What about when you show up late...

I've talked a lot about timing when it comes to photography, now I am going to talk about how to do in situations when you show up late.   I always preach is, if you show just "on time," you are late.  

For the purposes of this blog, I will refer to being late by the conventional standards.

I have been late to various assignments in my life, some were my fault, others were not,  but I won’t go in-depth to the causes.

I was one of the first journalists on the scene when a dorm caught fire at UNO.

Breaking news situations are definitely one where being on-time is a key to a great photo, but oftentimes hard to accomplish.

According to police, this gentleman was shot while trying to rob a business

Most photographers will agree that the sooner you arrive at breaking news, the greater potential for photos.
I once knew a photographer who did not want to go to a fire 30 minutes after it happened, she didn’t think it was going to make any good photos. Most people probably associate those immediate photos with spot news, but there is potential for great images after the initial breaking news event, you just have to work harder and know where to look.

In the initial moments of a breaking news event, people are in shock.  The emotions sometimes don’t sink in until later and sometimes that is after a has photographer left.

The fire was long out when at the  Sons of Italy Hall when "Butch" Turco was moved to tears talking about what the building meant to him.

You just have to keep an eye for the key people and realize the story has changed from “people fighting the fire” to “people dealing with life after the fire.”  You can substitute  any number of situations in for the word “fire.”

I also try to preach to students “people read newspapers.” In these cases, I would say, “people read newspapers, not fires.”  This is to make sure you photograph the people affected by the events. The emotional reaction is often an important element of a great photo.  It is harder to find these types of reactions when late to an event, but not impossible.

The above photo was taken 23 hours and 30 minutes after the first photo of the UNO dorm fire.  While I was not late to this, the photo demonstrates the type of emotion nearly 24 hours later as  Nyagouk Fal was able to recover her high school diploma from her dorm room.

I recently showed up to a fire a few hours after it was reported and walked away with three images I was happy with.

A cat looks up at Jill Tafoya after she revived in the back of an ambulance after the cat was rescued from a fire at 5427 86th Court on Saturday, June 29, 2019.

Omaha firefighter David  Kirchofer provides water to a Louie, the dog, after Kirchofer helped battle a fire at 5427 86th Court on Saturday, June 29, 2019.  Louie did not live in the unit that caught fire but was interested in all the action. 

Omaha firefighter Curt Huey uses ice to cool down after fighting a fire during a hot day at 5427 86th Court on Saturday, June 29, 2019.