"Quit Doggin' it!"

Digital photography has opened my eyes. As long as the camera is functioning? You can take as many pictures as your little index finger desires.  So?

Well when you get back home and you take time to look at all the pixels? You find out you have a shooting "theme" and didn't even know it. In fact you have a whole bunch of themes you didn't know about.  And you've captured eye blinks of life that would typically pass you and everyone else by.

I've been with TV photographers when they've captured what they call TV moments. Nobody plans them. 

I was with Jim Weis when he got set up on his tripod in a wildlife area.  He knew there was a coyote nearby and was hopeful it would walk through his frame. Instead? The coyote leapt through his frame in a dramatic arc landing on top a prarie dog. Wow!

I was with Dan Dwyer when he set up on asphalt on top of Berthoud Pass. We were trying to demonstrate gravity's force on melting snowpack? Well he got focused on a pop can about 100 yards up hill? He's thinking some wind will come along and the can will roll towards the lens a little bit?

Well, it did. It rolled the whole one hundred yards down the hill stopping only after slaming right into the lens. The NAT sound that went along with it was incredible.

I was with Carl Filoreto once at a Water Board conservation news conference. They were expecting a long, dry, hot summer. So about 20 employees are holding up this 50 foot long banner? Begging the world to save water?  They are about two minutes into the news conference?  The sky unloads. All these stubborn employees hold their marks as their news conference coifs go south.

But the best part of the day? The TV moment? All the "Conserve Water Now" letters?  They just drip right off the banner, camera rolling.

Well now I know you don't need to be rolling. Have your digitizer ready, and capture those moments in fractions of seconds.

I'll revisit this revelation with other themes. But today it's dogs.  I had no idea they could be so interesting. But more importantly they may be just the curricular break through I've been looking for.

I suppose it's a cliche to say, "No two dogs are alike!"

I like to instruct broadcast journalism students in the importance of being themselves.  I tell them they don't need to listen to the dissonant choir that says, " to REPORT or ANCHOR you need to be a type 'A' personality.  It's just not true. But there is a must!

When a microphone opens or a camera light comes on? YOU COME ALIVE.

"GIVE US AN EXAMPLE," they scream.

Well now I can scream out a response.

"BE MORE DOG LIKE!"

"Why?"

"They just keep at it.  When there is work to do, they are buckets of energy. If there is a task underway? They don't quit until it's done. They know how to WORK a room. Lights and cameras are magnets to dogs. They are expressive, eagar to communicate, convinced they have a story to tell and it's a better story than any other dog's in the pound."

Give you an example of  COME ALIVE? Be a DOG! And when the job it done? Go have some fun.

(See anybody you know in the pictures?)