one, two, three....

four...

five...

six...

On days like today, I have found the best way to stay calm is to count from one to ten before doing anything.

seven...

eight...

nine....

ten....

I can breathe now.

late night sports

So, the same night as the bridge collapse the Mariners went into extra innings during their game with the LA Angels. It was the last night of the series and the Mariners have been creeping up on the first place Angels in the AL west division. Lots of energy from the first pitch and it turned out to be a great game with lots of good action and drama. This page was the cover of sports for the first two editions. A great action picture at the plate---Johjima held onto the ball to save a run from scoring.



When the game ended at 11:20pm----this was the picture we remade the cover with. The game winning hit---It's sorta unfortunate. It is a great picture, no doubt. But I think the other picture is a stronger. This picture, while the defining moment of the intense game, is not a picture that will sit with you--and looking back on it in a few weeks won't have the same energy. The first edition home plate picture will stand that test of time. It is important to remember, even when it comes to sports photography, the pictures still need to tell a story.



This is a beautiful picture. In fact I've hardly seen a picture like this from a game before. And I've shot a lot of baseball. A really cool shaft of light in the perfect place. This picture ran inside for all editions. Our super star sports photographer (aka Superstar---I feel like I can give him that nickname since he refers to me as PhotoDiva on his blog) did a good job of really seeing something different here and was able to use it to his advantage. It is super easy to be an editor on nights like tonight. The pictures just fall into place.

media overkill

I am not sure when media overkill began. The first time I really recall it was from 9-11, although in that case at least it was more justified. And after that it has been in full effect with the major cable new stations. Spending hours at a time on car fires in some remote place in the US, or 24/7 coverage on major news story. However, even though it is a major news story does that really justifies all the time spent devoted to one particular subject. What is a major news story in one area of the country---can be just a news story to the rest of it.

So, the bridge collapse in Minnesota is another example of this. A bridge collapsing out of nowhere in the midst of rush-hour traffic is horrific. Whether it is over another road or a body of water, everyone in the country travels over a bridge at some point. And while it shouldn't matter if 3 people died or 30 people died---when it comes to the significance of a big news story, it sort of does matter.

I think our photo editor working on this section did a great job. (I was doing sports this night---see late night sports post). I thought our paper looked amazing. We had nice informative pictures that ran large--the design was clean and simple and each picture gave you more insight into the tragedy. However, my question doesn't have to do with the editing of the pictures----it has to do with the coverage. Is it really necessary to have a front page CP and 2 inside pages on a story that is most significant to people 2000 miles away? Is this the newspaper equivalent to having the same as cable news’ 24/7 non-stop coverage? And where is the point that we go too far and our local readers suffer?

Another bit of information I learned was to be very wary of reporting the numbers of deaths in headlines. Most papers printed 7 total the first night – (we printed 9, not sure where that number came from) and when I woke up the next morning, it had decreased to 4. ---Granted, with all the craziness of the situation –all the facts might not be getting out of the area. I think it is just important to remember to have conversations about displaying big numbers like that and how certain you are that they are correct.

still more

So, this part of the Gloria package ran last week. Gloria had taken a bad turn and couldn't really walk (she is currently doing a little bit better.) Anyways---we had to make some last minute adjustments to the layout on the inside page. Originally the father gazing at the medicine bottles was above of the other picture and a bit smaller. We had them move it to below and made the picture a little bigger by dropping a pull quote. I think it made a really big difference and really gave the reader more impact with that picture. Next installment will run in a few days. I'll be sure to post it.

more gloria

This is an installment of the Gloria package that ran while I was on vacation. I did help with some of the edit---but the photographer was shooting it until it ran. So I have to thank my fellow editors for helping this come together.