Years ago, Agnes Dikeman proferred the notion above to explain how Saline Journal parent D² Enterprises had itself amassed a thirty-five-year archive of photography featuring so many unique local images.
It’s an important observation. One of the most important.
The photograph above was the planned image to run with our behind-the-scenes article that was itself a different perspective on Saline Celtic Festival. An incredible amount of work goes into delivering a consistently excellent local experience here in Mill Pond Park. And that comes about through a blend of year-round leadership planning, big picture orchestration, and myriad discrete teams the come together to do their own things, mostly on their own, to create those sum of parts that make the whole bigger. [1,2,3]
Following our own on-the-ground experience as a paying exhibitor in 2017, this wasn’t a “10,000-foot story.”
As months become weeks, then days, then hours, stress and emotion rise. The weather threatens setup with either rain or oppressive heat — never seeming to find a moderated center. Things seemingly well-packed and organized one-year prior aren’t quite as remembered. Critical components break. Helpers can’t show up as scheduled, because they’ve been pulled to deal with multiple other last-minute challenges — invariably located as far away possible in a 54-acre park. [4,5]
This wasn’t the perspective that Jim Peters digressed to share during an interview at Carrigan Cafe for an unrelated story, nine months prior. But D² Enterprises has a lot of experience reporting on shows and construction. We knew what to expect. [6,7,8,9]
When Jim Peters mused in the weeks prior to Celtic Festival setup that he was “thinking” about putting this mechanical Loch Ness Monsters into Mill Pond sometime Thursday evening, any prudent photographer would make sure to reconnoiter the site starting sometime earlier on Thursday. When that passed without movement, a Friday vigil began. Saline Journal made its first return to the place where the now assembled contraptions now rested on the banks around 7:00am on opening day.
It would take all of four strong men to move the heavier piece into place. Every once in a while, a team of three looked like it was about to come together. But efforts had to conclude at 4:00pm with the official Saline Celtic Festival opening set for 5:00pm.
We were in place on Day Three a full hour earlier than Day Two.
Updates on anticipated put-in time had pretty much ceased by noon the day prior. Frustration was palpable. For a photographer to ask further beyond that point would not have been perceived as a partner in recording a unique view of history for posterity, appreciation, and ease of recruiting down the line. Rather, it would only be taken as annoying reminder from an interloper that a bad situation was getting worse by the minute.
From journalism to the creation of fine images, this is how photographs such as the one above are made — as Agnes Dikeman succinctly described it. She gets it. Such ends seldom come to those who expect the subject to call them with the story. Neither do they simply land in the viewfinder of the impatient or incurious.
That puts this skill on par with technical skill and experience.
References
Photographed on July 13, 2018 at 10:16am using Nikon D810 camera with Nikon 70-200mm AF-S Nikkor f/2.8 lens, set to f/8 at 1/250-second and ISO 800 (hand-held).
- Saline Celtic Festival (home page).
- “Mill Pond Mechanical Loch Ness Monster At Saline Celtic Festival Is A Blend Of Engineering And Fantasy” Dell Deaton (July 13, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “Mill Pond Park” Saline.
- “d2 Saline” Twitter.
- “10000 foot view” Cambridge Dictionary.
- Carrigan Cafe (home page).
- “You Can Still Make Donations to K9 Crusaders for Hurricane Relief” Janet Deaton (October 7, 2017) Saline Journal.
- “Saline Has Been Providing Detroit Auto Show Content for Decades” Dell Deaton (January 11, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “Newly Constructed Cadillac and LaSalle Motor Car Museum to Open Here in Michigan” Dell Deaton (September 22, 2014) Saline Journal.
