In the fall of 2025, I worked as a photo editor for the Columbia Missourian. The Missourian's flagship photo feature page is called "Friday Night Sights," and focuses on the culture around high school football in mid-Missouri.
Instead of staffers, FNS is mostly done by eager volunteers, some of whom are eager, yet green, freshmen. This presents somewhat of a challenge in that there can be great disparity in the technical knowledge of photographers, and thus the quality of their pictures.
It is distinctly not a sports feature page. Photographers are expressly ordered to turn away from the field and focus on the rest. Classic FNS pictures may feature cheerleaders, bands, fans, coaches, vendors, and all the things that make high school football unique in America, and, we like to think, in mid-Missouri.
It serves as an excellent way to teach future photojournalists about what serious news photography looks like. Many come into college having shot only sports for their high school newspaper or yearbook, and they have never really considered what happens off the field. They also learn about ethics, for example, they all must get full names for every person in a picture, and ages, and parent permission for children. Anything less, and even the finest picture will end up on the imaginary darkroom floor.
It is an arduous process every Friday. Photographers and games are selected by midweek, and arrive at about 4 p.m. on the day of to be debriefed. Editors give a lecture explaining what kind of photos we are looking for, basic ethics, etc. Photographers retain little of it. We usually assign two photographers to every game-- one for action (to go along with sports stories) and one to do those features which we love. Sometimes, editors will assign sports fanatics to features in order for them to learn a new skill. Usually, we can cover 3-5 games a week, with priority to the four schools in the city of Columbia and secondary preference to the 10-15 outlying schools.
Photogs head out to games at about 5:30 for 7:00 start times. Games end at 9:30 or so, and photographers are instructed to stay late for postgame jubilation or heartbreak. When they arrive from 10-11, they ingest into our servers, get feedback, then are on their way. Editors pick out quality feature pictures from every shooter, then the editing team collectively selects the few which will be published.
WEEK 1- SEPT. 5
WEEK 2- SEPT. 12
WEEK 3-SEPT. 19
WEEK 4- SEPT. 26
WEEK 5- OCT. 3
WEEK 6- OCT. 10
WEEK 7- OCT. 17
WEEK 8- OCT. 24
WEEK 9- OCT. 31
WEEK 10- NOV. 7
