| |
I
started out in video in high school in the A/V club
and from there I bought my first camcorder when I
was 17. It was a RCA full size VHS that was the norm
back in the late 80s. I just had fun with it and
actually I recorded my first accident in front of my
house on Christmas Eve and back then never thought
about being a stringer. It was just simply in front
of my house and taped it and I am on the hunt for
the video tape. I later bought a Sony CCD-V110 8mm
full size camcorder that was at the time top of the
line. I used that for a few weddings for friends
along with the VHS camera. This
was the model before the CCD-V220 that I used for
years as a news stringer. After graduating high
school in 1990 I attended Milwaukee Area Technical
College for a degree in Telecasting or television
productions. I then also attended Waukesha Area
Technical College for firefighting and EMT classes.
Then in 1991 I got into the news stringer deal and
did that until 1998 when I moved to Texas.
Around
1994 I got a job as a full time tow truck driver and
did that until 1997. During that same time I joined
the local Volunteer Fire Department and that
was when I took the FF/EMT classes. About a year
later I changed to the Town of Brookfield fire
department and worked there until I moved in 1998.
During this same time I still did my news stringer
work and only once did I had to leave a major fire
as my department was called on mutual aid. I really
should have stayed, but it turns out all the
stations showed up and would not have sold my
footage. Even when I was out in a remote area
getting a story, I never recall my pager going off
for a call at my fire department. So anyways, I had
many stories on the news and kept most of the pay
stubs for taxes, but they always sent me my
1099-misc. My best year was 1996 and that helped to
buy a more professional camera, Sony EVW-300.
In
1997 I got a full time job in the Information
Technology field and the company moved to Dallas
Texas in 1998 and went with them. I packed up all my
video gear and about a year into living here I sold
most of my pro gear. I had bought a 3CCD Sony
Betacam just after I moved to Dallas, but was not
worth keeping, so I sold it and later bought a
house. I never did much stringing from 1998 to 2008,
but did have
one video on the local news in 2003. I may have
had more as I have a few miscellaneous videos of
fires and accidents, like the one in Carrollton of
the
cars that crashed into the house. A few fires,
but mostly took still pictures over those years as I
did not have a pro camera.
Then
in 2004 I moved across the Metroplex to Fort Worth
and up until fall of 2008 did not think about
getting back into this line of work. Looking for a
pro like camcorder for not too much I bought a Sony
DSR-200 DVCAM camcorder, one that I wanted back in
1998 when it first came out. So this was pretty much
my dream camera and now I have one, but yes there
are much better cameras out there today. Nothing on
the news yet, but
still working on it. Hopefully my investment
will pay off, but I found out the market is not any
better for stringers after taping this
accident in Euless. In fact I was told it is not
very good as it once was and one of the stations can
not even buy stringer videos.
More
to come.............
|
