I was told that I would be busy hopping from shoot to shoot for the middle of my 9 to 6 day. That of course, was entirely the opposite of what happened. With my first shoot canceled, I had nothing until 11:15am, when I shot an interview in our parking lot in front of some gangly trees with some people from a weight-loss contest the show hosted over a year ago. This was deathly boring a slow start to my day.
A feature on a young golfer followed this, and then my 7th trip to the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" set in five days. Yeah, I do enjoy the special media treatment I get while carrying the camera, including every other person's seemingly innate desire to wave at the camera. But I got an autograph from the designers for my little sister, so it was worth the time. Oh yeah, and I shot another half of a package for my reporter, Katie, with whom I have rather grown to enjoy, after our rock out sessions in the car, singing along to a pop song which shall remain unnamed.
But here's where my day gets fun.
I get back to the station, and find out that I could go shoot a fun little piece on the world's smallest horse, "Thumblelina." So after wading through about 150 whiny, tired, horse crazy kids and their parents, I rolled off a few minutes of a bizarrely tiny and disproportioned cute and entirely tiny pony being harassed by hundreds of children with sticky hands.
On my way back to the station, where I was planning to write and edit this story (an assignment granted to me after my somewhat display of my reporting and copy writing skills yesterday). I was sidetracked, by a call from the newsroom sending me to check out a possible stabbing downtown.
Ok, possibly hot news, with cops, etc. Good stuff. And I found nothing.
Then, a call to go check on two car accidents on Main in the heights. Found it. And my cops, along with a crunched pickup truck and some broken glass, all thanks to a tired driver. Continuing to my next wreck, I realized I too was getting tired; it's now 5:10, and there's no way I can get my tiny horse story done for the 6pm news. Damn.
Found two more wrecks. If you can call a dented panel that much of a wreck. Ok, headed home.
Or, headed out to the other end of town, to 66th and Rimrock, where some kid supposedly set off some fireworks and ended up starting a firey little action in the brush. This time, firefighters, one squad car of cops, and soot all over my shoes. But I got some cool shots of the firemen, and this whole lot will make the 10pm news tonight. Time to bring it in, since its now 6pm, and my shift is over.
Except that the newsroom just received a call about a broken water main 50 blocks east of me, and it would be easiest if I just stopped by on my way to the station, which is remotely on the way, sort of how Orlando is remotely on the way to New York City coming from LA.
Ok, found the waterworks. And by waterworks, I mean a small heave in the asphalt with cones around it which has water streaming out of it. Not shooting, not even bubbling, just sort of oozing. I dutifully shoulder my camera, kneeling on the wet asphalt, and in the process, turn the ash on my shoes into some sort of smokey-smelling sludge. Lovely, since I'm in the new news car. So I trudge through the grass to clean the shoes up, and with an entire week's worth of spot news, I finally return to the station.
It turns out there was another accident, involving a semi truck and trailer rolling 9 or so times and crossing three lanes of traffic, so needless to say, my traffic story and my water main coverage went in the can.
Moral of the story: shoot everything, leave nothing, and prepare to have most of it go to waste.
At least they kept the tiny pony.
