Knowing what all the knobs do will get you started in this business, but if you’re really going to last behind the lens, you must know how to GET BENT! Just ask Jimmy Hall, the self-described ‘camera mang’ we first met chillin’ outside the John Edwards trial. Better yet, leave the man alone ’til he’s done up there. Whatever bucket list he’s working on, it looks like he’s about to check off another box. Why, it’s enough to make his Momma nervous, leaning back like that. Not me, though. If I know Jimmy, he’s got two green sneakers wrapped around his speaker’s spleen. My only concern is how I might have to catch that fancy-cam in the unlikely case he drop it. Then again, if said rig suddenly loses altitude, dude’s comin’ with it – Wile E. Coyote style. I can only hope to break his fall with a nice soft anvil I ordered from ACME. But enough of my thought bubbles, let’s get to our feature!

You now, a smart guy like Jimmy could find a much easier way to make a living. But legal tender isn’t ALL this admitted cinephile is  after. It’s the lifestyle. Yes, it’s tough making the S-word (style) stick when you’re aiming it at a  news shooter, but put all thoughts of my cargo jorts aside for a minute and consider where even an entry-level lenslinger might find his (or her) self: Holed up in a cabin with some mountain drifter turned reality show darling, high-stepping backwards with both eyes crossed as the man America loves to hate tries to step on your shoes, living in a van down by the river as police in scuba suits scrape the bottom for hints of where the limo went … and that’s all before lunch! Yup, it’s not my tax bracket that lulls me to sleep at night. It’s the quiet knowledge that the best views don’t always make the news. Instead they roll around in my head for damn near decades.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get some sleep. My chiropractor’s kids needs braces and I told him I’d hook him up by riding along with a bunch of bike cops as they crack a stolen moped ring.

THAT should be worth a couple of visits.