One of the most challenging (also fun and rewarding) aspects of working as a photojournalist is editing. My job is to tell a story, using both photographs and captions. But sometimes, no matter how much I’d like to include a specific image, it just won’t fit. That might seem weird, given that I took the photo during the course of the event–how could it not fit? Believe it or not, it happens frequently.
This past weekend I covered two events for the La Jolla Patch: The 25th Anniversary of the La Jolla Festival of the Arts and Survivor Beach, a fundraiser for UC San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center.
Here are some of my favorite photos that didn’t make the cut:
This image is from the La Jolla Festival of the Arts. In the story posted on the Patch, I included a different shot from the milliner’s booth, but liked this one as well. The salespeople were going out of their way to be helpful to this particular customer. If you look closely you will see that there is a hand holding the mirror still–that hand belonged to the milliner; who jumped in to help the man (seen holding the red hat in background) seal the deal.
Another shot from the La Jolla Festival of the Arts. I love photographing people–especially when I catch them in a quiet moment. There’s probably a reason for that, as I noted in my last post, what I choose to shoot often has as much (or more) to say about me than it does about the subject. I like this shot, but does it scream–”La Jolla Festival of the Arts”? Probably not, so it wasn’t included.
One final shot from the La Jolla Festival of the Arts. I’ll be honest, I almost included this one in my photo essay. If you click the link above, you’ll see that the published version included 22 photos, I easily could have included ten more. In the end, I decided that while this is (at least to me) a very nice moment, it didn’t really add a lot to the story.
This image is one of my favorites from the Survivor Beach event. I move around a lot when I am on assignment, and at this event, which was held at La Jolla Shores, there was a lot of ground to cover. I can’t even begin to describe how pleased I was to have spotted the Polynesian dancers getting ready for their performance. In the story that was published, I included three shots of the dancers performing, but felt that adding a shot of them getting ready would have been overkill. The dancers were but one part of the event, not the main focus, so I left this image out.
Given the option, I would probably only photograph people. I don’t see “things” as well as I see people. Yet, every once in a while, I surprise myself by making a photo of an inanimate object that I actually like. This image falls into that category. Surfboards were a central part of the Survivor Beach event, but this shot really didn’t fit.
My favorite photographer, hands down, is Elliott Erwitt. For those of you who are not familiar with his work, I highly recommend taking a peek at this link. Elliott Erwitt was a master of capturing the “Decisive Moment.” Often, his shots were made on the street and included dogs. My preferred place to shoot is on the street–and I have a thing for photographing dogs. So… what does the above image have to do with the Survivor Beach event? Umm… (*whispered*) nothing. I just couldn’t help myself…
Going forward, I think I will devote my (Not) Wordless Wednesday posts to anything photography related. If there is something you’d like to read about, or see included in this space, please let me know.
