In those moments between events, life goes on. 

A tornado strikes a southern American town and the following day, blue skies prevail. How do you tell the story of the storm’s wrath in that quiet aftermath?

Rain and wind overtake training days before the Kentucky Derby. Rain is ordinary, the Derby normally happens every year. How to report the ordinary with impact?

Photographing the before, during and after of a singular event is a challenge Associated Press photographers meet every day. 

But what about the everyday passing of time, not pegged to a particular scheduled or breaking news event? Or the COVID pandemic, with its unending toll?

Stories are not written about trains passing through a blue German dawn or cotton candy being sold on a beach in Venezuela. Kids running along a ridge in Phoenix is not a compelling, news-worthy situation. But as these talented AP photographers featured here show, they are moments worth savoring and remembering. 

Thanks for looking.

The Shot is a monthly series showcasing top photojournalism from staff photographers at The Associated Press. Each month, AP photographers will share the stories behind some of their iconic imagery.

Produced by AP News staff. The sponsor was not involved in the creation of this content.

Charlie Riedel

Unless I have a specific topic, I am trying to illustrate (weather, holidays, etc.), I often search for people doing everyday things when looking for feature photos. This can be as simple as someone watching a sunset or playing in a fountain. 

A common theme I like to shoot are scenic photos of moonrises or sunsets. I try to incorporate people in those photos but that is usually hard to do so I sometimes make photos of buildings or landmarks with the moon or sun. I spent the first part of my career shooting daily features at a small newspaper in a town where not much happened, thus almost every day was spent making something out of nothing. I challenged myself daily to take whatever photo I shot, perhaps something as mundane as mowing a lawn or painting a fence and make it the best photo of that situation anyone has ever seen. I rarely hit that target, but I took pride in people complimenting me on whatever boring subject I put in the newspaper the previous day and saying something like “you know I’ve driven past that subject a thousand times and never noticed it before.” It became my mission to show the world in a new way to our readers.

I have always gravitated toward very clean graphic striking photos. These often take the form of silhouettes or shadows. My goal is to produce a photo that the viewer will immediately connect with. That clean graphic look is the foundation of all photos for me. Beyond that if I can make an interesting composition with great light and some sort of moment or interaction, then I have been successful.

Brynn Anderson

Feature hunting is hard. Its one of the more challenging parts of my job. I remember when I was an intern in Lima, Ohio working for a local paper. We would need to fill the entire paper with found images. In my early days the struggle to find a feature everyday was amazing and difficult. Trying to make something interesting out of nothing happening was one of the greatest formations of how I shoot today.

Patience. Trying to create something within an event that will help elevate a story. It stretches my brain beyond the event itself. Some of my favorite moments came from waiting for a photo to unfold while feature hunting. Looking at details. Sometimes it all lines up and becomes something interesting, and other times it just doesn’t work.  

Kentucky Derby: The image was shot after a long wait. I saw this image earlier in the day with several people sitting there, similar to the woman, but it was busy and the background was cluttered. So I waited a long time. Nothing changed for a while. So I moved on thinking I would return. I got a couple of other shots and then decided to go back. And there she was in all of her glory. A beautiful outfit and hat. I snuggled into a corner and waited for the background to clear out and hoped she didn't see me and get distracted. It all came together as she read. The colors worked well together with the green and red.

Kentucky Tornado:  The image was shot during coverage of a horrible tornado that tore through a town in Kentucky. I was working on the story after my hometown of Bowling Green was hit pretty hard. This shot was made in Mayfield, Ky., only a few hours away. I was there a few days after the tornado hit. Everyone was starting to clean the debris.  I was wandering around in the midday sun when I saw this memorial of the tornado victims. I used a flash, lowered the exposure and picked the spot that would show the most to tell the story. 

Spring Training: This image was shot during spring training baseball and the pandemic. We were highly restricted on where we could shoot. I worked the area the best I could before I got bored. I was wandering around trying to think of anything that would peak my interest. And I started looking for holes in the fenced off areas the media could shoot. It was midday so the sun in Florida was high in the sky and hot. I kept seeing a reflection off their helmets so I took advantage of it and tried to make an interesting shot as a batter hit during practice. 

Ariana Cubillos

In Venezuela I gravitate toward showing the needs people have and problems they face, particularly those who are unseen or forgotten. For example, those suffering serious health problems who cannot afford treatment amid Venezuela’s broken health system. Or how others manage to survive amid sky-high inflation while earning rock bottom wages. However, I do find opportunities to document celebrations, like block parties.

Instead of looking for the perfect light or graphic elements, I’m searching for human moments, like the youth playing in the water of a drainage ditch. The most important element I use is always having my camera ready. I prefer to go out early in the morning or late afternoon

At an event everything happens in one place and the pictures are all right there. But with feature hunting, it’s just that, a hunt that takes time. It’s more demanding because you are searching for a situation, and you don’t know where or if you will find it. I explore a lot of places and speak to many, many people while feature hunting, which I enjoy because I learn about more people’s’ lives and it usually leads me to deeper stories.

Michael Probst

I usually have two options if I shoot a feature, I either try to find something news related (in Frankfurt mostly stuff with financial markets) or I just go for a nice photograph. I prefer to take pictures early in the morning or late in the evening, because most other photographers don’t work at this time of the day. In summer that means I have to get up at 4:00 in the morning. And in my eyes, everything looks better at twilight.

When I leave the house, I always have an idea what I want to do.

I use all kind of lenses but love to shoot with 800 mm. My favorite subjects are sunrises and sunsets, the moon, horses and other animals.  People, not so much.

I personally find feature photography more challenging than news conferences or soccer matches (which I also do).

If I look at picture galleries in German online papers I see a lot of different looking stuff from Asia or the US or Africa, so I always have in mind to try something that Asians or Africans don’t see often in their countries.

Spotlight is the blog of AP Images, the world’s largest collection of historical and contemporary photos.

Produced by AP News staff. The sponsor was not involved in the creation of this content.

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