As any new employee, I’ve tried to learn painful lessons early and not repeat them over the course of my career. One particularly painful lesson was the one I learned during my very first major job for the Albany, NY bureau of United Press International.
As journalists, we are trained or born with the instinct to get the best story (or photo) and more importantly get it first. As a 24-year-old ‘photojournalist,’ I was assigned to shoot Vice President George H.W. Bush throwing out the first pitch at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Game at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown on July 29, 1985.
I have gained much wisdom over the past 35 years, and this day is never far from my thoughts. I got in position, my camera to my eye and BOOM a giant figure stepped in front of my lens. I shouted, “Hey, what the hell!!” and looked up to meet eyes with 6’ 2” 200 lb Red Sox left fielder Jim Rice, looking not so happy at my sudden cry. In that time I had missed the photo of the ceremonial pitch and moved positions to get a photo of George H. W. Bush shaking hands with Sox catcher Rich Gedman. The image was fine, enough to put on the wire without having to reveal my screw up, but not nearly as good as the image by veteran AP photographer Jim McKnight who was standing in a much better position.
By the nest morning, I thought all had been forgotten until I saw Jim’s photo in USA Today. I was crushed beyond belief. I vowed never to get my butt kicked like that again by the competition. In all honesty, of course it has happened over the past three and a half decades. When you are blessed enough to surround yourself with some of the best shooters in the country. Shit happens. But, thankfully, my win/loss percentage has been enough to keep me in the majors.
To keep myself always humble, from that day on, I have carried that photo with me. It has traveled through every job, apartment, relationship and has been the one constant in my ever changing life. Cherish your failures and learn from them, each has made me a better photojournalist, and as I continue to try and make that one perfect image, I make mistakes.
Luckily, for me and my clients, they are far less often and traumatic than that hot summer afternoon, when Jim Rice and Jim McKnight teamed up on me to teach me the photojournalism best lesson I ever learned.