In The Field

Since I'm on vacation, let's flash back to last week when I was doing some cool stuff with Orange County law enforcement.



Reporter Juan Fernandez and I were assigned an HFR (hold for release) story about a big inter-agency operation targeting teenagers violating curfew.  Cities like Orange, Anahiem, Santa Ana and Tustin all have 10pm or 11pm curfews for 17 year olds and younger.

We got to ride along with a Tustin unit participating in the operation and came across a pretty good amount of criminal activity.



I don't mind telling you, I've been in police cars before (I don't mind because it's always been in the course of shooting video).  Never been arrested (in this country) and never been hooked up and thrown into the back of a squad car.

It's sad to see so many young people casually doing the wrong things and running into trouble with the law.



Being out past curfew might seem like a pretty small violation of the law.  You might think the police have better things to do.

That was my thought during the early part of the evening, but I changed my mind after seeing how many minors were just along for the ride with felons and addicts who probably weren't going to be the most positive of role models.



The officers told us some pretty outrageous stories about the type of things they see in the run of a day.

I don't know if people like to believe the world is safe or if they just ignore the dangerous stuff going on around them so they can make it through life.



It's like we're sick and ignore the symptoms.  The level of drug and gang activity, even for a city like Tustin, is pretty surprising.  I hate to think what it must be like for a larger city like Los Angeles.

We were only riding along for one night, but we ran into a pretty good cross section of the bad guys that the Tustin Police know well enough to be on a first name basis.



I don't expect the world to be perfect and in fact, I know it's a pretty dangerous place.

It's just frustrating to see so many young people throwing their lives away completely or making bad decisions (just for kicks) that can easily send them down the wrong path.



I don't have any answers for the problems that other people face in their lives.  I know we live in a difficult world.  I just hope that by covering the story, we reach other people beyond the relative few who were directly involved.

Maybe I've used it before and I still don't know who originally said it, but one of my favorite quotes heard this year was simple, "It doesn't matter how far down the wrong path you've gone, turn around."

I know for some people it might not seem like a choice, but I think it is.

It just might not be easy.

First, let me just say, Owwww!

I'm sitting in the cafeteria at work.  Had a dental appointment this morning and it seemed easier to just roll into work rather than drive back home.  I needed a loose filling replaced, so I'm kind of grumpy because going to the dentist, getting numbed up and not eating tends to do that to me.

Still, things are pretty smooth right now.  Had an easy day yesterday.  Tried very hard to grab a bit of news to put on TV, but it just didn't happen.

For the most part I'm glad and I'll tell you why.



I was sent out about 6:30pm to meet another crew in Whittier.  Hollywood to Whittier at 6:30pm isn't completely traffic free, but it could have been worse.  Shucks, it could have been 5:30pm.

Rita Garcia and her photographer Nick Mercado were heading to Whittier because of an Amber Alert.  Children were missing and threats had been made.  Sorry, but I never got the full story.  I just knew we had a little over an hour to meet up in Whittier and put Rita on TV.



We arrived at nearly the same time.  Rita and Nick from the South and I was coming up on the location from the North.  They waved at me as we passed each other at an intersection.

The story was over.



The suspect had turned himself in and the children were safe.  Yay, but the station still wanted a liveshot from us.  It was about 7:50pm and they still wanted us for the top of the 8:00pm show.  Nick and I started throwing the gear out and I ran up the mast.

We hit one bump in the road because I wanted to set up the liveshot for HD.  We're still having some issues in our system and sometimes it just takes a little more time to get the signal locked in.

We didn't have the time.

I bailed on the HD signal, went back to standard definition and changed the cabling to match.

Rita was in front of the camera, the IFB was dialed up and Nick had her framed up.

I think there was less than twenty seconds to spare when the anchors tossed to Rita and she was live.  No HD, but we made slot.

Sometimes that's as good as it gets.

After the live hit, we dropped the mast and packed away the gear.  Rita and I went cruising for news in the Long Beach area and Nick went to help on another liveshot.  It was just a slow news night and we never made it back on TV.

My dentist, who lives in Long Beach, saw us driving around the downtown area.  That's what I was saying, small world.

It's not all wildfires and car chases that make up my day at work.  Okay, sure, the people who bean count might wish those stories filled the time, but the reality is that we cover other stories.

If you were watching our newscast earlier this week and happened to see a Stacey Butler story about the woman on whom Dan Brown based a character featured in his latest magnum opus, there were a few shots of the book itself that you might find interesting.



Yes, it was a slow day.  i was working a day side shift, but the reporter (Stacey) I was assigned to work with wasn't going out into the field.

No HD liveshots for me that day, but there were a couple of elements for her story she was going to need.  Nice shots of the book itself.



Having been shiuffling from van to van over the last couple of months, I've left a good deal of my "specialty" gear at home.  One of the basics that I use all the time is a large piece of dark black material used to create impromptu product stages.  The material I use is called duvatine (or duvetyne) and you buy it from photo and video supply stores.



Nope.  I had none with me that day, so being the MacGruber kind of guy that I am, I used a black fleece hoodie jacket that I happened to have with me that day.



I set up my camera in the garage area of the station and shot into the side of the van.  I also narrowed the light on the book by using a piece of black wrap.  That's a thick aluminum foil material sold also at photo and video supply stores.

Good for shaping light, but not so good for storing leftovers.



Like I said, it wasn't a particularly busy day, but even the little odds and ends need to be shot and that's what I do.  I shoot things.  Sometimes the backstory is more interesting than the actual story, but the cool thing is that every day is something different.

Plus they pay me.



What I do isn't as complicated as a Dan Brown plot, but I could throw in a couple of car chases and maybe a fire and heck, maybe we could get Tom Hanks interested in playing a role in the movie version of my life at work.

Tom would have to be content with the sidekick or comic relief role.  If there's a movie to be made, darned if I'm not playing the part of beFrank.

Helloooo?  Hollywood?

Quick question, what were you doing when it was raining last week?  Were you miserable?  I was a little, because I was working a big ol' NewsCentral dayside shift up near the fire burn areas in La Canada.

The first big rain of the season and I'd really like to tell you that my years of experience means that I was ready for it.

I wasn't.



It never fails that I always refuse to believe what other people were telling me.  It was fixing to rain and I should have had my rain gear out and be good to go.

The rain was falling, but not very hard (most of the time) and all my good stuff was sitting right in the van in a large duffle that I keep packed for three different types of weather.

No.  It doesn't do me any good at all in the bag.



Also, yes, the "bad pinkie" was still freshly stitched and should have been kept clean and dry as per doctors orders.

In my defense, I have to say, I've been fooled before.  I've stood out in remote parts of sunny California waiting for "Stormwatch" to hit and argued with disbelievers back at the station.

me -It not raining.

pinhead - Are you sure?

Am I sure?  Really?  You want me to double check if I'm standing in the middle of rain and might somehow not be aware of it?



I hate to disappoint.

Nearly as much as I hate to be standing behind a foggy lens with no hope of staying dry while waiting for a liveshot to happen.



There I stood in my damp tennis shoes.  I was working with Randy Paige.  We put together a story on the residents of the area picking up sand bags and also showed heavy equipment workers dropping concrete k-rails to divert the expected mud flow.

The gray cloudy skies didn't really bring down my mood.  My soggy clothes did that just fine.

I'll be ready next time.

It's almost time to start my shift, so I have to go check in at the assignment desk.  That means you just get a few pictures for now.  I promise to come back later to fill in the blanks.

Well, that's the plan, unless my assignment takes me somewhere interesting.

We'll just have to see.



(Hey!  Okay, I'm back!)

Just woke up and it seems like all I have time to do when I get home is grab a bite to eat, fall asleep wherever I sit down, crawl into bed and start it all over again the next morning when I get up to go to work.

What happened to free time?



I can't help but think it might actually be my own fault.  Shucks, I could have had plenty of free time this past weekend if I hadn't volunteered at the APTRA Academy.



What's that?  It's an annual weekend broadcast news training boot camp sponsored by the Associated Press Radio and Television Association.

People who think they'd like to jump into the broadcast journalism pool have the opportunity to spend the weekend networking and learning from people who actually work in the field of TV news.



We all take part in a mock breaking news story and spend the two days putting the story together, then present selected pieces for a critique.



Dozens of working fire and law enforcement professionals (and also professional actors) donate part of their weekend to perform in the mock news story in order to add to the realism.



This is the fifth year I volunteered to help out.

The attendees are split up into groups (hello, "Blue Crush") and I usually shoot and edit for one of the groups.



My bad pinkie (see earlier posts) prevented me from shooting this year, but I did manage to hang in there the whole weekend and edit for two groups.



It's a fun weekend.  A lot of work, but it gives the participants an opportunity they might never have.  They get to see a little bit of what it's really like to cover the news.

It also gives them a chance to network with working news people who are willing to be mentors and actually want to help along the next generation.



So, that's why I once again find myself zombified and trying to drag myself through another week of work.  It was a ten hour day yesterday and I spent most of it standing out in the bad weather.

I kept wondering something as I hauled my soggy self in and out of the van for multiple liveshots in the rain.  I wondered  if the folks who attended the APTRA Academy realize that not every day is interesting and full of excitement.

Some days are just normal days at the office.  You get rained on.  You miss meals.  You depend on the kindness of strangers for bathroom facilities (and you also get your stitches wet against specific instructions from your doctor).

These are just the regular old days at work for me.  Of course, I wouldn't trade them for anything.

I just wonder why anyone else might feel the same.

Whew.

My schedule the last few weeks has been pretty random.  Early calls, late nights and odd assignments are always a standard thing for me, but wow.  I don't think I started work at the same time more than two days in a row in the last couple of weeks.  I also don't think I was at home or had two full days off in row in the last month and a half.

It's like I always tell my lovely wife, "Okay, some of that might be my fault."

On to last night.



We were in Norwalk and we were only in the 11:00pm newscast last night, so I had a randomly odd thirty seconds to think about things.

Lots and lots going on in my personal life.  It feels like I'm building towards something (but don't ask me what), so my free time is tight.  My family time is tight.  My time for working in the yard or around the house is nearly non-existent.

Hmm, not exactly sure where I was going with this, but there wasn't a lot of thought I could put into it in thirty seconds.

By the way, that was Suraya Fadel with me in Norwalk last night.



Our story was the one about Christine Daniel being arrested for scamming millions of dollars out of cancer patients.

Now, I know we shouldn't really convict people before the've had their day in court, but come on, she claimed to be curing cancer.

Curing cancer?  I don't have a fancy medical degree, but I'm pretty damn sure she wasn't.



We talked to an 85 year old woman named Eugenia Vigiletti.  She was one of Doc Daniel's patients and she believes Dr. Daniel ripped her off of thousands of dollars.

Stealing from cancer patients?  Hmm, how low can you go?



It wasn't a huge story, you know, as far as news stories go.  I just kind of dug giving an 85 year old an opportunity to vent about the karmic pay-back Dr. Daniel is likely to get.

Time constraints and story telling prevented us from airing most Eugenia's comments, but I think we should make a dub for Dr. Daniel and send them to wherever she winds up.

Eugenia:  I hope she likes the food.

You really had to be there to get the full weight of her words, but I could tell that she really really meant them.

Did you see the sink holes in North Hollywood last week?  You know, the two that caused massive sink holes?

Especially the one that almost ate a fire truck?

That was a cool shot of the fire engine sitting half submerged in a sink hole full of water.  I think every news photographer who carries a still camera in Los Angeles got snappy on it.

Except me.



I never got assigned to the "big" sink hole story.  Sure, I could have driven over and checked it out on my own, but that feels like cheating somehow.

It's not like I'm envious of anyone else getting a good picture. . .



. . .wait, no, that's exactly what I am, but not so much of anyone else's work. . .well, okay, maybe a little.



Really, I guess in this situation it was more frustration that I volunteered to drive one of our news vans for the promo shoot the day the second sinkhole almost ate a fire engine.

I sat around for hours until they finally cancelled the promo shoot because of un-clear skies.  I was headed for home (and at a decent traffic avoidance hour to boot).

The sky was relatively clear, I'm pretty sure birds were singing (sure, they must be singing somewhere) and I'd gotten maybe five minutes away from the station.  I was on the freeway when I got a call to come back.  The station needed me to load up in a microwave truck and go check out another sink hole, this one in the mid-cities area.



My dream of getting home early in the afternoon was dead.  Nothing for me to do, but accept my fate.  I turned it around and soon I was heading out in one of the crappiest vans in our fleet.

Someone else was assigned my regular unit since I wasn't going to be needing it.



I drove from North Hollywood over to a street just North of the 10 Freeway near Fairfax.  When I go there the street was empty, and it looked like something had been done to the road.  Also, there was water in the street.

But, no big huge sinkholes.



I drove around the blocked off street to see if I was maybe missing something around the corner.  Once around the block and a crew had magically appeared.

That was surprising.

Apparently a water main had broken in the area and had caused a water outage for the neighborhood.  These things happen, but the desk still wanted their water main breakage.

I shot it and fed the video in.  Packed up and drove back to the station feeling a bit unfulfilled.  The video I shipped back was fine (even if it might never see the light of day) and I got some still shots.  It just didn't seem like anything as big as a firetruck was going to fall into my sink hole.

Some guys get all the luck.

My condolences to the Jackson family over the loss of Michael Jackson.  I know what losing a family member feels like and I genuinely feel sorrow for their loss.  It's much less affecting for me that the world lost a popular entertainer.

Hey, but I have a job to do.

See, it is news (and it's some sweet overtime ka-ching!), but covering the Michael Jackson "funeral" at Forest Lawn yesterday seemed like all kinds of overkill.



Not in the media covering it at all (I loves me some media circus), but in having another service after so much was done publicly in the past couple of months.



Certainly it's not my place to tell the Jackson family and friends how to honor the passing of a Michael Jackson.



There's just so much that seems calculated and contrary to what they claimed was their intent in having a private service.



It just doesn't seem like the fans or the media would be paying as much attention right now if the family weren't broadcasting so loudly their desire to be left alone.



Working for the media, this is one of those times where I'm sure my perspective on things is different from the average person.



It's just that two months later, I was actually pretty sure they had already buried him.  I don't really want to think about where he's been kept for the last 60 days.



Still, last night I found myself recording a downlink from the pool camera that had been arranged to be placed inside the cemetery.

Hundreds of print and video media lined up on the temporarily closed streets in front of Forest Lawn.



One interesting tidbit you should know, the Jackson family arrived an hour and a half late.  I'd heard it was because they wanted to let the late afternoon traffic die down.

There was a no-fly zone restriction over the area that was in effect to prevent helicopters from crashing the funeral.



That no-fly zone restriction expired at 8:30pm.  Right around the time that the Jackson family actually arrived at the cemetery.

I don't know if any other helicopters made to Glendale, but I know we got footage from one of ours.  Maybe that violated the privacy wishes expressed by the family or maybe it was a calculated move that allowed extended media coverage.  I don't mean to stir up anything and I'm not making an accusation.  It's just too difficult to tell sometimes when dealing with the Jackson family what's personal and what's just part of the business.

I wonder how the Jackson family and friends felt when our helicopter left to follow a high speed chase.

It started on Tuesday afternoon.  Anchor/Reporter Glen Walker and I were heading to San Dimas to cover a story about that city's 50th Anniversary coming up next year.



Glen spotted this out in the distance and we called our desk.  They were aware of it and a chopper was in route.  Continue on to your original story.

Drat.

But wait. . .



. . .we're right here and our interview isn't scheduled for another hour.  How about we send you a live HD picture of what we can see.



Makes sense.  Do it for the top of the 5:00pm show.

The current time?  Why, 4:51pm.



Find a spot, stop the truck, fire up the generator, pop the mast, pan in the microwave signal; throw out and connect the sticks, camera, cables; dial in the IFB, check levels and listen as they come out to our live picture.

Whew.



That was day one.



On Day Two, I was sent out to relieve the dayside SNG operator on the fire for the same fire burning over Azusa.



It was pretty freaking hot out on San Gabriel Mountain Canyon Road and we couldn't even get up close to where the fire was burning for our liveshots.



Still, the photo opp from the mouth of the canyon where we had made base camp was worthwhile and the crew was able to get an escort up into the fire area to shoot some compelling fire footage.



It was kind of cool to see that we could make out the LA skyline even from way out on the edge of the county line.



Our nightside liveshots were a bit more on the minimalist side.



Not a lot to see out in the brush after dark.

On to the third day.

I was surprised that they didn't send the SAT truck back out to cover the fire near Azusa and I wound up sitting around the station for several hours.  Somebody must have seen me sitting around with nothing do and looking all happy.  They sent me to downtown LA to cruise for news.

For me, that meant a french dip sandwhich from "Cole's" or "Phillipe's", but before I could get my hot mustard on, I was called to head up to Jeff Maile's house.



Jeff Mailes is one of my fellow photographers at CBS2/KCAL9 (oops, I mean NEWS CENTRAL. . .ta daa!) and he lives up in the La Canada/Flintridge area.

They had a small fire going on up there and it was just ever so slowly creeping towards the populated parts of the area.



Not slow enough for the comfort of Jeff and his neighbors, but not fast enough to make people immediately get the heck out of Dodge.



It was exciting and then boring and then it got exciting again.  Like a movie, but with the added risk of people actually losing their homes and all their worldly possesions in a blazing hellish inferno.

Also, somebody baked cookies.  Now that's so much more friendlier than what we can usually expect.  I kept asking Jeff if he'd like to turn the sprinklers on us.

I wouldn't have minded.

Heck, it was Jeff.

Got any more of those cookies?

We call it VOSOT patrol.  I don't remember if I've ever explained the term.  I kind of assume most people who read my blog either understand some of the newsroom lingo or more likely, don't really care.

I'd been filling in for our beloved vacationing Chief Photographer.  Being back in the field and running around town to pick up some smaller stories was a good way to decompress and have a light day without actually goofing off.



I covered the opening of a low income apartment complex that's intended to serve the needs of emancipated foster care youth and formerly homeless families.  It was touching to see a tearful tetimonial from one of the new young residents.  I also found out that Councilman Richard Alarcon is pretty funny.  I'm kind of sorry I never voted for him for anything.

Next time.

I was heading back to the station with my video and looking forward to lunch when I got a call to head over to the federal building in Westwood.  Police had chased down a guy who was now barricaded inside his car in the parking lot.

Cool.  I could use a little action to brighten up my mellow news day.



I should have known the day was going to go downhill when I arrived.  I'd heard on the radio that the street on the East side of the federal building was blocked, so I entered from the street that bordered the West side.

Pretty solid plan, but LAPD was stopping vehicles from getting anywhere near the suspect and had also blocked off the West side of the federal building's parking lot.



That didn't bother me too much.  Hey, you know, nutcases sometimes know how to make things go BOOM!

So, we were going to just go live from the far side of the parking lot, but our desk wanted us to find a closer spot where we could get a better view of the action. 

Other stations were going live from the East side of the building.  We were told to break from our current position and try to secure a position where the other crews were set up.



And do it quickly, so we could get our reporter on TV ASAP.



Well, some crews had gotten in on the East side street, but the LAPD weren't allowing any more trucks into that area.  We poked around and found a good close position on Ashton Avenue.

Really close.



Not so close that I felt in any immediate danger as we did a couple live hits, but apparently closer than the LAPD felt was safe.

They eventually booted us out of the area and didn't really give us an alternative spot.

Again, not knowing if the suspect had any explodey materials in his red Volkswagon Beetle (which is about centered in the picture below), I wasn't too upset about moving.



At least I got a shot of the armored vehicle as it trampled some hedges.

Some folks were asking on Facebook why they didn't use the driveway to the left in the picture.  I'm thinking the guy who was driving either didn't particularly like the hedges or he was also being cautious about getting too close to the suspect.



We secured another spot and I was feeling pretty confident that the station was going to simply send me home.  I hadn't had lunch and we don't throw around overtime hours as casually as we've done in the past.

I called the desk.  They told me to make sure I wasn't needed and then come on back to the station.



I surveyed the perimeter, but didn't find anything of interest, so I stopped at a gas station convenience store, snagged an orange Icee and a cookie and was about to hit the freeway.

With any luck I might miss the main surge of rush hour traffic.



Too bad, my luck wasn't working for me very well that day.  A press conference was announced (in the parking lot where we had first set up earlier).  I was directed to cover the presser.  That was about 3:00pm.

We set up and waited. . .



. . .and waited. . .



. . .and waited.  It was funny, because we could see the staging area about fifty feet away.

By the time the public information officer (PIO) for LAPD finally arrived after 6:00pm, the suspect had been tear gassed twice and still had not given up.



That must have been frustrating for the cops.  I know it was sure starting to tick me off.

I'd been updating people about my day on Twitter and I think it clearly showed how my sympathy for the suspect and hopes for a peaceful resolution had eroded.



For instance, the FBI had sent in a robot and I was severely disappointed that it was only the kind that could go in and monitor the situation with a remote camera.  It wasn't the kind that could break the window and haul the suspect out by his nuts.

Sorry.

It was a long day.  Next week when I get paid, I might appreciate the overtime. 

Some of us sometimes just want to go home.