The Eyes Have it! So Do The Ears!

Flirtatious: "Why don't we paint our initials on that big heart shaped rock over there?"

Real Mood: Absorbant

Prediction: The human population in this metroplex will not decrease in 2006.

I've found a place in this two million person metropolis where I can sit outside all alone.  From my perch I can see three hundred miles of mountain range. I can take in over 300 hundred degrees of horizon. With my telephoto lens I can pick out every building over ten stories in a 50 mile radius.  I can see all the major bodies of water. Give me some coordinates and I can probably pick you out. No more hints.

Several years ago photographer Jim Weis and satellite engineer Bruce Binns and I got close to this spot.  We were trying to visually demonstrate urban growth with a live shot.

When we first discovered it,  I was blown away. I raved about it so much I think Jim and Bruce were wondering if  they should try to get me some oxygen. 

Well guys I've settled down since then. Besides this new spot is even better. I'm thinking about bringing my broadcast journalism TV class up here and let life lecture to them.

Sure, I want them to see the best "wide shot" you're going to find in this state.  But you know what?

You can't really tell a very good TV story with just a Wide Angle lens.  A good TV story is going to need some tight and medium shots from that Telephoto. And if it's a story of any significant merit it'll need some extreme close ups.  So bring along the Macro, too.

A TV story without any ambient or natural sound should never make air.

Like TV life needs all those perspectives to make sense.

Let's go exploring.

From this perch a prevailing wind whistles through high grass and a few trees.  Geese flying overhead blast through the silence with their honking horns. Occassionally a Detroit designed horn from miles away joins the chorus.

The cooing of a couple hiking almost a mile away reaches my ear. They'd blush to know how well sound carries.

Just down the hill roofers and carpenters have started a rhythmic banging and sawing composition.

Then comes the blare of a catering truck's horn. It silences the hammer and saw symphony. 

On the other side of the hill I hear a child's, "Wheeee!"  A woman  ispushing that child on a swing in a backyard.

A family dog is barking with glee chasing the swing back and forth in it's arc.  

All our heads are lifted upward when we hear the racing roar of  F-16 jet engines. Even the home builders take breaks from their burritos.  It takes a few seconds, but now we all see the jets.  Now they're gone. Back to the burritos.

I can hear the soft "Clip Clop" of horses somewhere on the trail that brought me here. Now I see them just over the hill. Oh, listen to that "WHINNIE!" I'm not suprised they're in the neighborhood. They'd left some equine evidence I nearly stepped in.

I'm taking pictures but haven't decided yet if they'll make air. No I won't use the Macro.  But you know,  if I do,  I could pick up the "BZZZ" of the flies?  They've stopped by to nibble on their own form of burrito..

There is a minute of near silence. (The wind in the grass is always there.) Then I think I'm about to be crushed by a "thundering  herd of antelope". No, it's just a gang of sweating runners prancing in their licra.  There must be a big "something K"  coming up.

You know there's a story here somewhere. A TV story. I'm thinking! How about.....

"Nature Looks for A Niche in Man's Map?

As seen through the EYES of a LEAFLET?

On a slow news day?

On the noon show?

Maybe on a weekend?

I'm telling you I can make this work.

You wanna pass me that oxygen?

Enero no es mas! Or something like that."