iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

TV News is a particularly callisthenic form of journalism, a strenuous medium in which a simple interview can mean trundling a bunch of heavy stuff upstairs. So, NO, I can't help your Men's Club build their log cabin.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

This whole Coldplay fracas reminds me of the many times I’ve taken a TV camera into a restaurant only to watch a couple ask for the check and quickly scramble away. Probably shouldn’t have followed them out to their cars like that.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Sorry to interrupt, but did you know that every time you paw at that phone, a Television News photographer has to downgrade his drive-thru order? Won't you please put the damn thing down and go watch a newscast? Some dude who found community college too taxing will thank you. Wait, that's me.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

When I first got the chance to put a professional TV camera on my shoulder, something. just. clicked. Turns out it was one of my vertebrae, but I took it as a good sign at the time.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

I think perhaps the biggest thing that separates broadcast journalists from the population at large is our complete inability to resist posting “Twinsies!” photos, should either of us happen to show up to work wearing the same color. I’m looking at you, cameraman in tan!

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

If I could give young TV News photogs any advice, it would be to find a community to uplift with that magical gadget sitting on your shoulder. Otherwise, you could be doomed to decades of pointing it at parked police cars and guessing to yourself what the trouble might be.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Hey, if you could rush on over to that thing we've known about for weeks, thatdbegreat - but do hurry 'cause by now you'll be lucky to beat the crowd. And when you're done there, call in. We may want you to swing by another thing we've been pretending wouldn't happen. Get lunch!

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Do me a solid: If I walk into a room with a TV camera, just breathe. If I set it up behind a houseplant, leave it be. If I’m leaning on a tripod at the back of a busy meeting hall, there’s no need to duck into a crouch as you walk by. Unless you’re wanted. Move along, please…

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Coming up on Friday's episode of Behind The Lens, STRESS and how your friendly neighborhood camera crew deals with it. Strangely, I find yardwork helps.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Here’s to all the MMJ’s trying to make television out of their local fireworks show with their cameras set on Auto-Iris. Good luck with that.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

As Chief Photojournalist for a major market TV station, I help guide a crack squad of photogs, work with reporters to forge daily greatness and broker constant deals with the assignment desk. Okay... so mostly I hand out batteries.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

“Hey, if we could get some FRESH VIDEO of firefighters blowing a few fingers off some poor mannequin, I really think this newscast would be complete.”

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

If I can backpedal in front of shackled thugs on their way to prison, trade nods with bodyguards as I invade their clients’ space and stand like a sentry when the victim’s family crumbles… Why am I so creeped out when the Oil Change lady spins the iPad around and stares at me in silent judgement?

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

How ‘photog’ am I? When I cut my lawn, I’m careful not to break the axis. My garage is a mess, but rest assured, the lighting is on point. I bought a weed-eater solely because of the sound it makes. And finally... I can clean the gutters in the same outfit I wore to work.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

To shoot TV news long term, you must accept the fact that no matter how much history you witness, no matter how much trauma you process, no matter how much of the world you come to understand, there will ALWAYS be some guy your kid’s age who wants to send you to a pedestrian ax. Deal with it.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Only in TV News can you huddle with the Governor on a Monday morning, zoom in on spent shell casings on a Wednesday afternoon and not remember any of it by the end of the week. Now, where was I?

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Yesterday was one of those days when I had to remind myself how very cool the twelve year old me would think it would be to lead a swarthy band of television makers in the middle of a city… Remind me to punch that kid.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

I got a hang-up about the size of my glass and a funny way of walking when I close one eye. I got love for wide-angle lenses and a real narrow view of all politicians. I got hazy memories of shit other people would never forget and a lower back that recalls it all. Whatchu got?

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

No one has a higher threshold for alledged calamity than a TV News Photographer: “Fire at the Mall? It’s probably just some fry vat at the food court…” “Bus full of orphans plunge into a lake? I’m sure they can swim…” “Building collapse downtown? Parking’s gonna suck. Send someone closer…”

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

DEJA NEWS (de-JA nuz): the sinking realization that the stuttering woodchuck profile you're putting together for tonight's broadcast exactly mirrors the piece you did on those beatboxing meter maids five years ago... Just with different pronouns.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Some personal news: Today I’ll be lamenting my teenage indifference to higher education as I go about fulfilling the duties of what my childhood acquaintances assure me is still ‘a really cool job’. Clearly, they’ve never babysat a City Council meeting.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

UP NEXT ON THE MIDNIGHT MOVIE: An amateur taxidermist rises from his swampy lair to take apart local TV photogs limb by— what’s that? It’s just WAVE-TV weirdo Marty Pearl slaying a day-turn? I’d watch the hell outta that.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

If you’ve never poured your heart and soul into a feature on street performers at a festival you were sent to - only to have it shelved so you go check out a drive-by shooting (that never makes air), then you don’t know as much about local TV News as you think you do. Just sayin’.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Am I the only TV News photographer who cannot watch a Netflix crime documentary without offering constant commentary on the readiness, posture, wardrobe and tactics of the camera crews that pop up in all that file footage? My wife would like to know.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

See Dick (pretend to) edit. See Dick wiggle out of helping an MMJ with a quick interview. See Dick smirk. See Dick get sent to breaking news on the far side of town. See Dick provide a live picture from the scene until the nightside crew decides to show up. Don’t be a Dick.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Signs I've been in TV news too long: Corpses of clothespins in my light kit. Once shot music video for Crimestoppers Telethon. Seven layers of logos on my soul. Recalls meeting other news crews for lunch. Others my age buying boats. I'm into broken radios. Bloopers on VHS.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Back for a third stab at Hip Hop greatness, Turbo and The Wordy One’s new release “It Takes One Dead Battery to Hold Us Back” falls flat. Turbo’s backbeats are catchy in a workmanlike way, but The Wordy One’s habit of scatting his favorite tweets over them quickly proves excruciating.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Most of what I know about life was learned with my right eye jammed into a plastic tunnel, the throb of a red 'RECORD' light torturing my cornea while an ever present deadline threatened to eclipse the sun. Is it any wonder I twitch during newscasts?

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Some men sketch out maps of conquests. Others seek solace in supercar silhouettes. I doodle Betacams. We are not the same.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Live so that if your life was a vosot on a thrift store re-opening, producers would still be fighting each other to run it in their shows.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

"I've seen things, kid. Things ya wouldn't understand... Battery belts. Teletype. Retractable masts. All white anchor teams. Pagers. Cash giveaways during weather. Tripod heads the size of engine blocks. Paper scripts. New reporters on parade floats..." "Sir, this is a Wendy's." "So?"

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

I’m that odd TV News photog who’d rather pen a dissertation on the intrinsic futility of searching for cogent discourse on the issue of the day while standing in a discount store parking lot… than eff with a single GoPro. Told ya I was odd.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

From a class I’m teaching: “At some point in your camera-carrying life, a well meaning PR flack will try to drag you into a conference room. Do not go. There’s nothing in there but a big table, fluorescent lighting and the tears of untold photogs who’ve come before you.”

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

One of the hardest things for an off-duty TV News photographer to do is to calmly navigate through heavy traffic like a normal person. I wanted to explain that to those nice people on the church bus but they insisted on plummeting into that ravine once I rammed them from behind.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Judging from the white smoke billowing out of that old live truck parked out back, the photog’s have selected a new intern to trick into paying for pizza.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Spent last Sunday wandering around a charming street festival - WITHOUT a TV camera and tripod in tow. Don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Chief among my regrets in life is that silly attempt at being a country music star. Yeah, I got a Southern drawl and a strong point of view, but my total lack of musical talent frustrated the label. They wanted songs about horses. All I got are camera crew quips. At least they let me keep the hat.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

If you'd shoot a sick kid profile without ever thinking to use your tripod, we probably can't hang out. If you miss three man-on-the-street interviews in a row because your futzing with the backlight, we can hang out, but I'm gonna have to ask you to tone that shit down.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

A new study shows TV news crews are in greater danger of being attacked by members of the public than ever before… Must have been that 4 part series on your anchor lady’s hunt for the perfect wedding venue

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

PRO TIP: Never assign a Sith Lord to vosot patrol. Just sayin’…

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

PRO TIP: If you can look at one of the very first stories you put on television WITHOUT throwing up in your mouth a little, it’d better be because the format required to watch the damn thing no longer exists. Otherwise, you still got room for growth.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

TV News Terms Defined: “Wrote me into a hole” Phrase used by photogs to describe editing a story with no video, as in: “Nigel and I were at the car wash fire and a seagull flew by. Now half his script is about waterfowl! I GOT ONE BIRD! Dude wrote me into a hole!”

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

You there… still reading this: Thanks. Knowing folks peruse this lurching stream of drivel means more than I’’m willing to admit. Feel good about that. I do. Also, pretty sure I threw my back out. Can you flag down one of my guys and see if they can help me back to the van?

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Working in TV News saved me… from leading a life of mediocrity. Seriously. The dullest people I know cocoon themselves in one community and decide everyone they’re afraid to meet are dumb or devilish. If you’re gonna judge people, at least have the grapes to do it up close.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Lenslinger's Law of Spot News Article 4 Item 6 states that if you're going to get pulled off of a cushy assignment to go chase breaking news, the text/phone call redirecting you won't come until you're within a half mile of your original destination. It's science. Look it up.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Introverted, but will tell rambling cameraman stories for free drinks. Just sayin'....

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Remember, it’s always darkest before the dawn. Unless the overnight photog scarfed all your light batteries. Then the whole morning’s gonna suck.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

What’s the diff between a photog and a photojournalist? A photog rolls up on a house fire, pops off a half dozen shaky shots and loses interest. A photojournalist rolls up, pops off 12 steady shots, pins a microphone on the homeowner and quietly rolls as the tears pour forth. Neither gets lunch.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

In a world where you can be anything… be that reporter who writes her vosot BEFORE she writes the package.

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Lenslinger @lenslinger.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Isn’t “You must have an exciting job!” just another way of saying “Wow, that sounds absolutely miserable! What kind of goober day-sleeps in a Ford Escape? I’d rather drive an ice pick into my eye socket rather than attend all those ribbon cuttings!”? Because that’s how it sounds.

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