House Dems Pick a Speaker: Hurry Up and Wait

The top photo shows Herald-Leader reporters John Cheves, Jack Brammer and Beth Musgrave waiting with other media for the results of the House Democrats closed-door session in the Capitol Annex to pick a Speaker.

This comes as no surprise to pros, but as you can see, when the new Speaker of the House, Greg Stumbo, emerged from the meeting room, all heck broke loose as everyone wanted a quote and/or photo. The media was anxious, because we had waited FOR OVER 2 1/2 HOURS.

So the instant that Rep. Greg Stumbo emerged, the media converged. The photographers strategery (note to copy desk: add this word to our stylebook. I like it.) is to wait as close to the door as possible and when the subject shows, try not to block each other, (you can touch other media personel as you jockey for the shot, but no pushing), apologize if you DO block someone, kneel down when you can, and throw in a few “Hail Marys” (photos taken with the camera over your head, aiming blind and hoping for the best).

So the last photo of Stumbo is the one that was published on the front page of the Herald-Leader on Jan. 7, 2009.
So even the most simple photo can have a story behind it. And it can be a whole lot more trouble to take than an “award winner” you spent five minutes taking.
Sure, we get paid for the waiting game, but we all began to run out of stories to tell in the “hall of media.”

122 views