A few weeks ago I was assigned to cover the camera work for a story in Great Neck with one of the reporters from LI News Tonight. The story was based on the damage done from a “tornado-like” storm in the area. There were many obstacles that happened throughout the shoot ranging from the Macro button on the lens to the pan lock on the tripod. But overall, I felt I got a fair amount of decent footage to cover enough B-roll for the story.
When we first arrived in Great Neck, I could not believe the amount of damage the storm had caused. It was also very sporadic, in regards to what was damaged. There would be one street with no visible damage except for one house on the entire road. There were pieces of sidewalk ripped from the ground, next to a playground left unscathed. There were many areas for B-roll, but many of the areas were in high traffic or too uneven for tripod use, so I had to manage to try to be as still as possible with the camera on my shoulder.
After getting a decent amount of B-Roll we headed to some of the damaged houses to get interviews from some residents. This is when my first obstacle occurred. While I was setting up the shot I found that I could not track the lens. After about 10 minutes of confusion I realized the Macro button was pressed on the front of the camera. When it was un-pressed all of the focus issues were alleviated.
Overall, I learned a lot about minor camera issues that can really cause a lot of problems, and now I will know how to fix one more problem when out in the field.