Front Sight...

[Magic]

I agree, it is nice to see people you know in the magazine.

I do however have to express my extreme disappointment with the fact that there was no picture of the Open Ladies National Champion, Rebecca Jones. Not only was there no photo, she was hardly mentioned at all. I think she deserved more respect than that.

By saying this, I mean no disrespect at all to those who were mentioned or had their pictures in the article...but I do feel she did not receive the recognition she deserved.

Megan F.

[BritinUSA]

I do however have to express my extreme disappointment with the fact that there was no picture of the Open Ladies National Champion, Rebecca Jones. Not only was there no photo, she was hardly mentioned at all. I think she deserved more respect than that.

By saying this, I mean no disrespect at all to those who were mentioned or had their pictures in the article...but I do feel she did not receive the recognition she deserved.

This has been an issue in the past in my opinion. We (USPSA) need to grow the number of women competitors and a lack of recognition does not help that cause. I had hoped to follow the Ladies Squad for the entire Nationals (2008) and do a full write-up, but the weather and the schedules killed that idea. If I get to go to Nevada this year then I shall try my best to get it done this time around. Assuming no mud-fest, of course.

[Flexmoney]

I wonder if Front Sight would run photos taken by the average shutter-bug at a match? Or, do they need to be certain print quality, resolution, megapixels and such?

I almost wonder if we don't need to field some photo-journalists types from each region (Area) of the USA?

It seems to me that the eastern USA shooters that are kicking butt...it takes a while for them to filter into the consciousness of the editorial staff at FS.

I know it took quite a while for Phil Strader to get any recognition. Same with Bob Vogel.

I recall the first Nationals at Tulsa. I was on a different rotation than the Open shooters and was following along with my room-mate who was shooting on one of the Open Super Squads. Smitty shared that he planned to supine on this stage <clickity>. I thought...man...we just don't get to see that too often, that would make a great picture for Front Sight. I knew the photographer was in the next stage over, so I went to tell him about this great photo op. He looked at me like I was talking about Bachi Ball in Europe or something.

[Alan Meek]

Here is one of the pictures that I took of Rebecca at the 2009 USPSA Nationals.

I provide the photo to USPSA with permission to use it.

Alan

edited cus I kan't spull

Edited February 26, 2009 by Alan Meek

[BritinUSA]

I wonder if Front Sight would run photos taken by the average shutter-bug at a match? Or, do they need to be certain print quality, resolution, megapixels and such?

I think that the requirements for picture quality (resolution) etc. are listed in Front Sight magazine. I seem to recall it's on page 3 (may be wrong). Anyone can submit articles.

I think FS needs to have a bumper issue each year that has detailed write-ups of the Nationals. But in order for that to happen people need to step up to the plate and do the legwork. I'm going to try to get that done this year at Nevada, if I get to go.

[Sharyn]

We strongly encourage submitting photographs. The number of photos used per article varies according to the quality of the photographs and length of the story. Photographs without accompanying manuscripts are rarely accepted – please check with us beforehand.

Each photo submitted must have a caption including the photographer's name and USPSA number, along with the names of all identifiable people in the picture. An exception is panoramic views in which there are dozens of people; otherwise we avoid photographs with unidentified people. If you can submit a caption explaining why this picture is important to the story, so much the better!

Front Sight can use digital photographs saved in most of the popular formats (.gif, .jpg, .tif, etc.). HOWEVER, Front Sight requires much higher resolution than that typically used on web sites. We require 300 dpi files, preferably sent as .tif files on a PC-formatted CD-ROM. Small, 72 dpi images such as those provided by inexpensive "web cams" are not printable in Front Sight. Likewise, computer printouts of digital images (no matter what the resolution) are not re-printable in Front Sight. If you want to send files by e-mail, please send them as .jpg, and we’ll do the conversion to .tif on our end.

Film Photography

Hard-copy photographs may be either black-and-white or color prints up to 5x7 inches in size; however, it is not necessary to spend the money for prints larger than the standard 3x5 or 4x6. Do not send slides.

http://www.frontsightmagazine.org/Guidelines.html

[RTJ]

I debated on replying to this, as I certainly do not want to give the impression of being "stuck up" over a magazine article. And as Megan said, I mean absolutely no disrespect to others who were in the article. They are great shooters and SHOULD get coverage.

However I have to admit I was also disappointed at the lack of coverage for achieving high open lady, as well as Megan's performance right on my heels. The main reason being because we had such stiff competition - coming out on top amongst such skilled lady shooters was certainly the highlight of my shooting career. It was slightly embarrassing as the small mention in article made it seem (to me) as if it was "no big deal" when most of us know how many extremely talented lady open shooters there really were at that match. I do understand it is difficult to get good coverage, especially at a mud bowl. I did, however, give an interview and offered more comments on my match and my season (and thanks to Alan for offering pictures!). I am fully aware that I was not/am not that well known in USPSA and that is OK - after all, this is a hobby for me. However I guess it is as Flexmoney says, there are many who deserve to be recognized and are not. That is unfortunate.

Regardless of what is or isn't written on paper, I am proud to now be in the company of open national champs such as Athena, Kay, Doni, Lisa, Julie... And I greatly appreciate the support of my fellow shooters, friends, and family who helped me get there. I think the last line of this article was the best part and meant the most to me - "The ones that overcame difficult conditions, digging victory out of the mud and rain to defeat the World’s best, they deserve to be called “National Champions."

Respectfully,

Rebecca

[99gski]

I am going to pipe in here as well. I thoroughly enjoy reading my Front Sight Magazines. It is clear to me that the USPSA Staff works very hard putting these together for us. A big thank you for all their efforts!!!

That said, I too was surprised about the coverage of the ladies divisions. Rebecca may be the newest Ladies National Champion, but she has been on the scene for several years now and is a proven contender. Even though Rebecca did not shoot on the ladies super squad, both she and Megan are consistently in the Top 8 which makes them both on the list to watch. Not being there I wondered - How many stages did she win? How close was it between her and Megan? The other ladies? No quote? I realize it is a challenge to cover all the excitement of these matches and edits have to be made.

We have SO many great young women coming up and winning. Rebecca, Jessie, Randi... More women for our shooting sports is critical to make them grow - young women who will inspire junior shooters. Mature women who can introduce their friends and families into shooting. I firmly believe we should capitalize on all our champions. Whether its Kay and Lisa who come back to battle every year showing us that as they get older they still are a force to reckon with or Rebecca who has shown the dedication and endurance needed to win since she was a teenager.

Again, I have a huge amount of respect for the staff at USPSA. I don't believe in complaining without coming up with a solution. Maybe a USPSA could insert links like this one: http://www.downrange.tv/blog/?p=784 into their articles. Print space is precious but the internet is the solution. A Q&A with the national champions posted to a blog or the Nationals page would be another way to recap the event with the winners. Include - "For more information and interviews with the winners please visit www.____." USPSA is making leaps and bounds to promote the sport. Dave Thomas is always interested in ideas so be sure to email him or your area director.

With that, congrats Rebecca. You are a champ in my book!

[BritinUSA]

The problem with coverage of major shooting events is that there are so many competitors and probably only 1 or 2 people who are there to cover the event for USPSA. As I mentioned already, we need some volunteers to make this work, I am not criticizing Front Sight they have limited resources to cover events like this one.

All it takes is some time to follow the top women shooters, take some pictures, get some feedback from the shooters about how the match is going and write it all up. If I get a slot this year then I am definitely going to try and make this happen, it'll be easy if I can get on an opposite shooting schedule so I can focus on my own match as well.

I still think FS should have a bumper issue each year with tons of coverage of our premier events.

[pjb45]

Well, I have not written about any National match, but I have had several A2 and WSSSC articles printed in Front Sight. I can remember at least one article were almost all the pictures were of the women shooters.

The author of the article decides how much space is devoted to women shooters. I must admit that I was neglegent in not mentioning many of the fine Jr shooters. Although Nils did get a mention once.

Mostly what USPSA staff did to my articles was perform basic editing, making the article more readable, fixing some of the grammar, etc. They never once told me I could not mention someone, something, etc. Dave was quite supportive of the fact I used to mention the sponsors in the articles. The sponsors do so much for our sports that the need all the free publicity they can get.

So the solution is to better inform the writers of the need to mention all the shooters who perform well; seniors, women, Jrs.

In the past Nyle often supplied the photos in my articles. Typically, a camera with 8 mgs or better will suffice for supplying photos.

Edited February 27, 2009 by pjb45

[Robin Taylor]

For the record, Front Sight relies on member-supplied material to keep its pages full. Roger Maier, Dave Thomas, and myself sometimes get a chance to cover major matches, but as a rule, only one of us is assigned to cover any given national championship.

I'm very much in Julie's camp in that I'm disappointed we weren't able to do more for Rebecca and Megan. Roger Maier (who worked that match) has the same feeling. As Roger's article pointed out, Rebecca and Megan coming out on top was a surprise even to the ladies' super squad. If it's a surprise to them, imagine Roger!

When you're working as a one-man show, as he was, squadding plays a huge role in our ability to cover the match. If the men and the ladies are shooting on opposite ends of the range, you have to do a lot of juggling. Now add multiple divisons, juniors, seniors, etc. If the winners aren't shooting on a Super Squad, you're all but lost. What works best for me is squadding where the ladies precede the men by one squad on the same "flight." That lets me set up and cover the top women, then leave my gear in place as the gotta-have-'em Supers show up. Skip ahead by a stage, repeat.

It's just one of several reasons why Super Squads are so important.

If anyone out there has a particular bent toward helping us cover the ladies, juniors, or whatever, we'd be thrilled to have the help. Even if you're just keeping an eye on what happens so we know what questions to ask when we check in with you, that would be a huge help -- especially at nationals.

If you want to do the photography or write the story, go for it! Give me a call a few weeks prior so I can coordinate assignments.

That Rhodesian prone/supine photo is a nice shot, we'd have loved to have used it.

Robin Taylor

Front Sight magazine

[BritinUSA]

Robin, thanks for confirming what I wrote. I was pretty sure that USPSA only had a single person to cover the match. It's simply not enough people to cover such a large event. Ideally you need to have all the top shooters on one squad, and follow them around for the duration of the match to get a feel for what is happening and all the little snippets of information that lead to a solid article.

If some of the women want to cover the event themselves that will work, though I found it hard to focus on shooting while taking pictures etc.

If I get to go to Nevada this year then I will do what I can to help. I like the idea of co-ordinating this effort so all the bases can be covered.

[JThompson]

The USPSA seems to have plenty of cash, so why not get 3-4 people at the majors to cover them better?

JT

[shred]

I've had a few pictures and an article published in FS and I agree they do really well with the time and manpower available. Robin's even come to me for pictures that he thought I might have handy.

But, if the issue is the staff photographer didn't manage to get a photo of a division winner at Nationals, how about a 'call for photos'? It's tough to shoot a Nationals and not get photographed by somebody, especially if you are a lady shooter.

I'm not going to randomly send in photos from the match due to the whole 'photos without articles are rarely accepted' thing, but if they say, say "we need a photo of Dave Thomas actually shooting a match.. if you have a good one, please let us know", then I'd be flipping through my gallery shots to find one. I doubt there would be such a flood of photos that staff couldn't pick out the best few in short order.

Has that been tried?

[Flexmoney]

Might need a check list too?

[Bergie]

PhotoMotion was there and took many photos of every shooter in the match. They could have gotten one from her.

I don't think they tried real hard.

[Carmoney]

While there may have been an unfortunate oversight in this particular instance, women and junior shooters have always received far more "play" in Front Sight than their proportionate numbers in our sport would ordinarily dictate. I'm not saying that's a bad thing--just making an observation.

[Steve J]

There are four subcategories. It wouldn't hurt to have a photo of the High Military, High Law Enforcement and High Junior as well as the High Lady. I'm sure someone will take a photo of the single National Champion at each match.

[GTOSHootr]

I don't understand why talk of match coverage doesn't include post match interviews either right after the match or through emails and phone calls later. Seems like a fool proof way to not leave out any "dark horses" that weren't on a Super Squad.

[Carmoney]

There are four subcategories. It wouldn't hurt to have a photo of the High Military, High Law Enforcement and High Junior as well as the High Lady. I'm sure someone will take a photo of the single National Champion at each match.

That would be nice. But before they cover all the categories, they need to make sure there is decent coverage for all the divisions first.

[XRe]

Here is one of the pictures that I took of Rebecca at the 2009 USPSA Nationals.

Dude, nice! Can I borrow your time machine? I could make a mint if I knew the winners of all of this year's major sporting events!

[Steve J]

There are four subcategories. It wouldn't hurt to have a photo of the High Military, High Law Enforcement and High Junior as well as the High Lady. I'm sure someone will take a photo of the single National Champion at each match.

That would be nice. But before they cover all the categories, they need to make sure there is decent coverage for all the divisions first.

Mike, I pretty much agree with that too. My subtle point unless I'm completely mistaken was that USPSA only recognizes one Champion per match. That's all I see on the USPSA results pages. The only time I see high whatever converted in to champion status is on personal and corporate webpages.

[Alan Meek]

Here is one of the pictures that I took of Rebecca at the 2009 USPSA Nationals.

Dude, nice! Can I borrow your time machine? I could make a mint if I knew the winners of all of this year's major sporting events!

oops LOL,

Thanks for catching that now let's see if I have predicted the future LOL

Alan

[Carmoney]

There are four subcategories. It wouldn't hurt to have a photo of the High Military, High Law Enforcement and High Junior as well as the High Lady. I'm sure someone will take a photo of the single National Champion at each match.

That would be nice. But before they cover all the categories, they need to make sure there is decent coverage for all the divisions first.

Mike, I pretty much agree with that too. My subtle point unless I'm completely mistaken was that USPSA only recognizes one Champion per match. That's all I see on the USPSA results pages. The only time I see high whatever converted in to champion status is on personal and corporate webpages.

Yeah, but I'm not talking about classes (GM/M/A/B/C/D), I'm talking about divisions (O, L, L10, P, R, SS). Divisions deserve coverage before classes, and before categories.

As many of you have probably figured out, I'm specifically referring to the way Revolver division has received short shrift in major match coverage, particularly this past year when we were mentioned only in passing in a long and detailed article about the L/P/R Nationals.

[Bergie]

If you recall, in the L/P/R article the women barely got a mention. Yes, Jessie was on the cover but the article didn't have anything to say about the women. A few photos with captions but not much else.