Jump to content

Don't Newspapers Have Photographers Any More?


MikeRivers

Recommended Posts

  • CMS Author

It seems that every time there's a concert review in the Washington Post that includes a "performance" photo, the photo isn't from the local show, but from some other show, maybe a couple of years ago. Why is this? Are they only allowed to publish photos released by the artist's management company? Or are they too cheap to send a photographer or pay the reviewer for a photo?

 

I just find this to be a little silly, and annoying. Why bother publishing a photo at all if it doesn't show the artist at work in the local venue? Maybe it's a carryover from the simulated footage in TV newscasts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

A lot of acts restrict access to only the first few songs, and the papers don't play ball.

 

Another thing is deadlines. You need to get the paper "put to bed" in time for the printing press to make the papers and the delivery drivers to deliver. This has actually improved, because of e-mail and the like, because when I was a kid, the morning papers here on the east coast never had scores from the west coast games, let alone a game summary or complete box score.

 

I've been to press conferences where the reporter and photographer for a publication are the same person. So if the same guy has to write the review and sort out decent photos to upload for the printing deadline, he's screwed for time if the concert goes past a certain hour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • CMS Author
Originally posted by Billster

A lot of acts restrict access to only the first few songs, and the papers don't play ball.

Huh? You mean they kick the reporters out after the first few songs? Maybe that's why some reviews seem like the reviewer only heard the first few songs.

Another thing is deadlines. You need to get the paper "put to bed" in time for the printing press to make the papers and the delivery drivers to deliver. This has actually
improved
, because of e-mail and the like

That didn't seem to be a problem even back when they had to unload the Speed Graphic and develop the film. Today they can e-mail the photos right along with the text.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Originally posted by MikeRivers

Huh? You mean they kick the reporters out after the first few songs? Maybe that's why some reviews seem like the reviewer only heard the first few songs.

 

Not the critics, but the photo pool is closed early. Don't want any pictures after the kleig lights melt Ashlee's hairspray ;) Or nose ;) ;)

 

In re: deadline time constraints

 

 

That didn't seem to be a problem even back when they had to unload the Speed Graphic and develop the film. Today they can e-mail the photos right along with the text.

 

But back then, you had a photographer who just did photos - like I said above, nowadays the critic and the photog are often the same person. He has to get the photos to the computer, crop and resize and write the concert report (badly) within the same time limit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • CMS Author

 

Originally posted by Billster

But back then, you had a photographer who just did photos - like I said above, nowadays the critic and the photog are often the same person. He has to get the photos to the computer, crop and resize
and
write the concert report (badly) within the same time limit.

And that's what's wrong with the whole world today. I used to write an engineering report or an office memo. I'd hand it to the secretary who would type it, fix the spelling and grammar errors, and send it on its way. Now I write it in a word processor, typing, editing, and e-mailing it around for comments before revising it once or three times more. I might be trained as an engineer, and I took typing in high school, but I'm not a trained publisher.

 

When I write magazine articles now, it's the same way only I'm expected to draw my own diagrams neatly enough to publish, and take my own photos.

 

And don't get me started on drummers who have to become studio builders, system engineers, recording technicians, and producers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...