Looking thorough his camera lens

By: JOHN HUNNEMAN - Staff Writer | Saturday, July 7, 2007 11:00 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA ---- His work often takes him to the four corners of the Inland Empire and beyond.

For nearly two decades, Temecula resident Tim Danson has brought news from all over the region into people's living rooms.

However, a recent Saturday event found the veteran KABC Channel 7 cameraman close to home.

"This has got the stamp of the Inland Empire all over it," said Danson as he peered through his lens at the stagecoach and costumed characters that helped mark Temecula's celebration of the mail service to the region 150 years ago.

"It's got history, it's got the Old West," Danson said enthusiastically. "I know it seems like we're always doing hard news stories, but we do some real positive stories like this, too."

Since 1990, Danson has seen both the best and worst the region has to offer.

On this day, he brought the large Channel 7 television news van to the historical Vail Ranch headquarters, now tucked away in a shopping center on Highway 79 South, to tape the historic celebration for the midday newscast.

For this story, there was no reason to drive into the rugged San Bernardino Mountains or across the sizzling desert in Joshua Tree National Park as he so often does.

In fact, Tim and his wife of 41 years, Linda, who accompanied him along with one of their grandchildren, could have walked to the event from their Redhawk home.

Well, maybe not.

"The camera weighs 28 pounds. With the tripod it weighs 55 pounds and I'm 60," he laughed.

A broadcast veteran

Danson began his career at KABC in 1965 while still a "Highlander" at La Habra High School. Helped along by an uncle who had won an Oscar as a film editor on the epic movie "Ben Hur," Danson's first job at the station was that of apprentice film editor.

"I was hired (for) 13 weeks and they said I'd be let go at the end of that time," he laughed. "I've been here ever since."

Danson spent a dozen years in an office cubicle first learning his craft and then progressing to film editor and eventually doing work for the entire ABC network.

But the world of television was changing. The days of splicing film were fading, replaced with the new technology of videotape. Though it had been in use in television since the mid-1950s, it was in the late 1970s, with the introduction of portable video cameras, that videotape found its place in television news.

Then, KABC executive producer Dennis Swanson ---- who can claim the creation of the Oprah Winfrey Show among the many accomplishments on his stellar resume ---- told Danson the future of television news was videotape and minivans that could travel into the field to gather news.

"Swanson told me, 'We need someone who can edit videotape,'" Danson said. "He said, 'Go out and learn how it works in the field.'"

So, Danson did.

"I knew nothing," he said. "But I learned how to set up the van and do everything else."

Danson enjoyed the experience and the chance to get out of the office.

"Once I had been outside it was really tough to go back to the cubicle," he said. "I asked Dennis if he could make that happen and he said, 'It's done.'"

It was also about that time Danson first "got a camera on my shoulder," he said.

It wasn't by choice.

"Actually it was forced on me," he said.

Heading out to an assignment one day, Danson was told he'd be the one taking the pictures.

"I told them I didn't even know how to turn the camera on," he said. "I was really thrown from the frying pan into the fire."

Danson has had a camera on his shoulder ever since.

In 1978, he was assigned to the newly opened KABC bureau in Orange County where he worked until 1990.

Transferring to the Inland Empire bureau in Riverside in 1990 gave the cameraman a chance to work with veteran broadcaster Bob Banfield, who has more than 50 years in the business and has covered the Inland Empire for the television station since 1981.

"Bob and I first worked together in 1967," Danson said. "We've got some real history together."

That includes a restaurant review show called "Friday Feast" that Banfield did for the station in the early days.

"I'd go out on a Tuesday and Wednesday get some film and a sound bite and bring it all back and hand it to Tim," Banfield laughed. "Then, he'd put it all together for me."

Coming to Temecula

In December 1991, the Danson family moved from Walnut to one of the first housing developments in the Redhawk community of Temecula.

"We were looking for homes everywhere," he said. "But we kept coming back to Temecula. Finally, my wife found her dream home and we made the move."

It wasn't love at first sight.

"That first summer, the heat was just horrible," he said. "It felt like we'd made a horrible mistake."

However, a neighbor assured him a cooling breeze in Temecula arrived just about every afternoon.

"After that we were fine," he said. "We really love it here."

The couple have two children ---- a son, Rodney, now a cameraman for KNBC Channel 4 with an office just down the street from Channel 7's in Riverside, and a daughter, Michelle, who lives in Menifee.

Tim and Linda have four grandchildren who are an obvious source of joy.

The license plate frame on the back of Danson's KABC news van reads, "Happiness is being a grandparent."

The unusual is usual

A typical day for Danson, if there is one, begins about 8:30 a.m. at the station's Inland Empire bureau housed in a nondescript industrial park located on busy Chicago Avenue.

Banfield, Danson and Bobby Holt, the bureau's other cameraman, share the space ---- each has a small office ---- and there is room in the rear of the building for two news vans and other equipment.

The team often begins the day with a look at area newspapers for story ideas and also with an early morning call or e-mail from the main office.

"We work with the assignment desk and with the executive producer," Danson said. "But our best tips often come from someone calling in."

On this morning, there's a message that Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will be speaking later that day in Corona.

Plans are made to videotape the candidate for that evening's broadcast. It's a straightforward story and one Danson will likely do over and over again as California's February primary nears and candidates stump across the state in a battle for attention and air time.

Early in the day, the Romney story is the only one planned, but that can and often does change.

"Channel 7 has made its reputation covering breaking news," Danson said. "And I think we do it better than anyone."

At any moment, a natural disaster or manmade calamity might call Danson and the news team to anywhere in the Inland Empire.

And while competition for ratings in television news is typically fierce, in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the battles between stations are generally waged on a friendly basis.

"Here in the Inland Empire, we help each other out," said Danson. "But that's only to a point. At some point, we say you're on your own."

Through his lens

With more than four decades in the business, there isn't much that Danson hasn't seen or photographed.

History: "I was at LAX when Nixon came home after resigning the presidency and was at Ronald Reagan's inauguration in 1980 in Washington, D.C.," he said.

More recently, in 2003, Danson was on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

Fires: Danson witnessed the devastation of The Willow Fire in 1999, which scorched more than 63,000 acres between Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear, and 2003's Old Fire, which charred more than 93,000 mountainous acres, destroyed more than 900 structures and led to six deaths.

Floods: Danson was on the scene in Temecula in January 1993 filming the devastation of Old Town after Murrieta Creek overflowed its banks sending a wall of mud and water 3 feet high through the historical district.

More often, however, he photographs the everyday stories, some joyful, some tragic, that mark people's lives.

"The hardest thing to do is to knock on the door of someone who has just had a tragedy," he said. "Some people don't want you there, but others say thank you for coming."

Often, those stories leave an emotional mark on both sides of the lens.

"I always do my job first. I'm always very professional," he said. "But that doesn't mean I don't take home the residual impact of what has happened that day."

And it doesn't get easier with time or experience.

"I suppose I should be more calloused as I get older, but I find myself becoming more sentimental," he said. "Sometimes I look through my lens and it all seems blurred and I think something's wrong with the camera. Then I realize it's because of the tears in my eyes."

Mutual respect

Longevity and experience are what makes Channel 7's Inland Empire bureau successful, Banfield said.

"We've been doing this a long time together," he said. "That has enabled us to build up a rapport with people in the community. Because of that, we're more likely to get our phone calls returned."

Banfield credits both Danson and Holt with making his job easier even as the region has grown and the demand for increasing news coverage along with it.

"Maybe that's why I've been here so long," he said. "Both of them are more than cameramen, they are true photojournalists. Many times, they'll go out and get stories on their own."

The respect is mutual.

"Bob really pays attention to what's going on in the region," Danson said. "And he's one of the truly nice gentlemen in this business."

For his part, Banfield describes Danson as a self-motivated, self-driven co-worker who after more than 40 years with the company maintains his enthusiasm for telling stories and bringing people the news.

"I tell people often that if I was to start a company I'd want about a dozen Tims," he said.

Contact staff writer John Hunneman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2603 or jhunneman@californian.com.