Thursday, July 24, 2008

Modern Communications


Racing out of the city on a Friday morning to attend my cousins wedding, I got this assignment to shoot on the set of the Today show early Monday morning. The wedding was being held in a part of northwestern Connecticut, which may be the last place on the east coast with out cell phone service. Before I got the job, I was looking forward to being off the information grid, but now I found myself in a 21st century anxiety attack. Is it impossible to plan a last minute shoot from the road with out a cell phone, email or text messages? No! The only option was to frantically run around making arrangements before leaving, then hope for the best and drive a little faster than normal. Unfortunately, just as I was on my way, I received the news that Tim Russert had passed away. The whole shoot was potentially going to be cancelled, but just in case I was asked, “would it be possible to get a few props for the job?” Rapidly approaching the no call zone, I mustered a burst of precision dialing and was able to get a hold of my assistant and had him acquire the newly needed props. Convinced that the shoot would be cancelled, I had a great technology free weekend. Upon entering the modern world late Sunday, my phone was awakened with a soundtrack of ring tones signaling that the shoot was on. At first it was worrisome to have a shoot pending and be cut off from the modern world, but it turned out to be a blessing. All of the arrangements were made and all I could do was just relax; Ignorance is bliss.

Monday, July 21, 2008

AARP



Once again, The AARP Bulletin sent me on an epic four cities in six days cross-country journey. I left New York and flew to Tampa, my third visit for AARP, then on to Wichita, connecting in Dallas, which is ironic because the photo editor who assigned me the job is none other than Michael Wichita, then eastbound to Birmingham, connecting through Dallas, turning westbound again to San Francisco, connecting though Dallas where I got an airport haircut, S.F. was the launching pad for our attack on the last subject in Sacramento, the travel was run on and so is this sentence. The difference with this journey was that I also shot video. When the final edits have been made I will upload the “directors” cut. Watch out Spielberg!

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