In the immortal words of Tommy Shaw…
“I don’t know anyone who likes February
It’s too damn cold
It’s just too damn cold”
…and I couldn’t agree more. For only being 28 days long, it is the longest month of the year.
For damn near the entire month, the temperature never got above 20 degrees. There’s nothing to do during the damn month. The sun hardly ever shows up.
I’m damn glad that frickin’ month is over.
Business first. As you will see, the next post is password protected. If you want to see the post, you will have to email me or leave a comment to get the password. Tell me who you are, and where I know you from, and I’ll email the password to you. If I don’t know who you are, no password.
Ok, yesterday sucked monkey ass.
It started innocently enough. I drove into work without much problem, despite the inch or so of newly fallen snow. Of course, I left home a bit earlier than usual to give myself time for the longer drive time.
Kevin and I did a live shot for the morning show about the snowy roads. Most of the time, when we have the freeway in the background we go from the same spot, and it gets kinda old. So, with that in mind, I scoped out a different location that overlooks the freeway. Apparently, it didn’t look that good on the air, and we had to change the shot to show the street we were parked on behind Kevin. Now, it’s not a well traveled street (which is why I parked there), and seeing it in the live shot is meaningless to all but a very few people watching the news. The freeway, on the other hand, and the shape it’s in for driving is of interest to MANY people.
Whatever.
There were a few other minor things that happened throughout my day that if taken alone wouldn’t bother me much, but piled up one on another, well, it put me on overload.
(An aside…last winter, a guy plowed snow from our driveway, and in the process hacked up the driveway and a good chunk of lawn, AND some gardens Diane planted. Neither of us were very happy with him. We bought a snowblower for this winter. )
Driving home after the crappy day, I had an insight. I just KNEW that the guy had plowed our driveway, putting the perfect end to a perfectly crappy day.
I was right. I hate it when I’m right, sometimes. And he had hacked up the lawn and driveway, AGAIN!!! And without even talking to me first. I was pissed. I was beyond pissed. My poor dog was actually afraid of me, I was so pissed.
Today was much better, if a whole crap-load colder.
End of me whining…at least for now.
I was looking forward to this post, really looking forward to it. My posts about work lately have taken a bit of a negative turn, bitching and moaning and complaining. This post was going to be positive, uplifting, fitting for the season.
That was the plan. Reality, however, had other plans.
Let me begin by giving you some good news…
MY CAMERA IS BACK!!! Sony did it’s duty and fixed my dead companion, and it now safely ensconced in my hands. Live is good.
Or is it?
Diane, Drew and I are just one week from heading to Vegas to see Zach graduate. “That’s good news, isn’t it?” you ask. Well, on face value, sure. But Diane is soooooo stressed about all the things that have to happen between now and then that we’re all going slightly crazy. We’re gonna need the vacation to recover from preparing for the vacation.
This is a Lectrosonics wireless transmitter that plugs onto a microphone. These are very useful things, wireless mics, giving photogs freedom from cables to trip over.
One weakness…they run on these…
…simple 9 volt batteries. And to keep these batteries from dying, the wireless needs to be turned off.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? Just a bit of common sense can lead you to that conclusion, right?
Well, apparently some people cannot, or will not, make that connection. Some of the reporters that I work with just DO NOT TURN THE BLOODY THINGS OFF!!! And it’s not just the wireless, it’s anything that runs off 9 volts.
Please, be friendly to your neighborhood television photographer. Turn it off when you’re done. Please. Thanks.
Ok, this post is a rant, so deal with it.
Why, dear God why, can’t reporters plant their feet during live shots? I spend a lot of time and effort (well, sometimes I do) to set up the live shot, planting the camera where it appears to me is the best angle to see what’s going on. I have the reporter stand in the spot that takes best advantage of the camera angle. I even tell them which shoulder to gesture over when they’re talking about the background (you know, like a murder scene or a fire scene, whatever). Then, just as the director takes the shot, said reporter moves, usually moving in front of the best background!
There are times when the reporter asks me to zoom past them, to better show what’s happening, and I’ll plant the reporter, tell them to NOT MOVE when I start to zoom, and they move anyway, right into my camera shot. OR, they’ll move completely out of the way, only to attempt to move back into postition when I zoom back out to them, only to be out of the light I have set up! ARRRGGHH!! I work the morning show, so using a light is a requirement. If you move out of the light, YOU WON’T BE LIT PROPERLY!!!
This has happened for five straight days now, and I’m running out of patience. I’ve tried to be nice when asking them to NOT MOVE, I’ve tried logic. My only recourse now is intimidation…I’ve been told I can be intimadating. I guess I’ll give that a try.
Thanks for letting me vent. I feel much better now.
We have an on-going problem in the photog room here in AutoWorld…photogs leaving live trucks with an insuffcient amount of gas in the tanks! There is nothing more frustrating than jumping in a truck at 345am and having to do this…
Let me add that the gas station of choice (the one with our corporate credit card) is NOT in the nicest of neighborhoods. In fact, at 345am, the front doors are locked and we have to do the transaction through a sliding box…that’s how bad the area is. So, needless to say, it’s not something I want to do that early.
It’s not uncommon to find the live trucks with only a quarter of a tanks of gas, which can be a problem when you’re headed to some bit of spot news with no time to stop off and tank up. I’ve tried being nice to my fellow photogs to get them to gas up when they’re done. I’ve tried being a prick. I’ve tried embarrassing them by sending emails to the entire newsroom. Nothing. Zip, zero, zilch. Nada. Can’t get some of these guys to understand why leaving a live truck with 1/4 tank of gas is a bad thing.
I’m open to suggestions.
Recent Comments