Erin Kirkland, a staff photographer at the Midland Daily News, is a University of Michigan graduate who had her love of photography develop when she worked for the college newspaper. She majored in English at U of M, and pursued photography through out her college career, eventually becoming a photo editor for the paper. After college, she interned with Jake May in Flint for MLive, interned for the Boston Rex Sox as a photographer, and interned in Boston before getting her job at the Midland Daily News.
Erin is one month into her new job at Midland Daily News, and it was immensely beneficial for me to shadow someone new to a job like this. Although she’s new to both the job and the city, it was clear that Erin has already made herself an important part of the community. When shooting for a small community newspaper, it’s important to not only document what’s going on, but become a part of the community. Being friends with coaches, parents, and other people of the community gives you access that wouldn’t be possible with out a genuine relationship, and it shows through Erin’s photographs. This was her second time shooting Bullock Creek High School and she was already laughing and chatting with moms on the sidelines, asking the coach for permission to get into the locker room, and really did look like she was already accepted by the team.
As I entered the Midland Daily News, it was like walking into one of Midland’s secrets. Growing up in this town means that I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds Midland Daily News’s, and now I was walking into the place where there were all made. This little building tucked away in down town turns out a paper that was a daily part of my life growing up. And to be able to see how people in my field are a part of it was so cool.
As the shift began, Erin showed me around the maze of an office and took me to the ‘photo cave’, where favorite photo spreads from the year were hanging on the walls. She told me that the deadline for the night was 9 p.m., because weekend papers are distributed in the morning. In contrast to that, weekdays are printed in the morning the day of, because they’re distributed in the afternoon.
The special thing about the Midland Daily News photo staff is that there is no “head honcho.” They all take photos, and rotate on a two week basis who is the ‘editor’ at the desk. The editor’s job is to lay out the front page and any photo pages running that day, which includes designing and thinking about fonts, sizes, boldness, and countless details that most of us don’t realize go into a front page. It’s also that week’s editor’s job to convert the photos to CMYK, and prepare them for print. Personally, I think it’s a really cool system. I personally enjoy editing, and I think it’s cool that they get to have a hand in design as well.
We left for the game at around 6 p.m. and I couldn’t help but laugh when we drove by a house party with young kids playing football in the front yard, sporting bullock creek jerseys. We both looked back longingly, and Erin said if we had time she’d totally go back to get pictures. It was so funny to actually be in a car with someone who thinks the same way you do, and longs to seek out the cool photo moments just as you do. We continued on to the game though, because we would only be covering the game until half time. Then we would need to return to the office to get photos in on deadline.
After searching for some cool features (and finding some cool features), Erin jumped right in, owning what she was doing and walking confidently onto the field and to the coach to ask for permission to join them in the locker room. Access was given, and we were off! It was incredibly cool to see the teams and coaches before of the homecoming game. It kind of made you feel like you were part of the team. You felt their drive, their passion for the sport and their team. Erin was right in there, going in the center of the room, staying low and blending in, but getting personal photos of the athletes in their pensive moments before the game. Erin fit right in, and after a few minutes of establishing her presence in the locker room, the players and coaches seemed to accept her presence and allowed her to get candid moments.
There’s a fine line between having players accept your presence as a photographer in a candid way or having them see your presence as odd and fake being candid. Seeing Erin find that sweet spot where they accepted her candidly at Bullock Creek was really cool. She told me about covering a different high school football team, and they accepted her as a photographer, but getting candid shots difficult. Sometimes the photographer has no control over whether the subjects will be candid or not, but Erin’s advice was to just move on. If people start posing and acting silly, move on to shooting something else and don’t give them the satisfaction of getting a silly picture. After all, as a small community photojournalist you’ll be covering their games all year, and possibly for their four years of High School. The sooner they figure out that posed and silly photos aren’t what you’re looking for, the sooner they’ll be genuinely candid around you.
Game coverage continued on the field, and again, Erin seemed like part of the team. She was right in there on the sidelines. The coaches and players would gather around her to watch the game, and seemed to completely accept and respect her position on the field next to them. To me this was so impressive because this was only her second Bullock Creek game of the year.
We left in the middle of the second quarter to return in time for deadline. Erin processed, edited, toned and cropped her best photos. At the Midland Daily News, an online gallery was also posted, which was then shared on facebook. We ended the shift at about 10 p.m.
In all of our conversation, a few points really stuck out to me. At one point Erin said “It’s kind of like going on a date” when we were talking about approaching new subjects. You only want to show the subject the best version of you because you want them to like you immediately. In an odd way, it really is like going out on a first date. I’ve always struggled with feeling a bit off when approaching strangers for photos, and it was nice to feel reassured that even professionals in the field sometimes feel uncomfortable approaching strangers. Erin said that sometimes she is glad that she has the safety net of working for the daily news, and introducing yourself that way. I completely connect with that because I didn’t truly feel comfortable approaching people until I had that publication name to back me up.
Another great point Erin made was that there’s not one right path to being a successful photojournalist. Every one has their own path, and become successful in their own way. For her, it was majoring in English and pursuing photojournalism at the college paper, for me it’s following both my passion of science and photojournalism. We even talked about how working at a small community newspaper could apply to my interests. Possibly pursuing a job working in Alaska, or an outdoorsy town for a small community newspaper. I look forward to seeing Erin at MPPA and around town. I could not have learned the things I learned in this job shadow in a classroom. Seeing some one becoming not only a photojournalist in a small town, but a member of the community isn’t something you can see through an over head projector.
See Erin’s photos from Friday Night’s shift here.
Kaiti Grant 