Thursday, May 27, 2010

beginning

this is the first post from what i suspect will feel like a marathon-long week by the time it's over..and i will be SO ready to have a couple days off!
was supposed to be off monday - we hired a freelancer to shoot the sport event, but when i got in the office friday evening, i saw 2 news assignments for monday in the basket - one the reporter could definitely do, but the other, which was locals taking part in a state-wide rally to support michigan schools and most likely dominant page one, i felt like we couldn't have them shoot - and it was the same time as the freelancer's game, and all the editors are gone and not returning email, so i really felt like i had no choice but to shoot it - only a few hours, but still, knowing i was looking at a long week as the sole fotog, any pre-rest/personal stuff i could get done was pretty precious...but, whatcha gonna do...
so, inbetween getting the laundry done and cleaning, and gardening, i went out to shoot the rally...

tuesday morning went in to figure out where my early assignment was - it just said St. Joseph's - but there are 4 St. Joseph's scattered throughout the county, and like i said, i wasn't getting any response on email or skype as to which one i'd be heading toward, so i went in early to figure that out - soon as i got in, had to download, edit and put in the system the monday assignment that the reporter shot, then i dashed down to the school to shoot kids shooting off their hand-made rockets...this was kind of cool - just liked the reactions of the kids watching mostly

the actual shooting off was tough to shoot in a cool way

and there were some side things that i liked just as extras (probably like these the best)

especially the one of this girl...she just seemed like one of those kids that's definitely her own personality....pretty quirky, bit of a loner, maybe gonna be pegged as sort of a geeky kid, but the sort that is gonna be either super smart and/or really uniquely cool when she gets older...went to get her i.d. and age, and she totally fulfilled my initial impression when she kept telling me she was not just 11, but 11 and three quarters....seriously kid, i'm thinking, you're gonna get SO made fun of if you keep that up! but this is probably my favorite foto from that event....not sure it totally works, the fence is distracting a bit, maybe i just want it to work, because i like the mood of it, or of what i saw and reacted to, even if i didn't quite technically capture that in the most effective way

after that, stopped back in to the paper to check in, get this edited and turned in, so i didn't have all my assignments to do later - had an after school assignment, and an evening track meet (yes, one of the 2 remaining!) to shoot later...

so, get that done, help download something one of the editors shot, get a gallery made of it for the web, then home to take a break before the later stuff...was home maybe a couple hours, when i got a call about a head-on wreck...high-tailed it out to that - an suv rear-ended a garbage truck that was stopped on the road - he never even slowed down apparently, so i suspect there may have been some other medical issue going on, bu they're still investigating all that...
anyway, i roll up, the whole top and sides of the car have been cut off to extricate the driver - the sole occupant of the vehicle - and i see the rescue firemen and emt's surrounding him on a stretcher next to the car....the first sheriff tells me to make sure i don't show the victim in any fotos, so i work my way around the other side where the other sheriff yells at me and says this isn't the time to be taking pictures - "it's not very tactful" - so, i just shoot the totally messed up car, and then they wheel him over to the ambulance, and i just kind of wait to see if they're going to Life Flight him out on the waiting helicopter, so i can get that image...

and i'm watching, and i see that they're doing chest compressions, and then they must have used paddles, because suddenly i see his body leap up from the gurney and he practically flies off the side (he is a pretty large guy, too, at least 300 if not 400 pounds), so everyone hustles to strap him down, then just constant cpr, and i'm standing there on the road, and i see his arm, and it is hanging just totally limp like a rag doll off the side, and it is covered in small round bruises, and i don't know why, and then they stop the compressions, and they're listening to his belly and wrists with stethoscopes, and then they start to unhook the monitor, and i think, jesus, i'm standing here watching someone die in the road right in front of me, and i'm pretty sure he's just died, but then they take him to the helicopter - okay, he's just stable i guess - but the emt's on the way back are talking, and all i catch is "he ain't gonna make it" and then they go and get water and start to clean up...and i'm around back of the car waiting to shoot it as the helicopter takes off in the background, and i notice his license plate and the letters are BYE...

and i just want to ask one of the firemen or emt's or cops if they noticed it too and is it kind of creeping them out like it is me....but i don't, and the helicopter takes off

and i make my fotos, stick around for a bit more and then head back into town for my assignment

which is a group of kids planting flowers at a neighborhood little park - just speaks so completely to how crazy this job is...i mean, going literally from life and death to something so fluffy, featurey...and i normally deal with the accident stuff pretty well, but there have been ones that have really upset me, and this was one of them - i just normally don't see the victim and don't see someone's life essentially end right in front of me...and just thinking that it's all happening amid strangers and imagining what his friends and family will be feeling later...he did pass away, by the way, as i learned the next morning...i would be surprised if it didn't happen mid-flight to the hospital

after the gardening kids, it was off to the track meet...maybe these things are really good distractions, or delays, for dealing with some of the tragedy you see - all i had to focus on was getting action and something different from what i've shot before...it was a good distraction

after all that, back in to edit and submit and then home...i stopped by the store first, and i pulled up into the drive at home...the days' events were running through my head....i turned off the car and just burst into tears...just a combination of the long day, stress, and what i'd seen...i guess i'd be worried if i DIDN'T have a little break-down at the end of all that


1 comment:

Keith King said...

Dang Kimmer, helicopter FRAMED by the car door ! What a photo. I immediately saw what was going on. It's so easy to get into a creative funk when you've covered so many accidents. Not to mention the access difficulties that can take place at such a scene. Your photography continues to impress and inspire.