Harvey Weber, the late, great Director of Photography at Newsday who hired me a long, long time ago, used to say, “If you don’t want shitty pictures to run in the paper, don’t show them the shitty pictures.”

He certainly had a point. Too often, when left to our own devices to edit our photos, we photographers have a tendency to throw in “just one more shot“ just to round out the take. And the “just one more” is usually a shitty shot that might be ok if the editors were going to run two or three photos. But, likely as not, only one shot will run with the story. And guess which one the News Desk will select? Yep, the shitty shot.

I fell victim to not heeding my mentor's advice earlier this week when I had to go to Belmont Race track for the first of many features that will precede the running of the Belmont Stakes. I had to photograph a groom who had won the Long Island Marathon, earlier.

The young man was pleasant and cooperated with me in every way possible. Another groom held a race horse, while my subject ran a curry brush over the beautiful animal's hide.

I laid on my back in the dirt, and shot up to get a different angle. I had a good two rolls of film on the take and when I got back to the office, I was asked to select three shots. I picked one shot of the groom bandaging the horses’s legs. I loved another shot that was tight and framed the groom with the horse's head. But, to be safe, I gave them a longer shot which showed more of the horse. It wasn't nearly as dramatic as either of the other two.

Guess which one ran?

Dick Kraus

Newsday, Staff Photographer

Behind the Viewfinder - A Year in the Life of Photojournalism
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