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scene to keep out unauthorized persons and a police officer standing next to it. Or it might be just the po- lice car used for the roadblock keeping you out.

Never walk away from anything without enough video to cover a one-minute story without shooting the same shot over and over. This can really tax your creative skills, but you have to think like an editor: What am I going to use to cover this script? In a situa- tion where the pertinent pictures are few and far be- tween, a shot of onlookers could be useful; they still have nothing to do with the story, but they can help pad a piece that is already visually weak.

Stay Near the Center of Information In most cases

in which you are restricted from the scene and held far from any direct action, you will usually be able to be at or near the command center set up by the controlling agency. This will become your major source of pictures

for the story. You might get better shots later on, but you cannot count on that. This is why you should shoot everything you can until you have exhausted the possibilities. Police officers looking at a map, confer- ring with each other, or even just walking from one place to another will do. If the event goes on for quite awhile, the station will either ask for some footage to be fed back or ask for a live update with a video insert. You had better have some footage to give them, and you certainly better be carrying more than one tape or memory card with you.

Don’t Overshoot When real pictures are scarce, be se-

lective in the amount of footage you shoot. After you have that initial group of shots to cover a short script, fall back, observe, and conserve batteries and tape or file space for a chance at some real action. You shouldn’t have to record more than four to six minutes of video if

Figure 2-2 When shooting spot news, the ENG photographer tries to get shots of the action that tell a story: (1) the visual intensity of the fire; (2) and (3) the human element—how the fire affects people; and (4) the action taken by the firefighters to bring the fire under control.

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you are making every shot really count. There is no point in getting volumes of generic video that look like the same shots over and over.

Use the Tripod The sticks allow you to use the longest

focal lengths to reach into any scene visually, picking out shots your shoulder-mounted competition cannot get. They might also be the only shots you can get. Without the tripod—and with two to three hours of waiting—your shoulder will not be able to perform later when you might really need it. If you’re on the sticks, you can always pull the camera off them quickly and run with it, should the need arise.

Dealing with the Authorities

Before shooting any spot news, you should have a

press pass, or ID card, issued by the law enforcement agencies of your city, county, and state. This identifies you as a bona fide member of a news organization. Without this pass, shooting spot news can be a risky and sometimes impossible job. A press pass sometimes even gets you across police and fire lines to gain better access to the event. Sometimes the pass is worthless, and at other times it can get you into more trouble than it keeps you out of. However, without it you do not stand a chance. The press pass involves some seri- ous responsibilities. If the authorities let you into or close to the scene, you cannot interfere with what they are doing or disobey any special requests they have. Such requests might include not showing a certain area of a fire scene that is part of an arson investiga- tion, or not showing the face of an undercover agent. If you violate the trust given you, your future dealings with that agency are jeopardized, as well as those of your employer and other members of the press—not to mention the harm you can do to the agency or the investigation.

It is not a good idea to try to outwit the authorities. It is quite impossible to shoot the rest of the story from the backseat of a police car. In some cases, the risk in- volved in going around authority can be life threaten- ing. You would not want to be in a deranged sniper’s line of fire! Police/media relations are always strained at best, but the only good course of action is to play by the rules. Sometimes there will be a need to circum- vent the authorities to get at the really good pictures of the story. These decisions can only be made on a case-

by-case basis and must be made with the clear under- standing that what you are doing is illegal and may harm you or someone else. Just like a combat photog- rapher, if you are willing to accept the ultimate respon- sibility, then you do as you think best. If you do get into trouble disobeying an authority, your employer will most likely nothelp you out of it. This is similar to getting a speeding ticket on your way to a story—you are on your own when breaking the law.

Flexibility and creativity are key when shooting in protected situations. For example, one reviewer of this text reported that he was the news photographer for a small crew covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. Even with their press credentials, the authorities were not inclined to let the crew mem- bers into restricted areas. So each morning, they bought a few hundred dollars’ worth of bottled water. When they arrived at the closed-off scene, they showed both their press passes and their stacks of water. The water did the trick: they were allowed access to cover the story while also bringing water to hurricane victims.

Going Live

On any major spot news story, there will likely be a voice on your two-way radio or cell phone screaming for a live shot even before you arrive on the scene. The pressure to get on the air first can be so great that actu- ally shooting the story becomes a secondary consider- ation. Often, the situation requires you to be in two places and do two things at the same time. You have to decide what to do. Shoot the pending dramatic rescue, or pull cables for the live shot? This might seem like a simple choice, but the voice on the mobile phone can make it a very hard decision. Most of the time you’ll know what to do by instinct.

You will also most likely not be alone for long. Any big story is going to have all the resources of the station thrown at it. You might be able to shoot footage be- cause the second videographer arriving will do the live. Try to coordinate on the radio or phone even before you get to the location. If you’re the second to arrive from your station, you should be thinking live shot. Let the first in be the primary for shooting coverage, and you can set up the system for getting the footage out to the world. The assignment desk might coordinate all this, but in any leadership vacuum, be ready to step in

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