Rafa Fariña, photographer

Today´s post focuses on how Diario de Pontevedra covered a fire that happened late at night. We have paid attention to everything, but especially to the role of its photographer, Rafa Fariña. To know why, it is not enough to look at his pictures; we must read what his colleague Adrián Rodríguez has told us.

“We were told about the fire after 9 pm. Our closing hour is 12 pm, so we needed to act quickly: we had to make space in pages that were almost finished and to assess the importance of what was happening. We kept in permanent touch with the photographer who was already on his way home and had to go to Ponte Caldelas,  20km from Pontevedra. At the beginning we were not going to give much importance to the story but at the end we gave it a double-page. The photographer, Rafa Fariña, told us the topic was important and that there would be good pictures, so it was fundamental to use them.  That is why we did such a graphic double-page. There was another factor to bear in mind: some houses had been affected and the neighbors fight against the fire had altered the course of it. That meant that even though houses were going to be saved, dozens of hectares were going to burn throughout the night and it was useless to give any number as it was going to be out-dated. This is the result of three hours of work”:

"The photograph´s work didn´t end there. He uploaded the pictures into our system with his iPad and he stayed up in the mountain until 5 a.m. The work was still going to be difficult the next day, so we had to call in the cavalry. Águeda Piñeiro, the correspondent in that area was on vacation and wasn´t coming back until two days after. But we called her and asked for the possibility of coming back earlier. She had no obligation to do it but she accepted and the next morning she went with the photographer and looked for the eye-witness accounts of those who had been fighting the fire. We also needed to use those great pictures we already had".

"Once the fire was under control, it was time to find an explanation for what had happened, something that generates a lot of debate in Galicia. We did not want to get enmeshed in the political debate, so we turn to those who best know the mountain. We asked Xan Sabarís´ team to make an infographic report that could help understand the size of the burned area".

"There was still time for the flames to revive and for the photographer Rafa Rariña to show us how it is worth having an experienced professional on your team".

"Víctor Méndez, our specialized editor in events, got a beautiful ending for the story: an anonymous hero (not so anonymous now) that studies 6th grade at Elementary School".

Heroes from Venezuela

The newspaper Últimas Noticias (Venezuela) celebrated its 72nd birthday last week. Happy birthday!

To celebrate it, the newspaper published an outstanding supplement: “Superhéroes de esta tierra” (super heroes from this nation). Its essence was to honor those who “battle for life”. Stories about people who are virtuous, humble, generous, persistent, fair, loyal…
We offer a wide selection:

The magic of numbers

When information revolves around a number, the potential for creating eye-catching pages grows. Because these pages are original, visually different. These  past few days we have seen some examples. We will feature three:

The first one, from Las Provincias, focuses on the first 100 days of the new Valencia Soccer Team´s President Salvo.

The second one is from Marca. The chosen number is 32, which is the number of goals that Messi needs to score this season to be the highest scorer in the Spanish League´s History:

The third one is from El Periódico and the chosen number is 10. It talks about the 10 most visited monuments in Barcelona.

 

One and only stories

We have to admit it: series like these hook us. Because we like sports and we like stories.Each Monday, for months now, Juan Carlos Álvarez presents us with one in the newspaper Faro de Vigo. Pages like these enhance any section.

Relaxing cup of café con leche

When you least expect it, you make history with a sentence. In this case, as we know, the general mockery surrounding the English employed by Madrid´s Mayor has helped propel her to glory.  

That day, the social networks where the hot spot for comments. The newspapers took the relief. For example, Heraldo focused on the topic and asked the local politicians about their English level.

The supplement "V" from the regional newspapers of Vocento group had a more historical perspective: a funny, but documented, review of Spaniards´ English level.

La Vanguardia went even further and interviewed ten politicians in English.

We want to know

The beginning of the academic year is always a reason for many articles because it is the time to talk about education, a topic which interests everybody. We present an article from Heraldo that has three good features: there are facts, there are stories and there is an interesting comparison.

Summer correspondents

We like this series published by the newspapers from the Vocento group. Discovering people. Learning more about people that, maybe, go unnoticed but that have been or are relevant. A simple series, but with signatures that always contribute: Mikel Ayestarán, Zigor Aldama, Paula Rosas, Rafael Mañueco, Iñaki Castro, Iñigo Gurruchaga... Some examples: