5 YEARS
 |
| Dave Chambers |
Name: David Wade Chambers
Newspaper: Delaware State News
Position: Photo Editor
Number of years in the newspaper or printing business: Five
Job description: I provide photographic coverage of spot news, enterprise and sports assignments, primarily in Kent County, and edit all published photographs using Photoshop. I hire and manage freelance photographers, maintain all digital equipment and update the digital photo archives. I also create layouts, graphics, maps & illustrations as needed.
What I like best (about my job): After 5 years as a photojournalist in Dover, I enjoy finding myself in the role of “memory maker”. Every time I take a snapshot, I am basically making memories for people and families. Whether it’s a football game, a school play, an election, a parade, etc…. they are memories they may cut out and hang on their refrigerator, keep forever in a scrapbook and hopefully cherish forever. I also like how working at the State News has allowed me to get the opportunity to teach photography at Delaware Technical and Community College one night a week per semester.
Most memorable moment with INI: I have two. First, in January 2009 when then President-Elect Obama came to Wilmington during his whistle stop tour to Washington before his inauguration. It was a Saturday in January. I was in Wilmington at 6am (I was the second photog there) and it was a frigid six degrees. The media gathered in a huge park and waited for the thousands of people to arrive. Obama and Biden didn’t get there until 2pm. So, I was outside for approx. 8 hours in freezing temperatures, with thousands of Obama supporters, I saw a President, a Vice-President and I almost lost all ten toes due to frostbite. Unforgettable.
Secondly, the Case of The Hartly Monkey. In 2007, we did a story on a garage demolition in Hartly. The garage sat on the town’s four corners and was beloved by the townspeople for generations apparently. One hundred or so Hartly residents came out to witness the demolition and most told stories to each other of how they had heard from an older family member that there were monkey bones buried in one of the concrete columns of the garage. Apparently an eccentric owner of the garage in the 40s or 50s had a menagerie of exotic animals behind the building and after one of his pet monkeys had died he buried it in the concrete. After a while, I realized I was hearing about a local town legend….one the townspeople didn’t really know for sure was real or not. After getting my photographs of the bulldozers, I left. But as I was leaving, I asked the people to call the State News if they indeed found monkey bones. I wasn’t back in the newsroom 5 minutes when the phone rang. 20 minutes later I was back at the destroyed garage and had taken a photo of a Hartly woman holding a very small monkey skull. It was on the front page the next day. It was a local town legend proved true and it happened on my watch. Unforgettable.
Hobbies/Interests: I enjoy photography, Adobe Photoshop and graphic design obviously. I also enjoy painting (I was a Painting major at the University of Delaware in the 80s), watching British television, drinking Pepsi, eating pizza, listening to old school hip-hop, and driving BMWs. I like the New York Yankees, going to the beach, playing golf and riding my mountain bike. Someday I hope to get married and have a kid named Schmitty, Jr.
Fun facts (about myself):
1. At age 11, I was the first black belt to graduate from the Delaware Institute of Martial Arts (sounds cooler than it is, really)
2. I have never been outside of the Eastern Time Zone (even more embarrassing than it sounds, really).
3. My former jobs were (in chronological order) fast food cook, athletic sneaker salesman, sign maker, banker, bartender (one night), substitute teacher, Photoshop technician, graphic designer and Trash Can Dan (don’t ask...really).
