Pictures worth a thousand (dirty) words

It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In a newspaper, a picture can capture a precise moment in time, and even tell a good portion of the story on its own.

The pictures in the Wednesday sports section told me something. They told me I need to go back to photography class.

Imagine my complete disappointment and utter embarrassment at coming back into the office in Corning late Friday after covering the Colusa-Willows football game, only to find out that none of the photos I took (and that looked fine in my viewfinder) were lit properly.

Not one.

The game was already going to be the centerpiece of the Journal and Sun-Herald, and here it looked like I had taken the photos with a camera I had assembled out of spare parts, and that I used a Bic lighter for a flash.

It looks like the football teams are not the only ones who can benefit from two-a-day practice sessions. My fumble, however, happened on the first night of the regular season.

Now I could try to drop-kick the camera and see if I could split a pair of uprights from 30 yards, but it's my own posterior — and not an inanimate piece of office equipment — that needs to feel the sting of a boot.

Each change of sports seasons requires us to re-familiarize ourselves with the settings in which we are taking photos. Stadium lights are far different from gymnasium lights, which are also different that shooting daytime photos.

Calling myself a photographer does a grave disservice to those who make a living taking impeccably composed pictures. I'm a reporter with a camera, but still, last Friday was not the first football game I've ever shot. I've gotten decent results in the past, and the football pictures for darn sure are going to get better.

Nothing makes my face light up more than downloading game photos from a game I have worked, and finding that the pictures I thought I had taken look every bit as good as I wanted them to.

A GOOD picture definitely is worth a thousand words, but most of the words that came to my mind after last week's disaster are not fit to print.

Contact Craig Purcell at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com.