What goes into to deciding which photos to run?

     Should we run the photo or not? That is the question many a photo editor has asked, and the answer is never really the same. Some people believe, no matter what, you run a great photo – no matter the content. In bigger markets covering professional sports, this may be true.

     But now, take a look at the decision Cecil Scene had last night. The North East Lady Indians had clawed their way back into contention against the Rising Sun Tigers from a 12-point deficit. The Lady Indians fought hard in overtime as well, but ultimately the Lady Tigers prevailed.

     The teams shook hands at half court, the referees packed up and left, the fans filed out of the gymnasium and in a moment of “this is last call” that you might see at a bar, the lights went out. There were a couple dozen people still in the gym.

     Then I noticed a North East High School player sitting there alone. She was obviously in the middle of packing up to leave when the emotion of the hard-fought loss hit her. Her basketball shoes were sitting there beneath her as she held her head in her hands and cried.

     In what was pretty much darkness, I scrambled to get my camera up, winged it on setting what might get me a frame of the moment and made one photo before it was all over. The player got up, shoes in hand and walked off the court.

     Now, what to do with this image.  I knew it was of North East guard Heniyah Cannady. But, this wasn’t a pro athlete I had photographed, it was a high school student who had just laid her heart and soul out on the basketball court for 36 minutes. Do I run this photo as part of out coverage or not. Will she like the photo or hate it. You just never know. If she hated the photo, to me, it just didn't feel right to run the image. And, of course, there was just no way to know.

     There was also a bigger question for Cecil Scene. We are still getting going. This is a website for the community, about the community and run by someone who lives in the community. Is this the statement we wanted to make about Cecil Scene?

     We held the photo after much conversation and decided to err on the side of caution.

     Heading into tonight’s boy’s game at North East I ran into Varsity Girls basketball Coach Alan Foskey and told him about the image. As luck would have it, the first person he ran into going into the gym was Ms. Cannady. Moments later she ran up to me in the stands as I was setting up. She wanted to see the photo. I pulled it up on my cell phone and showed it to her.

     She loved it, and here it is. But, more thought went into making this photo live on the web then just hitting Publish.