My photo column was murdered, I thought. Edited, chopped and the best parts ripped from the pages of the Sun Journal. I was told, it didn’t meet the Cheerios test and some of the words I used are never printed unless in extenuating circumstances. I was not surprised. In fact, I didn’t think it would fly in the first place.
I guess the edit helped and as it turned out, I have received more calls about the photo and column than I have about anything I have written in a long time. Funny how things like this come off. I work on some stories for days, even weeks, and they are often overlooked. What I think is an award winner turns out to be a snoozer.
Last Monday was my turn to write a photo column to run in Tuesday’s paper. I had some ideas all week that seemed to fizzle for one reason or another. I was scheduled to work the weekend, and there was not much going on, so I figured I could turn something around. I looked hard, worked a couple leads and made some connections, but nothing that could be turned around over the weekend. Sunday night I realized I would have to follow one of the leads I got over the weekend, and even though it was my day off, I had to get it done.
As I was walking out the door to go home, the crows, as they often do, were flying overhead. They usually are heading in a Northerly direction, but tonight it looked like they were heading to the park across the street. Within five minutes I had text for my photo column, and had to scramble to get the photo before it got too dark. Here is the first paragraph of the unedited version of my photo column.
MURDER IN KENNEDY PARK
A young couple walking arm and arm through Kennedy Park in Lewiston Sunday night was accosted, but managed to get away with just a stain on the young man’s coat. It was a murder of crows that was the culprit, roosting in trees as the sun settled into the horizon behind the skyline of Lewiston-Auburn.
“That was gross.” said the young girl not wanting to be identified. When asked their names, the young man began to give his willingly, but his friend quickly interrupted with: “Are you kidding me. If our friends read about us getting shit on in the newspaper, they’d laugh the (explicative) out loud. Let’s get the hell out of here before we get crapped on again.” she quipped as they flew off. So, the incident will go down in the books as an undocumented attack on an unsuspecting person in a public park.
------------EXPOSED IMAGES------------The backstory from Maine Photojournalist Russ Dillingham 