I got a comment about my Daniel Coverston blog that I felt should be discussed.  Below is the comment made on the blog post and my response.

 TasteMaker said...

This death is sad and all and I share your cynicism for this city. But it almost sounds to me like because this kid is not from inside city limits and has a Facebook page with 800 friends, that this is somehow denotes a real tragedy, and that all the other (I believe 34) deaths within city limits- poor, non-sociable bastards unlucky enough to have Comcast and a burgeoning friends list somehow aren't real. 

As a black Towson student who commutes from an inner city community (Edmondson Avenue) with a rampant murder rate, maybe I should start boosting my friend list and start twittering so I won't be one of those fake tragedies in the Murder Ink column.

 CCCam said...

TasteMaker, Thank you for your comment. Through this post I was not trying to trivialize every other murder in Baltimore. I was trying to show how this particular incident struck me, and how the social networking age has changed the way media outlets gather information.

I wish we could take the time to run full stories on every person murdered in this city. But as I'm sure you know from living here that the sheer volume of violence makes that impossible. I'm sure we're missing stories on real victims and I hate that. No one deserves to be killed whether you're a drug dealer or a law abiding citizen. 

Unfortunately its the break from the norm that makes the news and for Baltimore City, murder has become the norm.

Now, I understand Tastemaker's frustration.  Everyone is a tragedy to someone and everyone deserves to have their story told.  

The Photographers Hangover.

Drink one for the noisy news van.

Drink two for the rushed liveshot.

Drink three for the crime scene in Northeast Baltimore.

Drink the water when called in early for work the next day.

current jam - The Hold Steady "212 Margarita"

Murder Most Foul

We started with a name.

Daniel Colverston.

It was the wrong name.

We didn't know that yet.

The press release from Baltimore County Police stated that a 24 yo male was shot in the head in an apartment in the Fairways at Towson apartment complex.  I knew it better as Glenmont.  A current name change to maybe boost the image of a housing development highly populated by Towson students.  The victim? According to the police it was Daniel Colverston.

I got into work and checked facebook, myspace, google.  Nothing.  I couldn't believe that a 24 year old would not leave an internet footprint.  Was he a loner?  

Striking out on the internet we went back to the apartment complex.  We interviewed concerned residents and my reporter spoke to two women sitting in a car near the door to where Mr. Colverson lived.  

They wouldn't go on camera.  But gave us valuable information.  Daniel was a former Towson student.  He graduated last year and he was an athletic assistant with the volleyball and basketball teams.  

Great.  We knew more.  My reporter had a contact with Towson U.  The contact put us in touch with someone from the athletic department who would provide us with a picture of Daniel if we came up to the Towson Center to shoot it.  

When we got there this individual was very nice.  Came right out, brought us the picture and said.

"You know they're spelling his name wrong right?  It's Daniel Coverston."  

The right name.

We get back to the station.  I hop on facebook.  Daniel Coverston comes right up.  He has over 800 friends.  Certainly not a loner.  

Being a Towson grad I was able to get full access to his profile.  He had over fifty tagged pictures.  Those became a part of the story.  We now had a face to go with a statistic.  I downloaded five or six pictures and inserted them into our package.  In 5 hours I felt like I was starting to know Daniel.  Hell it seems I even have two friends in common with him. 

I cropped the people with Daniel out of most of the photographs.  I left one in.  A very touching picture of Daniel and a friend looking incredibly happy.  It fit with the script my reporter had written.  

Should I have used a picture of Daniel with another person?  My producer didn't think so.  I felt it was appropriate but I can see how the other girl in the photo may have been upset.  

But this is how Facebook has changed our world.  At the start of the day I had a crime scene and an incorrect name.  By the time our story aired at 10 I had a face, a personality.  A real person to go with the violence that hits our region.  

Crime is NOT limited to Baltimore City.  There isn't some forcefield around the city limits that keeps them away.  It can affect anyone.  And tonight it seems like this was a real tragedy.  

Heart.

I heard a saying once about photojournalism that I've really taken to heart.

"If you're not happy with your pictures then you're not close enough."

This was very fitting in my story today.  I was covering a benefit event for the Brady family.  Maybe you may or may have not heard, but this family was involved in a fatal car accident in October in Bel Air where the family of four was driving down I-95 and hit by a drunk driver.  Mrs. Brady and her oldest son, Wilson, were killed in the car accident and today at Perry Hall high school a benefit concert was held for Mr. Brady and his youngest  son Ian who survived the crash.  

The concert involved a volunteer orchestral band performing at the school.  When we arrived the orchestra was already playing.  I began shooting with a wide shot of the band and began working my way forward.  Seeing that there was easy access to the stage I made my way right next to the band.  Getting a lot of great closeups.  I tried to do my best to avoid interfering with the view of anyone else in the crowd but I also realized that anyone watching on tv wanted to feel like they were there.  I stalked the orchestra.  Moving my way through the string to the percussion sections trying to get as many shots as possible.  

I understand that I may have been a temporary inconvenience to the audience but I also understood that through doing that I was helping better tell the story to the thousands of people watching at home for the 10pm news.  

During my shooting I notices two other photographers from channels 13 and 2.  They stayed far back from the band.  Keeping a safe distance and shooting wide shots.  I didn't watch their newscasts but I'm positive their video did not have the same impact that mine did.  The audience wants that sense of immediacy.  They want to feel part of the story.  And you cannot do that from fifty feet away.  You can do that from 11 inches away.  

Today was a heartbreaking but uplifting story.  We interviewed the surviving Mr. Brady and his tale broke my heart.  Which in and of itself is becoming harder and harder to do when surrounded by a barrage of bad news every day.  But doing a story like this feels good.  It makes you proud to do what you do for a living.  I brought to life a struggling family and a positive community that just wants to support them. 

Current Jam - The Gaslight Anthem - "1930"

Car companies wouldn't be in such bad shape if they just advertised like this.

Gotta love John Waters.

Current Jam - Billy Bragg "A New England"

There's a Story to Every Corner

Baltimore is tiny.  Some people call it Smalltimore.  It fits.  Socially you don't even need Six degrees to connect people you meet in this town. 

Two and a half years ago when I graduated from Towson I didn't know much about the city geographically.  But now I've probably driven past every street.  

When new reporters start the photojournalist turns into more of a tour-guide.  (We are already more like professional drivers but that's for another day).  

Roland Park  -  "That's the street where I got the truck stuck in the ice after going live all morning with the double fatal fire."

North and Warwick - "Oh, I was here shooting a car that was flipped completely over after hitting a curb too fast."

Lombard and President - "One day I couldn't get the mast of the truck to descend and was stuck for two hours."

Too Many Streets - "I was at a shooting here."

News people new to this city get up to speed really, really quick if they drive around with talkative photogs enough.  

I like that I've had so many good and bad experiences working and living in Baltimore.  You get possessive of a city you spend so much time in.  I never felt that way growing up outside of D.C. but Baltimore fits its nickname.  Charming.

Current Jam - The Pixies  "Tame"

Why Does a Dog Lick Its Own Ass?

Because it can.  

Why do local news organizations put their reporters live in the field constantly?  Because they can.

Welcome to the world of the dog-lick live shot.  Where photographers and reporters commiserate over a common hatred.  Going live with a story that could easily be fronted in the studio with the same effect.  

Somewhere fifty years ago, some researcher, some now hated researcher, came up with a statistic that stated that viewers responded better to reporters live in the field than in the studio.  Sure, this makes perfect sense when the reporter is on the scene of an event that is currently unfolding.  Snow.  Fire. Shooting.  But why make a reporter go live for a national story on the economy?  Why make a reporter go live from a scene that ceased to be active 8 hours prior?  Because you can?

I can see how this can come off as me bitching about doing liveshots.  I'll admit, I hate them.  They are the least creative part of a very creative profession.  They are where the mind of an engineer (which I do not have) clashes with that of a person who would much rather spend another 40 minutes cutting their package (which is myself)

I do not mind doing a liveshot for breaking news.  I tolerate the fact that they are a necessity for weather stories.  But to put someone live for the sake of being live is going to be a never ending struggle between the creativity of the reporters and photographers and the hardline ratings and public opinion driven mindsets of management.  

Current Jam - The Gaslight Anthem "The '59 Sound"