THE NEWS CHASER:
News and event photographers are a unique breed. You bear witness, you see the
events that others see later. Well sometimes... You have to be objective
and stand clear of the emotion, you have to be above it, you need the instincts
of the hunter and the brazenness of a party crasher. Rarely do you pick
the assignments, you are chosen, some fun, some great and some so against
anything you believe in.
Political chasing is work, tedious, waiting for the moment, not getting in the way of handlers and press boobies. Pictures tell you a lot. Especially if the question is not the one there is a prepared answer for or the answer is not a good one. Boom mikes miss little and careful answers are a must. Thus, the word 'mis-quote and the word mis-spoke" are very commonly used. Here is the Florida Governor Charlie Crist after the Republican Debate/ Rally/ Protest/ surrounded trying to get to his car.
Usually the protection (see earpiece) runs blocking but Charlie is not shy while getting the questions from one of our local town reporters whose specialty is a cross between investigative reporting and Tampa Bay public affairs.
Reporter and friend, John Sipos does an excellent job of getting the truth out. Almost a lost art with the creative writing skills of some pseudo media outlets pretending to be news.
I remember covering the downtown one day with two newbie's. It was, during a city celebration that pertained to all the ethnicities we had living in our town.
With it ending in a great eat-off containing live entertainment and every ethnic food available. It was worth attending just for the food alone. I liked that idea since I got to eat too, swapping a shot for ribs, baklava and jerk chicken. Love that jerk flavor and a cold one.
TYPICAL CITY FUNCTION:
But it was otherwise plain,
boring, same old as last year, nothing unusual, and I was looking for
something. I was dreaming of being in Daytona at the 500, or at Lakeland for the Sun and Fun Fly-in. The things you do that make the job interesting. Since I love fast cars and faster airplanes I write a lot of what I like.Today was not going to be that day. Hot and dull. Since it was on the waterfront, I grabbed my two sidekicks, swung over to and near the water ski exhibition.
Ok, the only real action shooting other than beer crashes in the parking lots. All was normal till the pull boat swung wide and slips thru a flock of Sea Gulls waiting for their turn on the smorgasbord. Some didn't make it and some were crippled floundering with obvious injuries.
Now I'm no fan of gulls since I live near the water and they are noisy and like our NAFTA agreement tend to dump on us whenever they want, especially after you washed your car.
BUT animals, any animals in pain, those rescues are another story and I challenged the boat driver to go back and bring in the injured birds. He told me where to go. I politely asked him again only this time two of the interns were cranking away. And so was my blood pressure, my old Radio Shack tape player was going.
He used a few explicative's and "no one stops his show" and so forth. WRONG ANSWER DUDE. Something about three guys with cameras and a loud mouthed idiot draws a crowd. I asked one more time, explained I had his comments, I had the pictures and I had the crowd chanting "save the birds". I also knew I had the story though negative on this one if I pressed it. Instead he had a change of heart and agreed the show could wait a minute or two and that he really was an animal lover. (BS)
I handed my gear to the guys and two of us got in the boat, I grabbed the dead bird, put him/her in a box and then the fun began. Grabbing a "pissed off" Sea Gull or two. Sorry for the "pissed off", I was going to use "urinationally overemotionally significant" but it didn't have the punch. We got the two survivors after much nipping and biting, of ME, not exactly the greeting I expected and when back on shore, the crowd applauded the effort and I made the jerk look like a hero instead of the jerk he was.
We took the birds to the Seabird Sanctuary and thinking we would just drop them off, I figured I would head back to the festival. Nope, Dr. Heath, aka the Godfather of Bird Medicine and Treatment performed a wing-and-dectomy and I photo'd the whole operation on the first one; the other really was too far gone and died. Though the gull will be an amputee, it will live at the Sanctuary and procreate and be fed, otherwise having a normal Sea Gull life. I named him Jonathan... I think they named him Jonathan 21,326, oh, that was before the web..... I had the story… and a tetanus shot later that day to play safe upon the advise of the Dr. Heath.
Then there's the public relations stuff, the endless stories of what's going on about town. I get that too..... from the boring community parades that showcase the girls twirling team; the latest mix-up at the tax collectors office; to the constant barrage of politicians getting in hot water; the clergy misadventures in abuse; and affairs between teachers and students. Sooner or later we get a biggie but much of the chasing is routine and certainly will not put you in contention for the next Pulitzer Prize.
In the old days we had scanners conveniently tuned into the police frequencies and the supplier of these crystals was no other than Radio Shack. They also used to publish a book that had all the police and municipal frequencies for the United States. When portable phones came about, we had these ten pound boxes in our cars hooked to a dispatcher. One Blackberry does it all now.
PRESIDENTIAL AWARD FOR TOMMY FRANKS
(The Times Forum) Tampa Florida - These are photos of the
private pre-ceremony party which took place before the Change of the CENTCOM
Command was changed over.
Retiring General Tommy Franks
who led
the war to liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban and Iraq from Saddam Hussein
turned over the Regimental Colors to General John
Abizaid. Tommy Franks then retired after receiving the award from
Donald Rumsfeld.
Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld, who was the ranking official at the ceremony spoke of the importance
of these two warriors in the battle against terrorism. Who knew at
this time there were three years of door to door fighting and 4000 American
Troops Killed in Action awaiting us.
Poor after planning and a
lack of good intelligence left us in an unfavorable position in the world,
economically, strategically, politically and with ramifications and debt our
children will have to absorb.
In attendance were friends
of the General and Mrs. Franks. Mr. Robert Di Nero, Mr. Neal McCoy, Mr. Wayne
Newton and various local dignitaries. Wayne Newton donates many unselfish
hours to the USO and entertaining our troops overseas along with many of the
stars that appeared at the Freedom Concert.
PHOTOGRAPHERS NOTES:
COLOR SHIFTS: &^%$#(*&@# St. Murphy Lawes provided the lighting streaming in through the
windows at sundown but once again enough yellow to make a lot of tough shooting
even with a balance as the glass (enormous plate glass windows) were slightly
tinted also. Hail Mary shooting.
Actually this is the restaurant at the Forum in Tampa, home
of the Tampa bay Lightning and not usually used for this kind of venue.
So once again you don't know what you got till you get there and then you work
it out. Look in the glass at the back near the flag and there is still
yellow after we made two pulls. Went beyond the algorithms
of the white balance.
**********
MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FUNDRAISER
SPEAKER GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS
September 1, 2003 Hyatt Hotel,
Tampa, Florida-
Guest Speaker Gen. Tommy
Franks (USA Ret.)
A guest appearance and
speech by the architect of the "March to Baghdad" , the fast assault
on the regime of Saddam Hussein and his gang of thugs.
This was followed months
later by the "Mission Accomplished " statement by the President which
officially started the Grand Eight Year War of Insurgency which continues
on today.
General Franks returned to
his home state after retirement serving his country above and beyond the call
of duty. Today he makes frequent
appearances on the speaking circuit. Many of the Generals who retired in
the past five years have served the Central Command (CENTCOM) with the latest
field commander being General Petraeus appearing about every five months in
front of Congress.
• Charlie Daniels
• Lee Greenwood
• Jo Dee Messina
• Darryl Worley
• Chris Cagle
• Rebecca Lynn Howard
• Ashley Gearing
• And a surprise solo by General Tommy Franks who brought the house down.
*********
THE COALITION DINNER:
13 JUL2003 TAMPA- Sponsored by Pepin
Distributing, Outback Steakhouse, a
nd Busch
Gardens, at the A La Carte Pavilion, Tampa Bay, Florida with over 40 countries
participating.
The food was incredible. Provided by OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE Catering. Pepin
Distributing handled the libation and the entertainment was provided by Busch
Gardens. To preserve the fun of the evening and let all attending have a
great time, we limited the amount of photography.
The Outback
Steakhouse Corporation was honored by the Army for their participation in
"Operation OUTBACK", One, Two and Three. Over 12,000
meals delivered to our troops in Afghanistan to give our soldiers a taste of
home. A truly remarkable, unselfish gift by an outstanding American
Corporation.
In addition
other companies such as Anheuser-Busch and Pepin Distributors deserve merit for
what they do for our troops. Coalition dinners and other events hosted by
these great friends of the Military go unnoticed in the press, it's not about
recognition... it's about giving.
And the Tampa
Bay Community knows how to give. It goes without saying that Tampa Bay loves
the Military and that the Military loves Tampa Bay. Mentioned and toasted
at the reception, Tampa Bay truly deserves the recognition it deserves for it's
support of the troops, their families and allied personnel. Companies such as The
Outback Steakhouse and others have led the way.
Right: Gen.
Abizaid- Paul Avery President
Outback
PHOTOGRAPHERS
NOTES: Darkest room I ever shot in with streaming red and blue
searchlights. You get there and then you work it out. I made half the
shots Black and White, the paper didn't care and the food and facility was top notch. Nice part was all casual attire.
Governor Jeb Bush Launches Reading Program:
(TAMPA - 14 Sept 2006)
Governor Jeb Bush today launched Read Together, Florida, the annual one
state-one book reading promotion initiative. This year's program features
The Zero Game by Florida-based author Brad Meltzer. Floridians are encouraged
to read the book during the month of October which will include community
events at libraries, bookstores and Starbucks locations, an online crossword
puzzle game, an essay contest for high school students and a grand prize,
drawing for a trip to Washington, DC, with the author.
The promotion is part of the
Governor's Family Literacy Initiative, managed by the nonprofit Volunteer
Florida Foundation. "Reading transforms
lives. It is the key to opening up the doors of opportunity and achieving
success," said Governor Bush. "Since 1999, we have strived to make
reading a family value through our family literacy initiative. Read Together, Florida
is an expansion of that great idea, and I encourage all families to participate
in this year's event by reading The Zero Game.'"
He should start with his
brother, The President, Zero is close to GWB's popularity. Nice title for his
memoirs. I'm not a Bush fan. Today's announcement took
place at the West Tampa Library in Tampa, a historic library where cigar
factory lectors once chose the day's reading selection to be read aloud to
workers.
Read Together, Florida is
the state's annual promotion to enhance the love of reading by encouraging
entire communities to read together.
Photographers
Notes: This one was a gas. Indoor-outdoor
in a difficult venue because when you stuff sixty to eighty people into an area that
normally holds twenty things get tight. And that didn't include the bodyguards
and three different police departments. The funny part was with all the
protection for the Governor and brother of the President the new library is in
a "difficult area" and like the bad part of town, while we were
looking for a parking spot, we were approached by some dubious but charming
dealers. "You want some stuff?" With ten video guys and
reporters in front of us and a tangle of booms, mikes and cable,, I went
vertical on a low back wall, grabbed the longer glass and stayed out of
the foray of mikes and booms and questions., caught an opening between two
shoulder units and grabbed the shot.
The Ground Breaking and
Dedication and Ceremony of The New Facility
The vision for the next five years and beyond is to create a non-profit learning center for students of all ages to learn from hands-on environmental activities that motivate them to continue to support the renewal and restoration of our coastal ecosystems for future generations.
The marine center and educational facility on Tampa Bay will serve as program
headquarters and provide opportunities for students to "dig in" and
"get dirty" as they apply classroom principles in real life
scientific projects that carry out the bay renewal and habitat restoration work
of Tampa Bay Watch.
Tampa Bay Watch has set the
goal for our capital campaign at $4.5 million. We have secured our program
headquarters location at Cunningham Key near Ft. De Soto Park in St. Petersburg
and begun construction on an office facility. This fantastic location will give
students and Tampa Bay residents the opportunity to experience the bay
first-hand and to encourage them to protect it for future generations. To date
we have raised, $1.2 million, but in order achieve our goals we need to raise
additional funds to accomplish our mission.
Tampa Bay Watch, Inc. is a
501(c)(3) nonprofit stewardship program dedicated exclusively to the charitable
and scientific purpose of protecting and restoring the marine and wetland
environments of the Tampa Bay estuary, the largest open water estuary in the
State of Florida. By expanding community involvement in hands-on
restoration and protection projects around the bay, we strive to counteract the
huge loss of wetland habitat over the past 100 years. Tampa Bay Watch trains
and organizes citizen volunteers, students, at-risk youth, and civic
organizations to participate in environmental projects while heightening
community awareness of the fragile nature and importance of the environment.
Please see their
website: http://www.tampabaywatch.org/
PHOTOGRAPHER'S NOTES:
Al Jacobson gets
captured by no other than Tom Bailey photographer while conversing with Congressman Bill Young (R). Al made it clear by saying "he has known Congressman Young for almost 30 years or as long as he has been in Congress.
"Congressman Young
has done a great job for the State and especially the Tampa Bay
region". Maybe Al should be running for office. His reply was right on. The established Congressman has represented Tampa bay well.
Stealthing: DEF: "Spying on each other while surviving hours of boredom only broken up by the motor drive sound and rapid flashing of strobes for a few seconds and then back to hours of boredom".
A sport common to a few photogs. The object is to get on film or recorder the other teams gaffs or foo-pahs. PJ's while standing around waiting for
something to happen try to amuse themselves. As shown here is here where the game is to get the other
guy, sort of like the black and white spies, in a shot with the participant. On the other hand with FOX news around, if there is no news they'll make some up. We call it "Fairly Unbalanced".
AUTHOR and PHOTOGRAPHER: Al Jacobson, photographs and writes in the Tampa Bay area on a myriad of subjects. He is from NY and occasionally speaks English, preferring Brooklyn based meta-phonetic syllabication (aka Street English).
His high school English teacher, once commented to his parents, "He should try learning a foreign language like English... in a foreign country". He retorted, "Shakespeare doth not a genius make, for he spake in terms reminiscent of a flake". She threw him out of the class.
My name is AL JACOBSON and I documented and approved every word of this page. Unfortunately the tourist board, my teachers, a few politicians, and celebrities didn't have the same sense of humor...