The Present Dave

So Dave, What do you do for a living? The answer is tricky. Its not that I don't have a job, I do. The explanation is difficult. According to my company I am an ENG Photographer. This title was changed from cameraman, which was doomed because it had the world man in it making it sexist and evil. Yeah, but in my case it still applies. I am a man and I use a camera. Most of the time I still say news cameraman. The next question is usually, "Oh, for the Post?" I tell them I work in television; to which they ask "Oh, inside the studio?" Nope, outside. Most of the time I say that I am a television news cameraman and I work in the field, which is still easier then saying Electronic News Gathering (ENG) Photographer, which makes me sound like a robot.

At some point in my lifetime there was a meeting that I was NOT invited to and everyone decided "Hey let's change the names of all the jobs in the world". So stewardesses became flight attendants and garbage men became sanitation workers. Even waitresses have gotten in on it, they now they want to be called "servers". You went from waiting to serving, passive to active. Who cares? If you hate your job so much, instead of changing titles, why not change jobs?

Anyway, so I am a field cameraman and that field happens to be New York City. Gotham, the Big Apple, the New Rome as John Lennon once described it, NYC is the biggest city in America, the center of the business and finance world, a leader in fashion, and one hell of a sports town. Every day(the days I am working) I load up my truck and drive under, around, and through the biggest media market in America.

Which by the way the NYC media loves loves loves to tell that to outsiders. The second you get called up from Philly or Miami, or wherever to work here, you will get bombarded with the fact that you are now working in the biggest and most important news market in the world. It's a badged of honor here, its a silver star that you actually take out of the velvet lined case and wear, it's the Oscar that you walk around with months after the ceremony has ended. This city knows what it is and it demands respect.

So I work in New York. Everyday I meet between 5-50 strangers and talk to them about whatever part of their life is interesting enough to go on television. Did they kill some one in a DWI? Did their son? What is going to happen with the housing market? (by the way, we're fucked) Are gas prices coming down? (No.) What caused the fire? Are they going to raise the awful starting salary for police officers? Everyday we drive out and try to find the people who can answer these questions. That is what I do, for now.