Wednesday found me back in my "home" office of Winston-Salem. Brent and I have a knack for finding a story when there's nothing there. Today we tossed out a few ideas to the voices on the other end of the little white box on our desk in the bureau, the speaker phone. After a little debate around the conference room they decide they want us to do a preview of a lawsuit being filed in Raleigh tomorrow. Exiting stuff!
Changing Gears
So after doing a thrilling phone interview with the attorney filing the lawsuit against Dell on behalf of the "taxpayers," (yea, right) we then find out that the local police department has vests that are now compromised because a material inside is not holding up like it was supposed to. WSPD is not the most media-friendly in our area but after Brent talks to the chief for a while she agrees to let the equipment buyer for the department tell us about their bullet-resistant vests.
What I found amazing while working on this story was the testing that WSPD does on ALL vests they are thinking of buying. They fire some 20 rounds into the vest using a variety of bullets and guns all at point blank range. None of the "legal" bullets even compromised more than the first three layers of the more than 20 the vest has. Only one bullet made it to the last layers, a "special" illegal bullet the manufacturer told the testers with WSPD would make it through the vest. I'm told the manufacturer on scene just dropped his jaw when it didn't make it through.
During the interview I get a call from my boss, Keith Hale. He's in Greensboro talking with Guilford County Sheriff B.J. Barnes about the vests they use. Keith tells me he can get a couple of vests from B.J. for us to use in our live shot. Great news considering the powers-that-be always want us to show something in our live shots. Score one for The Chief!
Home
Coming home is one of the hi-lights of the day. All my girls are just as happy to see me as I am them. On this evening I pull in to the driveway with the smell of a fresh rainfall, the driveway is wet and it's more than a little steamy. This probably keeps Lauren from performing one of her recent rituals upon my arrival at home. I often can hear the smack, smack, smack of her bare feet on the garage floor running to meet me at my logo'd four-wheel drive. As I gather my camera and spent battery(s) she likes to see what else is in the truck.
Caroline is waiting at the top of the basement steps looking through the gate saying, "Hiiieeee." That smile can not be resisted. After some hugs and kisses she wants to show me something, anything... just come with me she begs.
As Lis comes home from work she tells me some good news. It seems the private school we had hoped to send Lauren to for Kindergarten but found it to be too expensive is now reconsidering our request for financial aid. Maybe they didn't fill all the slots this year, maybe they just really want Lauren to come, I don't know. What I do know is that we've got some decisions to make over the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Working with the new guy
So I headed off to High Point to train on the satellite truck. You see, we now have a new digital uplink for our much outdated analog sat truck. It was necessary for me to get some training on this new $40,000 piece of equipment so the next time our regular sat truck op is on vacation I'll be ready to pull the trigger. While I'm on the subject, I've got to tell you a little about our big black behemoth of a sat truck. It came to us seven long years ago from WAGA, the Fox affiliate in Atlanta. Let's just say it was on it's last leg at that time with 10 good years of service and several hundred thousand miles logged on the odometer. Three, yes three, engines later here at Fox the "big black box" is still running.
After my training session with a very New England sounding Wolf Coach engineer I was ready to "pull the trigger" on my first digital uplink. It worked and all was good in the uplink world.
I was ready to take my engineering hat off and place the photojournalist lid upon my head when Robert informed me I had a really "great" story to work on with Jeff Varner, our newest Anchor/Reporter. It seems Jeff had been making phone calls all morning to get the family of a recently killed little 5 year-old girl in a drunk-driving accident. The little girl's organs were donated to five different people and their lives saved. Ain't the news business grand!? Well, after a little trip over to the family's house, Jeff finds out the mother is upset because some other family members set up the interview without her knowledge. No story right? Wrong. The desk decides we should go to the scene of where the accident happened nearly FIVE days ago. Sounds reasonable.
So we make it to the accident scene and find three ladies on their porch just watching the day go by. Of course our finely quaffed friend Mr. Anchorman feels he can charm his way to an interview with the toothless wonders on the porch. Much to his dismay, the ladies declined, instead sending us to the corner where we encountered an old gentleman who told us very colorfully what he saw that night. During the interview my hip began to ring, you know the intrusive device we all can't do without nowadays. The CELL PHONE. On the other end, our Assistant News Director informing me of "Breaking News." It seems the Winn-Dixie company was closing all of it's stores in North Carolina. Jeff and I rush to the nearest grocery to get reaction from frightened customers. Oh, the humanity, our Winn-Dixie is closing, what will we do?
Through it all, Jeff kept a smile on his face and did live shots for the Five and Six o'clock newscasts. Tomorrow, back to my comfort zone in Winston-Salem and my buddy Brent Campbell.
After my training session with a very New England sounding Wolf Coach engineer I was ready to "pull the trigger" on my first digital uplink. It worked and all was good in the uplink world.
I was ready to take my engineering hat off and place the photojournalist lid upon my head when Robert informed me I had a really "great" story to work on with Jeff Varner, our newest Anchor/Reporter. It seems Jeff had been making phone calls all morning to get the family of a recently killed little 5 year-old girl in a drunk-driving accident. The little girl's organs were donated to five different people and their lives saved. Ain't the news business grand!? Well, after a little trip over to the family's house, Jeff finds out the mother is upset because some other family members set up the interview without her knowledge. No story right? Wrong. The desk decides we should go to the scene of where the accident happened nearly FIVE days ago. Sounds reasonable.
So we make it to the accident scene and find three ladies on their porch just watching the day go by. Of course our finely quaffed friend Mr. Anchorman feels he can charm his way to an interview with the toothless wonders on the porch. Much to his dismay, the ladies declined, instead sending us to the corner where we encountered an old gentleman who told us very colorfully what he saw that night. During the interview my hip began to ring, you know the intrusive device we all can't do without nowadays. The CELL PHONE. On the other end, our Assistant News Director informing me of "Breaking News." It seems the Winn-Dixie company was closing all of it's stores in North Carolina. Jeff and I rush to the nearest grocery to get reaction from frightened customers. Oh, the humanity, our Winn-Dixie is closing, what will we do?
Through it all, Jeff kept a smile on his face and did live shots for the Five and Six o'clock newscasts. Tomorrow, back to my comfort zone in Winston-Salem and my buddy Brent Campbell.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
My Day Off
For the first time in what seems like a decade, I slept in. Yes, I didn't get out of bed until 9:30 this morning. To some of you that's your normal time out of bed; for those of you with children, you know what I'm talking about.
Because my mother-in-law lives with us I can do this while she takes care of the little ones. And now that our summer baby sitter, Kendra, is with us I can let her take Lauren to the pool. Lauren is our oldest daughter, now 4. Her little sister, Caroline, is 14 months. And I call her Lauren's little sister because she would not have it any other way.
I started my day off like I would any other, but I had big plans for the next few hours. Lunch with my wife Lis, a trip to my favorite shopping place, Costco... and if I was lucky, maybe a little time at the pool. On the way to lunch I made a trip to Ritz Camera to drop off a roll of film. I still like the feeling I get from the canister. You know, the film all rolled up inside with images that you think you've got, but really aren't sure how they'll look. The surprise when you pick up the pictures and you nailed it. You know the one, your little girl is playing in the sprikler on a hot summer day and the water is captured in time, suspended in mid-air, a drop on her chin just hanging there. The smile of complete innocence. This one.
Because my mother-in-law lives with us I can do this while she takes care of the little ones. And now that our summer baby sitter, Kendra, is with us I can let her take Lauren to the pool. Lauren is our oldest daughter, now 4. Her little sister, Caroline, is 14 months. And I call her Lauren's little sister because she would not have it any other way.
I started my day off like I would any other, but I had big plans for the next few hours. Lunch with my wife Lis, a trip to my favorite shopping place, Costco... and if I was lucky, maybe a little time at the pool. On the way to lunch I made a trip to Ritz Camera to drop off a roll of film. I still like the feeling I get from the canister. You know, the film all rolled up inside with images that you think you've got, but really aren't sure how they'll look. The surprise when you pick up the pictures and you nailed it. You know the one, your little girl is playing in the sprikler on a hot summer day and the water is captured in time, suspended in mid-air, a drop on her chin just hanging there. The smile of complete innocence. This one.
Ken Cravens is a photojournalist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Ken has been in the television news business since 1994. Along with his photojournalist job at Fox 8News, Ken also operates the Satellite truck part-time. Some of Ken's other duties include anchoring part of Fox 8 Friday Football in the Fox8/Winston-Salem Journal Newsroom.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
