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The Source Fell Short

I am a member of the Lutheran Church of Madison. On Dec 16, 2017, we had our annual Living Nativity presentation outside on the church grounds. We have given this presentation for approximately 25 years and it has been well received by the community. In 2017 it was attended by approximately 100 local people including your photographer Wes Bunnell. I was standing next to the photographer and watched him take many, many pictures of the 20-minute theatrical production, which included favorite Christmas carols, speaking parts, animals, and a cast and crew of about 40 people.

However the two pictures that showed up in The Source were one of a sheep and the farm hand who supplied the animal and one of the llama and the same farm hand—not a picture about the theme of the presentation, the reason for the season, nor the story of Christmas. If your newspaper is going to cover an activity, do you not think that the report should be about the activity? No pictures were shown of Joseph and Mary (who was riding a donkey if the photographer really needed an animal), nothing of the shepherds (who had a sheep with them), nor of the angels, wise men, or the choir! How disappointing to see farm animal representing our church and the true story of Christmas.

The Source is generally appreciated by the community, however, this time you fell short of the mark! It is my true hope that next year, the paper will strive to report more diligently on the true meaning of the activity being covered.

June Rae Merwin

Clinton

Editor’s note: There are numerous reasons that, despite our best efforts, a photo taken at an event might not make it to print: lighting may not cooperate, wardrobe may not cooperate, subjects may decline to give their name or be caught wearing something other than their most-flattering expression when the shutter snaps. In this case, aside from the standard difficulties of covering an outdoor event at night in the frigid cold, the photographer collected just one name, leaving our photo editors just one option for print. (Our deadlines do not provide time to research names after the fact.) We do have several other excellent images from the event (including our first choice with Mary riding a donkey) at Zip06.com.