January 25, 2016

Texts sent while sitting in my car, waiting for the funeral of a slain police officer. Parked in front of me is a KSL NewsRadio vehicle that has been idling for 45 minutes, and probably won’t stop.

+ Here
+ Six shooters and we’ve got a mug online (an hour after funeral started)
+ It’s great. Steak nachos and a movie. Sitting in my car for three more hours.
+ The photo position is pretty weak for everything other than them driving in
+ Lol. I’m sitting in my car with some steak nachos. Trying to figure out which movie to watch. The photo position is pretty awful.
+ Yeah. And didn’t they send C to shoot the same thing on Saturday? The base Camp thing?
+ What’s your shot? Looking east after they pass, going up hill?
+ I didn’t see a school or anything promising along route. Might be too late in the day for students anyway. A couple churches. But hard to know how big this really is. It happened in Slc, not here. L didn’t even hear about it
+ I know. I didn’t see anything obvious. Not even a fire department with a big flag on the ladder.

Even though there is snow all around, I’m in a t-shirt and starting to sweat from the sun beating down on the car. This guy in front of me is at least 300 pounds and is still idling his car.

12:19, still a courtesy photo on the website, no live photos anywhere.

+ They’ve got one of those big flags hanging here now, from a pair of fire trucks. Just went up
+ I won’t be able to. There’s a hill between the platform and the flag, and I’ll have to be on that platform.
+ might be tough. there’s a bend in the road. you take a sharp left turn and there’s the flag. not sure you’d have a shot showing much
+ that’s what I’d recommend

One hour forty minutes from start of funeral, still a courtesy file photo on the website.

+ the funeral is over.

Two hours after the funeral starts, courtesy file photo still leads the page.

+ are you serious? I didn’t know that. Signs along 1600 N all said between 2-4, so you’re probably right. Courtesy photo only, no staff photos on website two hours after start of event.

Before I drive home, I get some good feedback from the office. I click on the headline *Photos: Funeral* and the lead image is a video.

.:.

Watching a documentary on Henri Cartier-Bresson and an interesting thought – what gives the photograph value? Primarily the artistic content. The caption, the geo-location, the EXIF, who is in the photo. These things should be the least important. At the end of your life, when your greatest work as a photographer is collected, your eye and your vision should rule the day. Who is in your photographs may matter in the immediate moment when you’re marketing, selling. But ultimately, the best photographs rise above the meticulous work I’ve put into captioning and keywording.