Comments from the Camera Guy
Something big on film
So you want to know what life is like behind the lens? Just imagine what it would be like to travel with your favorite rock band.....Lear jets, decked out tour bus and five star hotels!!! That's right.... It's just like that....only a little different. Our jets are powered by an outboard engine, the tour bus has four wheel drive (sometimes) and five star hotels might be a couch in the living room. But hey, you say tomato I say tomatoe right?
My goal here is to give you an inside look at some things that I see and do living the life! Maybe some of it makes the dvd and you can live it with me, and maybe, on occasion, I forgot to hit record and have to write about it instead. What!....the record button isn't that big and sometimes it's hard to push....don't worry Brad, I didn't get the hook set but I got that awesome jump....I think! Either way I will try my best to entertain and inform.
As we ready ourselves, camera equipment and boat for the days events we find that we are quite excited for today's quest. The body of water we were about to explore is known for having big fish and they were being caught on a regular basis the last few days! So with high hopes of finally capturing a BIG fish on film we launched the boat and set our course for The Big One! And little did we know that we would get something BIG on film that day, but how big, and what it would actually be, was a surprise to all involved!
We started out the day with having some follows and actually having a couple of BIG fish follows!! And some aggressive follows at that! This is crazy, putting together a plan to go after BIG fish and having it look somewhat possible already! Sweet, this just might all come together! I mean, after all it has only been a couple of hours, we've already moved some fish, still have all day, and the weather is cooperating, what could possibly go wrong?! The next few hours bring the same action with blistering hot follows and, of course, a couple of misses! This is awesome! With all the action these fish are gonna start eating soon! You can just feel it! Oops, dead battery, better change it out before I miss something! Ok......this one is dead .....and so is this one and this one and....WHAT THE!!!! No way, only one battery left! I have never used all these batteries in one day before, and it's only 3:00 in the afternoon!! And the only one left is this little one and it's only gonna give me one maybe two hours max! Perfect....just perfect! The fish are hot, ready to go into a feeding frenzy sometime between now and dark and I have one battery.... Perfect!!
After some deliberation we decide to send Eric back to the house (one hour away) to retrieve a charger and while he is away we will shoot some filler stuff that we need anyway. Alright, sounds good, we drop him off and myself, Brad and Bob head back out to get the filler footage done and out of the way. We decide we should talk about rod length and stiffness for the figure eight and how a little stiffer tip will keep your blade baits running better in the turns. Cool, lets shoot the softer one first then the stiffer one. Hey, I have an idea! Brad has his new line of rods coming out later this year and one is a nine footer with a slightly stiffer tip, and he happens to have one with, lets use that one!! Sure, it's right over here....no, no wait it's caught in the cleat!!!! SNAP!!! There goes the first four inches of that "inexpensive", one-of-a-kind, prototype rod!! Well alrighty then...our day just got a little better. I think we should move on to something else and let that one simmer for a bit. Trying to shift the mood in the boat from what had just happened, I try to think of what we need to talk about next. Let's talk about.... umm.... reels!! Yea, reels. Brad, you and Bob go up front and sit on the gunnel and tell people the difference between these two. This should be harmless right? Well little did I know how difficult the task of sitting on the gunnel could be! As the two of them got situated I leaned over to pick up my stabilizer for the camera and when I turned back around I did so just in time to see Brad in the midst of a heels-over-head backwards somersault! Holy froley! At this point, I quickly realize there is no saving him from his impending doom and there is only one ending to this particular situation.... sploosh!! Right in the drink! It was only seconds until he reappeared at the surface with that "What the hell just happened" look on his face! I reached down and removed the rod he was still grasping from his hand and noticed he now had a different expression. One of "Oh great, I wonder what's in my pockets." So as I helped him to the rear of the boat and out of the water, there he was, completely drenched and dripping like a popsicle in 100 degree heat. Then he started removing items from his pockets. Copenhagen....$6 Wireless mic....$350 iPhone....$400 Getting Brad on camera falling in the water.....you guessed it.... PRICELESS!!!!!
So after we realized everyone was o.k. and nothing was lost or broke that couldn't be replaced, we laughed and joked about what had just taken place. I mean, come on, how could you not! Then it was off to the dock to wait the arrival of Eric and the charger and hopefully some drier clothes for Brad! In the mean time some phone calls were made to explain what had just happened, and as weird as it may sound the first question people asked was "Did you get it on film?" I guess we now know how concerned people are with Brads safety.
Anyway, we did get the charger, Brad did get some dry clothes, and we even caught a fish! As for myself, I did end up getting something BIG on film that day.... Brad going in the drink!!!
So there you have it. Another day of living the life behind the lens!!! And as this goes to show, some days are a little more interesting than others! Oh, by the way, you can enjoy this moment with me over and over again, if he puts it on the dvd, as the camera was rolling!
Remember, keep a clean lens and batteries charged!
The Cameraman