How Big Is Your Camera?

Some of us walk the streets slumped under a big DSLR and more lenses than we are likely to use. It gets expensive, too, but nothing compared to this. We were seated near a TV cameraman at the baseball game Wednesday night. That's a piece of heavy electronics. 

He just stood there, no stool, no breaks that I noticed, wearing a headset and listening to a director. Swing left or right, zoom in and out. He didn't seem engaged with the game at all. Looked like a tiring, boring job to me.    

Another Reason Not To Watch Television

One of the local TV stations had a big tent at the Clayton Art Fair. It was promoting some new superhero show. Yawn.

We watch very little television. I mean, where's the value? You could look at Survivor or read Salman Rusdie's new novel. No contest. Now we do watch the Cardinals games, The Simpsons (best show in the history of TV) and the occasional history and science program (although more of the latter are being dumbed down).

And then there's the whole thing about Fox. To its great credit, it does air The Simpsons. Other than that, I pretty much recoil at everything it stands for.                

MeTube

So here's why I was in New Orleans last week:

Crass commercialism. Our little boutique law firm advertises on TV. We have to. We represent individual people one at a time, not businesses or government agencies. People need us once and almost never again. When I started doing this it was a genteel little backwater of American legal practice. Now there is cut-throat competition. So we're on TV, something quite common in the US these days.

The agency I use is in New Orleans. They couldn't be more specialized - just law firms in our type of practice, one client per TV market. We only make new ads about every four years. It's quite expensive. The guy I use usually does backgrounds of plain white, plain black or fake office. We pushed him this time into doing green screen. One of my simple pix of the Arch will be in the background. I'll be on the left.

One of the production team took these pictures with my camera during the shoot. I guarantee you this is not my natural skin tone (wee bit of make-up) but studio lights do a great job with color. And yes, we are on YouTube. Here's me with my partner of 28 years, Julie Shanahan, in a video from our web site.

Out on the streets of New Orleans tomorrow.         

News of the Flood

The Mississippi River is falling but there is still an awful lot of water. Here, a television cameraman records the scene. The graceful arches of Eads Bridge, the first bridge over the central Mississippi, are in the background. The Casino Queen, one of our half-dozen gambling dens, is behind it. The Queen claims the loosest slot slot machines in the whole country.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series but, um, on Friday. Chinamom2005 has pointed out that I have my days of the week mixed up. I better slow down my pace.