When I was in college (about 1969), I needed to find a way to pay for film for my camera and chemicals for my darkroom. On a whim, I walked into the office of the local weekly paper a week after one of their regular photographers left and they let me try out. A year or so later, I was freelancing for the regional daily and wound up with a regular weekend and summer gig when I was in school and was hired full time after I graduated. Now I’m back, doing schoolboy sports (see my Sports Portfolio) and a few other things for a chain of local weeklies here in Oregon.

Covering events is far more than lining up folks for the requisite group shots, podium photos of speakers and showing (or making it look like) how well attended the event was. Like everywhere else, there are stories at events and I try to find them. Even speaker photos and groups can show the mood of the event if you do them right. I cover these as I did in my news photography days and always have my eye out for the telling image.