The overcast, smoky skies hanging over much of the US (and especially downtown Minneapolis, only a couple of miles away), brings to mind a morning when I was shooting photos for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (which covered the plains like an avalanche!). It was a foggy morning and the cloud cover did just that, covered the Lubbock skyline. I thought that since the skyline disappeared into a cloud made for an interesting photo, so I shot a number of images, ran into the darkroom and handed in a shot of what we called “wild art” in time for publication in the afternoon edition. The photo was not accepted because, I was told by the photo editor, it did not show the tall buildings (which the fog had covered) and therefore didn’t look like downtown Lubbock.

I also remember the same news editor had concerns about a photo I had shot earlier from a Cong. George Mahon town hall where I stood on the stage and looked out over the crowd (I thought the crowd shot was more interesting than a head-on shot of the congressman, which I also shot). That shot had a highlight from a TV light in the frame, so the editor took a grease pencil and colored over the stage light (can you see me shaking my head even now?).

Now its encouraging to see all of the photos of hazy, smoky skies, telling me that the photo editors across the news media are publishing photos that actually depict was millions of us are seeing.