Flag at half-mast....

A lot of folks have told me they really, really like this photo of the Shelby Town Hall flag at half-mast in honor of the passing of Chief VanHoy.

Well, here's how it goes....

Flags automaticly draw forth powerful emotional responses from people -- they may start off as simple pieces of colored fabric, but stitched together the Star Spangled Banner makes you want to salute, a terrorist burning our colors makes you want to... they are touchstones of ideals, morals, unity, Republic for which they stand.

So a picture of a flag can funnel that power. Who can forget the photo of the Marines (and Navy Corpsman, I beleive) raising Old Glory on Iwo, the shot of the firefighters hanging a flag in the smoking ruins of 9/11.

While we were down in Laurel I went for a quick walk around their downtown area to grab some shots. In the center of town was a flagpole, holding high one of the most unserciveable, gloried flags I think I've ever seen.



It had flown through the hurricane. It was flying over the Gulf's recunstruction. It was ripped and shreded and tied back together by someone determined their flag yet wave.

It wound up on the back cover of a book published by The Laurel Leader-Call. Folks liked it. It was an easy shot. It took only a few seconds. As a photojournalist, you learn how to shoot staple, reliable shots for when you're short on time and long on tasks, like we were in Laurel.

Shooting the recent city hall shot I just stepped over the chains surrounding the pole, aimed my camera up and snapped off some shots. I had the camera set for shooting in a dark room and all the pictures were too washed out to use.

So I went and took some more pictures. It's a pretty simple shot... just point and click. Getting the flag in just the right position is a just a matter of taking a ton of photos and picking out the one you want. That doesn't take long with a camera that shoots 8 shots a second, and with digital it's not like you're wasting film.

In this and similar blogs, I don't think so much giving away photojournalist secrets. I'd rather think I'm sharing.