Spring is Here

I didn't work with a reporter today. I spent the morning at the station editing the noon show. The noon show is probably the most fun to edit. I got in at 9:30 and started putting stories together. Just when it looked like I might finish my work early (11:15), we've got breaking news and several of the pieces that I just finished working on are dropped from the show all together. Breaking news filled the first part of the show and I finished editing at 11:58. Two minutes to spare!

I don't believe viewers notice when a story gets dropped from the show. They have no reason to. But, when you spend time finding the video and then matching it to the producer's script, only to see it dropped from the show never to be seen, you can't help but feel you've wasted your time. The reality is, that's how news works. As photographers we're often sent to something heard on the scanner, only to get there and have a police officer tell us it's not worth it. Granted what we're sent to is often traumatic or life altering for those involved, we just can't use it for news. The biggest waste for photographers is when we are sent to a scene, shoot video, come back to the station, edit the video, only to have the story dropped. That's just the way it is.

I digress.

I actually logged on to post a pointless little weather video I shot today for Stan's weather segment. It's kind of a neat, close-up look at bees on a lilac bush. They look so happy and peaceful in the flowers, right before they fly over to my garage and bore a bunch of holes in it. Great. Enjoy the video.



As always, thanks for watching.
-Billau

Happy Monday

Nothing groundbreaking today. Just thought this poster was kind of funny. Snapped a shot of it while working on a story about changes to Planned Parenthood.



-Billau

Tom Skeldon by the Numbers

And the numbers are in. Lucas County Dog Warden, Tom Skeldon, has made quite a name for himself with the ever-increasing number of pit bulls his department has "processed." If you talk to him he'll tell you (some could even consider it bragging) how the number of pit bulls seized or surrendered under his watch as Lucas County Dog Warden has grown exponentially in the past ten years.

Listed below are the number of pit bulls taken in by the Lucas County Dog Warden by year.
1997 - 276
1998 - 359
1999 - 406
2000 - 487
2001 - 482
2002 - 551
2003 - 690
2004 - 857
2005 - 900
2006 - 998
2007 - 1354

According to Tom Skeldon, around 12% of the animals are returned to their owners, the rest are euthanized. Another stat...in 1997 when 276 pit bulls were seized or surrendered, that number only made up 5% of the total number of dogs seized or surrendered in Lucas County. In 2007 pit bulls made up 34% of the dogs seized or surrendered. With Skeldon's percentage estimate, 1191 pit bulls alone were euthanized in 2007.

Below you can find two segments that make up today's interview with Mr. Skeldon. The first segment deals mainly with the story I worked on with Lissa Guyton about a woman who was attacked while trying to break up a fight between two dogs in her home.

In the second segment below, Mr. Skeldon gets more into his feeling towards the breed (actually the pit bull is not a specific breed but rather a group of breeds of dogs that fall into the Molosser family of dogs).





As always, thanks for watching!
-Billau

Evita in Toledo

No, really, the musical "Evita" is now playing in Toledo. Today I interviewed Malia Tippets. At age 22, she's playing the role of Eva Peron. More interesting is that "Evita" originally debuted in 1979 - 6 years before Malia was born. Speaking with her, I could tell she knew not only the significance of her role, but Eva Peron's roll in history. The show plays through Sunday at the Stranahan.



Thanks for watching!
-Billau