BehindTheLens

Protestors shout their opposition to “big oil” outside the Meyerson center while inside shareholders of the nation’s biggest energy company gather. Media trucks circle the encampmant, cameras focus on the shouting, a select few offer thoughts on the perils brought about by the evildoers - all under the watchful eyes of Dallas police.

Inside the dignitaries gather, many arriving by shiny black limos. Security is tight, with police and metal detectors screening the crowd. Media members sport badges identifying them as such to watchful escorts. While the shareholders take their seats inside the symphony hall. the press gather in a room cordoned off in the back or gather in a lower room awaiting the post meeting press conference.

All of the events are carefully staged to allow for media “access” without media “intrusion.” What this means is that all that you see from the Exxon Mobil shareholders meeting is a sanitized, carefully choreographed presentation designed to appeased the media without creating a feeding frenzy.

The protestors outside were noticeable less than in years past. While some locals joined the crowd, most hail from places ranging from Beaumont to D. C. They claim ExxonMobil is accountable for everything from cancer rates along the Gulf coast to the war in Iraq. I am not challenging their claims, but it is hard to get a serious point across by raising banners and shouting.

Inside the Meyerson, a courtesy audio feed kept the press informed on the actions inside the hall. A nice thought, but actually seeing shareholders’ reactions to the events is substantially more telling than hearing a sanitized audio feed. The press conference by Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson wasn’t much better. A moderator carefully chose questioners from the throngs of media present, none of which posed any challenge to Mr. Tillerson. While the chief executive did pause for a few questions from local press, overall nothing came to light that hasn’t been said in the press time and time again.

Both sides take advantage of the interest in gas prices to spin their case for their respective causes. While there’s nothing wrong with this, what the public sees is nothing more than opportunists taking advantage of the photo op. The workings of big oil remains a corporate mystery promoted by the execs, villanized by the activists and just another part of everyday life for the media.

Protesters Gather Outside Exxon Mobile Shareholders Meeting 

I went to my niece’s high school graduation this weekend and you probably wouldn’t know it if you looked at the photos.  There were none of me because I was too busy shooting.   I had mother-in-law’s camera (with four rolls of film) and my sister-in-law’s digital camera.  I shoot video for a living but I shoot still photos for fun.  My family knows that if they hand me a camera I’m off!  I want to roam around and get wide shots of all the guests, action shots of teens playing corn hole, the presents, the cake, and best of all the laughter.  I love shooting people having fun.   I want to capture that memory for them.  A bonus is that I get to talk to everyone… meet the folks I don’t know, catch up with the ones I do.  And I get to give my niece an extra graduation gift…..memories of a day that was planned for so long but went by so quickly.  The next day I did make it in a family photo.  My mother-in-law bought a tripod so I could set the camera on timer and join the fun.   

Did you ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day?  In the news business, traffic never moves fast enough, people never return our calls quickly enough and there’s always one more thing you want to shoot but can’t or you will miss your 4 pm live shot. 

But there are exceptions like last week.  All the stations were at DFW airport to cover the AA plane that lost a panel on the way to Paris.  I met Mike Heimbuch and Lindsey Wilcox with a live van.  You know it’s a big deal when it’s a “two photographer” story.  Two heads really our better than one!  We had everything set up so quickly there was time to snap some pics for this blog. 

It made me realize that photographers have become the masters of  multi-taxing.  We shoot, edit, field produce, sometimes report and edit stories.  Then we make the live magic happen.  We have to find a location without electric wires or tall buildings near something visually interesting that relates to the story of the day.  Since we will be there for four hours, a nearby rest room is always a plus.   Fifteen minutes later when the mast is up, we call an engineer to tune us in on one of our transmitters.  We dial up ifb, run a/v and electric cables for the lights and tv monitor and hope the reporter is ready to give us the script.  If spot news happens, we break everything down and rush off to start all over again.  It does make the days go by quickly.   Kudos to those who can handle the fast lane life of live at the speed of news! 

Let’s see, American charges us for airfare, a fuel surcharge, drinks, a “snack,” alcohol and now baggage. Soon the complimentary beverage cart will probably go the same way, or perhaps an extra charge for using up more than 32″ of the overhead bin. Maybe a cleaning fee if you don’t want to fly in a dirty airplane, or charging a toll for the “facilities.”

I understand airlines are hurting for money. They want to attract travelers with low-cost fares, then blindside customers with added fees. One passenger we spoke with at DFW agrees, saying that American should charge us a ticket fee based on how much it actually costs to take that person from one place to another and quit all these annoying add-ons.

Here’s a thought: You have a captive audience in the air. Maybe offer something the passengers might want to pay for – like real food!

One of the challenges we face as photographers is to turn a good newspaper stories into something interesting to watch on the evening news. Often this leads to coming up with creative ways to illustrate concepts without embarrasing, convicting or otherwise implicating innocent bystanders. The result is the parade of headless beer bellies, out-of-focus kids on the playground or, in the case of our story on identity thieves caught, shots of women’s feet and legs.

Just for the record it is against the very nature of a credible photographer to shoot pictures like this, but it is a necessary evil. With a tight timeline to work with, we do not have the luxury to ask everyone’s permission if it is OK to photograph parts of their body. We try hard to make sure the shots are very generic, so nobody is jumping up at the dinner table screaming “Hey! That’s my gut!” Or worse, having your neighbor ask “Isn’t that Bob’s belly?”

Yes I have received a few glares from my subject matter, and an occasional scolding about what a calloused individual I am. For the most part people are quite understanding and often disappointed that their TV debut will be, well, cut…a little!

Literally! Omar and I were dispatched to Parkland Hospital to cover victims of the tragic house explosions in McKinney Friday, just as we were about to pack up and head home. Racing up Harry Hines towards the hospital district, and suddenly…Nothing! The engine in our live truck just decided it was quitting time. Fortunately we were able to coast to a side street and wait on a tow. Thanks to Javier from Ron’s Towing, our weekend started a bit late but otherwise unscathed!

Jane McGarry is spending a few moments on her blog sharing a few intimite moments in the dressing room. href=”http://janestake.wordpress.com/”> In the field, the unwritten Code of Ethics states that “What happens on the road stays on the road.” Well, since nobody actually wrote that down and since bikini waxing seems OK to discuss in a blog, Behind The Lens takes a few moments to share a few personal things that happens in the field.

Today’s topic: The Live Shot. Every day, every show contain live field reports relating the news of the day from the scene or some other relevant spot. Our rolling offices contain every device needed to report, write, edit and transmit from the field. They have air conditioning, heating, off-air monitors, radios, telephone….but one thing they lack are toilets! Not that these items are practical to squeeze in to the already tight space in a typical live van, and even if you could…..well, let’s just say they don’t have ‘em and leave it at that.

Dayside crews generally work for all 3 afternoon newscasts. This means on a typical day our live truck is situated at our location around 3, and we don’t leave until after our live shot at 6. Doesn’t seem like a long time on paper, but consider those hot summer days when the field crews are sweating and gulping down bottles of water. One of the things we look for in a live shot location is a restroom facility.

That isn’t always the case. Last summer on a standoff in Arlington, Ellen Goldberg and I stood outside for almost 6 hours with no, er, relief. The nearby Quicktrip never looked so good! The kindness of strangers offering the use of their homes, competing news crews with needs of their own and, yes, the very rare but occasional trip into the woods – although the latter is reserved for dire emergencies! Nobody wants to answer to a call from the public “Guess what your news crew was doing…..” And then there is the foray into a Port-A-Potty on some nearby construction site. Some of those can be an adventure in themselves!

So while Jane spends her time in the powder room chatting before news time, just remember the poor souls braving the elements in the field. If anybody asks what we do when nature calls, the pat answer is “Well…..Depends!”

Would using a cell phone aboard an airplane really place the passengers at risk? I’ve spoken to a few people with knowledge of aircraft electonics (avionics) who tell me there is no conclusive evidence that this may be a problem, but there is enough of a concern that the FAA mandates that phones be turned completely off while the aircraft is in flight mode. The main issue is interference with the navigation system, and quite frankly if I’m blasting through the air at 600 miles per hour several miles above terra firma then a slight risk that anything can go wrong is too great a risk for me. If you’ve heard the morse code-like noise from a TV, radio or PA system that occurs when a cell phone is place near these devices, then you have to wonder how the sensitive electronics aboard an airplane don’t get scrambled from the absent-minded passenger leaving the Blackberry on, or the uncaring passenger whose personal business takes precedent over any silly rule like this.

“But he’s concerned about his dying father! There’s a life hanging in the balance!” one might argue. Let me give you this perspective: I had the opportunity to ride with Care Flight a few years ago. This group of pilots and medical personnel have as their mission saving and preserving life. The night I spent with them was a drizzly evening with pockets of low clouds and fog. Several times that night a call for their services had to be declined because the weather conditions made flight operations too risky. As the Care Flight pilot explained to me that night “If we endanger the lives of our flight crew by pushing the limits of safety, we can potentially take a bad situation and and make it much, much worse.”

 I do not know this man’s situation, and while I feel for his position I do not support his actions. Had he created a problem for the flight crew, the conclusion of this story could be more serious than a simple disturbance call resulting in a ticket. Perhaps a little coorperation with the flight crew might have resulted in a more positive outcome for everyone!

Yesterday Ahsanti Blaize and I were working together when she had her very first fire ant encounter.

I was shooting an abandoned drug house so when she began to shriek I didn’t know what to expect.

“Something is biting me and it hurts!” she cried as she hopped on one foot and ripped off her shoe.  And there they were…the dreaded fire ant bites.  “It burns!  This is terrible!  I haven’t had anything hurt like this in a very long time” she told me.  We jumped in the live van to find the nearest drugstore but when we got on the highway she yelped in pain again.  “Another one is biting my leg!” she screamed.   So if you saw a live van driving down the road with a pair of blue jeans waving from the window yesterday, that was us.  Despite her pain, Ashanti took this photo of her foot to add to this blog.   

I think fire ants were created by the devil.  They are vicious, attack in swarms and hurt like the dickens.  When I first moved to Texas I was introduced to them on a story.  We were doing an interview on a football field with a high school coach.  I had placed a tripod leg in a big mound of the red devils.  I was concentrating on my framing and next thing I know, ouch!  Something had bit me on my hand.  I looked down and the tripod was covered by the evil creatures.  So was I!  I locked the camera down and ran off down the field jumping, swatting and cursing.  The reporter was so involved with the interview that she never noticed.  

You don’t have to be told twice to look carefully for fire ant mounds after you have been stung.  It’s especially important to pay attention now that we are in the spring storm season and the rains can make the hills more difficult to see.  I have covered flooding and seen balls of fire ants floating down streams, surviving on the bodies of other ants.  They refuse to die!

A few years later, I had another encounter.  It was a rainy day and I didn’t notice that I was standing on a flattened fire ant mound.  Jim, the reporter, was in the news car making phone calls when he heard me scream.  Fire ant stings hurt so badly that you will do anything to make the pain stop.  I jumped in the backseat and told Jim not to turn around.  My shoes and socks were covered in ants so I threw them out of the car.  Ants were swarming all over my jeans too so I ripped them off and shook them out of the window.  We were parked on the side of the interstate in a marked news unit (with peacocks) so several cars honked as they went by and saw the waving pants.  I could see the back of Jim’s neck turn red but he stared straight ahead.  From that day forward I carry the strongest bug spray they sell with me at all times…..just in case!