Wow, almost a year since I last posted anything on here. So much has happened since I graduated from Western. Since I'm not writing a biography and I'm probably the only one who will ever read this, I won't spend forever updating on what has happened since graduation day. Instead I'll just start with today, and go on from there.

My life as a news photographer is unpredictable. But there is one thing for certain: during every day of work there is at least one moment (if not many) when you are either extremely stressed, extremely rushed or extremely pissed. There is also always at least one moment when you can break for a laugh, see the humor in a situation, etc. My job is a rollercoaster of fun and shitiness. Sometimes one outweighing the other. Today fun outweighed the shitiness.

Coming in early to work, me and my reporter Karetha hopped in a live truck and headed over to stake out a house in Davenport. Why were we staking out this white 2 story house? Because it was where James Klindt was expected to return. Who the hell is James Klindt? Well, he just happens to be the most notorious murderer in Quad City history. He was convicted in 1984 of killing his wife, chopping up her body with a chain saw, and dumping her body parts in the Mississippi River. Lovely.

After serving 20 years, he was being released from prison and was expected to return to his parents home, in which we were parked in front of. Nervous, with camera in hand, I was ready to jump out of the truck the moment the car pulled up in the driveway. After staking out for about 45 minutes, (and blowing the cover of the Quad City Times photographer parked in front of us in an inconspicuous vehicle) we realized that maybe it wasn't a good idea to be sitting in an oversized van that has "Stormtracker 8000" written across all four sides and a satelite dish poking out the top.

Realizing that we could never get jobs as undercover detectives, we drove the live truck two blocks away, jumped in Karetha's unmarked Honda Civic and returned to the house, hoping now not to be so damn obvious. Within 10 minutes of our return, we watched as both Channel 6 and Channel 4 pulled up in their MARKED vehicles. It was nice to see that we weren't the only stupid TV people.

There was now no hiding the fact that we were all there, so we all gathered across the street. Joining me and Karetha, from Channel 6, was Mike, the smart-assed photog, and Ed Tribble, the extremely unexperienced reporter, fresh out of college. From Channel 4 was Simone, the cute Australian girl who has the unfortunate job of one-man-banding it.

In a stake out turned tailgate party, Mike busted out lawn chairs and doughnuts. I should have brought my grill. We hammed it up for hours, discussing everything from cheesy pick-up lines, to crop circles.

It was around 4pm when I spotted an old woman exiting the front door. Everyone rushed to their cameras. The old woman was followed by James Klindt. At last, this was the video we were waiting for. Klindt continued to walk across his lawn towards our cameras in a suprisingly peaceful manner and told us he would give us three minutes to ask him questions. Seemed like a normal peaceful guy, not a crazy psycho killer.

After Klindt left, so did our mob of news media. It was nice that our 4 hours waiting paid off. We did a package for 6 and 10. The 10 package was much better. It was amazing, I actually got several compliments on it from people at the station. The only shitty part of the day was the 10:00 live shot.

It was shitty for 3 reasons.
1. It was raining out
2. Someone from down the street threw a half full beer can at me. (Luckily they were WAY off and it landed 25 feet from where I was standing)
3. The fact that I had to shine a huge spotlight directly at the Klindt house where his elderly parents were probably trying to sleep.

However, after it was all said and done, and after dealing with the stupid kids that decided to stand in the back of our shot and wave and yell like morons, the day had finally come to an end.

All and all, a very satisfying day.