Crazy day = great shots.

Tuesday, April 24th 2007. I was working the night shift 3-11pm. I show up at work to get my assignments about 2:30pm and see that I have four jobs that day. The 3pm assignment was a new business story about a interior designer who had just opened a new showroom in Annapolis.

I then had a 4pm assignment at the Anne Arundel County Courthouse. There was not much info on this one, just that a women was being sentenced at 3pm for maiming a father and son while driving on drugs. There was supposed to be a press conference afterwards with the victims giving statements and that is what we wanted to shoot. The problem was that the time was not nailed down and we were not sure if it would be the victims speaking or just the prosecutor. I had another assignment at 5pm and did not have time blocked out to be able to wait.

As I said the 5pm was lacrosse at a school about half and hour away. To top that off I had a 7pm at another high school that was holding an in prompt to memorial service for a student that had passed away that weekend.

So that is the plan right? Wrong. Just as I am about to leave for my first job an editor comes back to the photo department and says that there is another memorial for the kid who passed away going on right now at Truxton Park and they want that covered instead of the 7pm one. Well I already have a 3pm assignment and nobody is cancelling it and that is not my call, I go where I am told.

While at the 3pm job I get a call from a writer saying that she is not even sure if the 4pm will be worth while since the victims might not show up. I call my photo editor to tell him that I could do the Truxton memorial if someone gives me the OK to cancel the 4pm courthouse. He calls me back and says cancel the courthouse and go to the park. Great, I go to the park and meet the writer covering that assignment. Only problem is there is no memorial service.

I high tail it back to the courthouse and make it in time for the press conference. OK, now I have to get to the lacrosse game. I head north, fighting rush hour traffic, something no one seems to consider when assigning jobs at 5pm, and get to the game a little after the start. Only problem is that in the confusion of leaving for my assignments earlier I forgot to grab the pool 300 mm lens, all I have is my 70-200. I guess it will be like the days before we had a 300, but boy it sure does spoil you when you have one.

I shoot for about a quarter of the game and then I nailed the shot at the top of this post. I was thrilled when I saw it while chimping the back of my camera. With that one and a couple of other decent shots I had I could go to the next assignment.

The memorial was supposed to start at 7pm, guess what, wrong again. The writer made a phone call and found out that it was starting at 8pm. Great, what am I going to do for an hour and a half. I went and had a delicious Subway Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich. I wonder if I can get them as a sponsor? Of course when I get back and the memorial is starting the sun is going down. All my beautiful light, gone. It would be high ISO and flash now.

In the end everything turned out great. The next days paper was basically the Paul W. Gillespie edition. I had photos on every section cover I think. I got lots of props for the hard work and great images I turned in, but in the newspaper business it was time to do it all over again. I actually had one editor say, jokingly, "but what have you done for me lately."