and the birds begin to sing and there is music dancing around in your head. And even though you have given your best effort to making those head shots the best head shots that you could possibly make, now you can really make some great images.

After a long winter of my discontent, I not only got the chance to shoot some interesting photos, but I have had a string of good assignments and I have fallen in love with photography once again.

It began with the parade given by the City of New York to the World Champion Yankees, last week. My editor called me at home, the night before the parade and asked if I would be willing to fly in a chopper to shoot aerials of the parade. Nice of him to ask. There are several staffers who will not fly. And while I don’t believe that those ungainly machines were ever meant to leave the ground (where are the bloody wings?) they do and they make wonderful platforms for our cameras. I started out shooting aerials from fixed winged aircraft and there is a certain beauty in being able to ask your pilot to back up twenty feet for a better angle. And, HE DOES!

So, shortly before 11 AM the next morning, I was strapping myself into a Bell Jet Ranger and flying across the beautiful Autumn Long Island landscape towards the Island of Manhattan. The parade got underway soon after our arrival at Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. There were three other helicopters from the city’s tv stations as well as two blimps. The pilots kept in constant contact with each other, letting each one know of any changes in positions and thus were we able to avoid becoming news, ourselves. And seeing those big, ungainly blimps flying over the cityscape was awesome, indeed.

Photo by Dick Kraus
©1998 Newsday

It didn’t take long, however, for my high spirits to sag. There was bright Autumnal sunlight hitting the tall skyscrapers of the financial district and the shadows they cast into the deep canyons below created a contrast range that challenged the naked eye, to say nothing of the limits of our film. We were restricted to an 800 bart ceiling over Battery Park, and 1,000 feet over the buildings. So, looking down into the narrow canyon between the buildings, all one could see was darkness and maybe the merest perception of something moving down, down, down in the murky distance. Even with 800 ASA film and my 300 mm lens, I was fearful that I would come back with unuseable images. I watched the meter in my viewfinder dance all over the field. I tried using the spot setting and I tried to hold it steady on the dark roadway below. But, if I shot at that setting, the brightly lit buildings would be blown out beyond any hope that Photoshop could restore. So, I bracketed as much as I could. And I kept my fingers crossed.

When the film came out of the processor, I didn’t like what I saw. As I feared, the contrast was just excessive. And, what little detail there was in the street was so dim and flat that it didn’t look like it would reproduce in the paper.

The editor picked a half dozen of the best and I worked on the scans for hours trying to lighten and boost the contrast in the dark areas and darken and flatten the blown out buildings where the sun was so strong. I thank God for the miracle of Photoshop. I could never have done the things I did in a wet darkroom and silver prints. I am not particularly adept at electronic imaging but I took my time and did the best that I could. Fearful of having overdone the corrections, I also scanned a raw image into the system so that the technicians could call up that image and do their magic on it. I believe that is what happened. For when I picked up my Saturday paper, they ran a shot of the ticker tape streaming down into the canyon of lower Broadway on Page Two. And they ran it large. And in the centerfold, was another large photo, in color, of the crowds around City Hall. And damned if they didn’t look good.

OK. So that was my day of glory last Friday. This past Wednesday I was assigned to cover a Coast Guard Rodeo. No, folks. For you people out west, this doesn’t mean a bunch of sailors riding broncs and steers. This was a competition involving four of the Coast Guard Stations on Long Island who brought their 44 bart self righting motor lifeboats to the Shinnecock Coast Guard Station where they competed against each other in various drills which included an inspection for sea worthiness of each boat and navigation and life saving skills.

Photo by Dick Kraus
©1998 Newsday

The Coasties couldn’t have been more cooperative. They offered me the use of one of their helicopters from which to shoot the boats in action. I agreed to this until I found out that the bird I would be in was going to be part of an air evac drill with the boats and I wanted to be on the water in another boat to get the action including the chopper. They offered to let me ride in the bird until it was ready to take part in the air evacuation drill. At which point they said they would lower me to a boat in the sling. A few years ago, I would have jumped at the chance. But too many years with too much weight on my shoulder and a dose of arthritis in my left knee precluded that. So, I spent the day in a 41 barter that was mine to direct and I was able to get some fine shots of the action from that vantage point. Another day of gold.

Then, today, of all things, an assignment that I never would have dreamed would make a decent shot was dropped into my lap. The business page needed a shot of three partners who had developed a special set of glasses to be used by people at computers. I was discussing this assignment on the phone with a tv friend who came up with the suggestion that I have the image of the monitor reflected in their glasses. I wasn’t sure if I could make this work out in the field. But, it was worth a try.

When I got to their office, they were set up in a conference room and I had them at a table with a computer monitor on the table. I put my camera on a tripod and after composing, I moved the monitor until it was reflected off of their glasses. But, I had to turn out the room lights to get this effect. Which meant that I had to angle my flash just right to keep from wiping out the reflection.

I am using the standard newspuke’s Nikon SB-25’s which don’t have a modeling light. So, I couldn’t be sure what effect the flash was having each time I fired. But, I put the flash on a long extension cord and held it far to the right and down so that the flash angle wouldn’t bounce off the glasses and into my lens. I took about 30 shots with the flash at all angles, including some bounce flash. And then, I set up a straight forward back-up shot just in case. Well, the great God Argus smiled upon me and I didn’t have to resort to the back up shot.

Now none of these shots is going to win me any great awards. But, I did have my time in the sun and I felt good with the results, and yes, some days are golden.

Dick Kraus

"I spent the day in a 41 barter that was mine to direct"