Originally posted by ckhaos
Kind of OT here...
but, increasingly, I realize that there are many more photos accompanying a news article that is there just for the sake of being there. For example, a news article on Robbie Fowler transferring to Manchester City will always have a photo of Robbie Fowler next to it, or a report on the increase in MRT prices will always have a photo of an MRT station.
In such situations, isn't the responsibility of the news photographer to ensure that more appropriate photographs are used, rather than one chosen from stock?
The problem is, usually when those situations happen, there isn't a news photographer. Like MRT price rises will never be a snapper assignment, not unless there's a hoard of people forming picket lines outside the station.
Newspapers usually just pick up whatever pictures they have in stock rather than despatching snappers to shoot everything they need. The stock shots are more often than not free (in Singapore they are all free), which also has further advantages.
It's curious you should mention Robbie Fowler, that's about the one Leeds press conference I haven't been too, and yes his picture's been around everywhere and it's very annoying.
The situation is particularly bad in Singapore because there is no competition for ST and TNP, both of which are owned by SPH. There's a stranglehold, so the question is, where's the need to go out on a limb to improve the standard of photography? Some of the local sports pictures I've seen have been shocking in standard, technically let alone aesthetically. The one picture I saw when I was back in SG was an out of focus football shot - of a penalty! I can understand if it was live action, but this was a penalty with plenty of time for the snapper to sort himself out. Sad.
Another reason is that for the international news pictures, ST and TNP have to take the pictures the agencies churn out. For an event such as Robbie Fowler's protracted transfer, it constitutes a fairly small issue in the scale of things and I'd be surprised if the desk people despatch anything other than the press conference stock. Of course you could request better pics, but that entails $$$. And over here locally you'd have the option of smaller agencies who are more competitive and therefore will send out better pictures if they have them.
