Lights, Action, Camera

The sub-title for this blog entry might well be "When I realized a tripod would make a great Christmas gift request", as evidenced by the somewhat herky-jerky camera work. Now, I've never been known as a great camera operator, and when I was in the Air Force I suffered with industrial grade cameras with lenses that "racked". I found a picture of a very thin me, back in 1969, behind the camera. Having been told I had a face for radio, I logically needed to have a technical job. That's me in the background, talking (as usual)and the good looking guy is Serge Claus Peter Neumann (Pete) who is still working in broadcasting and too busy to read this blog. One of those lenses actually was a zoom, but my current Sony HK1 can run circles around these "lowest bidder" Defense Department cameras. They were made by an outfit called DAGE. Supposedly they sold a lot of cameras to industrial users, but I'm convinced the letters stood for Dumb Ass Government Equipment. Oh well, it beat loading bombs under F-4's at Danang.

Anyway, I was culling through far too many pictures on my computer and trying to organize several, which discarding even more. I found this island band from some cruise pictures and I think the island was Coco Cay (the private island of Royal Caribbean lines). Every cruise line has their own "private island", and RCCL has several - this one in the Bahamas chain, the other Labadie, in Haiti. Private islands are a source of "foreign aid" to these island nation governments (or whatever passes for a government in Haiti). My one trip to Labadie took place during a driving rain storm, but I had promised a dear friend I'd purchase a t-shirt for him there, and I did. I think I also captured another native band playing steel drum music. I believe steel drum band musician is the fourth or fifth most popular job title in the islands, behind native crafts maker/seller, marijuana vendor, jewelry store salesperson, and government employee/poorly trained person with a gun.



Anyway, this file is like 69 megabytes, and about two and a half minutes long. After you tire of watching me try to hold the camera still,just listen to the sound and let it take you back to the islands. Next time I post a video, perhaps I'll be using that tripod I got from Santa Claus. Speaking of Jolly Old St. Nick, I heard recently that the elves were going out on strike - tired of being subordinate clauses.