The Times, They Are A Changin'...

Well, for those of you that don't already know, things are changing quite abruptly for myself and the ZiF blog this weekend. Around the middle of August I was approached by one of my regular clients, The Heartland Poker Tour, and asked if I would be interested in working for them year-round instead of just two or three events a year. After a phone call to my wife where I begged like a 5 year old in the toy section of Walmart, I gladly accepted their offer. Why was I so excited? Well, allow me to explain what getting this position means to me.

I'll be good, I promise. -Yahoo search

Way back in the dark ages when I was still in college, I started seeing ads on TV saying that the HPT would be making a stop at one of the local casinos. I also found out that the local TV station I was working part time at was one of the HPT affiliates. For you non TV peeps, that means that the station aired episodes of their show. Anyway, being a dumb college kid who wanted some real world experience in TV Sports production, I started hatching this grand scheme.
Step 1: Work this one event for the HPT.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Camera op NFL games for the rest of my life (... and profit!).
Fail-proof, I know. The sad part is that it almost came true, but that's another story.

For those that don't get the reference...-Yahoo search

So, when I saw that they had no openings for jobs and no requests for local help, I did what most rational people would do... I emailed one of the co-owners of the HPT and asked to work for them anyway. To my great astonishment they actually gave me a shot. It also turned out that I liked working for them, so much so that I decided maybe working for them full time wouldn't be too bad. Over the years I tried to work hard and be useful and I kept getting asked to do more and more whether it was setting up equipment I didn't normally help with or picking up an extra event with them in other cities. To me, getting asked to become a regular member on the crew is the culmination of years of effort on my part and I consider it a huge accomplishment. I'm sure I'll have new, bigger goals in a year or so, but reaching this one feels pretty good at the moment.

Now, you might be thinking, "what does this mean for your other work (photography and other video productions)" and the truth is I can't completely answer that at the moment. I do know that portrait photography is definitely off the table. The scheduling and turn-around times that I try to keep just wouldn't work some months when I am traveling a lot. As for the blog, I would like to find a way to re-purpose it and keep it going, but I can't guarantee anything. It's not exactly a hotbed of activity anyway. I say let the chips fall where they may.

Thanks for reading!

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