As a writer, there is nothing quite like getting a photo in the paper! Compared to struggling to describe a scene, it seems relatively easy to hit the camera button and boom, the scene is captured.
I took a number of photos for my story that ran Sunday about the readiness, or not, of businesses at the Jersey Shore for the upcoming season. The one below (click it to see a larger version) of the manager of the largely destroyed Barnacle Bill’s amusement arcade in Ortley Beach sitting on a 20-foot model of the establishment’s namesake was one I took, but didn’t submit. In the background is the arcade golf course under construction.
Usually, you try to shoot someone going about their business. But I wanted the 20-foot Barnacle Bill – which was lying on the sidewalk waiting to be erected in the center of the gold course – in the shot, and there wasn’t much normal business to be done there. So I first took his photo near the statue, which was a bit stiff, and finally got him to sit on the statue – which was obviously too staged.
I think it’s a pretty neat photo. But it didn’t seem to say anything about the business or the shore, more about the person at the center. It would probably would have gone better with a story on the new singer for Bon Jovi, or an upcoming after-shave lotion model, or the latest hirsute Madonna boy toy.
Still, I think it’s worth a view.
