Saturday, June 6, 2009

a story revisited


the title of this post has a bit of  a double meaning - this is Larissa, on whom we did a story last year as a means of localizing the fact that teen pregnancies in the state had gone on the rise for the first time in over a decade - she had her baby just after the school year ended, and if you look back through old posts, i think i vented some of my frustrations with how the story unravelled - literally as well as figuratively!!
we wanted to do a follow-up if/when she graduated and we'd gotten no response back from her until the afternoon before commencement ceremonies yesterday - Larissa was unusually upbeat and enthusiastic to do a follow-up, and i was going to be out shooting the event for the daily anyway, so i could try to hook up with her while there...
she told the reporter that since so many family were coming, they'd get there really early - like 2 hours early - and just be hanging out together, including the baby - perfect, i'm thinking - i can hang with them, get the pix of her in grad attire at the school with her son, and then i won't be trying to do 2 different things simultaneously - so i get there about a half hour after she said they should be there, and they are nowhere - not in the school, not on the field, nada - so i call her cell - voicemail....eventually she called me back - they're running late, but they'll be there shortly, so, i just wait - it's still about an hour and a half til the thing starts, and hey, at least i got a really good parking space, right? 
so, finally, i see them walking toward the field, and the family and baby boy head towards me and Larissa breaks away and heads to the school - WHAT???!!!
since it's so late, Larissa has to go sign in and get ready to line up now - frickin great!
so, what to do - i go into the school, find her, figure at least i can get her with friends, whatever - i am SO over this story (see what i mean about the story revisited part? the way this was going was giving me a major case of deja vu, and not in a good way)



okay, hangin with her and friends and all of a sudden in comes her sister and boyfriend/fiance with the baby - so i'm desperately trying to get something decent out of this in case it's my one shot, and her friends are all gathered round and everyone wants to hold the baby....i get something, but not anything i feel really great about - the lighting in the school commons is horrible, there's motion blur in the couple pix i like, etc etc, but it'll work if it has to....
so i break off and go about shooting for the daily after they leave and tell her i'll try to catch up with her later - assuming/hoping they don't just hop right into their car and leave at the end of the ceremony

...and then there's this...

waiting for things to start, i get a call from a reporter - they've opened the road by the fishing hole where the body of the missing little girl was found buried by fishermen Thursday night...he's on his way and we could get a picture of the riverbank - but the kids haven't even started walking to the field yet, and i have just some average shots of getting ready inside/kids talking/laughing, etc, and not knowing what we were gonna shoot, i'm thinking i probably shouldn't leave - i should at least try to get something better of them when they come out, and then i could ditch (including Larissa - just go with what i got) if need be - i mean, this might just be a picture of dirt and grass along the river, right? so, i shoot fast, and i get a couple things i like, so i call him back about 40 minutes later - he tells me that there were people there, and they held this impromptu prayer circle along the bank, and i'm like - well, crap, should i come out there? i mean, this is a big story, given what happened out there - it clearly was more visually than just a picture of the ground, so i should have been there - well, he tells me it's done, everyone's left - he took some pix with the camera i suggested he take on his way there, and i'm feeling pretty bad - not that i could have known it was going to be that, and given i was shooting for what was slated to be dominant 1a (though i knew right away that wasn't the case anymore) plus the Larissa story - to ditch all that on an uncertainty...hindsight is 20/20, but i just hope i made the right decision in the moment and don't second-guess myself too much after the fact....
anyway, i made some pix of the graduation that i liked after his call, and then i caught up with Larissa on her way out - here's the result....hope it was worth it

1 comment:

Keith King said...

Dang Kimmer, you earned your bread that day. Good stuff though despite the hustling all over creation.
Hope things simmer down for ya. Take it easy and say Hey to Bryan for me