Photo Shoot: Hail and Farewell

Dateline: NEW SMYRNA BEACH FLORIDA, March 6, 2015. Larry Bird lifted his head, looked out at the task ahead and plowed forward. No, this wasn’t a Celtics game, number 33 was a Kemps Ridley turtle heading out to sea after a long journey from cold stunned on Cape Cod in November to a reunion with the Atlantic in Florida. Reporter Doug Fraser and I spent five months following the reptiles from beach to rehab to release, just another day of journalism at the water’s edge. Doug has spent the majority of his reporting time in, on, over and occasionally under water with white deck boots, waders, wet suit and eternal patience, coupled with a natural curiosity, no matter what the story was, most of the time I was lucky to be along for the ride, usually driving. Erosion, sharks, whales, whales swallowing a diver, blizzards, vacationing presidents and hurricanes, if it happened on Cape Cod, Doug covered it, on boats, helicopters, and lots of miles on foot, always chasing the next story. Sometimes that story was donning a Santa suit at the Cape Cod Mall or knocking on doors after a fatal accident, but always done professionally.

nullAll this action journalism requires some sort of anchor to keep the team in the field tethered, on task and on deadline, enter Greg Bryant. Greg and I spent many a day early in our careers chasing news or even taking a ride on the “trash train” following Cape Cod’s garbage as it rode the rails to the SEMASS waste to energy plant. In the early 1990’s he moved into online world, creating the Cape Cod Times first website. A new world opened up for presenting news, photos and yes, videos. Change is a scary thing, especially for a batch of set in their way ink stained journalists for whom a stack of fresh morning papers still is a thing of beauty. But Greg guided, cajoled and pushed us into the digital frontier from his cubicle in the old newsroom. Our early morning team gathered to check in with him on overnight news, and then hustle to the day’s events. When news was breaking he was always a calm voice on the other end of the phone, getting photos and stories from cameras and laptops online, routinely scooping our big city competitors.

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Keen eyed readers will notice their bylines soon missing from the morning paper, as they head off to new adventures near and far. Having spent years with these two, many days more than with my own family, it is a hard parting. Boston Associated Press photo editor Bill Sikes said it best last year at his retirement, “Always remember that the people you cover and the people who are our customers are the reason we do all this. For their benefit, be rigorously skeptical, be rigorously thorough and be yourself,” indeed they did. Thanks for the memories, and if you see any good photo ops along the way, you’ve got my number.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Photo Shoot: Hail and Farewell