Yes, the flooding is back…

I could have written this blog last summer and much of it would have been the seem - overflowing Severn, washed-out homes and sodden fields.

Yes, the floods are back with avengence in Shropshire after days of heavy rain across the country.

So how does that affect us video journalists?

If nothing else, floods teach us to look after our equipment - or face the consequences.

Our first video on the floods gave me the chance to venture out into damp field without any special trousers - or a rain covers.

The result?

A new pair of slacks and a huge panick over my camera.

Yes, I got the camera wet - and when I filmed an ice-hockey match the next day, all was steamed up.

The lens literally steamed up inside itself, so I couldn’t even wipe it clean.

Thankfully, the gloom lifted, but the whole incident taught me an important lesson.

A still cameraman gave me a good piece of advice when I explianed my problem - if you get your equipment damp, always leave it out to dry and never just shove it back into the bag.

My shoving days are over.

But the floods also gave me the chance to experiment in a whole different range of ways.

My recent story about overflowing flood barriers was slightly spoiled by a lack of interview from the environment agency - but the sights were more than enough to compensate.

The thing about water is that it reflects, obviously, and when a town is flood amid bright winter sunshine, you get some lovely shots.

I tried the theory by placing the camera on the floor during my closing shot for that video and got a lovely result.

No fade, no zoom - just a very pretty way to end a film.

This week has also seen the launch of our Battle of the Bands competition.

This contest begain, rather modestly, as a way of increasing traffic on our website - but has become a huge event.

Rather than just involving the website, I am working together with the newspaper and radio stations to do something truly multi-media.

This isn’t using the word just for the sake of it - each ‘element’ has a vital role in running the competition, whch has some great prizes.

The newspaper will carry regular updates on the prizes and entries, the radio station will play entries and the website will offer a voting facility.

There is, of course, still a video element - our website will be carrying the top tenm videos during the closing stages.

Wish me luck!

And just to let you all know, our Shrewsbury Town videos continue to develop really well.

It is, at the moment, a little bit of a learning process - we will not, for example, be doing this at away games for the time being.

I did try this at a recent Town game in Hereford and, oddly enough, did rather well.

But the nagging doubt remains that collecting post-match interviews from fans is, by its nature, something to be done after the final whistle.

And there is always the risk that having travelled hundreds of miles for a Tuesday evening away match, there will be nobody willing to talk on camera.

For the moment, we do not have the manpower to take this risk. It is something I would love to do, but will be certainly looking at in the future.

By James Shaw