Covering tragedy is part of the job for photojournalists. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen every day. And I certainly don’t look forward to it.

The debate over whether the press should be present at moments of personal tragedy is as old as journalism itself. How much does the public really need to know, or have the right to know, is weighed against an individual’s right to privacy. The press often appears to push the boundaries.

It is very hard for me to justify going to most traffic accidents. People minding their own business are suddenly thrust into the public eye because they are injured? “If it bleeds, it reads” is a common saying among news photographers. But some accidents are so catastrophic, or spectacular, or unusual that they do become “newsworthy”. I still give these events the “me test” before I start shooting. Would I want someone taking my picture or my child’s picture at one of these events? Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is maybe, and I go ahead and photograph. Always, I think about it later.

My justification for covering most fires is that the public needs to see these events and learn from them. Hopefully, after seeing a fire photo, if even one reader thinks about the last time he changed his smoke alarm batteries, the coverage of the event was worthwhile.

But funerals are a very different matter. Public officials and famous people are generally fair game for public viewing. Soldiers maybe, if the family wants their sons and daughters remembered, but, generally, not children.

We wouldn’t have been at the funeral for 12-year-old Tanner Boynton if his father had not given us permission to be there. It was a horrible tragedy that this young man was killed. As his father said, it was a one in a hundred million chance that he would die from getting hit in the head with a baseball. Did the press have a right to be at the funeral? No, but the community at large wanted to grieve for and with the family. This could have been anyone’s child.

Still, it is a very uncomfortable feeling photographing family and friends in their moment of grief. It was clear by the looks I got that some people did not want me at the cemetery. One of Tanner’s classmates “flipped me off” after I took his picture.

After it was over and everyone was leaving, I heard someone say “thank you”. At first I didn’t think the woman walking toward me was talking to me, but then she came up to me and thanked me again. She was a family member. She was very proud of her nephew Tanner. She wanted the world to know what a good person he was. She wanted his story told. She said the immediate family knew and approved of us covering the funeral. She even thanked me for taking the time to be there. I was very relieved. It would be nice if this was the last funeral I ever had to attend. But, I doubt it.

Now that the story has been published, readers have been writing to the family and sending donations and flowers. The family is very grateful.