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Syrian Activists Trek Through Seven European Countries; U.S. President Unveils New Clean Energy Plan; FAA Warns of Dangers With Drones Flying Too Close to Airports; Massive Flooding in Eastern India. Aired 8:00a-9:00a ET
Aired August 04, 2015 - 8:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:26] ANNA COREN, HOST: Hello. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. Welcome to News Stream.
We follow the arduous journey migrants make across Europe as more tribes who break into the Channel Tunnel to cross into the UK.
Severe flooding in parts of India claims the lives of nearly 200 people.
And more close calls with drones at airports is causing U.S. authorities to warn that they could be used for terrorism.
We begin this hour in northern France where Calais has cracked on on the flow of illegal traffic through the EuroTunnel.
Already this year, tens of thousands have tried to make it under the English Channel from France to England.
Well, several hundred meters of new fencing is now being installed to secure the site.
Well, French and British leaders say they have committed millions of dollars to beef up security, but the deputy mayor of Calais says these new
measures will simply take more of a toll on his home city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILIPE MIGNOEL, CALAIS DEPUTY MAYOR (through translator): Today, there is the impression that this city is nearly annexed by the UK, like
they want to build some sort of fortification here, so that we must force the migrants to stay, that the city of Calais is primarily here as a type
of camp. We refuse it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Well, this year alone, EuroTunnel says some 37,000 migrants have attempted to breach the Channel. And this is just one front in
Europe's migrant crisis.
Take the case of Lampedusa. What used to be a tiny paradise at the southernmost tip of Italy, but its close proximity to Libya has now made it
the gateway to daily landings of people leaving the Middle East and Africa for Europe.
Well, Italian coast guard boats jammed with rescued migrants are now a regular fixture along the country's coastline.
The international organization for migration says more than 2,000 have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean. 1 percent of the 200,000
who have made it this year.
But for many of these migrants, the dangerous journey is well worth the risk. In part one of this exclusive report, CNN's Arwa Damon tells the
story of one man's escape route from Syria to Germany.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
YILMAZ PASHA, SYRIA IMMIGRANT: They see you as a Euro, not a human.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 23- year-old Yilmaz Pasha, a Syrian media activist, is wanted by the Syrian
regime and ISIS. Like tens of thousands of others, his journey began on a beach in Turkey.
PASHA: When you cross at sea, you know, somebody, they didn't even wear the life jackets and they didn't know -- they don't know how to swim.
DAMON: The transit from here cost $900 per person. The smugglers gave them a boat, pointed to a Greek island and asked, who wants to be the
captain.
PASHA: My friend was the captain.
DAMON (on camera): Had he driven a boat before?
PASHA: No. The smugglers said it's so easy.
DAMON: Were you scared in the boat? PASHA: The boat start, I don't know, left and goes right. So it was so scary.
DAMON (voice-over): And the relief of being back on land evident on everyone's faces.
PASHA: Local people met us there. They are lovely people. They give to us food, a sandwich, and water, and they say to us, you are saved now.
DAMON: First, they need to register with the Greek authorities. There is a large crowd waiting. Once that is accomplished, he receives this,
permission to travel in specific areas in Greece for six months.
We meet up with Yilmaz in Athens where he is planning the trek across Europe on his own to save smuggling fees. Social media will be his guide.
PASHA: There are Facebook groups for the whole journey. And it's like marketing. Numbers of smugglers, maps.
[08:05:10] DAMON: Germany is his goal.
(on camera): What are you taking with you?
PASHA: A bag, some clothes, maybe two t-shirts, one pants and one short. You need to buy boots because you will walk -- you will need to walk
across...
DAMON: So out of everything you could take?
PASHA: It's a gift from my girlfriend.
DAMON (voice-over): As for mementos, this scarf, and something he won't ever lose.
PASHA: I have shrapnel here. When I touch it, it reminds me of Syria.
DAMON: Arwa Damon, CNN, Athens.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, later this hour, we'll have part two of Arwa's exclusive report of Yilmaz Pasha pushes on to Germany. We'll find out the details of
his seven country trek across Europe and his run-in with police in both Serbia and Hungary.
Well, just months after a deadly heat wave took its toll on India. Parts of the country are now experiencing severe floods. At least 178
people have been killed in recent days, and hundreds of thousands have been forced to leave their homes.
Well, authorities in the state of West Bengal, which is one of the worst hit areas, say they are struggling to control the situation.
Well, deadly floods are a common occurrence in India during the monsoon season. And the situation looks equally grim this year.
Well, CNN's India bureau chief Ravi Agrawal joins us now from New Delhi. And Ravi, as we know, it is monsoon season, so this is typical for
this time of the year for prats of India, but why is this particularly bad?
RAVI AGRAWAL, CNN INDIA BUREAU CHIEF: It is typical, Anna, but every year the monsoon strike India around about between the months of July to
September. The amount of rainfall we've seen so far this year is pretty much on track with most years.
What is unusual this time is that the rainfall that is lashing the eastern side of India, the states of West Bangal and Arisa (ph), which are
the worst-hit states, a lot of that is being driven by a cyclone, Cyclone Koman (ph) that hit the region over the weekend. And that has exacerbated
the situation.
The rains have been so heavy in parts that a number of the dams, especially in the state of West Bengal, have broken leading to a lot of
excess flooding in those areas. But I should point out, Anna, that deaths due to flooding and rains in India are not unusual. On average, every year
again about 1,600 people die in India from flooding and rainfall, so this particular -- the debts we're seeing now, while they are devastating, they
usually do happen year to year in India.
COREN: And Ravi, tell us the rescue teams reaching those hard hit areas that have been devastated by these flood waters?
AGRAWAL: Yes, they are, Anna. The Indian armies employ the NDRF, the National Disaster Relief Force is engaged as well. You might remember that
they were very active during Nepal's earthquake. This is a very experienced disaster relief team.
So India has been sending in aid. And it has been sending a lot of food, supplies, shelter. It's created a number of relief camps for the
tens of thousands of people -- in fact, it runs into millions the number of people who have been displaced and impacted by these floods. So help is on
the way.
But really, this is a longer-term issue, an infrastructural issue for India, that it does deal with every single year -- and it is going to leave
a lot of damage -- that India is going to have to try and fix in the days and weeks ahead.
COREN: Ravi, we know that the rains have been falling for weeks now, but are we expecting the situation to worsen?
AGRAWAL: Well, so the rains are spread across two parts of India. On the eastern side of India, the part that's been impacted by the cyclone we
do expect rains to continue for a bit longer. We expect the flood waters to continue to be a menace.
On the western side of India, the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, which collectively have also seen about 100 deaths in the last few days, we
do expect the rains to subside a little bit. Those are regular monsoon rains.
So across India, you know, the picture is one of, you know, despair really given the number of deaths.
The monsoons will continue for a number of weeks, though, so India is not out of the red just yet.
COREN: Ravi Agrawal, we certainly appreciate the update. Thank you very much.
Well, is there any relief for the region? Let's go to our meteorologist Chad Myers who is certainly tracking developments there.
Chad, what can you tell us?
[08:10:03] CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Anna, really the flooding that we see there not part of monsoon season whatsoever. As he was saying,
there was a low pressure, there was a cyclone that put all this rainfall down from Myanmar through Bangladesh and into eastern India.
There it is seven days ago. And it spun and it grabbed more moisture off the ocean -- off the Indian Ocean and then just pushed it into these
other areas. I'm going to continue to push it forward now as we're going to push it into India, because here is where the rain is finally moving.
What you like to see in any cyclone is that it moves, because when it stops and it rains for days, that's when the flooding happens and this is
where the flooding happened right in here.
Now that low has moved finally far enough off to the west there. We are now moving it away. And it is not going to affect this area any
longer.
Sure, there will still be monsoonal rains, but not from this low that created all of this problem flooding all over Bangladesh, Myanmar and
eastern India. It has moved away.
There's still a low. It is finally still moving off to the west.
There's another low here in Myanmar, although the rainfall is not as heavy in the places that it did flood.
The rainfall is farther off to the west into Cambodia, into Laos, in those areas farther, closer toward Vietnam here into Southeast Asia.
There is the heavy, heavy rainfall here across the central part of India. There could still be, in some spots, where the low is right now.
There could still be a half a meter, a half a meter of rainfall, before it finally does stop.
So, there is the low moving on by. There's where it was. Here's where the flooding was. It is no long there now. The low has moved on off
to the west -- Anna.
COREN: All right. Chad Myers, thank you for the update. Appreciate it.
In Myanmar, weeks of heavy downpours have flooded farmlands and cut off roads as we just heard from Chad.
Well, here you see people desperately reaching for aid supplies that are air dropped from helicopters. Dozens of people have died over the past
month. And the death toll is expected to rise as rescue crews access remote areas.
Well, coming up on News Stream, an abandoned newborn baby rescued from a toilet in China.
And we join a sea patrol on Reunion Island looking for aircraft debris from that missing Malaysian passenger jet.
Plus, seven countries in 32 days in search of a better future. We trace a migrant journey from Syria across Europe to Germany.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: Well, there's a coordinated international effort to determine if airplane debris found on Reunion Island last week is from Malaysia
Airlines flight 370.
American aviation experts, including officials from Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board, are meeting today in Toulouse,
France.
On Wednesday, a lab there will begin analyzing the wing part known as a flaperon to see if it is from the plane that went missing 17 months ago.
Well, back on Reunion Island, crews continue to scour the beaches looking for more airplane debris that could be linked to MH370.
Erin McLaughlin joins the search.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They look official and they want to help.
[08:15:01] (on camera): This crew of five is normally focused on sea rescues such as boats in distress or diving accidents. But since the
flaperon washed up on the shores of Reunion Island, they have been on the lookout for anything that resembles a plane.
(on camera): Like all the boats out looking, it's a small vessel with basic equipment. No high-technology here, just radios and word of mouth.
CECILE DUPRE, PRESIDENT, SAUVETAGE EN MERE: Everybody knows everybody. All the people are related to the sea. They know each other. The minute
that we see something we'll know it.
MCLAUGHLIN: These searchers are all volunteers, electricians, scientists, retirees. This is what they do for fun after work. They say it
is their passion and they want to help in the search for MH370 that has come to their shore.
(on camera): Just over that way is the beach where they found the flaperon. Do the people on this island feel a connection to MH370?
DUPRE: They do. Because everybody was so shocked by the way this plane disappeared without any explanation. It's a rare case.
MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): These patrols aren't scheduled. Just as they say the sea is on its own timetable.
(on camera): Today there is no signs of a plane, no signs of MH370. These volunteers say they will remain vigilant in the days and weeks
ahead.
Erin McLaughlin, CNN, Reunion Island.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, Pakistan has gone through with a controversial execution. 24-year-old Shafqat Hussain has been hanged inside a Karachi
prison.
Well, rights groups had asked Pakistani authorities for clemency. Hussain was 14 when he was convicted of killing a child. His defenders say
he was tortured into confessing.
Hussain could not afford legal council and rights groups say his state appointed lawyer did a poor job.
Well, U.S. President Barack Obama has unveiled a plan to fight climate change. And it's taking aim at coal burning power plants. As CNN's Jim
Acosta shows us, it's already facing an uphill battle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pointing to wildfires raging out of control, droughts crippling the West,
and the threat of thunderstorms, President Obama offered his remedy to the planet's weather worries.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we don't get it right, we may not be able to reverse. I believe there is such a thing as
being too late.
ACOSTA: The president's proposal dramatically curbed carbon emissions by nearly one third by the year 2030. The White House says the climate
change data is undeniable, noting 14 of the 15 warmest years have come this century.
OBAMA: I don't want people's lives disrupted and this world more dangerous because we didn't do something about it. That'd be shameful of
us.
ACOSTA: It's a legacy-defining issue President Obama has chased since he was a candidate.
OBAMA: This is the moment when the rise of the oceans begin to slow and our planet begins to heal.
ACOSTA: But Republicans charge the unilateral changes through the EPA will kill jobs and drive up energy costs.
REP. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: I'm not going to sit by while the White House takes aim at the lifeblood of our state's
economy.
JEB BUSH, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: For the first time, they've extended this to require states in a very coercive
way.
ACOSTA: Democrats sense a potent issue, labeling GOP Republicans as climate deniers.
SCOTT WALKER, (R), WISCONSIN GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you look at the last 15 to 20 years, I think most scientists, regardless what
they believe is the larger question, would say that there hasn't been a notable change in recent times.
ACOSTA: Last year, Donald Trump tweeted, "This very expensive global warming bull has got to stop." With that kind of opposition, the White
House is bracing for challenges that could last for years.
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I have no doubt that special interests and the politicians who are in their pockets will fight
tooth and nail against this specific rule.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, that was CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta with that report.
We turn now to a heartbreaking story coming out of Beijing. It's sadly reminiscent of the one that made headlines two years ago when a
little baby was pulled alive from a sewer pipe.
Well, CNN's Will Ripley joins us now from the Chinese capital. And Will, this is a very distressing story involving a newborn baby. Tell us
what do authorities believe happened?
[08:19:43] WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anna, this is an issue that you've covered extensively here in China as well. And in this case,
sadly, it's a familiar story.
On Sunday afternoon keep in mind in the summer heat, the scorching summer heat, a woman, neighbors saw leave a bathroom in a Beijing back ally
known as a hootong (ph). They saw her casually walk away. And then minutes later, they heard what sounded like babies cries coming from inside
the bathroom and so they called the police. And the police went inside this toilet. It's a public toilet shared by the people who live in the
neighborhood, thousands of people use this toilet. And in fact there was a baby lodged inside the toilet pipe apparently left by the mother who has
not been identified.
And so we actually spoke with a man who watched the rescue unfold and police initially were going to try to dismantle the toilet, but when they
realized the situation was dire and it was too -- that time was of the essence, they actually reached in and they pulled this little girl out by
her left leg. And she survived. She was OK. They put a blanket around her, she's in the hospital in stable condition and they still haven't found
the mother who left her there.
COREN: Yeah, really quite extraordinary.
We know, Will, that an estimated 10,000 children are abandoned in China every single year. Sadly, this little girl one of them.
It is a miracle that she is alive thanks to the fast thinking of the residents who obviously who heard her cries. You say that she's in
hospital, that she's in a stable condition. Do we know what's going to happen to her?
RIPLEY: We don't. But we know that a number of these children that are abandoned, thousands of them every year, end up in Chinese orphanages.
And police believe this little girl actually does not have a disability or a medical condition, unlike the vast majority of children who are dropped
off.
This has been a real issue for China, even though the number of abandoned babies has been declining over the last decade, the government
has established what are called baby hatches where people -- parents can come and try to drop off their children.
But some of these -- and I know, Anna, you reported about one last year, they have -- they are so inundated with children -- one baby hatch in
Jinan (ph) had I believe more than 100 children, 106 children over the span of 11 days dropped off. So they actually had to turn parents away who were
driving sometimes hundreds or even more miles to try to leave their children here.
So, it really is a problem for China the fact that a lot of people simply don't have health care. They can't afford some of the expensive
surgeries. And so if people have a child who maybe has a disability or has a medical condition, they sometimes feel it's their only hope.
COREN: but as you say, this newborn baby girl looks like she was perfect, which is just so tragic.
A tragic situation all around. Will Ripley joining us from Beijing, thank you for that update.
Well, U.S. aviation authorities are expressing deep concerns about a growing threat to commercial aircraft. Still ahead, details on the new
warning about recreational drones.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:25:28] COREN: Well, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning about drones to law enforcement agencies across the United
States.
Well, it says the unmanned aircraft could be used for terrorism as CNN's Pamela Brown reports, the notice was prompted by too many close
calls.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The warning about drones detailed in a Department of Homeland Security bulletin to police comes on
the heels of a series of close calls between unmanned aircraft and passenger planes. Overnight, the pilot of a Shuttle America flight reported
spotting a drone near the plane's wing just as it was landing at New York's JFK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight 5911, continue straight ahead on Bravo and monitor ground to the left.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bravo, that drone is on the edge of the runway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say again?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That done is on the edge of the runway.
BROWN: Sunday's incident was the third in three days over New York skies. Drones coming dangerously close to planes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, about a mile back there was a drone flying just under the southwest side of this abandoned airport here.
BROWN: On Friday the crew of Delta 407, with more than 150 on board, told air traffic control it spotted a drone as it was over an old air
field, where drones are not allowed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What altitude would you say that was?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say about 100 feet below me, just off the right wing.
BROWN: That same day a JetBlue flight landing at JFK was surprised by a drone passing just below its nose.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was one of those four-bladed drones. Color or direction, I'm not sure, man. It just popped right underneath our nose.
BROWN: Today New York Senator Chuck Schumer said he's had enough and wants the Federal Aviation Administration to require all drones to carry
software that keeps them out of the way of planes.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: You can build into the software of a drone at nominal cost a program that doesn't let them fly in certain
places. Within two miles of any airport. Over the Empire State Building or the Pentagon. It's cheap, it doesn't interfere with hobbyists who -- and
others who want drones or need drones. And it will help solve the problem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Pamela Brown with that report.
Well, one of the world's top makers of recreational drones has no-fly zones programmed into its planes. DJI drones are prevented from flying in
restricted areas such as airports in some politically sensitive areas like the White House. The technology is based on GPS signals. The company says
if a drone inadvertently enters a no-fly zone because of poor GPS reception, once a signal is resumed, the drone will be forced to land or
descend to a certain height.
Well, coming up, an exclusive look at one man's escape route from Syria. After the break, the details of his nearly month long journey.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:30:47] COREN: Welcome back. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. And you're watching News Stream. These are your world headlines.
Monsoon rains are flooding large parts of South Asia. At least 178 people have been killed across India. And in Myanmar, at least 47 are
dead. Aid workers are trying to reach remote areas where food and clean water are desperately needed.
A condemned building has collapsed in Mumbai killing at least 11 people and injuring seven. This is the second time in a week that a
building has collapsed in the same suburb of the city.
Greek bank stocks are down for a second straight day. Banks are still being hit hard. An index of the four major lenders fell 30 percent Tuesday
as it did on Monday. The Athens index is off more than 2 percent.
Well, earlier this hour we introduced you to a man on the run from war-torn Syria with a goal of making it to Germany. Our exclusive
continues as Arwa Damon speaks with Yilmaz Pasha about his trek, largely on foot, through seven countries across Europe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PASHA: I lost about six kilograms, I think. You walk a lot. We walked a lot. I forget. We cross countries.
DAMON: Yilmaz Pasha, a Syrian activist looking for a future in Europe, crossed seven countries in 32 days.
The smuggling odyssey began in a rubber boat from Turkey to Greece. In Athens, a train to a town close to the Macedonian border.
PASHA: We start walking. And we crossed to Macedonia and in half an hour.
DAMON: A tide of migrants making its way, often on foot, across Europe.
PASHA: The road is clear. You just need to follow the train track. That's your road.
DAMON: In Macedonia, migrants are banned from using public transport but they can bike.
PASHA: You will see people pulling bicycles on the road speaking English, Syrian? Come, come, yeah.
DAMON: They crossed into Serbia on foot under cover of darkness, especially terrifying for the children among them.
PASHA: Was like a horror movie, you know, you heard scream of children, of little children, babies.
DAMON: Even worse, they were caught by Serbian police.
PASHA: Lucky, yeah. For twice, so it was, you know --
(CROSSTALK)
DAMON (on camera): Humiliating.
PASHA: Yeah. It was so hard. I just remember the Syrian army the same way.
DAMON (voice-over): In Serbia, they are registered and given 72 hours to leave. The next crossing, Serbia to Hungary, through the forest.
PASHA: You can see the road. It's like somebody draw it for you. You can just walk through jungle. There is a red line between countries.
DAMON: Yilmaz, navigating using a downloaded map, got lost in the woods.
PASHA: Two days without water and food.
DAMON (on camera): Walking around?
PASHA: We slept on the green like that. We don't have sleep bags. We don't have anything.
DAMON (voice-over): Finally, they make it to Hungary, only to be caught a few hours later by the police.
PASHA: They put us in a caravan, in a room with some plastic and it was 40 person, I think.
DAMON: He was fingerprinted, as required by E.U. law, which means if his asylum in Germany is rejected, he can be returned to Hungary, where he
does not want to stay.
(SHOUTING)
DAMON: Eventually, they are released.
A phone call to another smuggler leads to a car trip into Germany. He made it. And now here, he waits.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Germany.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[08:35:05] COREN: Well, tomorrow here on CNN, Arwa Damon's exclusive reporting continues with a look at the life of those asylum seekers once
they have entered Europe. We'll also bring you the stories of people found hiding in the forests on Hungary's border.
Well, Delta and American Airlines have announced they will no longer allow certain big game trophies to be carried as freight on their planes.
The decision came after protests over the slaughter of an African lion called Cecil in Zimbabwe by an American hunter.
Delta and American airlines have banned the shipment of lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo trophies. Big game hunters often
decapitate their kill and preserve the heads for display.
Well, coming up, these photos might make you do a double take. We'll hear from the photographer who create seamless harmony between
seemingly random objects.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: Well what happens when you mix a fire extinguisher with a jalapeno pepper? Photographer Stephen McMennamy answers this question with
an artistic touch.
His combo photos show unrelated objects artfully mashed together to create one harmonious image.
Results range from quirky to thought provoking.
Well, he spoke to our Kristie Lu Stout about the process behind his combo photos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHEN MCMENNAMY, PHOTOGRAPHER: The first one was a picture of my daughter in a balloon from her fourth birthday. And I was just bored
looking at my phone and I had an app that allows you to merge two photos -- or you know, it's like a collage app. And I just simply took the line out,
the border, to make a clean combination of the images. And I merged my daughter's head with a balloon and that was it.
From there, I was in New York at the time. I stepped outside and I had a view of the Empire State Building and there was a banana in hand and
the Empire State Building. And really I would consider that to be the very first combo photo where it was a more concerted effort of OK, I can do more
of these.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And there are so many wonderful of these combo photos as you put them.
One that comes to mind is the combination of Fruit Loops, a bowl of Fruit Loops and a big truck. I mean, it's such a colorful and arresting
image. I mean, how do you go about identifying and finding things to combine in this way?
MCMENNAMY: Well, I'd say it's not healthy on my part as a motorist. I'm always -- my head is on a swivel, I feel like, when I'm in the car and
I'm always looking for props or objects. Sometimes I have things in my mind already that I'm looking for. so it's a bit of a scavenger hunt at
times.
But that one, the one you were referring to, I just saw a dump truck and I went and took a picture of it. I had no idea what I was going to do
with it. I just need to do what I like, I guess, and I found it visually appealing once I did it. And like you said it was vibrant and bright and
colorful and it was just simple and fun. And I think that's the key to a lot of it is simple and fun. People tend to like that.
LU STOUT: And to clarify your process, you don't use any stock images, you actually take all the photographs yourself. So, how long does
it take to create a combo photo?
[08:40:01] MCMENNAMY: It really depends on what it is. I'm basically at the mercy of what I can find. If I'm looking for a heavy piece of
machinery, again it's me driving around looking for -- I have a friend that works in construction and I ask him do you have this particular machine on
a construction site? And so it's just me looking around and things can take a very, very long time as far as looking for specific props.
But then there's things that just happen in an instant. I could be at lunch and I could find two things and I can combine them very easily. And
then there's certainly things that take me three weeks to accomplish.
LU STOUT: The first combo photo of yours I noticed online involved heavy machinery. It was that hybrid between a forklift and a fork full of
spaghetti and a meatball. And when I saw it online, if forced me to do a double take. Is that the kind of reaction that you want from your
audience?
MCMENNAMY: Yeah, I like -- I like the double takes. I like -- I think I like the ones that are more subtle. And I'll share these with
people before I post them just to, you know, get a gauge. It's like a little bit of a focus group. I share them with my kids a lot.
I love the reaction of kids. It's very honest. I have a friend that has kids, and I'll send them to him to get their reaction.
And some people will say that. They'll say it's too subtle. There was a picture of a bird and an airplane. For the first time I posed two
different images to basically let people vote on which one they liked. And I love that it spurred on a debate. It was fun. It was engaging. It was
interactive for me.
But one tail didn't have jets and one tail did. And so people spoke up about what they liked. Some people just thought the jets was more
whimsical and fun and more playful, and then other people spoke up and said, no, no it's about the subtlety, it's about people looking at it and
not getting it on the first glance.
I just -- I like that. It's fun for me that one that people even care, that surprises me. And I love just engaging with people that are
into it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, you can certainly join in the conversation and the creative process of combo photos as well. He has posted a failed combo
photos or outtakes on his Instagram showing how a mistake or flaw can become a different form of art.
Well, that's it for News Stream. I'm Anna Coren. Thanks so much for your company. Don't go anywhere, though, World Sport with Alex Thomas is
coming up next.
END
