This helps keep things fresh and interesting. When a photographer comes into the office to start his day, whether on morning, afternoon or evening shift, he or she will generally pick up any assignments that have been made the day before. Other assignments will come in during the day as news breaks and reporters start working on stories. A staff photographer usually will have two or three assignments in a day, but sometimes more or less. Often the photographer and the reporter work separately on a story, but sometimes they will work together.
Some assignments necessitate working together to make the story and pictures fit.
Other times they would just get in each other's way if we were both there at the same time. In either case, the photographer's job is to illustrate the story, but it is up to him or her how that is accomplished. The reporter will no more tell a photographer how to take the picture that the photographer will suggest to the reporter how to write a story. It is unusual for one person to both photograph and write the story. After completing the assignment the photographer brings the film back the office he or she works out of for processing.