Rats & Gassers Filming

Had an amazing afternoon filming Tom Sanders Rat Truck, first by mounting GoPros on it while he drove around town, and then going out to the airport to film him making multiple passes by my HD camera. After that, we headed over a nearby gravel pit to film some additional B-Roll and to shoot pictures with the uber leggy pin-up model Shelbi Fahrney. This set was for an article I am writing about Tom's truck. I can't post pics, because this was for a national magazine. Needless to say- Shelbi rocked the set! Big thanks to Tom for setting up the gravel pit location and of course providing his bad ass truck. This was also my first stab at print magazine photography. Obviously it is a bit different than filming for a feature or documentary. Photography is capturing the world in a second, video is capturing the event and emotion over a period of time. Still framing subject, lighting effects, etc are similar. I am loving my new Canon 7D!

New Camera In The Pawn Shop- Ack!!!

So I wake up and check my bank accounts online, as I usually do, and lo and behold I am "pending" for being overdrawn in my business account. Ack! An auto-payment has posted sooner than I remember setting it up for and now doom sits smiling a big toothy grin on my shoulder. As most of you know, scratch that- as ALL of you know, when you bounce an ATM charge or paper check, the bank charges you $35 per item. My account is "pending" being overdrawn just fifty dollars, but with six transactions at $35 each we are looking at $210 in fees- Ack! and Eeek!!! So I do what I always do in this situation- I visit my local pawnshop and get a loan. I have one I used to use religiously and trust (every artist, drug addict and musician should have a pawn shop they can trust- ask Glenn Miller).  I look around the apartment at what I can pawn. My wife has the van, so I am going to have to ride my bicycle roughly forty minutes each way. So the 175 pound bass amp is out of the question, how about my video projector? No They will only give me $50 for the $300 item. Then I look down at my brand new Canon EOS 7D that I just bought on credit, haven't even used it yet and is still in the box. Hmmmm. Will it fit in my backpack? Yes. Is it able to secure a loan of more than $50? Yes. So quickly I stuff the camera into my backpack and ride. Ride ride like the wind- for I must be at the bank before 11:00 AM or I will be doomed to exorbitant overdraft fees!

I get to the pawn shop and the guy behind the counter is half asleep. I pull the camera out of my backpack and set it on the counter. He looks at it and then slowly cranes his head over the top of the box expectantly. I open the box and show him the brand spanking new Canon EOS 7D with booklets and camera strap and...
"Do you have the receipt?" he says dryly with a mild latino accent.
"Yes but it's at home."
"I am sorry but with a new item we can not... I mean...how do we know..."
I understood what he was saying. ME standing there twitchy and sweeting from my forty minute bike ride and in a hurry to pawn the camera and get to the bank before 11AM- I probably looked like a jonesin' junky with a brand new $2,000 camera in the box, riding a beat up bike!
I said, "I just rode my bike forty minutes to get here, I have to get to the bank before 11 AM-"
"Let me ask the manager" he said walking out of the room.
The manager gal came back with the counter guy and then the phones started ringing, almost on cue. They hustled back and forth for ten minutes answering questions and looking up items and accounts. Finally when all the calls had been answered, hey simultaneously zoomed in on my open camera box. The manager looked at the counter guy saying, "Has he been here before? Is he in system?"
"Yes....but..."
"OK then let give him a loan."
I sighed in relief. They processed the loan and I walked out with $700 in hand smiling. Quickly I rode to the bank and dumped the cash into the account. Time 10:56. Success!

Ironically an hour after I get home there was a knock at the door. It was the UPS gal. She has a package for me. It was the memory card I ordered for the Canon 7D. Ack!