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There are several types of photos that run in newspapers. Most of them are taken for assignments. Some go with stories, and some run by themselves. And some come along from breaking news stories. But when those photo assignments are not available, the photographer working that day is charged with going out and finding a photo to fill a page, occasionally with little time available.

That’s when things can get exciting. Where do you go? Most newspaper photographers have their favorite places. Places where people are plentiful. Places where you can get that photo, fast! Or a place where the photographer has seen something happening last week and now dredges up that memory. But many times the photographer ends up driving around the area to find things that he or she thinks will be interesting to the newspaper reader.

It can be a difficult task, and some days aren’t as productive as others. But it can also be rewarding when you sometimes find that gem of a photo hiding around the next corner.

Larry Brinlee/WTE staff

Sometimes during a photo assignment a great scene presents itself for the camera like this one when Chris Nicholas was conducting the University of Wyoming Western Thunder marching band before a football game at UW this past season. The assignment was the football game, but an editor will usually make room in the news section of the newspaper for a photo like this.

When searching for a feature photo, photographers have to look everywhere. We sometimes drive 50 miles a day around the Cheyenne area looking for that unusual sight that the newspaper reader might like to see. On this day I was lucky. I was cruising next to Lakeview Cemetery on the hill when I spotted these workers from across about a mile of tree canopy cleaning the Doppler Radar shell. I hadn’t thought of driving down Airport Parkway that day where the National Weather Service is located, and would have missed them. But with a lucky glance above the city an interesting photo came alive for the newspaper customer.

I’m always open to taking a humorous feature photo, especially one like this when a worker was helping to erect this inflatable gorilla on top of a building on West Lincolnway a few years ago. I had to wait for the right moment, probably about 20 minutes, for the scene came together and made for a funny moment.

When I look for a feature photo I try not to button hole myself into any subject matter and try to take new, fresh photos. Although I had taken a photo of this window washer on another occasion, I couldn’t pass up this beautiful reflection of another building distorted in the windows of the Laramie County Governmental Complex.

Not all feature photos are found when a photographer is on duty. I was at Holliday Park during lunch one fall day, when I noticed a great blue heron wading the shallows of Lake Minnehaha searching for a stray fish or crawdad. I rushed back to the truck and got my camera out with a 70-200 mm telephoto lens and returned to find the bird at the same spot. I was lucky, the great blue wasn’t too spooked by my presence and didn’t fly away, allowing me to get within 20 feet for this shot. Although the photo is a good heron shot on its own, the colors and patterns of the water around the bird add to the image.

Each fall WTE photographers look for that interesting leaf shot. A few years ago when I needed to find a photo because an assignment had fallen through, I packed my camera into the truck and drove over to Holliday Park. There I found a group of YMCA Montessori School students having a good time playing in the leaves. The day was bright, and although I had several good shots of the children rolling in the leaves, chasing each other and gathering them into tall piles, I thought this one showed the exuberance of the youth tossing them into the air and letting them rain down on upon him.