Once (or twice) in a generation, a man, his machines and a moment come together to define the very times. Such was the case with Marvin, whose life finally came into focus the day he scored the coveted 13 News gig. Before then, life had had been less than swell. Chicks didn’t dig his mothball collection, his Mom’s jalopy always left him stranded and the fellas on the corner threatened to burn the wool slacks off him whenever he grew too nosy. But now, all that was about to change… he could feel it. With a flashy new fancycam, a logo’d muscled car and a totally chief new Madras jacket, this Chinese Checkers champion of 1959 was about to make his mark on the not so fruited plains. If he was lucky, an exclusive or two might earn him a raise and he could get that new seersucker suit off lay-away. After all…

…you can’t look this good on a photog’s salary.

Emu-cam (def) An Australian native; similar to the pinhole camera

With the exception of the pinhole camera, every camera I’ve seen has had glass of some sort to direct light to the recording media.

Glass in cameras serves a number of purposes. Keeping dust out of the camera. Focus – focusing the light onto the recording media (be it film or CCDs). And also allowing the photographer or VJ to get closer or further away from the subject without having to move.

As mentioned in the post below (My Bag Over-runneth), I have two converter lenses. A wide angle adapter and a tele adapter. The former allows me to get an extremely wide view…maybe shoot in a small area and capture it all. The latter allows me to get a bit closer to the action without having to physically move closer.

Shot with Sony 2x tele adapter

Shot w/o adapters – regular HV20 lens

Shot with Phoenix .24 fisheye lens

That’s the simple explanation, which you can see in the photos above. Shot at about 15 feet away/from left to right:

Photo #1 – Canon HV20 with 2x Sony tele adapter/zoomed all of the way out
Photo #2 – Canon HV20 camera lens/no adapter/zoomed all of the way out
Photo #3 – Canon HV20 with Century .25 fisheye/zoomed all of the way out

Did I mention zoom above? Well, yes. Zoomed all of the way out is using the camera zoom to back off as far away from the subject as possible. Zoomed all of the way in is using the zoom to bring the subject as close as possible. Got it?

Then DON’T ZOOM! Check out this post to understand why (not).

Moving on…the other use of the lens to get the exact framing and focus and perspective you want.

Framing…why move the tripod if you can nudge the zoom a mite in or out? Saves time.

Focus (will have to follow up with photos and another post to explain this better) – if you understand depth of field, you can select your lens and distance and have certain elements of your shot in focus while others are out of focus. YOU choose – this isn’t luck.

Perspective – the look of the elements in the shot as related to each other. Look below. Two shots using the tele and wide angle adapters.

Shot with .25 fisheye adapter

Shot with Sony 2x telephoto adapter

Notice in the first shot (using fisheye or wide angle) the elements seem far apart…there appears to be more space between the front element Lego anchorman at desk) and the rear element (TV truck). Then look at the third shot…the TV truck and anchorman appear closer together…there appears to be less space between the elements.

This is all relative. The first shot was taken inches away from the anchorman…the third shot was taken probably five feet away. So if you compare the distance from the camera to the closer element and the farther away one, it is LESS in the first shot and MORE in the second shot. To get a clearer idea, see the illustration below.

The top illustration shows the photographer close to the tree and the tree about an equal distance to the mountain.
The lower illustration shows the mountain the tree the same distance apart, but the photographer has moved back.
So the distance between the photographer relative to the distance between the tree and mountain has been altered.
From the photographer’s point of view, the objects in the upper illustration are far apart…in the lower illustration they are closer together.

Questions anyone?

For the past few years I’ve been re-working my gear bag – what I carry around with me every day.

First there’s my “purse.” What I think it actually is, is a hunter’s ammo bag. Roomy with compartments for my goodies (in addition to what normal folks carry)…the bullet loops hold pens. The pockets hold HV20 batteries and tape. The front pocket holds my lav mike nicely.

Today I put it all together in a camera bag and realized I had my dream bag. A good camera, several mikes, room for tapes, lenses. Here’s what it looks like and here’s what’s in it. Add a tripod, and computer in bag and you have a mobile VJ kit.

Canon HV20 camcorder (with 3mp still capacity)
Three batteries
Sony VCL-2052 2x tele converter
Phoenix Super Fish Eye .25 converter
Azden ECZ-660 short shotgun mike
Stick mike (OK – this I swiped from my daughter’s Karioke remnants)
Radio Shack 33-3103 laveliere mike
Canon remote
Blank tapes & head cleaning tape
GREEN gaffer’s tape (what a friend gives a friend on a birthday – thanks Newell)

The Employee Blogger – Manage the Risk and Reap Reward

I wrote my very first blog post here three years ago, nearly to the day.   In 2005, I had an awakening to just how disruptive the empowered social web was to my industry, and ultimately my job.   So rather than just sticking my head in the sand, and hoping all of you would stop using the interwebs and start being better TV citizens, I dove right in and began exploring new communication channels.  My blogging, Twitter and experimentation with emerging mobile trends – such as location based services – have all been a part of my continuing media eduction.  To be honest, its also about positioning myself favorably in a troubling and uncertain career landscape for those of us who still toil in legacy media.

While anonymity was my cover early on, a modicum of web notoriety and Google ranking has put me in a position where those who employ me pay attention to what I say here and on Twitter.  Whether it’s this blog, what I say when I speak publicly, or my behavior  on the job – interacting with people face to face – it’s important that I represent the brand of my employer favorably.  I hope I do that here, but while we’re on the topic, I wanted to point you to my blog disclaimer, so that you know that these are MY thoughts, observations, and views.

Disclaimer 2.0

So, as you can see, I’m hoping that this “living, breathing disclaimer” can be an opportunity to demonstrate that I’m doing it right.   Thoughtless online behavior by a CEO or the lowest ranking worker, can put brands in a negative light.  Sometimes an insightful employee’s blog, like former Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy,  can take the spotlight off of the employers brand.

Recently,  Forrester Research laid out new guidelines prohibiting their analysts from blogging about research ares that they cover.  To some it’s a smart move that prevents their employees from diluting the brand.  To others, it’s seen as “Epic Enterprise 2.0 Fail” – a way of jealously preventing their personal brands from getting larger and more relevant.

Forrester CEO George Colony is well aware of that savvy analysts can build their personal brands via their positions as Forrester analysts amplified by social media (see the post on “Altimeter Envy”). As a consequence, a Forrester policy that tries to restrict analysts’ personally-branded research blogs works to reduce the possibility that the analysts will build a valuable personal brand leading to their departure. -  SageCircle

Employers struggle with the notion of their workers having a voice on the web.  At the extremes, there are two tribes – one that espouses a social media utopia where every worker has open access to social networks, and another that operates in fear and pushes to silence the rank and file.  Hopefully, a more pragmatic third tribe recognizes the risks and rewards of their employees social media use and provides a set of guidelines for them.  NPR has an approach to all of this that I admire.

As NPR grows to serve the audience well beyond the radio, social media is becoming an increasingly important aspect of our interaction and our transparency with our audience and with a variety of communities. Properly used, social networking sites can also be very valuable newsgathering and reporting tools and can speed research and extend a reporter’s contacts, and we encourage our journalists to take advantage of them. – NPR Social Media Guidelines

Policy Evolution

These policies and guidelines will continue to evolve as new technologies and communications platforms further push the boundaries of openness and transparency.

I’m interested in hearing your experiences – as a worker or an employer – with disclaimers, social media policies and the like.  I’ve already gotten some good  feedback on Twitter and Facebook.

QUESTIONS:

I’ll grant Pat Tomasulo this much: Dude’s got grapes. While most notably a sports anchor for Chicago’s own WGN, this mild-mannered reporter is serving as an avenging angel of sorts for frustrated news crews the world over. See, no matter what populated spot you set your camera up in, somebody’s gonna stomp into your shot and act a fool. Spastic arm flailing, extended shout-outs, the occasional gang-sign: there’s no telling what even the most sophisticated pedestrian will do when he or she spot a fancycam in action. (Remember, they don’t call them ‘asshole magnets’ just ’cause it sounds cool.) Now, St. Pat is collecting payback and the results are both cringe-inducing and hilarious (depending on which side of the lens you find yourself)…

The set-up is simple: Erect a fake live shot, wait for the gawkers to invade your frame, then pounce. At this, Tomasulo is masterful. He, spins, he cajoles, he berates. More times than not he invites the overly curious to join him on camera, where he seamlessly begins quizzing them on their incontinence, unwanted body hair or average looking babies. On paper it sounds like some infantile Howard Stern skit, but our man Pat delivers the goods with such a straight face, such reporter earnestness, you can’t help but laugh along (an hope he doesn’t get his microphone shoved down his gullet). Then again, perhaps I’m biased. Those folks were only being friendly! They didn’t deserve the shame, the castigation, the unsolicited advice on erectile dysfunction…

Then again, I didn’t deserve that awkward rebel yell on the overpass the other day, the unmistakable finger messages, the half filled Slushee cup hurled my way…

If you’re reading this post, my guess is you probably already have your own Twitter account, but social media expert Jeff Cutler has some thoughts on what’s good about Twitter as a journalistic tool and what could be better.

Tip #1

“Twitter is perfect for talking to a crowd and just getting your question out there and seeing what you get back,” Cutler told a group of journalists recently during a training session at the Bloomington Herald-Times.  “However, if you’re using it for a news source, it’s just a place to start.”

Cutler says the old rules of verification apply, especially with new media.   Once you find a tweet with potential news value, the real reporting begins.

Tip #2

Have your company account and a personal account.

“Corporate accounts are good for ‘broadcasting  messages’ – a personal account is good for engaging people, talking to them to source different things and to find out what they’re thinking,” Cutler said.

One of the drawbacks to Twitter, according to Cutler, is the difficulty users encounter when they try to communicate one-on-one.

“You cannot send a direct message to someone who is not following you,” Cutler said. “That’s  frustrating for reporters, if a source DMs you [and you're not following them], it will bounce back.”

Tip #3

Make it easy for people to share your tweets.

Instead of using all 140 characters available for a tweet, consider keeping your tweet to 100 characters — that will make it easier to retweet (RT)  the info.

Tip #4

Don’t overdo the shouting.

Cutler suggests you monitor your ratio of “tweets that are broadcast or those that are just conversation.”  If all you ever do is push people to watch or read your stories, you’re not using social media to its fullest potential, according to Cutler.  He feels many news organizations and individual journalists are missing the point of Twitter.

Tip #5

Stay connected to other journalists.

Cutler suggests you begin to follow #journchat on Twitter to see what your colleagues are tweeting about.

Jeff Cutler has more than 5,000 people following him on Twitter.  He conducts workshops on social media through the Society of Professional Journalists Newsroom Training Program.

(VIA Ashvegas) Two months after a young photojournalist fell to his death, the community college that helped shape him has established a scholarship in his memory. John Billingsley earned his Broadcast Production degree from Isothermal Community College before advancing to Appalachian State University. After interning at the WLOS Rutherford County Bureau, he gained employment at the station itself and quickly proved himself a favorite of his new coworkers. All of which made his sudden death one of the most shocking news items his friends ever processed. Now, they – along with John’s parents – have started a scholarship in his name. The scholarship will cover tuition for a second-year Broadcast Production Technology student at Isothermal. Administrators hope Billingsley’s family and friends will help fund the scholarship for years to come. It’s a fitting tribute to a young man on the cusp of his career. John’s time behind the lens was short, but he quickly proved he could do a lot more than just carry a camera…

“John had a passion for videography, a zeal for photography and a very good eye,” said Coomes, a Broadcast Production Technology instructor at Isothermal. “One of John’s greatest talents, though, was his ability to put people at ease when he was interviewing them. You can’t really teach that – how to make someone comfortable when there is a camera in their face, often in stressful situations. He had a gift for it. Hopefully, this scholarship will help students follow in John’s footsteps for years to come.”

Contributions may be made to the scholarship fund by sending a check to Isothermal Community College, attention: John Wallace Billingsley Memorial Scholarship, P.O. Box 804, Spindale, NC 28160. For more information, call 828-286-3636, ext. 491.

It was a great experience and I have to thank Andreas Mitisek and the Long Beach Opera for allowing me to photograph behind the scenes of one of their recent rehearsals.

Now, that being said, the person I owe the biggest thanks to is my favorite flautist, Teri Christian (aka FlutePrayer, who writes the blog, FlutePrayer). I met Teri and her husband, Bob, through blogging and I’ve gotten to enjoy a couple of the performances (Opera and Municipal Band) they’ve been involved with down in Long Beach (Yay, Long Beach). I’ve been trying to work it out to to shoot one of the Long Beach Opera performances for quite a while. Teri has been the one working on getting me the okay to come in and snap away.

I really hope I wasn’t too much of a distraction. That was my biggest concern while shooting (well, that and also that I might suck at being a still photographer).

No worries. Things seemed to work out fine.

The orchestra and the all the performers had their game faces on and I did my best to ninja my way through the rehearsal.

(Whoooo-WHA-KAI! Click, Click, Click! KI-YAAA!)

God bless the Christians.

(Heh-heh, doesn’t that sound kind of redundant?)

Ever frog-march a grieving family to their car? I have – and on occasion, felt bad about it. The latest case occurred on Friday, when some (super) friends of mine at the Hall of Justice needed help covering the door. For two weeks live trucks of every stripe squatted on the lawn of that Winston-Salem structure as a high profile murder trial roiled inside. It’s a sad circus I avoided joining, until a late Thursday verdict set the stage for some end of the week sentencing. Our crack bureau crew was all over it, but between manning the pool camera and making dubs, they were a little short in the door department. Thus I was summoned to The Dash to practice a not so sacred act of lenslinging. See, if you wear a camera on your shoulder you gotta be prepared to point it at anything. That includes schisms, collisions and its staggering parade of victims. I don’t enjoy running people down, I’d rather lift them up. But if the light was right, I’d browbeat a mime troupe ’til I captured a reaction. But Friday’s assignment demanded no such TMZ; it simply required balance, situational awareness and comfortable shoes. It could be called ‘afflicting the stricken’. I like to think of it as The Courthouse Swarm.

When the family stepped off the ground floor elevator, I was plastered to the glass outside. Unsure as to just who might emerge, I scanned the crowded lobby for familiar forms, openly profiling faces for signs of distress. One look at the clutch of loved ones shuffling toward the door told me these were indeed persons of interest. Perhaps it was their body language. They were, after all, holding each other up. No doubt they were the defendant’s kin; cousins and such of a young man just given 16-21 years in a case that left a local policeman dead. Now they were headed my way and the very sight made my trigger thumb itch. As they pushed on the door, I raised my glass and felt the presence of other cameras around me. From there, time slowed and I struggled to fit them all in my tiny TV screen. At first they didn’t say a word, choosing instead to stare right through the pack of jackals backpedaling before them. I too was silent, closing in all quiet-like for a tight-shot before scampering ahead of them for a complimentary wide. All around me, other lenses did likewise, until passers-by paused to see who the cameramen were chasing. I would have stopped to tell them, but I didn’t know where to start.

So I stayed in close pursuit, until the man in brown started to talk. To be fair, he was speaking to my competitor, but I didn’t let the lack of invite stop me from sticking my lens into the chit-chat. Hey, all’s fair in love and on the courthouse steps. While we stood there, other cameras caught up, until the man who called himself the family’s Bishop had a small congregation. ‘God ALWAYS has a plan’ I can still hear him say, but the real muscle memory is saved for one of the lady’s at the center of the pack. Bent at the waist and short of voice, the defendant’s grandmother answered the reporters’ queries with a throat ravaged from regret. ‘The truth will come out!” she said with a tone that made me think she believed it. When asked about the slain cop’s family, the old woman blanched the way my own Grandmother would. “We’ve said from the beginning how sorrowful we was!” When a reporter threw another question her way, she threw her hands up and declared she ‘was through’. With that, her family dragged her toward a waiting car and as I watched her through my viewfinder, my own heart ached for the old woman’s loss…

It would have hurt a lot worse had I missed the shot.