I spent three days this week covering the 2012 Office of Naval Research Science and Technology Partnership Conference at the Hyatt hotel in Crystal City. I've covered this bi-annual event many times before and know that it will require me to be in many places throughout the day, moving from the plenary session to the exhibit hall and then to the multiple breakout rooms. Additionally, since I provide images for our social media use, I know I will be downloading, captioning and transmitting twice, sometimes three times a day. All this means I'm pretty focused on getting each shot while already thinking about where I need to be next and when I'll get the chance to download. What's the point of this post, and the title, Caught on Tape? Well this year, as we've done in the past, we had a dedicated video team consisting of a photographer and producer covering the conference. As part of that coverage, they produce a daily highlight video which is shown at the start of the each day.
So I'm in the back of the room at the start of the second day watching the highlight video from the first day and lo and behold I see myself on the giant screens in the front of the room. Not once, or even twice, but a total of five times. Now this is only a five-minute video mind you.
Well, I thought it might be fun to edit that five minutes down to a 30-second clip showing my first two appearances and insert the still images that I captured while simultaneously being captured myself. I'm normally very aware of cameras around me and try to stay clear in order to avoid having this happen. Not so much this time.
Is this a fail? Probably not, since I'm sure I'm the only one who noticed myself. Okay, it would be hard to miss me as I move in behind the vice chief of naval operations.