No Guard for Our Vets

When I first walked in this Mon afternoon they said, "you're goin with the boss today!" I was kind of shocked at first, not that he would be out in the field (he says that he tries to do that every week or so), but that he wanted me to shoot for him, or maybe dayside was busy editing for the 5 and he had no choice :) ? It was a simple sound bite from the station's favorite lawyer (who apparently charges well over 300/hour for representation), legal go to guy, about the Siegelman case; Ben was a big reason why I chose Huntsville over my other choice.

I had met Ben twice (two years in a row at the Alabama AP convention) and saw what a super guy he was, got a personal tour of the station from him when I went to visit, and just knew that this was a guy I could love working for (after getting burnout from the news director in tuscaloosa, this was VERY important to me), and while circumstances were such that I couldn't get to meet in person my other choice's news director - beyond anyone's control really - this was one thing that made WAAY stand out a little above for me.

So enough brown nosing, that went, bang, bang, all good. Then with a new reporter (for me) tonight, Mikelyn (been at the station for 2+ years). This is why I like getting to work with different people/reporters: people talk about or tell you how people are like but I like to see for myself. I enjoyed working with her more than I thought I would from what some people told me about her. But then I've found that reporters usually like or have better relations with a photographer over anyone else (want things to look good, ya know!)
**For BP - when she heard that I had ties to Columbus, she asked if "that red head" was still working there. I had to laugh. I didn't know for sure that she was talking about your friend in the bureau but she was all I could think about fitting that description!**
She is rounding the late side of the 20s and engaged and we had some good talk about future plans and things to watchout for here in Huntsville, and things of that nature. Very enlightning really.

After we finished shooting talked to Jason, the promos guy, and he enjoyed that stuff I shot and had started putting together some of the new weather promos. Looking good! Glad that I could help even if only a shot or two.

Sarting to get back the hang of linier editing...I think I cut our story in just over an hour, turned out well for not having much video to cover with. Also learning some things about how they produce here, putting in certain codes and designations into the program that we use to create our shows (APNewsCenter), Ben made a suggestion today that I should try writting or at least learn some things about writing. That's the one thing (with reporting, anchoring, graphics and master control) that I never did really try or get to do in Tuscaloosa (if you don't count that package I voiced, which would bring it down to three things that i never really did or tried). So I'm taking baby steps in that direction. Its not my thing, but it would be good to know nonethelesss.