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Another concern is the lack of diversity in photography departments when compared to reporters, copy editors and city editors.

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News photographers seek more interaction

Dan Powers, photographer for the Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis. (Photo provided by Dan Powers)

At an evening high school soccer game, photographer Dan Powers from the Appleton Post-Crescent was shooting the game with his digital camera, Nikon D1h, for the next day’s sports front; he had one more assignment for the news front at almost the same time that night.

Twenty minutes later, when he knew that he had pictures for the story, he loaded the images into his laptop and sent the images to the office so the sports editors could start working on their page. Powers then drove to another part of town to shoot the picture for the next day’s news front.

“If I was using film, there is no way I would have hit my sports deadline,” Powers said. “I would have had to shoot the game, shoot the news event, drive back and process the film.”

The technological change in newspaper photography from film to digital brought a great benefit to the photographers and eliminated the time that the photographers spent in a darkroom, allowing them to stay at a scene much longer. The change also has a possibility to improve news stories as well.

More than 70 percent of newspapers in the United States now are using digital cameras, according to a 2001 Poynter Institute study. The percentage is 100 percent when looking at the newspapers that have more than 250,000 circulations.

The surveys for that study were sent to the membership of Associated Press managing editors, and there were more than 326 respondents. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the influence on photojournalism due to the technological change and to define the role of photojournalists, photo managers and photo editors, according to the Poynter Institute study.

Some respondents commented that the technological advances allow additional time to spend shooting at a field as one of the effects to the work routine of photojournalists, according to the Poynter's study.

For this UW-Eau Claire class, another questionnaire was sent to photojournalists in Wisconsin, the Twin Cities and Duluth, and 26 of them responded.

Most respondents to the questionnaire commented that the greatest benefit of technological change was the ability to work from a scene. It allows photographers to not only shoot but also edit, caption and transmit their photos from remote locations. 

“Digital cameras allow shooters to cover more jobs on a daily basis, because the darkroom time has vanished,” said Bill Meyer, a photographer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Bill Meyer, photographer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. (Photo provided by Bill Meyer)

John Doman, a photographer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, said that the advantages are the ability to check the work while on assignment and to know what is in the camera.

“It is the perfect medium for photojournalism at a newspaper,” said Michael Sears, a photographer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Remote locations and tight deadlines are no problem.”

Less than 50 years ago, most press photographers were using 4x5 film cameras for their assignments. The cameras were relatively big compared to the cameras that are very popular today. 

“When I first started working in news photography, it was greatly different,” said Charles Vallone, a retired news photographer, who started working as a photographer in the late 1950s. “We had to carry 4x5 camera, flash bulbs, do our assignments and get back to the paper to process the sheet film, dry it and enlarge it for prints.”

Since the first invention of 35mm camera in 1913, there have been technical improvements in mostly its equipments such as films, lenses and motors, according to the book “Photojournalism: The Professionals’ Approach.”

When digital cameras first came out, the biggest concern and disadvantage was the level of features such as light control and variation of ISO; however, within a few years, camera companies quickly solved these problems and released new versions of digital cameras.

Some newspapers held seminars for their photographers when they first introduced digital cameras while others gave little time for the photographers to familiarize themselves with digital cameras before they started shooting assignments with the cameras.

“Gannett had a day-long seminar for all the Gannett papers in Wisconsin in April 2000,” Powers said. “A photographer from corporate explained how it works, and we were able to ask lots of questions. I think the seminar helped the participants feel comfortable for using digital cameras.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also had seminars for photographers when introducing digital cameras.

“The paper brought in Carol Fisher, the Nikon technology representative, to get us started with the Nikon D1s,” Meyer said, “and then had Rob Galbraith, who is an expert in digital camera, speak to us about the practical applications of the camera for photojournalism.”

The photographers separated into small groups to get to know digital cameras after Galbraith’s explanation and then asked questions about how to use them in a certain situations, Meyer said. 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel then gave one week when the photographers could still use film cameras for the assignments while they were familiarizing themselves to the new cameras, though most photographers used digital cameras for their assignment right away.

“I put my Nikon F5 film cameras away the first day I was handed a Nikon D1 digital camera, and never touched them again,” Sears said.

The technological change also brought another kind of change to the newsroom of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

David Joles, photographer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. (Photo provided by David Joles)

“Photographers stay in the newsroom more than before because they don’t have to spend their time in the darkroom anymore,” said Mark Hoffman, deputy photo editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I’ve seen more interaction between reporters and photographers since we changed to digital cameras.”

Hoffman walks around in the newsroom to ask the reporters what they are working on now and what kind of ideas they have for potential stories, he said.

Most of the time the word editor and he casually exchange what he knows and what the other knows, he said. “We are trying not to surprise each other by not giving the information until the last minute.”

When photographers come up with story ideas that are newsworthy, editors will employ the ideas and are not reluctant to do so, said David Joles, a photographer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

This kind of movement can be seen at other newspapers as well.

Gary Klein, photographer for the Sheboygan Press. (Photo provided by Gary Klein)

“We have a policy at our paper to have 24-hour notice on non-spot news assignments after the chief photographer put out an edict on this,” said Gary Klein, a photographer for the Sheboygan Press.

He said it has been about a month since Sheboygan employed the policy, and he thinks that the reporters understand that it will benefit their stories. 

At the Post-Crescent, they are also trying to make a new photo request policy that says either photographers or reporters must fill out a form to ask for help from the other, Powers said.

These newspapers have been improving the environment for photographers and reporters to establish better stories by working together from the early stages, but other newspapers are still concerned that the communication between photographers and reporters is lacking.

“The photo department has historically been brought into stories late,” said Meyer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Photographers come into the story and are sometimes directed as to what is needed rather than getting the opportunity to report with their camera.”

The communication between photographers and reporters must improve to have better stories, but it still happens that photographers are told what to shoot at the very last minute, said Milton Coleman, the deputy managing editor of The Washington Post. 

Some reporters still think that photographers should take pictures of what they are told, said Matt Miller, a photographer for the Rochester Post-Bulletin and the president of the Minnesota News Photographers Association.

Although there are still times when photographers and reporters communicate well and when they do not, Powers said, either a photographer or reporter may find more interesting angles for a story, which one has not thought about, when they work together.