As many of you know, we here at Elliott’s Imaging are contracted to photograph events for the Porterville Recorder. It has been an exciting opportunity which has enabled us to shoot events in which we normally would not had the chance to. We primarily shoot sporting events for the paper, which is our specialty so the pairing has worked harmoniously.
Along our journey, we have been fortunate to meet many great people, from you, the public, to fellow news reporters and photographers alike.
As we have spent more and more time in the public eye, it is only natural that we hear feedback of gratitude, hype, disappointment and complaints from all sides. Unfortunately, we mostly hear the disappointments and complaints and in hearing all of this and taking it all in, we have come to the understanding that there is a HUGE breakdown in communications between newspapers, event organizers, leaders, coaches and the public.
The number one issue we come across is people are upset that the paper did not cover their event. If the paper is not aware of your event, they can not cover it. So if there is something you would like covered, let the paper know in as much of an advance as possible. If you want your event photographed, give us here at Elliott’s Imaging a call or email the details and we will see what we can do to shoot your event.
Second complaint is that the paper ”needs to hire people who can ‘write’ a story”. Well, coming from experience, since I am required to write captions for my photos (not even a full story), it is not a simple task to do. With deadlines glooming, column size restraints, brain blocks and limited info given to be able to write from, it is not easy. What is easy is to read someone else’s story and say “that doesn’t sound good” or “I could have written a better story than that.”
So this is what I ask of you: If you have an event please contact us or the paper with details. If you have a story and like to write, write it up and submit it. It is not a sure thing that it will be ran in the actual paper, but the more people send in and the more the paper has to write about, the more we all can help improve our local paper.
The newspaper is a business too. They are there to deliver news to your front door and to employ people like ourselves. We understand people don’t want to read the paper anymore cause there isn’t anything in it, but we all have to help and send in the info for them to write about.
With technology these days, many people go to the internet (which is free) for the news. In turn, this has really hurt the local papers. But the Recorder doesn’t post everything online. They have to take into consideration what people want to read about. Do people want to read about who won or who lost… most want to read who won and the lows of the losing team. News is news, good or bad, win or lose, we need to read it all.
If you have a complaint or have an idea on how to make it better, PLEASE call us and/or the paper and share it with us. How do you fix something if you don’t know it is broken?
All that said, we greatly appreciate your support for our photography business and we ask that you extend your support to the paper as well.
Coaches, we at Elliott’s Imaging ask that you fax/email/mail your team schedules and rosters to us and the paper in order to help us know where you are going to be playing and times and the players names, etc. If we don’t know where you are playing, we can’t shoot your games.
Thank you for taking the time to read our blurb. Our goal here is to help everyone see the bigger picture and ask for participation from everyone and to do our part in making our community a little better.
Thanks,
Elliott’s Imaging |
