Working with the King

Night Shift. God I hate night shift. That has been my lot in life for this week. The shift itself involves usually a whole lot of running around for little or no show value. Time tends to move very slowly on the night shift as well. I also find that I feel very detatched from the day side and the stories tend to be boring public meetings or local council. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of important stuff that happens at these type of meetings, but they are as boring as bat shit when it comes to TV.

This week though has been filled with lots of fire and other sorts of calamities that have made the time pass quickly. The scanners have been busy with fire calls (now I smell like smoke), Meth lab take downs and fatal sky train entrapments. Oh and I should not forget the gas and dash in Surrey on Monday night. That call has had some legs this week as a fellow who had been involved in one a year ago was to be sentenced today for dragging a young night gas jockey to his death.

Today the shift began with a call to the scene of a crash involving several police cars, a stolen van and a bad guy hopped up on meth. Just another day in paradise. I was expecting more tonight, but it seems the night shift gods believe I have been working hard this rotation and gave me a quiet evening.

I have been working this shift with another veteran camera op. Ted H.
Teddy has been in this business longer than anybody I know. He had done two tours in Viet Nam. When I arrived here in Vancouver, he was the Chief Photog at the station. This guy has seen it all. I am surprised that he can still stand up considering he has been humping camera gear for more years than any of us can count. But he is as healthy as they get and is pretty fit. Ted found some old pics from back in the seventies when he used to hang with "Colombo" and "Starsky and Hutch".

Ted -back in the day-

Funny thing, this is the first night shift that I have had the pleasure to work with Ted. We double teamed the Meth lab the other night. Fortunately, Ted has traded that camera for one that is much lighter then the one shown.