If you own a home video camera, you could someday have the opportunity to photograph a news story while it's happening right in front of you. That kind of situation can be exciting, but it can also be dangerous. Remember the professional photographer's first rule: Shoot the story, don't become the story.

As KTVU News Photographer Don McCuaig puts it, "Always be thinking 'How am I going to get out of this place'?"

McCuaig warns, "You don't want to get surrounded. All of us have been caught in that kind of situation. It's not worth a story to lose your life."

Unfortunately, KTVU receives amateur video now and then, that we cannot televise at all because of its poor quality. Sometimes amateurs don't know how to get the basic shots.

The advice from KTVU News Photographer Rebecca Gerendasy is, "You always need a wide establishing shot and vary the shots: medium shots - tight shots - and none of this moving around constantly. Just try to keep your shots steady and the less you zoom, the less you pan, the better your picture is going to be."

In the familiar video, shot on the Bay Bridge immediately after the Loma Prieta earthquake, the amateur did a beautiful job, and caught the car crashing into the opening where the slab of upper deck had fallen.

The photographer didn't try to zoom in so far that she wouldn't be able to hold a steady shot. She also held the picture long enough for us to see the action.

She even used an airable four-letter word ("gosh"), something most pros probably would not have done.

It worked in this case. But in general, try not to talk over your pictures. We want to hear that mob yelling or that siren wailing, not you wondering out loud whether some TV station will show your tape. The natural sound tells the story as much as the picture.

And we don't want those pictures to shake. Sometimes you need to zoom in on the action because you can't get close to the action and you don't have a tripod. In those cases, try leaning against a building or a telephone pole. Or rest your camera on a fence or a railing or the hood of a car (preferably your own car) or rest the camera on the ground... anything to steady that shot.

Sometimes, even though the camera is moving and panning a little too much, amateur video is widely televised. The size of the story is also a big factor.

If you get footage of an actual flying saucer landing in Union Square, I guarantee, if we can see it at all, KTVU will air it. But, short of that, remember that bad camera movement makes your footage extremely difficult for us to edit.

"You should use your video camera like a still camera," says KTVU Videotape Editor Ron Acker. "Hold it steady and then squeeze the trigger, take that picture, and hold it for at least ten seconds."

Bill Longen another veteran KTVU Videotape Editor says, "The theory is: the action should be in the picture - the picture shouldn't be the action."

Once you've shot that news story, check your tape. Then give our Fox 2 newsroom a call at (510) 874-0242.

Tony Bonilla, KTVU's Assistant News Director says, "Look at your own tape as you're calling us, to make sure you have what you think you have. Don't oversell your tape. Tell us what you have and we'll decide whether we can use it or not."

Once again, the most important advice we can give the amateur who comes across a news scene comes from KTVU News Photographer Bill Moore: "If you're out there and it looks like something you don't understand, leave it alone. Let us do it. Don't lose your life to get 20 seconds of your home tape on the air. It's not worth it."

So... stay safe, stay alert, and while you're holding that camera steady, get some earth-shaking video.