I've been a small town journalist my entire career, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I love what I do. I love the people I meet and the way I'm able to contribute to my community through my job. It's very fulfilling. I can't imagine doing anything else, and I often wonder why everyone in the world doesn't want to do what I do for a living because I just think it's so cool.

That said, there are, of course, little things about any vocation that make those in it a bit crazy on occasion.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone to an assignment expecting to take a photo or two of three people, only to walk into a room filled to the rafters with involved parties.

Now, don't get me wrong. I completely understand that volunteers and others behind community events are important. I don't dispute that in the least.

But the fact is, a group shot of 20 people standing in lines is just a bad photo -- even if one of them is holding a big, cardboard check. Aesthetically, it doesn't work. From a newspaper design standpoint, it's a disaster.

I always take the group shots, but usually I'll try to take something else as well ... something that will translate better into print. Nine times out of 10, I'm not going to run the group shot (these photos are known in newspaper circles as "the police line-up shot").

There are two rules of thumb in newspaper design that make group shots of dozens a no-no: First, you are never supposed to run a photo in which the subjects' heads are smaller than nickels. Secondly, it's generally frowned upon to run a photo cutline in which everyone is photo is not identified by name -- some editors don't have a problem doing this, but I won't. In cases where there are 15 people in a photo, the cutline could well be larger than the photo itself, and that just makes for an ugly layout.

We here at the Banner Graphic are dedicated to making this newspaper better in all kinds of ways. To me, that means not only working harder to get better stories in and cover more events, but to also run better quality photos.