Tuesdays and Wednesdays my shift is called "Swing Photographer". The term is supposed to mean instead of a morning, day or night shift, you come in an hour before the night shift, and leave an hour early. Also, you never know what kind of day you will have,what kind of variety of stories you will do, or who you will meet. That pretty much goes for any other day in which I team up with a reporter. But on those days, while you still don't know what you'll do, where you'll go, or who you'll meet, you will generally end up doing one story for the day. On "swing" days, you do multiple stories.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays my shift is called "Swing Photographer". The term is supposed to mean instead of a morning, day or night shift, you come in an hour before the night shift, and leave an hour early. Also, you never know what kind of day you will have,what kind of variety of stories you will do, or who you will meet. That pretty much goes for any other day in which I team up with a reporter. But on those days, while you still don't know what you'll do, where you'll go, or who you'll meet, you will generally end up doing one story for the day. On "swing" days, you do multiple stories.
Today, I had five stories, and what a variety. It began with shooting a story with Cindy Farmer about how you can get fit at home using some things you may already have, like stairs or a weight like Cindy's using here. This story involved minimal set up on my part. I go in with Cindy, put a wireless mic on Mark, the fitness trainer, and off we go. No special lighting, not even the tripod I brought in. I just needed to find creative ways to shoot the thing. This story will air in a few days.
After I got back to the station, it was on to something completely different: they needed some exterior shots of the Allen Jay School on Allen Jay Road, next to Allen Jay conveniece store. Mr. Jay was a Quaker minister, an evangelist, and an outstanding educator, according to the school's web site. But, as it is, the Guilford School District has other plans for the mothballed building. So it was, about a minute's worth of shots, and about 20 seconds of air time.
I brought that back to the station so it could run in the 6pm show. Then it was off to Davidson County for two things: a pot hole and a commissioners meeting. WOO-HOO! Can you feel the sarcasm? This whole pot hole patrol is a community service franchise, but being early in the game, it needs some tweaking. We have people call or email us to let us know where there are any alignment shifting craters in the road. The details are, as we like to say, sketchy. For example, the one I was in search of was to be found on Swicegood Road near Hwy 150. Keep in mind I'm searching after 6pm and in the rain. You think it would be as easy as driving on the road and you'd run over it. Well every pot hole I've seen isn't much of a hole. My standard has been set in my home state of Minnesota, where the pot holes can swallow compact cars. So running over a pot hole in North Carolina barely registered. Before I found the offending cavity, I noticed the Northbound lane had all the flaws, the other side looked as if no one had driven South since Winter began. I figured this hub cap sized divot had to be the star as it was the only one of dozens that didn't have any of that gooey asphalt filling. You know, the kind that resembles Rice Krispy marshmallow treat batter. Since Swicegood Road is one of those rural two lane things, there was no place to park except someone's driveway. So I backed into one that opened straight to my target. My headlights were spotting my subject just right, and fortunately every time I set up a shot, a Northbound car would come by and hit the hole. That made for a quick exit out of that driveway.
Then it was on to Lexington proper where the Davidson County Commissioners were meeting. I would be there to find out what kind of carrot the board was to dangle in front of an anonymous company that was looking to expand. The economic development board spokesman told the board how valuable it would be to have this company in their county. The extra income and jobs it would create. Only one person spoke up during public expression, and what he said was so full of numbers and inside information, that he may have been the only person to understand what he was saying. He was the board watchdog. Every board has one.
I got back to the station with the last two items around 8:15 and opened up my lunchbox to have dinner. Shortly after that, I was called out to see what I could get on a fatal accident that happened on I-40 near Winston-Salem. In the photo, a State Highway Patrolman inspects under the hood of the truck involved. It is policy after an accident to give the vehicle a physical and inspect the driver's log book to see when and how often he drives. The accident happened an hour earlier, but sometimes these things take awhile to clean up. It was at the junction of I-40 and Highway 311. Somehow an 18-wheeler struck and killed a pedestrian. Seems like an unlikely place for a pedestrian, but since the investigating State Trooper was in the process of informing the victim's family, I could not get any other information about the accident. And, for the record, while I'm in the business of trying to be the first to report something, I do not ever want to be the first person to broadcast to a victim's family that one of their own has been killed.
Quite a mixed bag of stories. We'll see what tomorrow brings as I "swing" again.
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