Journoblog.com

This week, we needed some lighter stories. I took the chance at this, making a lightweight news piece requires a different kind of presentation and I was keen to have a crack at it.

I put together a piece about the move of Winchester’s Fire and Rescue Service (Fire Brigade, to you and I) to a new, eco-friendly station. I concentrated on making the story visually rich, as the story itself wasn’t that engaging, or so I thought. More on that shortly.

My favourite shot of the piece was that of a fireman carrying a box, viewed from between two appliances (fire engines, to you and I). I it worked well and conveyed the feeling of the piece.

But one thing came out of the blue which suddenly took precedence over the the move itself; to the new station, they brought with them a bell that was cast in memory of three firemen who were killed by a bomb in Southampton during WWII. They ring it at the start of each shift. Suddenly, a potentially bland piece had some soul.

This shows the importance of staying switched on. It would have been an easy thing to disregard and miss completely; you must always be looking for that human ingredient in a story.