The end of the affair?
HN PHOTOS: A member of the Barnstable County Sherriff’s Crime Scene Investigation Unit photographs the interior of a possible stolen vehicle which had just been recovered by police, shortly after it had allegedly been taken while left running outside of a Yarmouth apartment building. Around this same time last evening, Barnstable police officers were also on the lookout for another stolen vehicle which had been observed in their town, on the four to midnight shift. Barnstable officers searched the area of Route 132 and the Mid-Cape to no avail…
The end of the affair?
[HN NOTES & MULLINGS ON THE MATTER]
It has been precisely ten years since I began full-time, providing free Hyannis News articles to Cape Cod news consumers, way back in 2013. I remember having just barely scraped up enough for a decent camera and some scanners, loading them into an old pickup truck and hitting the road to document emergency news scenes and whatnot, with my dog, like some crazy nut from Outerspace.
It has been a barrel of “fun” for the most part, learning photojournalism on the fly, while being yelled at by those not quite ready for HN’s style of unflinching news coverage, etc… In fact, in the beginning, the anti-HN animosity was so bad at times, one local police patrolwoman felt bad and kindly asked, “who’s yelling at you today, Rob?” as I stood dismissed and ignored, waiting at the police department window, trying to get my hands on a press release that had been released to everyone else but me. I was from outer space after all. Not yet a respected citizen in some circles. But that all would change, mostly because I was a persistent space nut, 10% ninja, 90% “sumbitch.”
In short, HN prevailed despite the initial animosity. Today, HN’s readership is up over one million page views per month. Over the past ten years, I’ve managed to make a basic living, affording me a daily ration of several cold beers and new reading material, anything from Graham Greene novels to textbooks on photojournalism, all by selling news footage to TV broadcasts and the occasional newspaper, locally and around the globe. Honestly, I’m proud to know there were a significant number of important local stories that would have gone completely unnoticed, or otherwise not adequately covered, had HN not been out there listening all night.
It has been ten years of long nights, impossible odds… and isolation from the daily norms of normal day trippers, people with “real lives.” And after such a nice, neat span of time, perhaps it’s well to ask oneself if it’s still worth the effort. Afterall, “the unexamined life is not worth living,” as Socrates supposedly would say in those primitive, backward years before the miracle of cellphones and TikTok. (“TikTok?!!! Surely you jest,” I picture some of my ilk asking right about now. I assure you, I never jest, and don’t call me Shirley! 😉 )
So, is this the end of the affair? Or could this be the “end of HN?” In retrospect, it has been a hard-boiled lifestyle of long nights, indeed. But on the bright side, people don’t yell at me as much as they used to, which is nice. And since that very first camera, I’ve been able to afford a dozen or so, state of the art professional models. And sometimes on slow nights, I simply hold and admire them, like rare gold nuggets. They still feel good in the hands. Ready for anything.
I believe, to make compelling content people rely on and really want to view, one must commit to a sometimes arduous, daily process of learning while being truly head-over-heels in love with one’s audience.
So, back to the initial question, “is this the end of the affair?” Should HN logically come to a conclusion after such a nice, neat span of effort and time?
Not as far as I’m concerned…
What say you?
P.S. – Today’s Hytown Vignette is a brought to you by STYX [CLICK IT/CRANK IT!]
