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David Sanders - Interview by Eileen Fritsch Award winning photojournalist David Sanders uses Nik software to sharpen his high-action low-light images Article rating: 10.00

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Q. How did you get started in photography?

I took a photography class in high school and really enjoyed the magic of seeing a print coming up in the developer.  I thought that it was really cool, and might be a great way to make a living.  So, I took a vocational class in which we used 4 x 5 cameras with studio lights and stuff. It was a really good program.

The summer of my junior year, I started working for newspapers.  I worked for the Denver Post part time. I also worked for a couple of smaller weekly papers. In my senior year of high school, I continued working at the Denver Post and got a photography scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology.

After I earned my associate’s degree at RIT, I returned to Arizona and got a degree in journalism from the University of Arizona. While I was at the university, I worked for awhile at the Arizona Republic,  and then part-time at the Arizona Daily Star. When I graduated, The Star offered me a full-time job.

Q. Was attending RIT a worthwhile experience?

At first, the instructors made me angry, because on my first day there they said, “We can teach you all of the technical stuff you’ll need to know, but we can’t really teach you to be a photographer.”  They were right of course, but at the time I was looking for the easy way. I thought there might be some sort of magic formula for taking great pictures.

At RIT I learned a lot more technical stuff than I’ll probably ever need. But now I realize that in this business, you can never stop learning. If you think “I’ve figured it out and now I know it all,” then you’re doing yourself a huge disservice.

I like to visit the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which houses the archives of Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon, Eugene Smith, and Edward Weston and other world-class photographers. I like to look through the negatives, albums and prints to figure out how they did some of their shoots.

Q. Did you get a lot of training from other photographers?

When I was 19, I started assisting my photo editor at the Denver Post Richard Clarkson. He had covered almost every NCAA tournament and had shot images for Sports Illustrated. He taught me things such as the importance of putting up remotes and shooting from different positions at the same event.

Q. Your website shows such a great variety of images.  Do you prefer doing one type of work to another?

Not really.  I like to do a little bit of everything and try to do everything well.  If you become good at a lot of aspects of photography, you can really intermix the techniques.  For example, if something is happening quickly, you can apply what you’ve learned from shooting sports.

I’ll shoot weddings occasionally because they’re happy and fun and people want you there. It’s a nice break from shooting accidents or crime scenes. A lot of photojournalists who are leaving the newspaper industry are going into wedding photography because it’s a great marriage of photojournalism and portraiture. There are a lot of key spontaneous moments in weddings, yet some beautiful portraits can be created as well.

You do have to be at the top of your game as a wedding photographer, though, because some guests show up at weddings with better equipment and have the added advantage of already knowing the bridal couple well.  Wedding photographers also have to know how to get great shots under a variety of lighting conditions.

We’re definitely living in a more visual society, where people are being bombarded with more  images. It’s not uncommon these days to go to a big accident scene and see people leaning out of their cars taking pictures.  Our newspaper doesn’t buy much from freelancers. But trying to stay ahead and compete in this arena can be tough.

These days, to be a successful photographer, you have to know a little bit about a lot of aspects of photography. In the past, newspapers could afford to hire several photographers for more specialized assignments. But because of budget constraints, newspapers now want their photographers to be able to do more things. I apply that to my freelance work as well.

For example, when I do an annual report for an oil company in California, they may tell me to just go out and shoot and come back with some interesting images. That’s like a magazine assignment, where you’re just sort of creating from a scene and observing and waiting for the right moments. But then, that same client might also ask you to create a cover, using elements from multiple photos.  Suddenly, you’re switched into Photoshop and doing a photo illustration for the cover.

Q. Speaking of Photoshop work, tell me more about how your work as a photojournalist differs from your work as a freelance photographer for commercial assignments. Is it true that as photojournalist you have to get it right in the camera and aren’t allowed to do very much in terms of post-shoot editing?

As a photojournalist, you are capturing the moment as it happens, and as it was. If you go in after the photo was taken, and remove an item such as a telephone pole sticking out of a subjects head, for example, you have now altered the scene. This is ethically wrong, and many photographers have gotten into trouble for “cleaning up” an image, by removing something they felt was distracting in the photograph.

Time magazine got into trouble when they gave O.J. Simpson a five o’clock shadow after his arrest, digitally making him look more sinister in a way that was different from the original booking mug shot. The public has to trust a photojournalists’ images as recording the scene as the way it was, without any post-digital alteration of the picture.

Q. Tell me more about the work for which you were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

It was for my images of one of the largest wildfires in Arizona. I was red-carded, which means I was certified to fight fires. Covering a wildfire in Arizona is different than covering one in California because our state officials seal off areas to fires as soon as they can, and the areas can be tens of miles away from the actual fire. We have fewer access roads, and they need to be kept clear for the firefighters.

So I was certified as a firefighter and ended up with a local fire company that was doing a lot of structure-protection work.  Because I was certified, I was allowed to be embedded with them and sent back images as the firefighters were working.

It’s not as enjoyable as you might think, because you’re one of 500 people on the field. Sure, there’s electricity in the air and you’re at the Super Bowl. But once you choose your spot, you really don’t move from that spot. Although this year’s Super Bowl was an exciting game and I was shooting from an upper deck position, so it was dealing more with drunk fans than other photographers.

Q. Was working for The Discovery Chanel fun?

Absolutely.  Because you’re with fascinating people and learning something as you shoot.  During one assignment I got dropped off on a glacier in New Zealand to cover the “Eco Challenge” racers was they hiked across glaciers. Another time, I shot photographs documenting a dinosaur dig in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The paleontologists on the expedition found a complete Ankylosaurus. And I myself found some 85-million-year-old eggs. It was amazing to be part of that experience.

Q. What type of equipment do you currently use?

I have Canon Mark Ii’s and a Canon Mark III that I just purchased. I also have a Panasonic Lumix L1 DSLR, a Panasonic Lumix TZ3 point and shoot, a Pentax 67 and a 4 x 5 that I like to hold onto just to play around with. I also use Nik Software plug-ins for Photoshop like Sharpener Pro, Dfine, Color Efex Pro, and Viveza.

Q. Now that you’ve been in the business so long, can you teach someone to be a photographer?

In a sense, I agree with what they told me at RIT. There are rules, such as general rules about composition. But at the same time, some of those rules can be broken. What constitutes a “good photograph” is simply a matter of determining whether or not you like it. 

I try to encourage people to concentrate on really seeing what’s going on in front of them.  Become so comfortable with the controls of your camera that when you go into any situation, you no longer have to stop and think about “what’s my exposure?” or “what kind of f-stop am I going to want?”

Sure, you want to think about those things in the back of your mind. But you want to reach a point where you’re no longer thinking about the controls. Then, you can concentrate on asking “What aspect of this scene is going to help make something that I want to convey in a photograph?”

Q. What advice would you give to aspiring photojournalists?

First, photograph what interests you. If you aren’t interested in a story, what makes you think the viewers of your photographs are going to be interested?

Second, keep in mind that photojournalism is the coverage of the actions of people to something and their reactions. If you remember those two words—action and reaction—you are going to be a really good recorder of life around you. 

Photojournalists basically provide a window on the world. I have more respect for the photojournalist who can make great images from a mundane event than those that get sent to an earthquake or disaster halfway around the world. 

Third, if you get too bogged down in worrying about technical controls, throw your camera into automatic mode for awhile if you have to. You just need to understand certain principles like if you photograph someone in front of a window with light coming in, chances are you are going to need to flash fill them. 

Finally, even though you can fix a lot in post-production, you never want to get to the point where you become lazy as a photographer. A good photojournalist anticipates the actions around him and is prepared to capture the actions in their camera. Being ready for that involves having a good knowledge of the technical and visual aspects of photography.

If you know the technical aspects of photography and can tuck them in the back of your mind, you can then concentrate on composition and capturing what is going on in front of your lens.

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