The dangerous life of a photographer

TV newsrooms are full of interesting characters – anchors, reporters, directors, producers, etc. But some of the most fascinating people, in my opinion, are photographers. They serve as the viewers’ eyes and ears, and all of them have a crazy story to share about something they experienced while on the job.

Lori Foushee WRAL’s Lori Foushee is no exception. She was a photographer at our station from 1991-99 until a back injury took her out of the photography game. Now, she works as a senior editor at our station. She agreed to share a couple of her most memorable stories from her time as a photographer:

"(WRAL anchor) Debra Morgan and I were covering the James Jordan murder story down in Lumberton. We were going down a dirt road to try to talk to the family members of one of the suspects. As we are driving towards the house, all these other news crews were leaving. As we got out at the house, we heard gun shots … they were for us. The father was shooting to get us to leave. Needless to say, we got back in the car. The other news crews were across a field from the house and heard those shots and knew we had gone down there, so they were worried. I was, needless to say, a little shaken but we were OK.

Another time, I was shooting high school football for Football Friday. I was shooting on the sidelines. As I was shooting this one play, I could see the quarterback coming towards me. In those days, when I was shooting, I would shut my left eye while my right eye was in the viewfinder, so I didn’t quite grasp how fast and close he was coming towards me. He came at me and cut my legs right out from under me. He was a very polite high school quarterback and said, 'Are you OK baby?' I could have done without the 'baby,' but he was being polite. I was sore, but the camera did survive and I made plays of the week."

Thanks to Lori for sharing her stories with us!