You never see them on TV because their job, literally, puts them behind the camera. While the reporters are preening themselves in front of the camera, local TV news photographers are setting up lights, adjusting sound levels, putting up tripods and then pushing the right switches and buttons behind the camera to make sure the […]
You never see them on TV because their job, literally, puts them behind the camera.
While the reporters are preening themselves in front of the camera, local TV news photographers are setting up lights, adjusting sound levels, putting up tripods and then pushing the right switches and buttons behind the camera to make sure the reporters look, and sound, their best.
They’re like the offensive line in football: unsung, often under-appreciated, nameless and faceless, but without whom there would be no star quarterback, no star reporter and no pictures to tell the story.
Local TV news photographers, videographers, are on the front lines of breaking news.
They get the reporters out of the way when a car careens into the shot. They are the ones who get attacked first when someone objects to having their picture taken. They hang out the doors of helicopters to get the beauty shots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG_CUF7kU4w
And sometimes, sadly, become so engrossed in just doing their job that they lose their lives.
While reporters wear their Sunday best to be on camera, the videographers are usually comfortably disheveled in scruffy jeans and beat up T-shirts. They freeze in the cold and bake in the heat to get the right shots.
They usually always do the driving and they know exactly what to do the instant they get to the scene — get the establishing shots. Cool under fire, technically adept, sometimes quirky, they get the pictures that capture the emotion, the intensity, the anger, the sadness and the unexpected that is local TV news.
When Hollywood makes a movie about the local electronic news gathering process, the TV news shooter will be the star. Think Denzel Washington or Jennifer Lawrence, Matthew McConaughey or Claire Danes. In the movie version, the TV news photogs will always get the girl or the guy.
And that often happens in real TV newsrooms, too.
If you want to know the real story about a local TV news operation, ask the news shooters.
Local TV news photographers are often the on-scene diplomats for the station. How they act, are they polite, respectful, resourceful, professional, and calm, can leave a lasting impression with whoever they come in contact with.
So it’s nice to see that occasionally, they get the nod in a station promo.
https://www.facebook.com/news6/videos/10154055502717210/
Tee Taylor has been shooting news for WKMG, the Graham Media CBS affiliate in Orlando, Fla., for 45 years. I don’t know Taylor, but I do know many local TV news photographers. They are street smart, and by virtue of their position, they exude credibility.
And when you’re marketing local TV news, credibility is everything.
Maybe we need to get these men and women from behind the camera to in front of the camera more often.
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