Life through the TV Lens

“$5.00 minimum purchase to use ATM please.” The lady behind the counter said, pointing to a sticker on the machine.

I had just thought I had scored an awesome deal at McHenry Bowl. 4 slices of pizza  and a soda for a total of $2.50! Sounded like an awesome Labor Day lunch special. Sorry Charlie, not today.

What happened to life taking Visa?

This might sound like a rant, but it’s not, honest! This is just a little story to tell you about my experiences with food.

For us news photogs, or at least in my case, sometimes eating food seems to be a luxury we don’t have much time for. Because of our run-and-gun lifestyle, we’re always on the go. Sometimes having to work incidents for hours and hours on end, the screaming void known as our stomachs beg for anything to sustain us for a little while longer. So when we do get to eat, even the cheap 3 dollar meal  at the fast food joint seems like a feast meant for kings.

One good example of this came during a tragic traffic accident at the Delta Mendota Canal, where several farm workers, all family, lost their lives. The incident had us working the scene for a good 8 hours or so. That plus the drive out there and back had me in a famine by the end of the day.

Luckily enough during the incident, one news photographer decided to run to a nearby convenience store (a good 6 or 7 miles away) to grab us all drinks to keep us going. The cool bottle of water on a hot summer day was just enough to give me a second wind.

Once I remember drinking a hot bottle of Gatorade where I was stuck at a standoff for a few hours. Sure sounds gross, but it was hydration so I welcomed it.

Sometimes I’ll chat with people and they will say “I had the biggest most delicious breakfast!” My response is “Breakfast? what’s that?”

I know, sounds like I’m complaining but I’m not, honest. But it is almost noon, so food is on my mind right about now. So with that being said, what’s for lunch?

In case any of you haven’t watched the television lately, it’s been quite the busy week for us in the news business.

In less than 2 days I’ve seen 3 dead bodies, 2 from a double homicide, one from a train accident. And to wrap that up a house exploded late in the day yesterday on the East side of town.

Also in case any of you haven’t noticed those incidents can really suck the sleep from someone.

Sunday morning saw me staring down the barrells of assault rifles near village one area in town. It was about 2:00am when the Sarge rolled up to me, by this time myself and another news photog had taken a self given tour of the inner perimeter where 3 armed homicide suspects who had shot at police officers were holed up.

“Dude, I’m getting kinda nervous…” he says.

“In case things go down, it’s been good knowing ya.” I said.

“Let’s just get a few more B-roll shots and then we’ll head back to the command post.” I said. In my mind I played out a scenario on what if shots rang out and we were near. If it’s one thing about being a news photog, you’ve pretty much seen it all and you definitely gain the instinct on planning ahead.

I remember watching the Good Guys hostage situation on TV when I was a little tyke. One of my colleagues, who was also at this manhunt, was working that incident. So I asked him what happened when SWAT opened fire on the suspects.

“I looked around and all the reporters were running and ducking for cover.”

“What about the photogs?”

“We were all holding our shot.” he said. “Story of the year!”

Those guys had grapes of steel, I thought to myself.

During the tour of the perimeter and gathering some shots, we ran into many residents who were unable to return home. Alot of them had some idea of what was going on, but not quite. So after we had filled them in, alot of them were really glad they had not tried to sneak around to go home.

A group of people near Lincoln Oak decided to come up and ask us what happened. We shot the breeze for a few minutes while Ceres Police officers a few houses down had their M4 assault rifles trained down the road in case the suspects decided to open fire again.

“We just got home from a Dave Matthews concert in Fresno to come home to this!” one guy said. “My mom is in their at home, but she’s fine. Cops gotta do their job too.”

After getting a little to deep into the perimeter we rolled back into the Media staging area, just outside the perimeter on Floyd and Roselle. We greeted the sarge with a handshake.

“55 minutes of sleep, before I got called out.” he said. I was in about the same situation. 3:30am rolls around and the Media Circus starts rolling in. 2 Dozen live shots and interviews later, and all the suspects are apprehended I get my interview from the sarge and start deciding how I’m going to cut this story.

My day ended at about 5pm, after 17 hours. I went home and passed out.

Babies don’t sleep this good.

The next morning I wake up to find myself first on scene of a train accident. A woman decided to walk into the path of an oncoming freight train. The medics had already placed a yellow blanket over her body.

Not a good sign.

She was pronounced dead a few moments later.

There’s a certain respect you should have for people who have just lost their lives, especially in a tragic manner. This is a respect some people seem to have lost somewhere down the evolutionary road. For whatever primitive reason passers by were asking officials to see the body.

You don’t want to see it, I thought to myself. Luckily (not) I caught a glimpse of the victim as the coroner was taking photos of her. One witness described her body as “discombobulated.” He was pretty dead on with his description. Her head was facing the opposite direction it should have been. I turned my camera the other way, while others at the scene snapped photos away as if it were some kind of spectacle.

The sarge came and gave a quick interview and we both left back to our offices.

Thinking I had it easy for the rest of the day and I might have had a chance to go home early and focus on other projects, a report came over the scanner that a house had exploded in East Modesto. I dropped everything I was doing, and ran out the door.

Traffic there was hellacious. I was ahead of some fire rigs for a while, but after pulling over to give right of way, and 2 construction zones later….

I was lucky enough to get there while the blaze was still going. In the news business, tragic as it seems, you always get the one up from your colleague’s if you get pictures of flames.

I had a close call with a few explosions a couple weeks before at a fire where propane tanks decided to vent about 20 feet away from me. The word “explosion” burned itself in my head as I realized what kind of situation I was in.

The sarge rolled up again, just as firefighters dragged a mangled garage door into the street. He had shown up to help give information to the media in case fire officials were too tied up with their operation.

We looked at each other with the “what a crazy couple of days” look and shook hands. After exchanging a few words and a chuckle after, we both shrugged.

Business as usual.

Ya ever go to like, murders and stuff?, the high school senior asked. “Sure,” I said, “but they’re never as interesting as they are on CSI.” The line got a laugh and a groan, so I moved on to another subject. Later that night though, I realized just how much I’d lied to the curious teen.

“How do you work that thing? Do you meet famous people? How much money do you make?”

It’s enough to make me think about my friends outside the business. They all have nicer stuff, fancier vacations and more free time than I do. They’ve already been home an hour or so when I roll in every evening and their yards look better because of it. They have alot more neckties than I do, along with business cards with abstract, wordy titles. It all seems nice until you hear them talk about work, really watch their eyes glaze over as they stare at the dogs on the grill and remark how incredibly soul-sucking their working hours are.

Worse yet, they all think I have the coolest gig on the planet – that I cruise around all day and play with my camera. What are they – dreamy young kids on ballpark benches? They can’t fathom the demands of our work, let alone the relentless pace. To them it’s all fun and adventure, grab a beauty queen and go play TV…I guess in some respects they’re right, for all the headache and deadlines, we get a backstage pass to life, and it’s a pretty cool gig.

Right?