Obama and the Intern

Back in 2006 I was lucky enough to be the local TV Pool Photographer when President George W. Bush came to Greensboro. (Read about it HERE)



That ranks up there as one of the coolest things I've ever done. I rode in a van in the motorcade following the leader of the free world from event to event, standing just feet from him in some instances to capture the moments on video.



On Monday I was assigned again to cover the President. This time President Obama was arriving at PTI to visit Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem.



My duties this day were soley to provide LIVE video to my staion of Air Force One's arrival and departure and if possible shoot a story for the evening news. The logistics of the day and security mandates by the secret service made the latter an impossibility.



Our day started at 6AM. I picked up the Live truck and Intern Carolyn at the station and we parked at PTI and gave our morning show several LIVE pictures as the hue of the skyline went from dawn to day.



By 8 we were in full security clearance mode, being told where we would stand and when by the plain clothed officers responsible for keeping the President on-time and alive.



Logistical silliness aside it was the Frigid Temperatures that posed the biggest obsitcle. Never rising above freezing and accompanied by a winter wind for the ages, there were times when my thigh muscle felt like a human vibrator as it tried to keep my core temperature at sustainable levels.



Live through Obama's arrival and the motorcade departed, we were allowed to take a breather in the warm confines of the ComAir break room. The fun started all over again when the President was on approach for departure.



Live for the departure was much quicker. Obama jumped on the plane and the 747 rolled out. Personally I think the pilot of that jumbo jet would make a great truck driver after seeing that wide right turn he made to get that thing off the tarmac and onto the runway.



And just like that we had to pack up our equipment and we were done.



Except I had another shoot lined up in just a few hours and my day was still 4 hours from done.



Other than the excitement of seeing that 747 and the President, it was just another day.

Think Quick - You're a Photog

As a news photog deadline approaches faster than a runaway train in a Hollywood Blockbuster and when you add a Live Shot to it you may as well fast forward to the end of the movie.

Our Live Shot Location was farther from the truck than I had extension cords (or time) to run, and my on camera light was convienently not with me in the live truck so in a flash of - WTF do I do now - I zip tied a handheld, battery powered, spotlight to the umbrella pole on my light kit.



That whole mess started 4 hours earlier.

When water began spewing steadily out of the ground on a main thoroughfare today in Kernersville I was quickly dispatched to the scene.

I was less than a mile away...doing an interview at town hall with the Mayor about the passing of a former Mayor. My quick arrival made for an easy grab but as I disected the situation I determined I'd better get more than the obligatory 15 seconds of spray....no pun intended.

After about 20 minutes shooting every conceivable angle I made the call...and told the desk it would be a great nightside story....they could do 5 an 6 o'clock live shots during rush hour because it was only 2 and the roads were already backed up.

I stowed my gear and drove the footage back to the station. As I was loading that footage and the other 2 stories I had shot earlier I was given my next assigment. Drive the 20 minutes back to the watermain break with a reporter for 5 and 6.

With the traffic at a standstill and me sitting on the exit ramp at 4:52 I knew making the top of the 5 was a no go. But I didn't want it to be much later. I pulled from the right turn lane into the straight lane and passed all the traffic bottled up because there was only 1 lane feeding the rush hour beast today.

I made the right...right across the bows of cars coming from the right and the left....threading the livetruck into a space my Explorer shouldn't have fit.

I didn't look for any fingers...or listen for any horns...I had the parking lot nearest the gusher in sight. I set up the truck. Dialed the IFB. And we were on at 5.....12. First story in the B-Block.



We did it again at 6....with my rigged up light kit. It was pretty flawless. The crews were just getting ready to get started digging. They had to work all night.

Holy Crap - High Definition

I't been a while - too long.  Twitter, Facebook and work in general have kept me away...but I'm back.



You may know that we just went HiDef. The pictures here are Sheeka and I on her second and my first HD Live Shot after the transistion.



We are now shooting, editing and broadcasting news in HD.  We've been shooting and editing HD for a few months now but on Sept 12th our new set went online along with the technical equipment to push HD out of the building.



The process has been long, arduous and I understand it cost a bunch of money.  It's actually good to know that the parent company is forward looking and wants to make the effort to keep it looking good.



We cackled and grumbled about the size of the new cameras but I have to say (other than a quirk or two here and there) that pixel for pixel and pound for pound this camera is putting out the best picture in this market.  Sure, I'd like to have a better lens, but the only other lens they make for this camera costs more than the camera itself. Oh well.

NAB 2010 VIDEO B-Roll.net vs The VJ

While we traversed the floor of NAB 2010 in Las Vegas last week we were able to catch up with several industry movers and shakers as it relates to the future of the News Photographer.

Stewart "Lenslinger" Pittman conducted interviews with B-Roll.net founder Kevin Johnson, KSHB News Director Peggy Phillip, Poynter Institute Media Trainer Al Tompkins, Veteran Network News Cameraman Les Rose and Las Vegas News Photographer Ozkar "Latin Lens" Palomo.

These folks shared their insight into the world of Broadcast News and how they each think One-Man-Band Photographer/Reporters will shape it's future.

NAB 2010 - Day 2 Converging Medium

You may think this is some fancy pants operation....Stewart, Rick, Adam and me running around Las Vegas pretending to know what we're doing....well...we know what we're doing but how we're doing it is nothing short of piecemeal.



From Adam's consumer JVC HD Camcorder to my $25 Radio Shack adapter cable we're carry far fewer dollars worth of equipment than during our 9 to 5 routine.



But we like to think we're giving it our best effort despite our lack of fancy pants equipment. I mean look at what Lenslinger had to resort to for his blog because his laptop is at home in a hundred pieces!



Equipment...that's just a money thing. Maybe some of our new aquaintences will pony up a nicer camera and a wireless mic for us to use next year....or maybe I'll just by one.

NAB 2010 Day 1 - Hitting the Floor In 3D...In Las Vegas

With all the hype of NAB 2010 and social media and cameras that will upload in a nanosecond - according to some and depending on speed - I am happy to report Stewart "Lenslinger" Pittman, Rick "Turdpolisher" Portier and Adam "Newshawk" Krolfifer and I hit the floor the Las Vegas Convention Center and will soon have lots of media files to share with you.



Because we shot most of our video on a small HD camera that will have to wait until we can get back to a more powerful edit laptop that didn't make the trip with us.



But I can tell you that the talk of NAB this year is 3-D.  Not neccesarily for news but just as color replaced black and white and HDTV is replacing analog color, 3-D is coming...and we have seen it....albeit thru (not-rose-colored) glasses.



Although a lot of the are 3-D setups are really two cameras run through a fancy processing system there are fully equipped single camera setups on display that have two small lenses side by side for creating 3-D productions...which by the way is NOT what I'm attempting in this picture of a double live stream interview between Kevin Johnson, of B-Roll dot Net and Lenslinger.(Can be found HERE)



Almost all of these 3-D setups require the viewer to where glasses, in fact I haven't seen otherwise, and that may be the short term downfall of the technology...that and it looks like ass without the glasses.

But with the glasses on it's incredible.  I can vouch.



Stand by for more pictures, articles and ultimately videos from the floor of NAB 2010!

For Now check out Kevin Johnson and Stewart Pittman talking about the first day at NAB 2010.

Destination Vegas

All I have to say is - DITTO!

From Viewfinder Blues at http://www.lenslinger.com/ ----

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After an election cycle, a couple of tornadoes and more b-block masterpieces than you can shake a tripod at, Team 'Slinger is about to take on Vegas. Our mission: pierce the very heart of the world's largest electronic media show, all while collecting as much swag and complimentary cocktails as possible. It's been two whole years since Weaver and I last winged our way out West and a lot has happened since. Namely Twitter... and Facebook... and Foursquare... and every other social networking site I'm too provincial to grasp. My point is there are more ways to over-communicate than ever before and that's exactly what we plan to do: Over-communicate. Don't get me wrong. We're gonna chill. But between the gadget swarms and contemplative strolls, it's my intention to keep my half dozen readers updated and on occasion, entertained. But to do that, I have to loosen the reins on this humble sight. See, normally I spend all of 30 minutes on an entry before slamming home the POST button (I hope that explains the spelling errors). But in order to file reports from the field, I've resolved to spend even less time on my tortured soliloquies and more time playing simple show and tell. I still reserve the right to clean things up when I get back home, but while we're on the convention floor I wanna throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. Soem things to look for:

Twitter / Weaver's Twitter: With a limit of 140 characters, it's hard for a gasbag like me to convey my thoughts. But it's also the easiest way to share burst of information past, so keep an eye on my Twitter feed to the upper right and know any cogent content was still hammered out with two jet-lagged thumbs....

Flickr / Weaver's Flickr: Longtime readers know I'm a sucker for the 'point and shoot' and my particular Flickr Photostream is rivaled only by that of my oldest daughter's. Sooo, be sure and check out my photo page regularly for all the pictures I'm too embarrassed to explain...

Livestream: Right now the little video box to your right is playing the winning entries from a recent b-roll.net contest. It's stellar television, but once site founder Kevin Johnson puts boots on the ground, he's not start issuing live reports. Look for a couple of Southern fried photogs to make steady cameos.

Youtube/ Qik: Between myself, Weaver, Krolfifer, Turd and Amanda Emily, we'll be packin' more glass than most headshops. While much of the video will expertly edited at a later date, we're gonna try really hard to fire off a few 'off the cuff' videos (something that's very hard to do when you erase mistakes for a living). Oh yeah - they'll even be in Hi-Def!

NewsBlues: My surly editor Mike James is expecting some kind of correspondence from me for his well-traveled gossip sheet, newsblues.com. If you're a subscriber, drop in often. If you're not, consider ponying up some coin and becoming one. Why? You'll be supporting the man I plan to strong-arm into editing my memoirs.

Caveat: No, it's not some social networking site your kids are into (as far as I know). Rather, it's my little disclaimer explaining how very little of this shall come to pass. After all, this IS Vegas! It's hard to be trenchant let alone grammatically correct when your eyelids are soaked in bourbon and the cops want to know whey there's an emu in your room...

I'm SURE there's a logical explanation, Occifer......

Tornado - Ground Zero High Point, NC

Since I was a little boy I've been facinated, if not terrified, by tornadoes.



As an 11 year old boy growing up in Goldsboro, NC the March 28, 1984 tornado outbreak was not only the largest tornado outbreak in the state's history, it was close by, leveling part of nearby Mt.Olive and leaving me with curiosity that I haven't outgrown.

Growing up and working as a TV Photojournalist hasn't cured the curiosity...only inflamed it.

Fast foward 26 years, to the day, March 28, 2010.

It isn't my first go 'round with bad weather. I chased the one the hit Stoneville in 1998. I chased the one that hit Clemmons in 1998. I chased the one that hit Colfax in 2006. And in 1996 I remember accidentally driving headlong into a supercell with my 2 year old and (now ex)wife in the car.(note - I had my employer's permission to have family in car. I was the only photog at a very small shop) I digress.

I can't say I ever have that gut feeling or find myself in the right place, but I can always look back at the signals that might have helped my cause. The dog cowering in the corner for example should have been a clear indication that something was amiss in the atmosphere. That, or the competing meteorologists on mine and the other local news outlets yelling something about the sky falling.



Seriously, I've battled this urge before...do I stay put at home, or do I chase another storm that will peter out before the heater warms the truck up? (You ever notice how chilly it can get when these system's roll in?)

But this one was the real deal and as soon as I heard about confirmed reports of damage from the local authorities, I gave the radar on my cell phone a close look, plotted a conservative intercept of the supercell and left my wife in charge of the chili.

However, had I gone with my gut and drove more toward the front of where the storm was on my radar not only would I have had daylight left to get aftermath footage, I wouldn't have gotten stopped by dozens of trees (and one goosechase) on my chosen path into High Point.

When I arrived in High Point, I wasn't sure if I was in Ground Zero for what had just happened but I did know there were trees down everywhere and stunned people walking the streets in the heavy rain. And to make matters a bit more testing...2 more tornado warnings were issued as the storms continued to train along what I found out later was a west bound warm front that collided with east bound cold air right over our fair city.



I put together my video for the Sunday 10 o'clock news including working through road blocks and road closures to pick up this home video from Mickey Boylan of High Point who shot video as the tornado crossed about a mile in front of his house.



But the real answers came on Monday when the sun came up and my co-workers and I hit the streets.



There were way too many scenes of devastation for any amount of coverage to take in. Trees down by the hundreds if not thousands. Houses de-roofed as if by God himself. A family of 5 taken for the ride of their lives...almost to the death....escaping with just broken bones.



My obligation to my employer this day...catch up with the National Weather Service Meteorologist responsible for verifying the tornado and determining its power.



I met up with Meteorologist Jeff Orrock on Old Mill Road...ground zero of the High Point tornado. He told me how the winds were 120 to 130 miles per hour and later he discovered a mile farther north on this twister's course that it strengthened to an EF-3 tornado with a 138 mph wind speed.



Before and after meeting up with Mr. Orrock I gathered a fair bit of footage from the impact zones, trying carefully not to duplicate footage that our other crews had already shot...not and easy feat mind you.

This is what I came up with at the end of my work day....a look at how the NWS rates tornadoes. I also encourage you to check out the other coverage we provided and the pictures that people sent in.

 

As for catching that tornado in action with my own camera. There's always next time....or ya'll can buy me a storm chasing excursion in the midwest for my birthday.

Bullsh!t

Yes...this about sums up my life.


Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

Carl Edwards vs. Brad Keselowski

Remember that cat who stopped by our live truck when we were in Daytona? Well he opened up a can of worms today near the end of the Atlanta race.



Carl Edwards took to heart NASCAR's proclamation that the drivers should take care of problems between themselves....and then he took the front bumper of his car to the rear of his rival Brad Keselowski.

It started earlier in the race when Keselowski hooked Edwards' bumper sending Carl to the garage and ruining his race. Whether Brad wrecked Carl on purpose didn't matter to Carl. It wasn't the first time the two had tangled and Edwards was mad.

Keselowski has had run ins with other drivers too. Last year in the final Nationwide race at Homestead Denny Hamlin spun Keselowski after Keslelowski spun Hamlin in a previous race.

And then there's the race at Talledega last year when Keselowski spun Edwards sending Carl flying upside down into the safety fence.

In the past NASCAR penalized drivers for wrecking other drivers and other aggressive actions on the track. But before the start of this season NASCAR basically said, "Have at it boys". Simply put...the drivers were given free reign to deal with each other without fear that NASCAR would impose fines or penalties.

So today when Carl hooked Brad's bumper....I think NASCAR got what they asked for...and then some.

Brad's car went flying upside down and landed on its roof nearly hitting the safety fence and now some people are speculating that NASCAR may penalize Carl Edwards, maybe even suspend him.

Well, NASCAR didn't penalize Hamlin for spinning Keselowski last year, even before the "Have at it boys.." by NASCAR.

It would be kind of like telling my kids it's OK to defend themselves against bullies but then grounding them when they do.

NASCAR can't legitimately penalize Edwards at all and still maintain the "Have at it boys" lifestyle. It's one or the other ... not both.

Certainly, what Edwards did crossed the line...but we wouldn't be having this conversation if Brad's car would have just spun to the grass other retaliatory spinouts have in the past.

And I think once the wing is replaced with the spoiler we may see the rash of airborne cars go away.

Something about that wing and another car near a spinning car is causing lift on those cars. (I don't remember any of the COTs have flipped while spinning without another car really close by)




Hopefully NASCAR will take all of this into consideration before comprimising the integrity of what they've tried to do by letting the drivers have more leeway in these ontrack skirmishes.

Daytona 500 2010 12 Days of TV

Who knew when we arrived at NASCAR Media Day on Thursday February 4 that we'd be talking to the Daytona 500 winner.



Well duh, we did! We interviewed every driver in the place and even this girl who didn't run the 500 but 2 other races and dominated headlines even more than that blasted pothole.



Our trip began with the Daytona 500 on Wednesday, February 5.

Photojournalist Kevin Wrenn, Sports Anchor Danny Harnden and I made the 530 or so mile trip from High Point to Daytona in about 8 hours.



It was another 30 minutes to our hotel in Lake Mary about 12 miles north of downtown Orlando and we made the 40 mile trip to the track almost every day of our stay.



Our job during Speedweeks leading up to the Great American Race was to produce stories for the 5, 6 and 10 o'clock news every day. And on both Fridays of our trip we produced a little more for a 15 minute NASCAR special. (links to stories at the end of blog post)



After Media Day on Thursday Friday was a near washout....we spent the day inside the Daytona 500 experience for our early Live Shots but as the daylight hours ended the Sun came out...in colorful style.



On the first Friday Night we were setting up for our 10 o'clock special in the infield near Turn 1 when Ford Pickup Truck pulled up and out hopped a NASCAR Star.



Driver of the #99 car, Carl Edwards was bored after a day where rain washed out any on track activity and he was just looking to have a little fun.



It was a treat for such a good natured guy to stop by and spend a little time jawing with us local TV peeps.



The next day was also a day of hanging with the stars...and it was a BUSY one. Qualifying, the ARCA race and the Bud Shootout all in one day, all back to back, with very little time in between each.



And of course we followed Danica Patrick's every move as she ran well in the ARCA race. It was a madhouse surrounding her, every member of the press asking that important question...."Are you gonna run the Nationwide Race next week?"



The culmination of our 4th day was the Bud Shootout.
Local driver Kevin Harvick took the honors winning for a second year in a row.



We were able to get team owner Richard Childress to appear LIVE with us on Fox 8 during our 10 o'clock news.



After we packed up for the night I drove to Titusville for a chance to catch an up close glimpse of the Space Shuttle launch that was scheduled for about 4:30 that morning. The launch was scrubbed and I slept in the Live Truck until about 9am waiting for traffic to clear.



Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were off days off at the racetrack but we still had to produce stories. Using footage we had gathered all week we produced fresh stories from unused video and interviews.



I'm guessing most people spent Sunday watching the Superbowl but I went to a dirt track to shoot a story.



The Volusia County Speedway was hosting the Dirt Nationals and local up and coming driver Austin Dillon was running there.

Austin is the grandson of NASCAR legend Richard Childress and we had a feature planned for Austin later in the week as he prepared to race in the truck series race at Daytona so I thought this was a good opportunity to get footage for that and do a feature about why racers big league NASCAR drivers like Ken Schrader, Clint Bowyer and Kenny Wallace (pictured with me) still go back and visit the short tracks.



Austin won his race Sunday night and even though Childress had tickets to the Superbowl, he spend that night in victory lane with his grandson.

 

Monday and Tuesday were my light duty days but I had to write and edit the Dirt Trackin' story because it aired Tuesday. Other than that I spent a lot of time watching my 15 channels of cable TV.



But on Monday night we went to the Orlando Magic NBA game. It was my first NBA game and from what I hear I saw a hell of a game. 123-117 Magic over the Hornets.



And Vince Carter scored 48 of the Magic points.



Wednesday it was back to work. The track was open and practice was on for the NASCAR teams in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series'.



I spent the morning at media events like this one where Dale Earnhardt Jr talked about his appearance in the Disney Cartoon "Handy Manny".



Thursday was race day. Unlike any other race of the year to get in the Daytona 500 you have to race in one of a pair of qualifying races.



Those two races dominated our story lines for the day.



Friday was another washout. We took refuge inside of a motorhome with some fans who came all the way from Michigan to spend a few months in Florida and take in the race.



We thought we were going to have a truck race that night...especially when the sun came out and the track was almost dry. But another line of showers pushed the NASCAR Truck race to Saturday.



That eased the pressure on us as we looked to the 10 o'clock NASCAR Special that we did overlooking Lake Lloyd on the Superstretch.



With the truck race pushed to Saturday we had a very BUSY DAY ahead and because the Nationwide Series races started at 1pm we had to get to the track early enought to get the pre-race activities...and be there late too.



Our planned stories Saturday were features on Danica Patrick, Chrissy Wallace in the Nationwide Series and a follow up on Austin Dillon in the Truck Race.



Chrissy Wallace wrecked out of the Nationwide Race before completing a lap. Austin Dillon did the same thing in the Truck Race. Ironic? I hope. I don't want to be a bad luck charm.



And I think we all know what happened with the GoDaddy girl.



And finally it's Sunday...Valentine's Day...Daytona 500 day.



And I didn't think we'd ever get there. First traffic backed up 31 miles from the racetrack on I-4 west of Daytona. We took a "shortcut" through a small town or two and ended up 3 miles from the track...STOPPED....for about 45 minutes before the seas parted as people turned into fan parking and we were cleared to the infield.



The only real hiccup of the week came in the form of an argument with the douchbag from one of the "Local" stations. You see, to get video from our camera in Victory Lane to our livetruck 3 city blocks away we had to connect to a patch panel in our parking area.



Apparently protocol allows "Local" stations to mark off their selected spiquots for future use. But when NONE of the remaining video cable hookups worked I hooked into ONE of the FOUR spots marked for the ONE "Local" station and since the "Local" station was not at the track ANY until SUNDAY I didn't figure it would be a big deal. Boy was I wrong.



The tech from "Local" approached me with a total lack of respect and instead of offering up a "Hey Guy, let's work this out" he proclaimed how quickly he was about to unplug me from "HIS" marked spot, that he needed ALL of them and I was just SOL. let's just say it wasn't pretty after that)



With the calming help of the local Fox truck operator I got things sorted out....and then ended up using one of "Local's" video spots anyway. (Did I mention "LOCAL" had FOUR reserved!?! Who needs FOUR cameras in Victory Lane anyway!)

Rant over...let's continue.



I shot video of the Daytona 500 from several different positions.



And even though I like being in the pits for the close up of pitstops I really liked being out over the tunnel in Turn 4. What a VIEW!



With the pothole debacle the race dragged on with 2 red flags. But with the race being on Fox that eliminated the need for us to worry about a 6 o'clock story.



Kevin and I worked on a plan of attack for the end of the race. We scurried up and down pit road trying to predict a winner so we could be in the pits for the celebration.



After the race I manned Victory Lane while Danny and Kevin interviewed other drivers from the top 5.



And then our race was on to get our story done for the 10 o'clock sports Live Shot.



After our Victory Lane Live Shots and a little silly celebrating of our own we packed up and rolled out. We left the track at Midnight, grabbed a Waffle House, er, supper and drove to Brunswick, Georgia for some sleep.



After Kevin edited and fed our Monday story for the 5 o'clock show we hit the road and were home in time for supper.



And just like that....it's all done.




Our Stories - (here's a list of most of the stories we produced from Daytona)

Drivers Talk about Racing at Daytona

RCR Strength Training

Daytona 500 Qualifying

Richard Childress Live in Victory Lane

Danica's Stock Car Debut

NASCAR Underdogs

The Retirement Age in NASCAR

Driver's Take a Day Off

Dirt Trackin'

Pressure on Junior and Danica Mania

The Women of NASCAR

Jimmie Johnson Wins first Duel

Number 3 back at Daytona

Hanging with the Fans

Daytona 500 Preview

Driver's Fighting

Nationwide Race Recap

Daytona 500 Recap

Dale Jr's Daytona 500