My job is better than yours….most days.

I spent most of the last month stuck in the office on the assignment desk.   While I do value working on the assignment desk, getting back out on the street and shooting pictures makes me realize I can never have a 9-5 desk job.

Friday is the perfect example of that.  Lynden Steele, our real full-time assignment editor, was back in the hot seat.  He gave me an assignment to photograph a group of local kids in space camp using scuba equipment to simulate the harsh environment of space.  I was able to borrow a tank, flippers and mask and join in with the kids.  Oh yeah and I got paid to do this.  It’s assignments like this that make some of the other less desirable parts of the job worth it.  Its kinda hard to say who had more fun, the kids or me.

Check out this video of the kids in the water.  I shot this with Canon S-70 point and shoot camera and an underwater housing.  Its not the greatest video quality but it works pretty well for the web.

Thursday July 30, 2009–Kids in the Challenger Learning Center “Advanced Astronaut Training Camp” move pieces of a structure through hoops representing a space craft during an underwater excerise in the pool at McCluer South-Berkeley High School on Thursday.  The water helped simulate the hostile enviroment of space where the kids were attempting to build an emergency life support station to save astronaunts stranded on the moon.  The Challanger Learning Center hosts several different space camps for children ages 8-13.  The center is a partnership of the Ferguson-Florissant School Distirct, the St. Louis Science Center and the Cooperating School Districts and is part of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education.