Proper focus

We were planning a story related to the 2008 Presidential race, but it was more analytical in nature, collecting impressions from our Latino community about their impressions on the race. Initially it began as a piece examining who our local Latinos might favor now that Hillary — who had done a bit better winning over that segment of the traditionally Democratic population — had conceded to Obama. (The initial pitch never mentioned McCain.) So I shopped the wires for Obama art and started designing an Obama centerpiece.

A couple of problems quickly emerged:
1) Too much focus on Obama; not enough balance with McCain.
2) Too much focus on national figures when our current mindset is "Local, Local, Local!"

Time was definitely a factor in that I had none, unless I felt like working a 12+ hour day (I didn't).

My thought was that I could save the package by doing a couple of things:
1) Obscuring the photos, which were, essentially, mugshots.
2) Drawing the readers' attention to the words, more specifically the headlines.

So I did some Photoshopping to make the faces look sculpted rather than photographed — something I only ever just messed around with, never for an assignment intended for print. (I continue to be a bit sheepish with my illustrations, mainly because I haven't had too many of them published. I'm trying my best to change that, but more on that in a later posting.)

I do wish I could have found a photo that night of McCain NOT looking right at the camera, but none of the photos available to me at the time fit that bill.

Nonetheless, overall, I was pretty pleased with the results. Others must have been, too, as I was bracing for a fight from start to finish. But once I explained my reasons, my supervisor was cool with it, and there were no nasty notes from the higher-ups on Monday morning.

Victory.