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It’s all about shooting.
Looking back I wonder why I jumped into editing. Oh yeah, I remember, it was idealism. But shooting is so much more fun.
I spent a decade shooting everything from revolutions to Super Bowls and can thank a late night TV ad for helping me get my first newspaper job. I have a feeling I may have been the only applicant.
Graduating from Indiana University’s School of Music may not have been the best preparation for a career in photography. Yes, I took courses in art photography and cinematography along with a photo class in the journalism school, but my portfolio was truly pathetic. However, it didn’t take long to figure out my musical timing would pay off big. Like music, photography really comes down to composition, texture, light, timing and anticipation.
During that first job I was heavy into sports photography and covered two games a night. It was right out of the movie Hoosiers. A sports editor once asked me how I got such good action shots and I told him it was similar to dance. It came down to feeling the athlete’s pace. He walked away shaking his head.
I don’t know if I was lucky, talented or a little of both. During my first five years in the business I worked at four newspapers and began winning awards in my second year—Best Sports Action shot in the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame photo competition, Best Sunday Magazine Cover for coverage of a famine in Haiti, 2nd place in the world Nikon photo competition along with numerous state and national awards for sports, feature photography and picture stories. The year before I moved to editing I covered the Nicaraguan revolution and completed a project on Miami’s public schools.
Maybe it wasn’t idealism that led me to editing. Maybe it was survival. As a photographer I worked for some true Neanderthals and figured I couldn’t be any worse.
That realization was the segue to a successful career as an editor
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