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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Soulless captions
Robert Scheer, Photographer
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Indianapolis | IN | USA | Posted: 1:31 PM on 09.03.10 |
->> I'm sure this has been written about before, but how many people feel that we're sacrificing something in this era of speed and efficiency?
Code replacement and boilerplate captions are good tools to increase accuracy, but anybody kinda nostalgic for the days when every image had a truly unique caption?
It used to be that I'd turn in 15 photos, and a hypothetical caption might have read like this, ten years ago:
Marvin Harrison hauls in a short touchdown pass on a screen from Peyton Manning during a late fourth-quarter drive to ice the Colts' 29-27 victory over Miami at the RCA Dome, Indianapolis, IN, Sunday, December XX, 2000. (Robert Scheer/The Indianapolis Star)
Here's how it might be done today in order to feed an online gallery with 40 or more images:
Reggie Wayne, Indianapolis Colts, catches a late fourth quarter touchdown from teammate Peyton Manning during a 29-27 Indianapolis win over the Miami Dolphins, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN, Sunday, December XX, 2010. (Robert Scheer/The Star)
I know I could write the same stuff now as the caption of yesteryear, but feeding huge galleries limits that, and it's very easy to be "lazy" using the modern captioning tools.
Thoughts? |
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Brad Mangin, Photographer
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Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 1:42 PM on 09.03.10 |
->> Robert- fun topic. Since I always wanted to be a play-by-play guy on the radio or a sports writer I loved having the chance to write a sports caption back in the day.
When I was stringing for the AP 19 years ago we still had to write a little headline in all CAPS at the beginning of the caption- and that was always fun. Nothing like a play at the plate:
(FXP102) MEAT AT THE DISH - San Francisco Giants catcher Kirt Manwaring tags out Philadelphia Phillies base runner Lenny Dykstra at home plate in the top of the third inning of their game at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on July 23, 1991. Dykstra tried to score on a single to center field by teammate Darren Daulton and was nailed at the plate on a strong throw from Giants center fielder Darren Lewis. The Giants went on to beat the Phillies 5-3.(AP Photo/Brad Mangin)(bmm2127str)
Damn I love stuff like that! Of course many of my captions were wordy as Hell, and I often times got in trouble, but it was still fun. |
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Robert Scheer, Photographer
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Indianapolis | IN | USA | Posted: 1:54 PM on 09.03.10 |
->> You're so right Brad. I'd neglected to mention the long-lost art of the two sentence caption!
Full, rich cutlines help dispel the thought that we're "just" photographers. At least in my mind anyway! |
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Jeff Mills, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Columbus | OH | USA | Posted: 2:15 PM on 09.03.10 |
->> I think its just a different era these days on several fronts Robert.
First and foremost, the need for speed and efficiency to be such a priority grew out of the "I need those images 5 minutes" ago demands in transmitting live images. No matter how fast your are, its always a time crunch to balance shooting and getting back to your laptop before the half, or end of the game to get stuff uploaded. Be nice to sit down, relax for 10 minutes after the game, have a beverage, and then sort and edit your best work, but if 30 other people have already uploaded how much money have you lost in doing that ?
Additionally, we just don't really see big captions anymore. When I cover prep sports, and I'm the only one at the game, I always would try to write pretty in depth captions because there was a lot of context to my image that wouldn't be apparent to anyone who wasn't there. It was sometimes fun too to get to be a bit of a journalist instead of just a photographer. However 9 times out of 10 the editors change the whole caption to reflect just the score of the game or preview an upcoming game etc. Whatever suits their needs best. Sometimes its just the player ID.
So as such, you've got to wonder if it really makes sense to take the time to really write out a nice caption that tells a story, especially under deadline, when most of the time it feels like it won't be used.
I don't know, I guess these days I'm happy when I can even see my name included in a cutline lol |
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George Bridges, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Washington | DC | USA | Posted: 3:07 PM on 09.03.10 |
->> Brad,
You failed to mention typing the caption on that wonderful AP caption paper and then sticking it on the print. And please try not to put it on upside down as I accidentally did one time and heard from three different superiors on it.
I did love the quick headline, though. A chance for a little bit of fun.
I don't think it's code replacement and easily doing a copy/paste that makes captions more bland today. There are many reasons and one big one is the web. Many times these captions are put up on the web automatically and you need a short caption that tells the basic info without much elaboration.
We are also sending so many more images from a game that your time is limited -- especially with the shortened NFL halftime. No more two B&W and one color from a game.
Also, as a wire shooter, I feel that most of the time my caption will be rewritten anyway to fit with the way a story is written.
It also has to do with when you send a photo.
When shooting baseball I send quickly, right after each inning from the shooting pits. So while I may write a caption of "Chipper Jones dives to field a ball hit by Jeff Bagwell in the second inning" the story on Jones may change and the caption ends up in the paper as "Chipper Jones and the Braves came from two runs down to win their fourth straight." Or used four months later to say "Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves won the Gold Glove for third basemen."
So why get too elaborate? |
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John Korduner, Photographer
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Baton Rouge | LA | United States | Posted: 3:11 PM on 09.03.10 |
| ->> If a picture's worth a thousand words, it seems like even the most profound 20 word captions shouldn't be able to have much impact on the presentation. |
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Matthew Sauk, Photographer
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Sandy | UT | United States | Posted: 6:22 PM on 09.03.10 |
| ->> man I love to read some of your guys older captions. I like that you tell a story of what happened. |
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Brad Mangin, Photographer
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Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 8:17 PM on 09.03.10 |
| ->> Matthew- thanks for saying "your guys older captions" and not "you older guy's captions." |
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N. Scott Trimble, Photographer
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Lake Oswego | OR | USA | Posted: 8:35 PM on 09.03.10 |
->> "It is a different era these days,"
-Gee, I wonder if that was said in Latin when the Roman Empire began to crumble... |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 11:23 AM on 09.05.10 |
| ->> I hate the "double edged sword" in all of this caption business. we get hammered by our editors to write these captions with all this information, that is ALWAYS edited out. I don't mean sometimes...I mean ALWAYS. And then, since the caption has all this mandatory stuff, you leave out the "flowing prose", then someone calls and goes "hey when was that play and why didn't you put it in the caption" I have found that there are three different "captions" they want. They want captions that the archive search engines will find. They want captions that don't have redundancy for the galleries and they want another set of captions for the "first look" raw take we do for games.....geez gimme back my AP sticky paper..... |
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Brad Mangin, Photographer
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Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 11:50 AM on 09.05.10 |
| ->> Chuck- don't forget the AP easel that gave you either a square print or a skinny horizontal. Loved that thing. |
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Matthew Sauk, Photographer
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Sandy | UT | United States | Posted: 12:23 PM on 09.05.10 |
->> Brad,
Hey I am 34 :) |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 2:23 PM on 09.05.10 |
| ->> @brad....crap is that what that was? I thought is was a heavy duty picture frame......8) |
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Michael Durisseau, Photographer, Assistant
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Santa Fe/Houston | TX | USA | Posted: 11:35 PM on 09.05.10 |
| ->> I still write two-line captions, but they're not quite as long as Mr. Mangin's!! |
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Michael Fischer, Photographer
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Spencer | Ia | USA | Posted: 12:46 AM on 09.06.10 |
->> Oh geeezzz Brad I remember that easel thing. Of course, I'm from the day of AP LASERPHOTO. (Circa 1975-77)
It feels strange to type that after all these years.
Captions... our chance to write the story is 2 sentences.... |
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Brad Mangin, Photographer
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Pleasanton | CA | USA | Posted: 12:51 AM on 09.06.10 |
| ->> ...and when you were lucky enough to be putting out a picture on the LPII color wire you had to make a note at the end of the caption: "DiMaggio's shirt is light blue." |
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Tim Hynds, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Sioux City | IA | USA | Posted: 5:59 PM on 09.07.10 |
->> It's amazing how many photographers don't even know what an AP-style caption is let alone be able to write one. But, it's true that wordy cuts always get chopped by the desk.
And this comes from a guy who keeps his AP easel on his desk and still has nightmares about taking too long in the bathroom and missing the regional split.
Des Moines' JJG III had my a** on a platter the first - and only - time I missed that split.
FWIW: I was never able to come up with truly clever cutline heads. Sam Morris can attest to that. |
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George Bridges, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Washington | DC | USA | Posted: 8:25 PM on 09.07.10 |
->> Brad,
My favorite was a photo that came across the wire with the color note: "blood is red"
I, too, loved those square or horizontal easels and having to pull the little color knob up on the transmitter for the next separation. |
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Dave Breen, Photographer
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Somerset | PA | USA | Posted: 9:39 PM on 09.07.10 |
| ->> Speaking of devolving captions -- when did the passive tense become AP (and others') style? "The XYZ building is shown ...". Surely there's something interesting to say about the building, relating it to the story it accompanies. |
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