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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Dallas Cowboys practice facility calapses; caught on video
Kevin Leas, Photographer, Assistant
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 8:57 PM on 05.02.09 |
->> First of all, I found this footage simply amazing. Not for any technical reasons - composition, exposure, or anything like that. However, it truly makes you feel just like you're in that building. No cuts, no editing, just raw video.
However, I am kind of curious: at what point - if any - do you put the camera down and offer assistance in helping to locate any people who may have been trapped? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this, especially if you've been in any similar situation.
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/02/cowboys.practice.field.collapse/index.html... |
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Jared Wickerham, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Pittsburgh | PA | U.S.A. | Posted: 9:12 PM on 05.02.09 |
->> Well like one of the Cowboy's workers said, "Enough with the story, now get out of there."
But I think that all depends on the kind of person you are. I would shoot it falling and a few seconds of the aftermath but I would've stopped recording immediately after to check underneath the tent for people. |
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Matt Slocum, Photographer
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Dallas | TX | United States | Posted: 10:35 PM on 05.02.09 |
| ->> Maybe if we ask nicely, Ron Jenkins from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram will tell us about it. |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 1:05 AM on 05.03.09 |
->> Story Highlights
NEW: Witness: Team photographers were up in framework of structure, rode it down
Dallas Cowboys' practice facility collapses during thunderstorm, injuring 12
None of the injuries appears to be life-threatening, says county EMS chief
About 70 people were inside the facility when it fell, fire official says |
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Steven Bisig, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 2:06 AM on 05.03.09 |
| ->> wow! glad everyone will be ok. |
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David Harpe, Photographer
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Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 6:21 AM on 05.03.09 |
->> I would have put the camera down and left it rolling with a wide shot, then went and tried to help people. I can understand rolling while you're running to safety, but once they were under that stairway I can't believe they didn't stop and try to help.
The shot of the player pointing to someone trapped underneath while TWO shooters not only film it, but balance themselves to get a good shot...I dunno. If I was looking at that tape later and I saw myself as one of those two shooters, I wouldn't be proud of what I did. Even if there wasn't a thing I could have done, the show of support would have been important to me. |
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Kevin Leas, Photographer, Assistant
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 8:17 AM on 05.03.09 |
->> David,
Were you watching this with the sound on? I ask because I wasn't the first time I saw it, and the scene you're describing (I think) really caught my eye. I went back to it, and it turned out the player was actually asking the photographer if there was a light on the camera, and if he could aim it into the debris to help him spot people. Just thought that was interesting. |
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G.J. McCarthy, Photographer
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 10:32 AM on 05.03.09 |
| ->> I've always thought that unless I can make a dramatic difference at a situation like this, I mean if I don't help something bad might happen I do my job, which is to document the scene. In this video it seems to me there wasn't anything the video guys could have done to help and they weren't getting in the way. I've helped carry stretchers and drug fire hoses before but for the most part, now when I'm at a spot news event there are way more rescue/fire/police than in days past and my help isn't needed (or wanted for that matter). I have pulled up to accidents before before fire/rescue arrives and the thought to start shooting without actually checking on the situation has never occurred to me. |
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David Harpe, Photographer
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Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 2:22 PM on 05.04.09 |
->> I've watched the tape multiple times now and I have to take back what I said on this.
It's really hard to know how one would react in a situation like that if it was you. The tape can't convey everything that was going on around the shooters involved...the noise the microphones didn't catch, other people around, what they were doing...and it all happened very very fast. Everyone is in freak-out mode, and you can't really know all that was going on around the people you see.
A really tragic situation. We have a football practice facility with a similar type of construction at our local university, and we get fairly intense storms around here on a regular basis. It must have been really horrible to be there. |
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Matthew Sauk, Photographer
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Sandy | UT | United States | Posted: 5:19 PM on 05.04.09 |
->> David,
That is very scary. There are numerous facilities like that one around the country.
I hope that OSHA finds out what went wrong and can make suggestions for other bubbles. |
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G.J. McCarthy, Photographer
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Dallas | TX | Lower 48 | Posted: 5:44 PM on 05.04.09 |
->> "It's really hard to know how one would react in a situation like that if it was you."
David, thank you. To be perfectly honest, I was a little annoyed at your previous comments. Those "TWO shooters" -- most media out there, actually -- are people I work with regularly. They're good men and good journalists. I certainly didn't appreciate the insinuation that, because they were doing their jobs, they were somehow, I don't know, bad people or whatever. Those are my words of course, not yours; but still, you get the idea.
There were tons of people out there -- coaches, athletic trainers, emergency personnel, etc. -- folks a LOT more qualified to assist in a situation like that. And again, knowing almost all of the media folks out there -- still, video and scribblers -- I can tell you that, if they really thought they could help or needed to help, they would have.
Anyway, enough from me about this.
- gerry - |
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Stew Milne, Photographer
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Providence | RI | USA | Posted: 7:50 PM on 05.04.09 |
| ->> Sad news to report: A Dallas Cowboys scouting assistant, Rich Behm, was permanently paralyzed from the waist down after his spine was severed during the collapse of the team's tent-like practice structure in a severe storm. |
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Ron Jenkins, Photographer
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Fort Worth | Tx | USA | Posted: 12:25 PM on 05.05.09 |
->> First off, I'm extremely lucky to be here, writing this note.
What started off as routine Cowboys practice session turned into a terrifying event, and it all happened in seconds.
It had been raining hard for a few minutes and the light fixtures high above the practice field began swaying violently. I was talking with Dallas Cowboys public relations assistant Scott Agulnek at the time and as we both stared up at the roof I asked him if he'd ever seen that before, as he responded, I saw the entire west wall shutter. In another instant, the west wall and roof were coming down on top of everyone inside. There was yelling, running and panic.
It was surreal. I was dodging falling steel and god knows what else on my way out. While I was running for where the door used to be, I had the thought that I was just going to run outside into a tornado. It wasn't a good thought.
When I made it out, I along the others around me (players, staff, coaches and media) started frantically looking under the fallen walls and yelling for anyone that might be trapped under them. Some of the staff had tape-cutting scissors and some had knives they used to cut through the plastic walls on the ground. I had a cell phone and I used it to call 911 (twice) just to make sure help was on the way.
I was very impressed with the way the players and staff worked to find and free their friends from the wreckage.
I saw people at their very best.
I missed a few photos while I helped search and I missed some photos when I called 911. My thoughts and prayers are with those who didn't walk out.
I did my best that day.
rj |
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