© Michael Heller

A PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE

Spot News

The day is not far off when newspapers and television stations will be forced to work together, for economic reasons. When that day comes, there will be one "shooter," someone with a video camera. An editor somewhere behind a desk will grab frames off the video to put in the daily paper. While I was shooting spot news for the "daily" I carried a Domke bag with the following equipment. 18mm f4 lens, 24mm f2 lens, 50mm f1.4 lens, 85mm f2 lens, 180mm f2.8 lens, 300mm f4,5 lens, Nikon F3T with MD4 motor, Nikon F3T, Vivitar 285 flash with bounce reflector. various polarizing filters. 20 rolls of Ilford HP5 film. To always be ready for a picture I would walk around, outside with my camera set at 1/1000 shutter speed and the lens set at f8. Back then (1980) almost everything we shot was in black and white. Normally we would rate the HP5 at ASA 400 and develop it in D76 for 8 minutes, agitating the tank three slow turns every 30 seconds. If we were working in a very low light situation we would rate the film at ASA3200 and develop it in Acufine at 80 degrees for 12 minutes. We would rap the tank on the counter at the beginning, to break loose any air bubbles, and then the tank was left unagitated for the remainder of the time. This preserved the highlight detail, but you could not touch the tank or move it at all.

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