International Civil Rights Center and Museum Grand Opening

It was 11:30 Sunday night when I came to the grand realization that I had to crawl out of bed in just 3 and a half hours!



The Live Shots started at 5AM, I needed to be there by 4:15 and I had to make the otherwise 30 minute drive to downtown Greensboro over 2 day old Ice and Snow on this 15 degree morning.



In just a few short hours, after 15 years of stop and go work the Internation Civil Rights Center and Museum would be dedicated, the ribbon cut and the much ballyhooed site of the 1960 sit in movement would be a shrine to civil rights activists around the world.



It's also the place where anyone under the age of 30 or so can go and get a real understanding of what life was like for colored people before integration.



So on a day when blacks, whites and all others gathered to promote the racial harmony that some say is still not perfect, I manned my glass, both the TV and the still version, and sprayed digital bits and bytes over the scene much like the photogs 50 years removed gathered the iconic images of the 4 NC A&T University Students who sat down at the Woolworth's Counter and demanded service.



But I wasn't the only camera toting biped in the place.



Bloggers, Newsies, and curious onlookers manned cameras of all sizes and shapes.



And I probably didn't get the iconic photo that will last for 50 years.

Lenslinger captured this gem of all the photogs jockying for the ribbon cutting...


But to be there contributing 15 live shots with reporter Bob Buckley to TV Stations across the nation...



...I feel like I've been a part of something big.

Chad Wins an Emmy

My buddy at FOX 8, general assignment reporter Chad Tucker, won an Emmy Award at the MidSouth Emmy Award Ceremony this past Saturday night in Nashville.

The Emmy was for a story in the category of General Assignment Report - 24 Hours, for his story about the last day of classes at Nancy Reynolds School.

The school was torn down after 86 years of operating and a communities long effort to save the historic structure.



Chad worked really hard to cultivate that story and make sure he had the right elements to make it sing.

And with the shooting and editing of photojournalist Allen Fairbanks Jr, Chad crafted a story that was visually and emotionally stunning.

Fairbanks has since left Fox 8 and moved to Tennessee with his family where he is still working in Television.

For Sale - Used Snowmobile - $200

The title of this blogpost represents an actual Craigslist Ad that Ron Osborne acted on a few years back. He bought the used Snowmobile from a man who couldn't get it to run...and couldn't find anyone to work on it down here in these southern states.

I caught up with Mr. Osborne as he put the machine through it's paces after our latest winter storm.

 

And yes...I rode it...and it's FAST! Kinda reminds me of a JetSki on land.

Snowgasm 2010 - storm of the decade? lol!

Admittedly this is the best snow we've had around these parts in .... well... about a month...but as a season, this is the best snow we've had in YEARS.



I jumped headlong into it this time...after being caught on vacation for the first storm.



I jumped in the live truck at 4AM....drove around...gathered video...and from 7AM to 10AM I was live 4 times in our Weather Special.



I got interviews with snowplow operators, stuck travelers and one McDonald's Manager...and some of it made air but the rest will have to wait til later.



I think my Live shots went well for someone who doesn't do THAT part of it everyday. I still think I'll let the pros do the talking for regular news. ;-)

Ham Eyeball

I took a picture - and now it's making its way around the world.



After we put it up on the web on Friday the LA Times picked it up for the Odd News section of their WebSite.

This afternoon ABC News Called and wants it for their website.

It all started when I was on the way out the door Friday on the way to a shoot and this lady met me at the bottom of the loading dock ramp.

Denise Hamlin told me she had to show me something I wouldn't believe. I didn't know what I was in store for but when she opened up the grocery bag and I saw the ham wrapping, I was kind of expecting maggots or rotting flesh, but it was the ham...staring right back at me.

Hamlin said it scared her to death when she opened up the package and she knew right away she should show it off.

I knew right away I had to get a picture.

I didn't even get my video camera...I just pulled my little Canon off my hip and popped off about 5 pictures, all about the same, just to make sure I had a good clean shot.

I quickly uploaded the photos to a folder for the web guys and let them take over from there.



And here we are today. My picture is traveling the world on the twin tubes of the interet.

The Water Tower Bounce

There's not a TV Photographer out there who hasn't positioned a Live truck knowing it's only going to tune in to a certain recieve site....and then with a deadline approaching, the engineer back at the shop says those 5 dreaded words..."Another truck is on that site", followed by, "Let's try the other sites"



Yeah...that happened to me today. I needed a certain neighborhood for my Live shot and I found the look, parked the truck and knew I could only hit our transmitter tower site....only to be told to tune in to the station short stick site. Ugh!



After a few minutes of pan, pan, pan, pan, pan, pan, pan, pan with no signal seen on the other end it struck me that I was right next to this water tower...and it's height and large surface may just bounce the signal right into our reciever's dish.



I panned and tilted up to the water tower and bingo...they had a signal. A little bit of fine tuning and we were good to go for a 5 o'clock shot.

When News Breaks Winston-Salem Cops Shot

When news broke Wednesday morning that 2 Winston-Salem Police Officers had been shot news crews from around the Triad Converged on the scene at Peter's Creek Parkway and at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, where the injured officers were taken.



That's where I first landed, with Shannon Smith taking the helm in front of the camera, delivering details, freshly gathered, trickling in.



After the noon I headed over to the Police Department for the 2:30 press conference where some of the details of what happened were going to be released.



Our Ops Manager Timmy Hawks and I carried, dragged and hauled 3 cases, 1 cable reel, a tripod and extension cords up to the third floor fo the PD so that we could use our portable digital transmitter to send a live signal back to the station to carry the press conference LIVE. Photojournalist Kenny Cravens manned the camera at the other end of a short cable run.



With that accomplished it was time to look ahead to the 5 and 6 o'clock newscasts.




Main Anchor Neill McNeill joined us across the street from the scene. The "us" was our Winston-Salem Crew, reporter Brent Campbell and photojournalist Kenny Cravens who were on scene from the get go....producing several stories through 5 and 6 o'clock.



Photojournalist Joe McCloskey (took a lot of these pix for me)and reporter Shelby Baker brought the second Live Truck and worked out of it to produce a few stories in short order.

Another Crew was still back at the Hospital keeping up with any updates at that location.



With 3 crews, 3 Live Trucks, Neil anchoring from the field and 1 recieve site in range we parked two of the trucks side by side and Brent went Live along side Neill on top of one truck as I shot from the other.



The view from on top of the truck was perfect to get a look down into the parking lot of the scene across the street....and other than the case with the LCD monitor taking a tumble all the way to the ground....everything went smoothly. (TV Still works if you can believe that!)



Live at 5, 5:30, and 6 with several teases in between and we were done....though I think this story will last for several News Cycles.

Anchor's Away Cindy Flies Loops

I accompanied our morning anchor Cindy Farmer to Winston-Salem on Wednesday to story that only comes along every so often.



Well really, everytime an airshow comes along the PR machine spins up to give journalists a little airtime in exchange for a little, well, airtime.



But as a photojournalist it's the luck of the draw to be chosen for the assignment.



The assignment was to hop in a plane with no door and videotape Cindy in the Aerobatic Extra S300 as she and Major John Klatt did looptie-loops, barrell rolls and hammerheads. No Problem...just strap me in.



They did. I was attached via a full body harness and a tether to the plane's frame.



My only intructions from the airshow staff...don't cross through the threshold of the door...it could pull you out of the plane...and we don't know if we could get you back in. They laughed.



Anyway...Cindy pulled her G's and I rack focused and snapped zoomed to a tee. And to make it even better they provided us with a tape from the in-cockpit video camera and it came complete with audio. SCORE!



So with all that footage and audio in hand, I spent today locked away in an edit bay and this is what it became....



And then of course there are what we call Web-Extras....the extended versions of our day...

Here's more of the footage I took from the Chase Plane....



Here's more of the footage from the in-cockpit camera...



Here's Cindy's attempt to take the controls...



And what did Cindy think of the flight? What do you think since she can't wipe that grin off her face?



See more of the picture we took HERE

Camera Guys are Hot So Says Sandra Bullock

So the new Sandra Bullock Movie, "All About Steve", opens next week where she plays a woman obsessed over a network news cameraman.

CNN did a story recently at the movie's red carpet premier and she says all TV Camer Guys are HOT!

Stories that Touch the Heart

Some Stories that we do are just special. Not because I shot good video. Not because I gathered great audio. Not because I wrote and edited the video and audio into a nice little package.

No. Some stories just touch the heart in a special place. It's when you make that connection with the subject of the story.

Today was the third time I've interviewed Evelyn Harris. Her son Josh was a Navy Seal and he died in Afghanistan in August 2008....last year this week.

His death was just 3 months after the death of my cousin Davy who's convoy ran over an IED in Afghanistan in May, 2008.

I first interviewed Josh's Mom and Dad at a Friday Night Football Game at Lexington High School where he played football in the late 80s.

I saw his parents again at the Memorial Day festivities in Thomasville where they were guests of honor and were presented a special plaque.

Josh was an artist. He went to Davidson College (the 4 year college near Charlotte) and majored in Art. He then went to UNC Charlotte to get his Masters in Architecture but decided in his last semester to join the NAVY and he set his sight on becoming as SEAL.

After his death his family was looking through his art and found a lot of art that they'd never seen that Josh has just stored away.

Today I met up with Josh's Mom and his twin sister Kiki. They were at Davidson County Community College bringing Josh's newly framed artwork to put out for everyone to see how talented Josh was.

Murder in Greensboro

Although I spent my Tuesday afternoon at the Hickory Trails neighborhood murder I had other assignments the rest of the week and never had to go back for a follow up.



This is the same neighborhood where a bullet came through a wall and hit a little girl just 5 days earlier....and the murder was just a short walk behind that apartment.



This morning I saw an email with a link to a video. A city council candidate went over to the neighborhood to see what was going on after the city mangager squashed an official city gathering in the neighborhood as "too dangerous".



"Balderdash", I can imagine this particular city council candidate saying. Upon arriving in the neighborhood he found himself face to face with neighborhood teens who were more than happy to lead him to the grieving mother and then took him to the scene of the crime.



(disclaimer - As a working journalist - I'm not, don't and can't endorse a candidates running for office....even if I don't live in his city....so don't take this post as any kind of endorsment.)

Leaving Las Vegas Maximum Altitude

On the Flight Home from Vegas this week the Pilot warned of some storms we'd have to avoid.



With my trusty GPS attached to the window I was following our flight across the country. When we got to about St. Louis the pilot throttled up and began to climb from our 36,000 feet cruising altitude.



As I watched the numbers rise I wondered what it would be when we leveled out. It was what you see in the following picture. Almost 41,000 feet....the max crusing altitude of the newest 737s.



Not too much later we passed over some kick-ass thunder boomers....I've got a video clip I'll add later.

13 Perfect Years TWICE

I have to tell you about the attendence record set at Southern Alamance High School this year.

It's hard enough for any given student to put together a perfect year, attending school every day. Certainly more difficult to do it for more than one year.

But imagine this. 13 straight years of perfect attendance from Kindergarten through 12th Grade.

When Jeremy Vaughn finished 8th Grade at Southern Alamance Middle School 4 years ago he got up on awards day to get his 9th straight perfect attendance certificate, with his mind already set on what he accomplished this year.

What he learned that day in 2005 was there was another young man at the school doing the same thing. During that 8th Grade awards ceremony 2 names were called for perfect attendence. When Zack Pickard took that stage with Jeremy Vaughn they learned that each had accomplished the same thing....9 straight years of perfect attendance.

Over the next 4 years the boys wouldn't hang out much more than their Athletic Schedules would allow. Jeremy playing football and baseball, Zack playing football and soccer, they kept track of each other's progress through each successful perfect year of high school.

Each of them managed to avoid major sickness or catch illnesses during holiday breaks or long weekends. Jeremy even attended at week of 6th grade with laryngitis, unable to speak.

The boys are stellar athletes and it's probably no coincidence the dedication of a grade school athlete that carries over to the classroom. And that drive to succeed also reflects in their grades. Both of them will graduate near the top of the 2009 class and they're both headed to good colleges in the fall.

Probably the only regret each of them have is Jeremy's 2 weeks off the football field for a knee injury and Zack, well he didn't mention any missed games, but instead says he played 2 soccer games and a football game with a sprained ankle.

Now the young men have their next challenge clearly in sight. College. And they both plan to continue their perfect attendance tradition.

Jeremy is headed to Averett Unitversity where he will play baseball and study Criminal Justice.

Zack is going to Virginia Tech to play Football and study business.

Watch the story HERE -

Chris Daughtry Premature Examination

When I arrived at work this morning I was ready to pick up Melissa Painter and head out on a trio of consumer stories scheduled across our day but when I saw our operations manager scurrying around the parking lot rumaging through newscars looking for spare equipment I knew something was up.


He asked me if I could get my gear together because Chris Daughtry was on his way and I was the first shooter to hit the parking lot. And honestly, I was one of only a handful of shooters even at work today.




I was already scheduled to help Stewart "Lenslinger" Pittman with this very shoot...on Wednesday...but for whatever reason...Chris Daughtry thought the interview was Tuesday...and you just don't tell a rock star to go away and come back tommorrow.

As I rushed to the Production studio and the production and creative services crews had lights up and chairs out. Melissa pushed our first shoot back an hour or so and I grabbed the three cameras and locked their timecodes.



Chris Daughtry was right on time...just 24 hours pre-mature. That's OK. We had our best guys on it...except for Lenslinger. He was one of those guys enjoying an extra day of a holiday weekend.


But never fear....Weaver's here. (oooh. that's way to cheesy and maybe a bit narcisistic.)




We had it covered though. I had primary camera and Carter took the reverse angle. Our Operation's Manager Timmy Hawks even grabbed a camera and was our roaming handheld. We even had a web guy taking stills, a creatives services dude shooting for an instant promo, and Chris Morton from production taking the photos you see here with my little Canon.



As always when the fodder is American Idol, Shannon Smith was the glue in this operation. She held it all together with her extensive knowledge of all things idol and the close relationship she's maintained with Chris since interviewing him when he was in line for the auditions almost 4 years ago.



The topics of the hour long interview covered areas like the new album coming out in July, his adament declaration that he'll always live in North Carolina, how he keeps his private life private and his new found love of Twitter. (He declares MySpace and Facebook too time consuming.)




After the interview was complete Chris didn't rush off, he stuck around for a bit, shooting the breeze with his Fox 8 fans from around the building.

Even Stewart "Lenslinger" Pittman made an appearance at El Ocho on his day off.



We couldn't keep him away but we didn't let him work...but he wouldn't miss a chance to stop by to say hey....Hell Stewart was right there with Shannon when Chris was just a guy in line to try out.


And this time Stewart even brought his wife for the perfect photo op.



The interview will air Thursday on the morning show. It'll be on the web. And it'll probably be in some of our other newscasts too.

Now that we've shot it...Lenslinger needs to get to work...editing.

Travel Channel Academy Segment from WUSA

Here's a short web-segment from WUSA-9 and USA today about the Travel Channel Academy in DC. Interesting the numbers that are thrown out...that only a small percentage of graduates produce video that the Travel Channel deem air worthy.

They also talk about using your furlough time to go take the Academy. lol.

Live at 39,000 feet

Internet on an airplane at 39,000 is cool enough but The Today Show did a live shot through the internet connection...and it looks good. I've gotta figure out what equipment get's the camera's video/audio so cleanly into the laptop to send out over the net.

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