Jeff Cagle
i am a freelance news and editorial photographer living in the chicago suburbs.
my portfolio is at jeffcagle.com. You can also find me at instagram.com/jeffcagle
get in touch: jeffrey [dot] cagle [at] gmail
Ask me anything
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The main event of the day for my assignment with the Chronicle last week was that the reporter and I were to be given extremely rare access and be in the room as executives from the Golden State Warriors interviewed a prospect. Leading up to everything, we were under the impression we’d have a half-hour or so for me to be making images and him listening to the uncomfortable questions these prospects get asked. As such, I spent a good chunk of my day beforehand visualizing shots I’d like to make after a couple conversations with the director of photography.
During a lunch meeting that day with the team’s general manager, we were told we’d have “a few minutes” to be in the room. Outside the room waiting to enter an hour later, a PR rep told us we’d have “a couple minutes.” We were allowed in a couple minutes before the prospect arrived and asked “You’re just taking a couple photos and leaving, right?” so I immediately started checking exposure and taking test shots of the executives chatting about a previous interview. Once the prospect walked in the room it was go time.
I fired off a few frames starting with a hand shake as the execs greeted the prospect, managed to change my lens and shoot several more images before we were thanked for coming and ushered out of the room. I made 14 frames total while the prospect was in the room. Time I had to do all that? Fifty-two seconds.
I really would have loved to have been in that room for a half hour and take my time with framing and capturing the moments I knew would be there to help flesh out the story, but, as is often the case in photojournalism, sometimes you can only react to a given situation and be happy with what you can get.
