I had the great pleasure this week of working with one of 11Alive’s brilliant photojournalists, Dan Reilly.
There are several reasons I enjoy working with a photojournalist from time to time. One, it’s great to have a fantastic shooter to make a story come alive. And two, it’s great to have somebody to talk to while you’re driving around town.
Dan has been around the 11Alive newsroom for quite some time. He’s a great guy and always willing to share a story or two about the characters of years past.
This week, we were discussing one of the icons of 11Alive, photographer Bruce Mason.
Bruce is known in media circles as one of first people to tie a rope around his waist and hang out of the side of a helicopter to capture aerial news footage. This was a time before robotic cameras were mounted on the bottom of the chopper and gyroscopically stabilized.
This week, Dan told me the story of how Bruce was quite a celebrity in Japan in the mid-90s.
As one of the few people in the world crazy enough to hang out of the side of helicopter flying hundreds of feet above Atlanta, in 1995 Bruce was featured as the answer to a trivia question on a Japanese television game show, “Show By Shobai”.
Bruce was kind enough to share video of the game show with me. I have no idea what is going on here. But it is quite entertaining.
Intwaducing Ruce Mason…He famous camera man an’ we did not know. Can you pease sen autograph.
Tank ayou beddy much.