St. Pete Times Is Exaggerating Their War Protest Story

The Times and The Trib both featured a story about the war protest in Joe Chillura Courthouse Square (Yesterday I called it Gaslight Park).  The Times exaggerated what happened.

There was a young man named Tim O'Connor holding a flag that was Both a US and a NAZI flag. He was approached by a retired Marine corp Major. The Times ran a headline "The voice of Veterans Rise In Protest." That mis-characterizes what really happened.

All the major told him was that it was inappropriate in this setting to display the flag as such. The major was not angry. The only reason it looked that way was because a swarm of photogs gathered. It was the photogs that created the supposed conflict. Without them, it would have been just 2 guys having a conversation. Major Simmons only raised his finger for a fraction of a second and that became the image in the press.

I stood there and watched the entire thing. I didn't even get a shot of it worth a crap because of the throngs of photogs. It was when they cleared that I got this image. It clearly show the US flag.

I got to admit the photographer from the Times, Ken Halle is a  real pro. I got to talk to him and we discussed photo Journalism. It is an entire different animal them shooting your cat or garden. In this image of  him (dig those lenses) you can see many photographers roaming the area. There where TV stations with huge tripods. The media was half of the crowd!

There used to be a saying in journalism "F8 and shoot." That was when you were using film. That meant you could set the shutter speed to adjust to light conditions. What I do with a digital SLR is set it to the P function in bright light because the camera will set the functions automatically and allow for fill in strobe. Ken Halle said he sets his to S for shutter priority at 1/500 of a second to prevent blur. you can do that. I'd go a little higher if you are not concerned about depth of field

Comments

[Da]

Hi Tim, Just letting you know I'm still with you, buddy.