G-20 Statistics from the Photo Desk

The Pitt News was completely inundated by the events of G-20 taking place in the Oakland area and downtown this past week. The entire photo staff spent the week chasing protesters, covering the summit Downtown, and documenting the impact that the international summit brought Pittsburgh.

The photo desk received many inquiries during the week about the technical process behind our coverage of the G-20. Some asked about our equipment, while other wondered about our image selection and processing.

As editor, it's my job to make sure my staff has adequate equipment and the guidance to commit quality and telling photojournalism. I'll let the numbers speak for themselves.

Since Tuesday morning, we've had:
36 separate assignments
31.2 gigs of photos (for reference, the entire 2008-2009 football season photos were only 19GB)
9,948 individual photographs
17 photo blog posts
244 images running in those photo blog posts
23,354 unique hits to the photo blog posts (as of 9/28 at 1AM)
7 photographers tear/OC gassed
2 photographers arrested
1 photographer maced in the face
3 photographers (2 current, 1 alumni) pictures featured in a New York Times gallery while on the job

Clarification: Photos taken of 3 of our photographers were featured in the NYT gallery--their actual photographs weren't published in the gallery. I chose to include this statistic to illustrate the broad coverage that the photo staff was able to accomplish. We were in the heart of the story at all moments. -09/30/09 VW

Our staff of 15 photographers woke up at 5:30 a.m. to cover announced demonstrations; some of us then didn't get to sleep until 2 or 3 AM the next day, only to wake up at 9AM for another day. Our staff did this while still attending classes (although the University did cancel class on Thursday evening).

Our staff shot with a wide range of cameras, both Nikon and Canon. The majority of the staff relied on the Pitt News' pooled equipment:
1 Nikon D700
1 Nikon D200
2 Nikon D2HS
2 17-55 f/2.8 lens
1 28-70 f/2.8 lens
2 70-200 f/2.8 lens
1 300 f/2.8
flashes, CF cards, 1.4x extenders, etc

During the police actions on Thursday and Friday night, photographers had to rely on fast equipment and quick reflexes to make quality photographs. Chris Neverman's awesome black and white photos (featured on the blog and in Monday's print edition) were shot with wide prime lenses: a Sigma 28 f/1.8 and a Nikon 50 f/1.8; Ben Filio shot fast and wide with the equivalent Canon lenses on a 5D. Both TPN photographers relied on 70-200 f/2.8 telephotos to shoot at a distance once the police gave the disbursement orders.

Pitt News photographers were briefed in the week leading up to the Summit regarding First Amendment rights, police protocol and journalism procedures during demonstrations. It was important to realize that Pitt News photographers (or any media) were not exempt from police commands. I implored my staff to act sensibly and follow all police commands. No picture from the week was worth the consequences of physical injury or arrest.

If you've got any questions about anything related to the photo desk's coverage of G-20 (equipment, technical questions, etc), feel free to email me.

Vaughn Wallace
photo@pittnews.com