A little to close to reality

[Ralph Snart]

HERE IS WHAT I LEARNED RECENTLY!
about 20 minutes ago.
And how in reverse order.

Happy, fat and stupid I went down get a soda pop at a local market, (without my camera).

Ten minutes later I was about as close to a raging out of control brush fire as I could ever have wanted to be.

100 foot trees going up like toilet paper.

POOF!

I thought it was someone burning weeds in a vacant lot or something, Christ! I just wanted pictures of a little fire, saw a small amount of somke and went on a lark!

What I learned.

1 Always carry your camera and keep it ready. (I had to drive back home for both it and shoes.)

2 Wear shoes.

3 Once involved and even before, think as many steps ahead as conditions will permit.
(I was in the middle of this before I knew what the hell was happening.)

I made a logical decision.
"i'm LEAVING!"

Once I established a safe distance (Others were much closer). Stay out of the way of people who are either nuts, leaving themselves or in some authority.

I had to stop taping and move and lock my vehicle in case some agency needed to set up in the lot I had parked in like a lost puppy.

4 Once safe and not a public menice

1 Remember your basic skills

Think in terms of what is going to happen next and smoothly move your camera.

Keep the tape rolling.

Stay focused on the action even when moving.
(My feet are neat and so is the ground but in reality no comparison to the reason I was there.)

Do not become overwhelmed by the action. Concentrait on one event at a time then change scenes or pan smoothly.
(I swivel necked for almost three minuts before I caught myself doing it.}

Hold the shot for longer than it feels right to. Because you are scared or excited. Time seems to move faster than it really is.

Keep a good solid grip on your camera if you do not have it on a tri-pod because your hands are going to shake. Mine did bad.

Christ what a rush!
But not something I would want to do every day.
I suspect it is addicting.
As I was driving away I caught myself thinking.

"I wonder what other kinds of S**T I can get into this evening?"


Be careful

Ralph


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[LAmind]

And also don't talk while you're shooting.

I always see home videos of tornados with some hick in the background saying "Hoooly cow, lookit' that. Thas' a monster!"

-Ivan

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"A place for everything and everything in it's place".

[Ralph Snart]

Agreed.

However, if you have half a dozen people behind you, (mine were out of mic shot on the replay) saying things like; "So you makin' a movie?"

An obvious conversational opener to an individual holding a camera to his head during a conflagration.

Then what?


"You bet, move about 200 yards closer to that tree. I need something in the foreground to give it some scale."


"Really?"


"Sure. I can't say you will be famous, hospitilized perhaps......."




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