Staging Ethics

I think one of the reasons people go into situations and ask to stage something is because they have an image in their heads already of what the situation should look like. Letting the events roll out as they do is important in this business, if we do not manipulate the story, we should not manipulate the accompanying photographs. True, it is unfortunate when journalists miss the "big moment", but there are equally compelling photos that occur at other times. In the case of the article where the NFL player was drafted, the shooter should have taken pictures of the continued joy of the family, not necessarily the ecstatic expressions when receiving the call of being drafted. So maybe the shooter was late and really wanted that photo, but there was still integrity in the photos that could have been shot when he arrived. It is then a case of making the most of the moment.