Opinion : Journalism lesson: Avoiding the armpit pitfall

Lots of people were probably thinking lots of things Friday night as the Vikettes prepared to play Marion.

“Is there something I forgot to do before I came here?”

“I should have stopped for supper first.”
“I hope my kid gets to play/score/win.”

“Why do they insist on blaring that music so painfully loud in the gym before the game?”

Me, I was thinking something else:

“Do NOT take photos of armpits.”

It probably won’t surprise you if I tell you that I never had any formal journalistic training.

Not in college (public administration).

Not in high school (I was the only one in my class to take French all four years).

To make up for this lack of training, I spent lots of time reading books of articles and advice from journalists. Peggy Noonan. Jody Powell. Mike Royko. A book from ISU called “Community Journalism.” A Missouri School of Journalism college text book (from which I adapted my initial lessons for our Junior Journalists). Dave Barry. P.J. O’Rourke (who says he hates Dave Barry because Dave Barry is funnier than he is. I disagree). Paul Harvey. Charles Osgood. More Mike Royko. More Peggy Noonan. William Safire. More Royko. More Noonan. Dan Rather. More Royko. More Noonan.

And Lewis Grizzard.

Lewis Grizzard was a southern columnist and humorist. He made fun of everything, including himself. He was willing to point out the mistakes made by journalists, including himself.

In one of his many books – I forget which one – Grizzard wrote about a short time in his life when he was in the sports department of a southern newspaper. He wrote about the challenge of taking basketball photos.

“All of our photos were pictures of armpits,” he wrote.

And of course, armpit shots are a natural hazard when photographing that sport. Guys (or gals) wearing sleeveless shirts and raising their arms to shoot, pass or block a basketball.

But Grizzard had a colleague who somehow found a way to take photos of basketball action – good photos without armpits.

But later, Grizzard wrote, that man left for another job.

“And we went back to taking photos of armpits.”

I hadn’t taken photos of basketball for about 15 years when I went to the girls game last Friday. And the very first thing I heard –over that painfully loud music mentioned above – was the voice (in writing) of Lewis Grizzard.

“Don’t take photos of armpits.”

You can see, in the Vinton Today sports section the story about the girls’ game, to see how well I was able to follow that advice (I tried). Tomorrow, you can see my story about the boys’ game against Benton Community and see how well I followed Grizzard’s advice (I will try.)

I have read through that MSJ college text book, and nowhere did they tell me “do not take photos of armpits.”

That’s the kind of thing you only learn from experience.

Just to see if other people have learned that lesson, I looked at some basketball photos in recent newspapers.

Armpits.

Everywhere.

Then I looked at my photos. A couple of armpits. I have to do better.