Minnesota Daze

Check it out! It's Bob Freakin' Van Tieghem! Bob used to pilot news partner WCNC's sat buggy all over the south. Turns out he was so damned good at it the folks at the Peacock hired him to run their truck out of Chicago. That's a hell of a gig, especially if you like uplinking six different paths at the same time. I know, ladies. That's right, six paths at the same time. No small man I know can do that. That's why Bob says he's put on a few since he started sitting in the big chair full time. I didn't notice, he looked as sexy as he ever did. It was good to see Snowboy and his driver Wednesday morning.
After Palin mania, we headed west from St. Paul and ended up back at Bullwinkle's. I always have ideas of trying several different places when I visit a new town, but as soon as I find a place I love, I just go back there. Shawn and I didn't throw any more dollars at the ceiling, but they did have five dollar pitchers and free popcorn.
Covering the convention is weird. You have to carry a ton of gear, but you can't use all of that gear everywhere, so you end up leaving stuff at the convention every night. Most photographers would use a tripod, but when you don't have a tripod or lights, you have to improvise. Luckily the Holiday Inn has a good supply of tables and chairs that work great for a seven minute sit down interview. I was pretty worried about it but it ended up looking pretty good. I used my big assed wallet as a steady bag and diffused the toplight by pointing it over top of the lady's head. Not having a tripod is no excuse for shaky video.
Well, unless you're on the convention floor where tripods are strictly forbidden. Shawn and I got floor passes for 19 minutes Thursday night. We had to shoot a package and two standups. Unfortunately we got down there as the convention was convening which means everyone stands quietly for ten minutes while the colors are presented, the pledge of allegiance spoken and the national anthem sung. When you only have 19 minutes, that's a real pisser.

You can't do interviews during the invocation, but you can sneak off a still or two. We got the package done using a few interviews from Wednesday and the package wasn't bad, either. Now it's time to break down the equipment while McCain speaks. I could go watch his speech from the floor with Shawn, but I'm not terribly excited about it. I'll go take a peek so I can say I saw him give his speech, but I've seen him before and I've seen the keynote speech of a convention before. Plus, he isn't as easy to watch as Sarah Palin.