A few weeks back, we ran a story about changes in kindergarten, how it’s now real school instead of sand in the buckets etc. And we had a great photo to go with it. There was one problem with the shot. Smack dab in the middle of this closeup of a teacher helping two students was a 20 oz. water bottle. We had a long discussion in our newsroom about the bottle. We don’t manipulate photos, so we couldn’t use Photoshop to take it out. But we did talk about the ethics of asking the teacher to move the bottle before we started shooting. That alters the reality as well, so the water bottle stayed in that shot, as it will in future shots.
But if you start paying attention to news photos, it’s amazing—or frightening—how many water bottles end up in shots. We ran one on Saturday with Joey Porter of the Steelers. They’re everywhere, along with coffee cups. Part of our disposable society. I was relieved last week that the President didn’t take a swig from an Aquafina bottle during the State of the Union speech.
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
Talking about water bottles showing up everywhere...you’re right Ken. I was looking at the photos taken at Coretta Scott King’s funeral service and right smack dab in the middle was a photo of George Bush with a bottle of water sitting on the floor at his feet. My first reaction was how “out of place” it looked. While I understand his need for an occassional sip of water, after all the funeral lasted six hours and he gave a speech as well, I couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t just tuck it away in a less conspicious place. Oh well, to each his own!!
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