They are my entertainment, junior navigators, art directors, and feature photo spotters. My boys have become a tuned to what I do and what I am looking for when we go looking for a feature photo (enterprise photo). If it were up to them I would be shooting skateboarding every day. Fortunately I am the one at the controls of my truck and get to decide where we are headed.
A week or two ago I had my youngest, Barry, with me when I was hunting the elusive enterprise photo. We did a quick look in all the normal places and then I thought we'd give a few of the smaller parks a quick look. It is nice to change-up the scenery when we go looking for photos and sometimes the smaller parks get passed over for the larger more popular parks.
We started our tour of parks and with each one we passed Barry asked if we could stop and he could play for a while. I told him that eventually if I was able to find a photo he may get the chance to play in one of the parks. He said that was okay and continued to ask if he could play at each park we passed. (He is 10 and nothing if not persistant.)
Finally I passed by a park where I saw some activity that caught my attention. I parked and Barry asked (as expected) if he could get out and play. I told him that he could but he would have to wait in the truck first while I got my photo.
He wasn't happy about waiting in the truck, but reluctantly he did as I asked. However, I did have to endure a barrage of "why" questions while I was getting my cameras out. If you have kids you know what I am talking about, the child asks why and you answer and their response to your answer is another "why?". Ugh... And it can go on forever, or at least until I tell Barry, because that is what "I" said. So I dashed off leaving him at the truck (but still in full view of where I was) to shoot some teenagers on a set of swings. They spun around, slammed into each other and did what teenagers do before heading off. I got my photo and the caption information I needed then turned to my waiting son and waved him over to the playground equipment.
Then we spent the next 15-20 minutes laughing and giggling on the playground before we headed back to the newsroom, but if you tell my boss I will deny it.
4 comments:
Bryan,
I'm a student from the University of Oregon's J-School and I'm not sure how I've found my way to your blog but I'm glad I did. You're awesome. Your posts offer something much different than other photo blogs by just talking about your life. Photo technique is interesting, but I would hope there is something more than just phototechnique involved in this business and you've shown me that.
Make more posts! I keep coming back, hoping for a new post. But you're a busy guy.
Do you have a couple of minutes that you could critique my portfolio for me? I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Mike Perrault
Eugene,Oregon
Mike,
I am glad that you enjoy what I am throwing out there. I am not sure that I am awesome, but I would be happy to have a look at your portfolio. If it is online let me know where to look, if not, let me know (via email bryankelsen@msn.com) and I will give you an address where you can mail a disk to me.
Cheers,
-Bryan
The sports writer I shoot with has two kids. I knew this before because when talking on the phone with him, they would be emitting in the background (yelling, laughing, crying). Then last month he brought them to an interview with a cross country runner. They are two and four. When introduced, the four year old was gregarious and started running around to show off his speed, but the younger one, wearing a hooded sweathshirt, just hung his head so low that his face was hidden. It's funny with kids because you can almost see the thoughts rolling off of him, "if I just keep looking down, this stranger will stop paying attention to me and leave me alone."
Yeah, kids are great! And I love mine to death, but there are times when I drop them at the library or leave them in the truck when I shoot something. I have been in situations where the writer's kids have polluted the story by taking part in what we were covering. I won't let my boys do that. We are careful that way and they understand (most of the time). I am a firm believer in "family" but not at the expense of the story or photo. They each have their place and I think I have figured out how to get the most out of both.
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