JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Randy Sell, Kevin Talley, and Mark Clanton — three Channel 4 photojournalists — have covered it all...
From the moment Jacksonville landed the Jaguars, to hurricanes targeting the area, from breaking news and the COVID pandemic, to a passenger plane in the St. Johns River, to presidential elections.
“In 1990, they expanded the news to an hour and a half and they had to add a sports photographer and he called me,” Talley said.
“There’s been some fun ones, there’s been some not-so-fun ones. But overall it’s been pretty good. A long time,” Clanton said.
The three of them have a combined eight decades at The Local Station and their lenses have recorded historic moments in the city, but Monday is their last day.
“The most exciting thing I shot was the tornado a few years ago‚” Sell said. “I was going to breaking news on another story, ended up taking a different route to get there because I couldn’t cut over on the interstate and it came down the street on us and I got out and shot it.”
The job of a photojournalist isn’t easy. You’re there to document history, and sometimes it’s history people don’t want to be recorded.
“Sometimes the camera draws a crowd, sometimes the camera disperses the crowd. It’s 50-50. I’ve been kicked out of some places before,” Clanton said.
But that was their job.
Mark and Randy were on the streets five days a week covering the news. For Kevin, his focus has been on sports and if you’ve tuned in any night, the images that have come into your home very likely came from their cameras.
A high point for Talley was in 1993 when Jacksonville was awarded an NFL franchise.
“That was pretty cool. I was in the room,” he said.
Clanton had a harder time picking out a favorite story and said they all kind of blend together.
Sell said he will miss his job and that no day is the same.
So as much as you recognize some of the faces of Channel 4, without these three you would never see them or any of the day-to-day stories that impact your life.
As they now prepare to retire, we extend a heartfelt farewell to these talented photojournalists who helped bring our world into focus for so many years.