Baseball Champions

I have to sneak in this non job-related, non tv-related post.

Big, Huge, Enormous kudos to my Oldest Stepson, and BOTH of my own boys for their respective baseball championships. The older 2 played on the same 14-U team and my little one played on the 10-U team.

All three boys have come alive with their baseball prowess this year and all three were great team players and very intstrumental in their teams' successes.

Both games were pretty close games with the 10-U game going 2 extra innings.

It was exciting baseball.

And Guess What....I took pictures....



14-U team pictures (I took mostly video at this game)

10-U Game pix

Weather Woody

OK, I admit it, I like chasing weather. It's one of the biggest unknowns in spot news chasing.

Last week I walked in the station after a 6 o'clock live shot and I saw the radar and new it wasn't good. Our weatherman was on the verge of talking about a possible tornado and I wanted in on the action.

I planned my route to get behind the storm and follow it through. Using my GPS and following scanner reports of wind and trees down I wove my way through northern Davidson County. I was headed toward a report of trees on a house when I spoted the summation of an evening storm passed.



The money shot, or I guess, the pot o' gold shot.



I was able to get great video for the newscast and pop off a couple of great stills.



I got this video and then headed south and west to end up getting video of firefighters cutting trees from roadways and driveways and people talking about the roar (they spared me the freight train quotes) of the storm and the force of the wind.

Nifong Who? Paris Has a Rival

I spent the day 90 some odd miles out of the confines of my designated home TV market covering the begining of the Mike Nifong ethics hearings in Raleigh NC.



"Nifong who?" you ask? Mike Nifong is the District Attorney (the head prosecutor for the state in a given district) in Durham, NC who was all gabby about the details of the alleged rape of a stripper at a party held at the home of some Duke Lacrosse Players.



Now that the State Attorney General has declared all the Duke Lacrosse players innocent of the allegations the state bar wants to determine if the oft labeled rouge prosecutor breeched prosecutorial ethics in his handling of the Duke Lacrosse Stripper Rape Case.



Today was the first day of the hearing and, as one old lady walking down the street said so plainly, "Paris has some competition!"



No less than 9 mobile news studios, a mix of Satellite trucks microwave trucks, from local, regional and national news outlets lined Fayetteville Street around the corner from the NC Court of Appeals building where the hearing is being held.



Short of the photos of the news trucks and crews this hearing is pretty dry and bland. It's certainly no 'Boston Legal' or 'Law and Order'.



And since Court TV is manning the cameras and providing the pool feed most of our work was done outside, chasing down Nifong and company as they made there way into court. And that was over in a matter of minutes just after 9am.



(I can be seen in the background video on several of the onlinve versions of the media scrum walkdowns.)

CBS Evening News Video HERE



The rest of the day I gathered beauty shots and watched these guys scale the Wachovia tower we were parked in front of.



Long story short....Live at Noon, 5 and 6....rinse and repeat. We may or may not be back tommorrow. Probably depends on what Dale Junior says 'cause here in NASCAR counrty Dale Jr. trumps Nifong and Paris.

###

Blog Comments - Thick Skin WKRN Blogger Quits

I was recently pondering whether or not to bring up a string of recent anonymous flames I had received in the comments of a few of my blog postings.

Then, when I read that WKRN TVs blogger Britney Gilbert has quit amid the firestorm of negative comments that she says she just wasn't prepared to handle, I thought I should say a little something.

In my case, the negative comments I recieved recently were pretty random but pointed, all seemingly from one person, meant to bash TV, photojournalists, and I guess, me. I could really care less. I'm just happy people are looking and I'm open to good conversation.

The comments said things like....(full text and links at end of post)

"Apparently there is very little news going on in the Triad because you all have time to BLOG all day long."

"I bet you're one of those "photojournalists" who try so hard, they produce themselves right out of a job because nobody can stand to be around you!"

"In a few years a college graduate who will be an intern at your station will take YOUR job using one of these cameras."

"Just think you started in 1993 and by 2013 you won't even clear 50 grand a year working 60plus hours a week making some ad. exec's BMW payment with your hide!"

I think it's funny that it's started out by proclaiming that I'd be out of a job in a few years by a college student with a handycam, yet, on the other hand, I'd be struggling in 2013 to clear 50 grand a year while working 60 hours a week. That cracks me up!

The anonymous nature of the internet, blog comments and back and forth banter and sharing of thoughts and ideas, people are bound to disagree or even bash. The anonymity of people at keyboards in the privacy of their own homes or offices give these anonymous, or even some non-anonymous, writers the feeling of power to say things that would never be uttered vocaly to an opponent in thought.

Some people just like to be mean, stupid, contridictary or just ignorant. And it's not as easy to use psycology on the internet like you can against the school yard bully, who, if you stand up to him, will back down and play nice.

What it boils down to is that if you are going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. Thick skin is mandatory. Brittney Gilbert realizes, and says in her final post, she knew this going in, but her skin just wouldn't toughen.

That's too bad.

===============
http://tvphotogblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/fire-in-neigborhood.html

At 9:48 PM, June 02, 2007, Anonymous said...
Yes you saved the day!! barf, barf,barf

At 10:24 PM, June 02, 2007, Anonymous said...
Great even your fuzzy friend has a blog. Apparently there is very little news going on in the Triad because you all have time to BLOG all day long. TV news sucks soon you will figure it out! Why do you try to glorify it? Get a real job you losers

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http://tvphotogblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/jerry-falwell-dies.html

At 9:55 PM, June 02, 2007, Anonymous said...
Thanks for helping with the live shots you loser! Just think for for $21,000 you lost sleep making your company rich!! Barf,barf barf. I bet you're one of those "photojournalists" who try so hard, they produce themselves right out of a job because nobody can stand to be around you!

==================
http://tvphotogblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/playing-with-handycam.html

At 10:07 PM, June 02, 2007, Anonymous said...
In a few years a college graduate who will be an intern at your station will take YOUR job using one of these cameras. Then she will edit her video on her laptop and send it to the station while the whole time she is having cocktails with your news director trying to get the Anchor position.

====================
http://tvphotogblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/when-i-grow-up7th-grade-school.html

At 10:17 PM, June 02, 2007, Anonymous said...
By the time your stepson gets into TV News, McDonalds will be the place to work because idiots like you try to glorify the job and are willing to do it for peanuts. Just think you started in 1993 and by 2013 you won't even clear 50 grand a year working 60plus hours a week making some ad. exec's BMW payment with your hide!

====================







. some reThe

Playing with a Handycam

I've had the opportunity recently to get my hands on a Sony VX 2100 for a project I've been working on. It's a cool little camera and it's been great for what I've been doing. But I wanted to strecth it's legs a little so I shot a bunch of off the cuff stuff yesterday and came up with this...







What I'm hoping to do now is talk my wife into getting one of my very own...with one difference...I'm going for the HD version.

Fire in the Neigborhood

Usually it's the desk calling to let me know that there's a fire for me to roll to.



This time, however, it was my 12 year old step son (the one who wants to grow up and be a TV Photog too) who made the announcement.



He saw the heavy black smoke across the woods and came running in the house, out of breath and trying to spit out the pertinent information. I ran to get a look and I knew I'd better drive first and ask questions later..



The smoke was billowing black before I arrived so I knew the fire department hadn't had time to put much water on it yet. What I didn't know was what was on fire.



I arrived to the scene in just 4 minutes. The fire was closer to my house than the roads I had to use to get there but the flames were at their peak when I arrived.



Another Photojournalist from my station arrived at the same time I did. Joe Avery had just finished his shift and saw the same smoke I did on his way to his house.



Since he was still in work mode I let him take the lead, but I popped off these pix for his posterity and because it was a helluva fire.



Preliminary reports are that it's an unnoccupied dwelling and by the looks of it, quite old as well. The tax value on the house and the 6 acres it sits on is listed by Randolph County as only 99-thousand dollars.

Jerry Falwell Dies

It's only about 150 miles up the road to Lynchburg, Virginia so when I heard that Jerry Falwell had passed away yesterday I knew I better be ready to head that way. It wasn't long after that thought passed through my head that I got the call to pack a bag.



Bob Buckley and I met up with our Satellite Truck and our co-workers on the scene just 15 minutes before the start of the 5 o'clock news.



Reporter Leah Beno and photojournalist Brad Ingram had a half hour jump start on us and had a package ready for air at 5 about a local guy changing a marquee to reflect the moment.



To help Brad out while he finished up the edit I jumped in, set up and shot the live shot at 5 for Leah and then for Bob at 5:30.





Bob and I also had extra duties besides just turning stories for our station. We were charged with providing our sister stations across the nation with Live reports at 5, 6 and 10 on Tuesday night. (Our 10 PM Story Tuesday)





After doing live shots until 11:05 (the last one was for WTTG) our plan was for Bob and I to get to the hotel and sleep so we could also do the morning lives for our station and our affiliates.



With wakeup time at 3-30 AM we made the most of getting to bed just before midnight and getting up was just as tough as you might think.



We went on the air at 5AM and did 19 Live Shots right up to 9 AM.



After the morning show we found the man who spent time with Jerry Falwell in his last living Moments. Ronald Godwin had breakfast with Rev. Falwell on Tuesday morning.



For the noon news we did a Live Shot with Godwin's thoughts. (That Story Here)



Leah and Brad worked the dayside part of this gig staying in Lynchburg through at least the 6 and possibly the 10 tonight.



Major Kudos to our two Satellite operators Danny Spillane and Joe McCloskey for making all the things happen that must happen (including getting other sat trucks off our designated satellite at the last minute) for these liveshots to be coordinated for each TV Station down the line. As of 6 O'Clock Wednesday the live shot count was up to more than 30.



And of Course we weren't alone in Lynchburg (well, our local market competition wasn't there...???).



TV Stations from across Virginia filed in one after another and all of the Networks were present and accounted for.

This was the CNN Set up.









The Fox Truck from DC came down.



NBC was set up next to us but there shots were cancelled unexplainably.



CBN made an appearance and we watched some of their coverage. They captured some good elements but it was shot a little sloppy.



I will say that the staff, students, members, mourners and everyone we came across while we gathered all of our video and sound were extremely cordial and inviting. That can be tough under such circumstances.

Help Wanted: NASCAR Team

Good Looking, Highly Popular and Talented Superstar Racecar Driver in search of a NASCAR Team willing and ready to seriously compete for Nextel Cup Championship.

Must have fast cars, powerful engines and qualified teamates.

Excellent restrictor plate program a must.

Prior Championships preffered.

Will provide own Sponsorship, Crewchief and PitCrew.

Salary negotiable but must be 8 figures.

Call Junior at 338-8338.*

Ford, Dodge, Toyota need not apply!

Road Trip : Yuma, Arizona

Coming Soon to a TV Near You (if you live in the Triad of NC) or on the web if you don't live in this area....

It's not too often that an out of town trip for the purposes of gathering a news story isn't accompanied by a Hurricane, a sporting event, or a massacre at a...well you get it.

But it was none of the above that took reporter Eric White and I 90 percent of the way across the country to Yuma, Arizona to investigate some suspicious activity on the US Mexico Border.



The Stories about what's going on at the border will start Sunday night but for now I can tell you that it was a fantastic trip, although we almost thought we were going to have to come home as sone as we hit the ground in Phoenix.



We were traveling out on Monday the 16th and as soon as we landed at Sky Harbor International in Phoenix we got word of the Virginia Tech Massacre.



But the bosses insisted that we press on and put VT out of our minds. So Eric and I spent the 4 days, 65 hours and 9 hours of XD Disc trying to flesh out as many goods stories as we could find.



More details to come...and I'll share the story links when they're posted on the company website.