Going out with Carlos Miller? Five useful tips

The following advice is not guaranteed although all facts were checked at press time. It serves as a beginners guide and your results may vary.

1) Be ready to be the story.

A recent outing to the Dolphins/Raiders football game found me driving, filming and being filmed and  photographed. We did a quick count and there were 6 filming and recording devices in the car. And he wasn’t even going out to get a story. I take it back. He’s always out to get a story.

 2) Know a phone number of someone responsible and monied by heart. Or at least have it handy.

When you get arrested, they take your phone from you. In these days of speed dial and Siri, no one knows any phone numbers anymore.  Unless you want a few free meals care of Miami-Dade County Corrections, know a number.

3) Be ready to be surprised.

When I picked him up to go to the game, he made us 15 minutes late. Why? Because he wanted to go get flowers for his mom as she was coming into town.  I thought it was sweet.  But as soon as he got in the car, the conversation quickly switched to how he was photographing a nude woman with farm animals at an Art Basel exhibit and was asked to leave.

4) Be ready to make friends. Be ready to make enemies.

I’ve seen both.  Once we went out with Jim Winters on the Jim Winters bus and we saw a hellacious hit and run car accident. Jim slammed on the brakes and Carlos flew out flip cam rolling right up into this gigantic guys face. The guy was the size of a half a house and threatened to give Carlos an enema with the camera. Carlos didn’t back down. He must be part hockey player because he’d lose teeth if it meant getting a story. To this day, I’m surprised I haven’t seen him spitting bloody Chiclets.

5) Don’t feel ignored. He is paying attention to you.

He has a lot going on and is always in the middle of something. His Photography is Not A Crime Blog gets hundreds of thousands of hits a month (sometimes over a half a million).  He’s a Senior Editor at Miami Beach 411. He’s an Editor at the South Florida Daily Blog. And he’s always starting something on Facebook, even if it’s just a debate on who has the best chicken wings. Here are a few other snapshots that pretty much capture who he is and what he’s like.

Have any other suggestions? I bet you do. Let’s hear them.

~Mike

Tags: Blogger, Carlos Miller, Facebook, First Amendment advocate, JIm Winters, Miami Beach 411, Mike LaMonica, Photography is Not a Crime, PINAC, South Florida Blogger, South Florida Daily Blog