Its a Red Ball, Bunk.

If you are into spot news, crime reporting or anything resembling homicide investigations, go find David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" as he follows around a squad of Baltimore Homicide detectives around for an entire year. (Yes, The same David Simon that did "The Wire" and "Generation Kill")

I only mention this because we've got a major red ball going in town. For the casual reader, a "Red ball" is a major case where you drop everything in a effort to solve the case/find the bad guy. Something with major media attention.


News broke Friday morning that George Zinkhan's jeep was found in a ravine not far from his house. So if its a red ball for the cops, its a red ball for us. I've never seen that many Law Enforcement officers armed that heavily before. U.S. Marshal's service, F.B.I, G.B.I, GSP SWAT and ACCPD's SRT. The tract of land where it was found can be Googled here. Its a large tract of land that was naturally closed off to photojournalists like myself.

So covering this was myself and another staffer. Our office ran a shuttle for cards earlier in the day. The hardest/biggest thing about spot news is calming yourself down, focusing and making good story-telling images. Looking back, some lack some context.


From there it was like a mental shot checklist. Jeep? Yup.



Guys in pickups armed for bear? Yup.



Convoy of cars? Yup.




GSP roadblock? Check.



Helicopter? Check.



Scene setter? Ehhh.... little fuzzy and from about a mile away but yeah, just run it small.



Constant stream of onlookers? Shoulda thought of that one. Something to think about next time.

Presser? I've had these conversations at a former paper before. Something to the effect of "you want me to leave a crime scene to go photograph someone with a microphone in their face?"

So after awhile it gets mundane. You can either stay at the main entrance/exit and get those shots over and over or you can become enterprising and start driving around and searching for any photo that your competition doesn't have. Once you've CYA'd, you just cant sit there especially when it seems that the search has become fruitless. You get a feel for what's going on and rumors run rampent through a crime scene. Plus its common sense - you're not going to see 17 car loads of SWAT team members go into a scene where the suspect is deceased; You're going to see forensics, CSI and coroner type people. So i went and drove around until i found a pickup truck full of FBI people and photographed them going through a neighborhood or two from a safe and respectful distance.






And then a resident appeared.



You don't want to be overly aggressive because you can't do your job from jail. So bring the 400/2.8 and the teleconverter and stay back on the public easement and give them their space. Respect them, be professional and they will respect you. They probably will mess with you some but thats the nature of cops sometimes and really, some levity to break the moment isn't a bad thing.

Other good lessons? Crime scene food/water. Stash it in the trunk. You don't want to be off getting food when everything goes down. Sunscreen. Bug Spray. Comfy and appropriate shoes. (IE flip-flops are a very bad idea to be traipsing around a crime scene in) ANSI-Approved Highway vest (for standing on that easement next to the road). And bring your manners. Be professional. Be tactful of those not in the press that might be around you.