My trick is this: I focus on all the happenings behind the scenes (you know the dashing cowboys in giant belt buckles and hats) and then by the time the rodeo starts I have simply convinced myself that the cows are just having fun. Yep that’s right the cows and broncs are having a grand ol’ time and no one better tell me otherwise!

***ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT MEEGAN M. REID/KITSAP SUN***

I must say I was just “tickled” by the photo of the people napping under their hats at a local bluegrass festival. I felt all sneaky as I was weaving through the crowd trying to get their picture and hoping they weren’t going to wake up as I was clicking away-because that just would have been a little awkward for me and might have startled the bejesus out of them.

*** All Photos Copyright Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun ***

Whenever I cover this sort of thing I always tip toe around the outskirts of the emotion and really just will myself to be invisible and hope that no one decides to confront me for being there even when we were invited by organizers.

This one was different than most that I have covered. First of all it was in the parking lot of the bank, with a majority of it in one single parking space that the man had pulled into. Secondly it was organized by the local substance abuse group therefore no one would give me the last name of the emotional woman in the photos below. I know her first name but everyone just kept saying “this is AA we don’t do last names” which made me want to reply “but this isn’t an AA meeting” but I didn’t. The young woman in my photos is the mother of the children of the man who was killed. No one would or could tell me if it was wife or girlfriend and there was no way I was going to ask her as she sat there sobbing in the middle of the parking space.

I think the photos stand for themselves even though I had to use a generic cutline of “emotional family and friends…” but feel that had I had the key information that explained this woman’s grief (ie her relationship to the man and her name) it would have given the photos a better context.

But occasionally we just have to go without names and respect the reasons why.

ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT MEEGAN M. REID/KITSAP SUN

]]> http://www.meeganmreid.com/when-a-name-would-have-made-a-stronger-photo/feed/ 0 http://www.meeganmreid.com/the-one-when-friday-made-my-week/ http://www.meeganmreid.com/the-one-when-friday-made-my-week/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:56:24 +0000 admin http://www.meeganmreid.com/?p=744 It’s been an unbearably slow two weeks in the photo office of the Kitsap Sun.

No one is to blame, it’s just we’re in a holding pattern waiting for high school sports to begin and being as it’s the middle of summer not much is happening on the news side of things out here. Which means I spent a horrendous few days catching up on desk work while editing other peoples photos/video and let me tell you I usually don’t mind desk work but oh my it got old by day 2.

Friday made up for all that desk jockeying of the past week though. You see, since I was the night photographer and didn’t have any sports to shoot I headed to a parking garage in downtown Bremerton for Movies On The Roof.  Not only did I get to enjoy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off  with a couple hundred other people (with a sunset, mountain and Puget Sound views fyi) but I came away with a shot of two girls playfully snacking on their popcorn and few other frames that I liked.

Plus a wise man once said:

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”~Ferris Bueller

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Not even Saturday and my assignment of covering a dreaded parade could bring me down from my Friday movie high!

Meh it wasn’t so bad… people walked, they waved, I got a sucker from a little kid and it was sunny.

Here are a few:

****All Photos Copyright Meegan M. Reid | Kitsap Sun****

That being said, when videographer Derek, writing intern extraordinaire Jeanette and I arrived to the event right on time (being assured that they always arrive late year after year) and noticed droves of people leaving, we were a little puzzled. Seems almost all of the 20 canoes had landed early leaving Derek and I to scramble to shoot the few stragglers paddling in to Point Julia.

So while I was bummed I didn’t get the yearly cliché shot of the long line of canoes coming ashore at once, I know that the event happens every year so I’m sure I’ll get that shot eventually.

Here are a few shots that I enjoyed:

*** All Photos Copyright Meegan M. Reid / Kitsap Sun***

Now, being as he was only 5 years-old, I questioned the validity of his name. Was he a big fan of Forrest Gump AND Disney movies? Or was he just giving me an alias because he was on the run from the law?

After talking with his dad, I found out that “Bubba” is just his nickname.

And in my opinion that is one AWESOME nickname for a cute little kid wearing a t-shirt with the smiling face of Gordon the Train on it.

So here’s Bubba and a few more random photos from the week that are littering my desktop.

***All photos Copyright Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun***

Yet even with with these strong feelings of contempt for people marching and waving down the street, I was really excited when I read my July 4th assignment covering a neighborhood parade. But this wasn’t just any neighborhood parade, this was a parade OF neighbors BY neighbors in THEIR own neighborhood.

Sure it was lead off by a fire engine and a few Queenly dignitaries showed up to do their “arm, arm, wrist wrist” waving, but there weren’t any floats (unless you count the radio flyer wagon that “Bubbles” the Yorkshire Terrier was riding in). The only band consisted of a kid with a drum playing a marching beat and a boom box playing John Phillip Sousa tunes. Oh and only one handful of candy was tossed at a sugar-starved rabid pack of children on the curb.

The almost mile route took only about 15 minutes and consisted mainly of kids on their decorated bikes (which took me back to back in the day when my friends and I would decorate our bikes with streamers and get to ride in the Cherry Festival Parades).

It was by far the best parade I have ever covered.

All Photos Copyright Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun

They are almost as common as seagulls out here- no really I’m not kidding!

Usually I see them soaring around the sky or just sitting on pilings doing their majestic bird thing. I never see them doing anything cool, you know like dragging a seal onto the shore for dinner or hauling a rabbit into the sky with their talons.

But I did catch one the other day either being pestered by a raven or playing a game of leap frog with it, I’m not an ornithologist of any sorts so I’m really not sure which.

My first thought was “WHOO HOO the field of photojournalism lives on!!”

My second thought was, “Yikes how do I keep my reply light-hearted and positive when this field has shrunk so much and become so incredibly unstable and scary.”

Needless to say I of course told her I had the best job in the world (because I do) and it’s an amazing gig to have because everyday is full of different adventures, EVEN  if some of those “adventures” aren’t as glamorous and adventure filled as some assume my everyday on the job is.

I’ll probably end up writing this again and again in this blog but I am incredibly grateful to have ended up where I am in my career and in my life. Life is amazing anyway and when you are being paid to capture that life around you, how can you not smile every single day!?!? I mean seriously this job has “those days”, heck it has “those weeks”( It was one of those last week ) and a lot of times it seems almost impossible to get anything visually interesting out of certain assignments but that is minimal to how great of a gig this is.

And I wouldn’t trade it for any other job.

I’d even continue to work if I won a bazillion dollars in the lottery….

Well I mean I would consider it at least.

Here’s some random un-glamorous photo assignments from the past few weeks:

****ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT Meegan M. Reid/Kitsap Sun****