Michael Chow: photographer: The Arizona Republic
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200 E. Van Buren St., Phoenix, AZ 85004, United States |
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| Michael Chow's Message: |
I don’t remember the last time my innards dropped down into my shoes on assignment. No, this isn’t a good kind of feeling because I’m at a U2 concert. The band was scheduled to go on at 8:45pm which typically means 9pm. No problem right, with a 9:30pm page drop? I’ve worked tighter deadlines before. Give me two minutes to acquire/caption/send, a minute for the bits/bytes to appear in our system and five minutes for them to tone it and slap it on the page. That puts me at a 9:22pm deadline.
Nine o’clock passes and the stage-hands are still monkeying around. Not a good sign. I decided to set up my laptop on the steps next to me, start my Sprint card and connect to the paper. With my generic caption pre-written I’m still in good shape. It’s past 9:10pm and here comes the PR lady from the tour. She sees my laptop, looks me in the eye, wags her index finger at me, closes my laptop, slides it under the stage and walks away. Oh sh**! I just lost 3-4 minutes and the lights are dimming!
The band takes the stage (it’s 9:13pm--you would constantly be checking your watch too) and I’m thinking of what to do. I only had the industry standard three songs before getting the boot and still had to produce enough images for a slideshow. I jumped up and down from my position the first song whenever Bono worked the other side of the stage to clear the error messages, re-start my Sprint card and reconnect to the paper. Back in business and it’s only the end of the first song. I tagged a picture in my camera, jumped down from my position and moved it. It’s 9:20 and I’m able to exhale.
The second song starts and while I’m shooting, I look down at my laptop: COMMUNICATION ERROR!!!
That’s when my small intestines and everything attached to it fell into my Nikes. I jumped back down to fix the problem when a security guard grabs my shirt and moves me to center stage. I’m yelling back at him with some colorful words and see that the bridge to the outer stage is moving overhead (it’s a weird stage setup) and other photographers are being herded to the middle.
During the few minutes I’m separated from my laptop I was trying to convince myself that the place holder picture I shot earlier of people waiting in line wouldn’t look too bad in the paper. Oh well, just keep shooting. The bridge eventually moves outwards past where my laptop is stashed and I grabbed it, stuffed it down the front of my pants (so I can still shoot) and moved towards the exit where I dropped down to restart my connections and moved a picture. It’s 9:35. I don’t know what I was hoping for but made a call anyways to my boss. “Good job, we made it!”
Huh? What are you talking about? I just sent it. Through the confusion (mostly mine), the original transmission made it before the communication error occurred and we made deadline with 30 seconds to spare. My insides still aren’t right. I hope writing this would be good therapy.
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| Last Update: |
30 days ago |
| Member Since: |
4.19.2006 (Senior Member) |
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The images below are from the
portfolio of Michael Chow. They are presented here for your viewing pleasure. These images may not be used elsewhere and are protected by copyright. To see these images, click on the icon and you will see a much larger image.
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"U2"
U2's Bono performs during the rock band's 360º Tour at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale Oct... |
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"U2"
Bono and Adam Clayton. |
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"U2"
Adam Clayton and the Edge. |
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"U2"
Bono. |
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"U2"
The Edge. |
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"U2"
Adam Clayton. |
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"U2"
Bono on the moving bridge. |
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"U2"
Large overhead screen above main stage. |
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"U2"
Two moving remote cameras. |
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"U2"
Bono. |
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