By Jay D. Prince
Over the past 10 years, we’ve made our share of mistakes in this magazine. I’m not talking about typos, but rather oversights or errors of omission. At one point several years ago, I wrote a feature story about a major PSA event and neglected to use the full title of that Championship. Not just in the headline, but nowhere in the article did the sponsor’s name appear. The problem wasn’t so much that I’d gotten the official name of the event wrong, but leaving out the name of the title sponsor meant the tournament promoter couldn’t send copies of the issue to the sponsor and give them that feel-good moment of seeing their sponsorship dollars at work. I learned my lesson on that one rather quickly.
But what troubles me more is when we neglect to give proper credit to a writer or photographer. While the photo credits are generally in very small print, sideways in the spine of the magazine, most of the photos we are supplied are done so free of charge. Those photographers who provide their images without requesting payment are taking the pictures because they either love the game, or they’re doing a favor for the event promoter. While it is a small detail in producing any magazine, it is terribly frustrating when we miss the error and print the magazine without the acknowledgment.
Last month, I blew it when I left Dale Walker’s photo credit out. Not for one photograph, but for two. As you can imagine, Dale was rather disappointed by the omission, and she was quick to send me an email saying so. While it is embarrassing, to say the least, this particular omission is more disturbing to me than most simply because of all the hours Dale spends taking an endless number of photos at virtually any event taking place at Yale.
Dale was the Yale women’s squash coach for 18 years, and in her “retirement” she has taken up photography in a big way. You can’t miss her at the events at Yale as she runs around the Brady Squash Center, placing her box on any one of the courts, and then diligently taking hundreds of pictures with her remote control. Yes, she does make pictures available for purchase to those who would like to buy them. But in the ten years I’ve been soliciting Dale for images of juniors, college players and even adults (if I didn’t take them myself), she has never failed to reply to my requests quickly. And she has never asked to be paid.
Instead, I put photo credits in the magazine that steer people to her website (dalewalkerphoto.com). But this time around, I left it out. And though I’m sure Dale understands that it was an oversight on my part, I know how important it is to me when I send articles or pictures to people who request to reprint them. If nothing else, the credits are a welcome acknowledgment of my efforts, and the credits also serve as a mark of ownership—maybe not an explicit copyright statement, but the implication is virtually the same.
I’m quite certain that I’ve missed other things over the years that the neglected individuals have opted not to bring to my attention. But if I have, and when we do in the future, I really would appreciate it if those we neglect do let me know. We do try very hard to give credit where credit is due, but when we don’t, we’d like to know.
And the next time you are looking for photos taken during events at Yale, among other places (Dale does seem to get around the New England area), you might want to visit Dale’s website. You just might find what you’re looking for to add to your mantel.
