Could Have Shot It...

[Dave.B]

...But I didn't have a camera!

While posting another thread, I decided to ask a related question here.

How many times have you seen an accident or fire or some other situation happening but didn't have a camera to shoot it?

As I was leaving work one evening, I passed by a semi-truck on the side of the highway. I noticed that there was a small fire under the truck. I went up the street, turned around and pulled off the road at a safe distance...just in case. This truck was fully engulfed within a minute! Fire department didn't get there untill the truck was a total loss.

One other time, I was out in western Kentucky and noticed pretty heavy smoke a ways off. Once we got to the scene, it was one of those big, three story farm houses that was fully engulfed in flames. Fire departments were on the scene but not having much luck. It was an inferno...fire shooting out of every window on every level.

My wife said, "I guess that's something you see all the time." I'm like, "No...by the time I get there, it's already under control and the firemen are just standing around waiting to roll up the hoses."

So what have you missed 'cause you didn't have gear?

[f11vid]

Back when I was still working in Missouri,I came home to visit my folks in Chicago.While driving,I saw a huge plume of smoke and instinctively drove towards it.It was the wreck of AA Flt 191 and had happened about ten minutes before.

[NEWSSHOOTER3]

Nope. Never happened, but I almost always have my take home/camera with me anyway...

[Land Rover]

I know there have been instances here and there but the only one I recall is coming up on an accident scene where a cement truck took a left hand turn and the drum came off the back and kept going straight - right into some parked cars at the light.

I did call it into the station from my phone.

[tarzan]

For that reason I'm seriously thinking of getting a small, relatively cheap mini-dv palmcorder that I can have in my car with me at all times. I don't have a take-home vehicle, so I'd take it in my personal car when I'm off, and have it in the newscar at work, and encourage the reporters to play with it and learn how to use it. Then I could get all sorts of drive-by shots of stuff that I might not otherwise be able to get, either because there's no big camera, no time to pull out the big camera, or no place to park.

And of course, since it would be my own personal camera, I could also use it to shoot porn on my days off...
http://www.circuitcity.com/IMAGE/product/enlarged600/pan/PC.PAN.PVGS320.LT.MCC.JPG

[pre-set]

I already do this. It's come in useful a few times... Enough so that extra hours on the clock about a dozen times a year have paid for the camera many times over now. I don't have a takehome, etiher, AND live an hour away form the station. If I catch something on the way home overnight, it almost always means 2 or 3 hours OT. And STILL cheaper to the station than stringer video.

[Tape Reaver]

I've had that happen to me, but I've also driving by an accident and had my gear and blown it off.

[Shootblue]

Even handier than the skills of how you phrase things to the desk is knowing what to ignore in plain sight. What they don't know won't kill them, and can save you a lot of work when it isn't needed.

[svp]

One night, when I was living in Oklahoma, I got hungry about 1am and decided to jump in the car (marked news unit) and drive around the corner to Wendy's. Since I lived in an apartment complex I brought all my gear inside everynight. Well, on this night I hopped in the car to go grab a bite and DIDN'T take the camera. Sure enough, as I'm pulling out of the Wendy's drive-thru, I see a little smoke coming from a mobile home across the street. I raced back to my apartment, grab the camera, and head back to the scene. I got there at the same time as the firefighters and got the flames. What I DIDN'T GET was a neighbor pulling the family out of the burning mobile home. I would have gotten that if I had my camera with me. Luckily, I was still the first news unit on the scene so the other stations didn't get it either. Lesson learned. And before you ask why I didn't think to check on the people living in the home, I have no idea. I didn't think. My first instinct was "get the damn camera!"

[Necktie Boy]

Don't shoot news right now, but I don't carry my full size camera in my truck. So, I have been looking for a small camera to carry around for "just in case" I live near a Sony Outlet. I got a refurbished DCR-HC28 Mini-DV Camera for $150 bucks, tax included. It was on sale. A simple little camera with no mic or headphone jack. The picture is pretty good for a little camera......Also, I have heard that Sony's Mini-DV Cameras would playback a DVCam format tape....It did. My DSR-300 does not have a firewire port. With this little camera, it's a feeder into my laptop via firewire. I can edit if I have to and feed it via the audio/video output to another format or back onto Mini-DV.

[jeremycohn]

I carry a Canon MiniDV camcorder with me.. it's a very simple one, but it works. Aside from being a back up for spot news, it's great to conceal yourself a bit. I use it every single time I have to shoot something crime related inside of a shopping mall. Try to walk in with an ENG cam and you'll get the heave ho immediately.

[Dan R.]

I try to be no more than 30 seconds away from being able to have a video camera of *some* kind in hand rolling at any time of day or night. It's become a bit of an obsessive thing. If I'm somewhere where I can't take a camera, I start getting anxious in short order. One of my biggest fears is missing something that happens right in front of me because I left the camera at home or somewhere too far out of reach.

[pre-set]

I carry a Canon MiniDV camcorder with me.. it's a very simple one, but it works. Aside from being a back up for spot news, it's great to conceal yourself a bit. I use it every single time I have to shoot something crime related inside of a shopping mall. Try to walk in with an ENG cam and you'll get the heave ho immediately.

Forgot about that one, too. I do the same thing.


Also, the little cams are great for shooting stuff off computer screens. You can push the lens right up against the surface of the monitor and move the cameras across the monitor and the macro will keep everything nice and sharp. Throw in a slow shutter effect and you've got some neat effects with very little effort and no rendering.

Those little "back up" cameras are useful things to have around. Mine is a Canon Optura 20.

[JacobA]

Has anybody had any problems with cold/hot temperatures (or moisture on the tapes) affecting the camera when being left in the car permanently?

[jeremycohn]

JacobA, I usually leave the Canon MiniDV in the car in the cold, not much of a problem. The battery doesn't last very long, but I don't need it to. The only issue I've had with cold weather is if I bring it into the warmth and immediately try to play back.. I sometimes will get a bit of digital breakup until everything warms up.

[code20photog]

I mentioned it in the other thread, and I'll repeat it here for those who weren't reading that one. But when I'm off, I'm off. I have a take home van, and I may call on something that I see or hear, but I'm not rushing off to shoot things unless it's a 747 into city hall or Elvis eating at the Tastee-Freeze. You have to have seperation between work and life, you cant let work be your life. If I pass an accident, or a fire, or a puppy riding a skateboard, I'll call it in, and if they want to pay me to shoot it, I'm all for it.

I just don't think you can spend all your time worrying about missing something or shooting stuff on your own, that's what the desk is for. When I first started in this business, I was one who did worry about mising a story, always being within earshot of the pager no matter if I was off or on, but inevitably, we did miss a story here and there, usually nothing huge, but a biggie from time to time. And you know what? The station was still there the next day, we still had 4 newscasts, and I still had a job. It wasn't worth my worry and effort to try and be Johnny on the spot when that was the job of the desk and the producers. No mater how many times I called something in, or went and shot something on an off day, I never got the pat on the back, or paid anything extra (Only when the desk called you, did you get paid on code20 duty)

One of my favorite things about this job, is on my off day, I can walk through the mall or go to a ballgame, go for a bike ride, and nary a soul has any idea what I do for a living. I like it that way. M-F, 9-5, TV Photojournalist, all other times, regular guy who happens to have a live van parked in his driveway.

But again, if they call and say go, I go.

[INLANDNEWS]

or Elvis eating at the Tastee-Freeze.


I see Elvis eating at Tastee Freeze all the time!! He prefers the dipped cones.

[ShootWhereItAint]

One night I was driving home from the station. This small truck almost ran me off the road. When he passed me by he had a 1000 yard stare...he looked completely nuts. I followed him for a bit and called the state patrol because it was obvious I was following an impared driver.

I stayed on line with the dispatcher as we passed through downtown Minneapolis. As we reached the south suburbs they finally had a trooper intercept us. As the trooper lit him up the guy decided to run. I flipped my radio to the state partol main and the trooper said "I have had enough of this... going for a PIT".

Sure enough, they PITed him out right infront off me... I would have gotten it if I kept my dashcam in place (I use it for storms)

If I would have had that.. I would have gotten the pit....and the fight that insued as he was removed from his truck..

Not earth shattering news... but would have made for cool images. Not every day you see a PIT done on a freeway at 55MPH.

By the way... Minnesota State Patrol informed me he blew a .028 BAL.