Dimensional Paradox

2011-03-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Musher Profiles:

2010-03-02T09:22:00.000-08:00

Hey gang. This week we are running a series of Iditarod musher profiles (a product of all the recent traveling). The first about Newton Marshall, a Jamaican musher, aired last night. Here's a link to my youtube page were you can see them all. Joshua's Youtube. Enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think. I'll be headed out of town on Sunday!

On the road again

2010-02-05T19:50:00.001-08:00

Once again I'm off to the wilds of Alaska. Well, maybe night quite the wilds, but the cold part. Headed to Fairbanks to shoot the start of the Yukon Quest. The Quest is a dog sled race that starts in Fairbanks and ends at Whitehorse, Yukon. I will only be shooting the first couple days, but it will be good practice for the Iditarod. Airplane photo anyone?

To Fairbanks, Return Anchorage

2010-01-31T15:55:00.001-08:00

Thursday was a quick turn-around-trip to Fairbanks. Sports reporter Kevin Wells and I headed out during the wee hours of the morning. We were doing the final two of four Iditarod musher profiles. First we swung by Lance Mackey's place to meet up with Newton Marshall. Newton is a Jamacian dog musher, who is leasing a team from Lance.

After our time at the Comeback Kennels we headed down the road to Jessie Royer's place. She, like Lance, has a great place off the beaten path. We did a great interview, Jessie was swarmed by her dogs all throughout, and then headed out on the sled. I got to play with a new toy (it's a fully self-contained helmet cam).

When we finished up at Jessie's house Kevin and I made the long slog back to town for some dinner and resting time whole waiting for our nine o'clock flight. Another good day full of travel and adventure!

Noorvik Video

2010-01-31T15:41:00.000-08:00

Here is the video I did in Noorvik about Eskimo Dancing. I am slowly uploading other stories I have done over the past couple of years. If you'd like to see others click HERE.

Noorvik II

2010-01-28T07:53:00.001-08:00

From one crazy day to the next to the next. The tape heads rolled for another 14 hours yesterday after an interestig night of sleeping in the school's media room on top of my gear bags. Not the most comfortable, but better than the icy coldness of the linoleum. Yesterday is a blurr of motion. Sounds and colors have mixed together creating a multimedia Picasso in my memory. It was the day of the census to begin. The villagers chose 89-year-old Clifton, to be the first person in the community, which, by default, made him the first in the country. Christine and I had to make a very concerted effort to get an interview with Clifton. Keep in mind that we were not only dealing with cultural barriers and certain age hinderances, we were also dealing with the United States government. The bureau people wanted to be helpful, but are wrapped-up in so many rules and regulations that every little move had to be double checked. We did finally get a one-on-one with Clifton.

The door handle slowly turns and we quickly follow our interpreter through the arctic entrance and into the small living room. The room was comfortably warm. The cabin had odds and ends strewn about. A hand saw hung on the wall overlapped by a well loved red and black flannel. A large chair sat mid-room. Next to it sat a table holding up a classic tube t.v. Static lines danced their way across the images fight for Clifftons attention.

"It's nice to meet you," Christine and I say.
Our greeting is met with a blank, yet gentle stare and almost immediately followed by, "WHAT!"

Turns out our interviewee is mostly deaf and didn't really have much to say about the census. He was full of stories about life in the village and WWII. With a pleasant smile Clifton humored our presence for an hour or so.

The rest of the day was a giant blur. Christine and I returned to our make shift editing area and set to work. We had to turn stories for the 5, 6 and 10 o'clock shows. Plus, we had live shots for each. And ontop of those items we still had story parts to shoot. Whew! The day ended sometime after midnight.

Tuesday afternoon was to be our departure time, but mother nature had something different to say. Just before our little cessna was to pick us up a fog thicker than pea soup rolled over the tiny village. The day became a waiting game. We had a few false alarms, but finally around five the clouds parted and our plane scooped us up for delivery back to Kotzebue.

After checking in for our flight home it was smooth sailing straight to my comfy bed at home. Ahhhh....

Off to Noorvik I gone

2010-01-25T00:12:00.000-08:00

Noorvik, oh Noorvik. A bright little town just 45 miles east of Kotzebue. A haven for 650ish tough souls in the middle of Alaska's wild bogs and tusiks. Where the moose and the caribou roam, well, that is until they become the evening stew. Throw a little seal oil on top and you got yourself an outright native Alaskan meal. Yummy, in an, "now I can say i've eaten seal oil," kinda way.

We have, both vultures and ravens, descended upon the kind and brave women and men of Noorvik. Hands fly about in gestures of greetings. Smiles fill the rooms with warmth and kindness. Hugs are given in payment for years of friendship. Names are exchanged, some remembered, some forgotten. The wheels past my glazed eyeballs. From one plane to the next; from one interview to the next...I stumble diligently. I tell myself the circus will end, the grins will lessen, but alas, the second hasn't even checked into it's new residents. I scream to myself, " what's taking the second hand so long, slow motion has set in, if doesn't move than the minute will never gain momentum..."

I stand near the heat of my interview light. I can feel the sweat building against my still bundled body, which crys to be released into the icy coldness of the arctic tundra. No, still another interview. More wide shots, more cut-aways, more movement, more people...

Close to midnight we make our way back to the school. We grab a couple snacks and proceed to continue our work. Christine, the KTUU reporter I'm with, and I have been going for well over 14 hours. We have done six interviews. Shot three 32-minute tapes. Drained one battery of life. Both ended up without matts. And to be honest, besides extreme exhaustion, we're both pretty happy campers. It's been a crazy day with good people in a wonderful part of the world. I guess the adventure never does end. What do you think's coming next?

Horizontal

2010-01-19T08:06:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, as I wandered through the world I was struck by the horizontal. Maybe today will be the vertical or the wobbly. What does your horizontal look like? Here's a few of mine.

Haines to Juneau

2010-01-14T08:16:00.001-08:00

I did not awake to the scrumptious smell of french toast this morning, but I did get to sleep in. After breaking from our warm cocoon Ted and I ventured out into the sleepy, snow-covered town of Haines. Resident were recouperating from several feet of snow fall. Plows roared down the streets dragging with them piles of the frozen water. Some were on roof top scraping giant pillows of fluff, sending shovel fulls tumbling to the ground. After gathering some town shots and an interview we wolfed down some grub at The Bamboo Room. I had the best Halibut fish and chips, which was caught locally. Yummy!

From there we headed out town to the ferry terminal. Again more waiting, shooting and interviewing. As time passed our scenery crept into oblivion as the coming snow storm lodged itself between the mountains.

The ferry was univentful. Well, it was until I found out from the ship's purser that our arrival time into Juneau would around eight o'clock. Now one might ask, "why could this be cause for concern?" To the average person this wasn't alarming by any means, but to some who had an 8:10 flight to catch a few alarms do go off in the ol' noggin'. All this and I had no way, at first, to communicate with the outside world, I was at sea!

In the end my flight was changed to the next morning and slept in a bed big enough for me to sleep sideways in without my head or toes hanging off the edge. It was awesome.

I'm now sitting in my plush airplane seat waiting to be yelled at by a stewardess for still using my electronic device. In three hours I will be back in Anchorage and on my way to work, where I will immediantly hop in another car and drive to Wasilla for an Iditarod musher profile shoot. I guess the adventure never ends! Visual compliments for your rods and cones to anylyze are next.

Haines Arrival

2010-01-12T23:24:00.001-08:00

My eyelids slowly rolled open as the smell of freshly made french toast wafted into my room. I emerged to a glorious breakfast at the Mooseberry Inn B&B. I quickly snapped out of my delusions of relaxation when stumbling across my camera, "oh ya, I'm supposed to be shooting a story." Back to reality I returned. After a quick interview and some exterior shots Ted and dumped our stuff in the car and headed down the road. Tok to Haines...448 miles. The day started out calm and cold, -22F. As we moved south the temps slowly rose, but the weather deteriated. We reached Haines Junction around 3pm. The gates for the pass were open so we decided to push forward. Wind was whipping snow across the highway creating mini snow pillows all across the frostheaved blacktop. Few cars were seen; whiteouts happened; fighting the wind occured; KTUU was triumphant. We crossed the border back into Alaska and found that Canada is much better at keeping their roads plowed. After 34 more miles of swooshing through several feet of snow we pulled into Haines...the fisherman's haven. Our motel clerk, "wow, I didn't think we'd see you tonight, the pass was closed several hours ago..." Apparently we just made it through. Whew! With grumbling bellies we proceeded to patron the two open "restaurant" bars and found that neither were serving food. Hmm, guess the mounds candy bar will have to suffice until tomorrow. For now my weary eyelids are watching "The Office" and occasionly scanning the back of my eyelids. Soon to be full time. Tomorrow will hold time for shooting in Haines and a ferry ride to Juneau. Couple pics for your viewing pleasure.

Tok

2010-01-11T20:59:00.001-08:00

We reached Tok in with all body parts attached and the car intact. Up and down, up and down we moved over the frozen frost heaves at a quick pass. Ted didn't find them quite as entertaining as I, but he kept good spirits. Wind swells whipped across the highway every half mile putting us in the middle of little mini thirty-second white outs. Trucks in the oncoming lane brought us to a stand still, not knowing which way was up or down due to the giant blizzard that followed each eighteen-wheeler. As the bright lights, sorry, light of Tok approached we knew food and test were to follow. After checking into our quaint B&B we headed to Fast Eddies for some good Alaskan grub. We piled our plates full (one never know when the extra calories will be useful standing outside in -40 degrees trying to line up the perfect shot), then pounded it into our tired tummies. Then back to the B&B for some hot coco, tea, 180 channels and some much needed rest. Tomorrow we make our way to Haines. First stop, the Canadian border.

Heading To Juneau

2010-01-11T15:02:00.001-08:00

KTUU reporter Ted Land and I are making are way from Anchorage to Juneau. Acoording to some the drive from Anchorage to Haines can be done in one day, but we are taking our time and doing it in two. Hmm, maybe I made that sound a little too relaxed. We are doing a story about the drive and ferry ride, thus we are taking an extra day to do the trip. Right now we're about 50 miles outside of Glennallen. The trip is going smooth. I am, however, realizing that I should have brought more puffy gear. It's been windy and cooolllddd! Outside of Palmer we were encountering 50-80 mph wind gusts. According to temps it's currently -13 in Tok, our destination for tonight. Here, as always, are a couple of photos.

Winter

2009-12-14T22:50:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T15:22:00.001-08:00

Another day for turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberries has come. At the end of the day we'll have full bellies and tired little eyes. Family traditions will be celebrated; new ones will be created; old one will pass. Memories of years passed will be shared and future ones will be plotted. Families, friends and strangers will gather to strengthen their bonds to one another. And when the day fades into night and the stars dance above our dreams we will be left with a few more pounds, more memories boxed away for future nastalgic moments and most importantly more things to add to your box of gratitudes.

Family. Friends. Snow. Skiing. Mountains. Rivers. Photography. Creativity. A few of the many things I am grateful to have in my life.

Several inches of fresh powder graced the Anchorage bowl with it's presence last night.

Something New

2009-11-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

Trying something new. I fight technology. I embrace technology. I fight. I embrace. I fight. I embrace. So far, I'm in the middle of a long loosing streak. I have wanted to keep this blog more up to date, but I never seem to get around to it. Well, now I have less excuses...I found an iPhone app that let's me update on the go. So here we go again. I'm going to try my best, especially now that I have news to share (coming soon). And since it's tradition I'll upload a photo (hopefully it will work).

Photo: President Obama talks to Alaskan troops at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

Sign Wavers

2009-05-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

Political Ad

2009-05-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

Photo: Anything for a Good Shot

2009-05-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

Photo: Darrell L. Breese/Alaska Star

Yep, that's me hangin' over the 300ft cliff. There's never a dull moment around here.

Update...

2009-04-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

Moving along through the lightening storm of everyday life is what I do lately. Granted the lightening isn't all bad. Sometimes being constantly on the move sucks, but the view can be brilliant. My morning job is still about the same as always. And outside photo work seems to be steady, maybe even growing in small increments.

I did have some fun news at the end of March. I found out that I won several awards through the Alaska Press Club: 1st place - General News Photo; 1st place - Feature Photo; 2nd place - Best Reporting on Health & Science (TV); 2nd place - Multimedia Slideshow. The two photos that won first place are below.

Above: Amanda Stockwell sheds tears of joy as she embraces her younger brother, Shawn, upon his arrival home Tuesday evening at the Ted Stevens International Airport. This is Shawn's first time back since leaving almost three years ago to await a heart transplant at the Ronald McDonald House in Palo Alto, Ca. Shawn received his new heart in July 2008 and has spent the past few months recuperating before heading home.

Above: A dipnetter is framed by another's net while waiting for salmon during sunset along Cook Inlet near the mouth of the Kenai River.

Iron Dog

2009-02-10T22:32:00.000-08:00

tester

2009-02-07T13:36:00.001-08:00

This is hysterical!

2009-02-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

All I can say is that this spoof is hysterical and sadly, says so much about the direction our society seems to be heading.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Amtrak Photographer

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Paul McCartney Appearance

Funny Political Videos
More Funny Videos

Didn't you notice? It's a new year.

2009-01-23T18:16:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been forever since I posted. I guess that's what working every day, all day long will do. It will be so worth it though once the school bills are paid off. I guess, like every year there are bumps along the way and then some awesome, freshly-paved blacktop. I'm still moving at the same pace - edit video all morning and shoot as much freelance as I can at night and on the weekends. It creates some balance for me. Do something to pay the bills and then something to refresh my spirit.

This week I actually got to do what I love to do at my actual full-time job -- SHOOT! And I got to do it TWICE. Below are a couple of stories I put together. The first, "Big Africa Map," was originally supposed to be just a quick and short story for air. When I arrived I found out I was going to have to wait for over an hour to get an interview, so I decided to spend the time shooting extra footage. I then turned it into a "nat" pack.

The second story was one of those times where, as a photojournalist, I had to be in the right place at the right time. I originally went out to cover a drunk driver accident, but as I was leaving a more engaging and touching story unfolded right in front of me. We are always doing stories about the effects of alcohol on the people driving drunk, but never (that I've seen) on the ones that are affected by those late night/early morning decisions to drive under the influence. I was happy with how things came together. And apparently so were others since the story went national. I got a call from one of our affiliate stations this morning asking for the full package. It's reassuring as a photojournalist to be in the right place at the right time and to have it, hopefully, make a difference in people's lives.

Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Recent Stories...

2009-01-23T17:52:00.000-08:00

Big Africa Map - 1/23/09

Coffee Hut Crash - 1/22/2009

Pageant flips past my shutter...

2008-11-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

Another fun community event. I don't think I'll ever get enough small-town journalism. Enjoy.

Eye lids go for the dive...

2008-11-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

For the past several months I have been working my full-time job and enough freelance to basically equate to another full-time job. This would probably be the "good" excuse as to why my posting has been, well, let's say, somewhat limited. Last week was one of my more busy weeks. Each day worked out to about 19-21 hours of shooting. I guess you gotta do what you love when you can. Last week was the state volleyball tournament. It was, as always, fun, but exhausting. The perk: free food! The last night was almost a home cooked meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie with whip cream. YUMMY! Anywho, I took over 2,000 photos and grabbed some of my favorites to share. I hope you enjoy them.

Okay...

2008-10-20T08:16:00.000-07:00

So I haven't actually posted anything in a while, but I wanted to put together a collection of the SNL Palin skits. It's amazing how much attention she's gotten for someone who seems to be so inconsequential. So here are some of my favorites.

Dipnetting

2008-07-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was able to have another "only in Alaska" experience. I headed down to the mouth of the Kenai River along Cook Inlet to do some dipnetting. What a rush! Dipnetting is generally open for about a month along several different rivers. All you need is several large coolers, waders, a dipnet and a sense of adventure. When we arrived at the beach we had to wait in line for a parking spot, but it was well worth it since we found our own little corner in the parking lot surrounded by huge RVs. After settling in we made our way down to the beach with gear in tow. Just to give you an idea, a dipnet has a 20ft pole with a five foot, round net at the end. Not exactly the easiest thing to maneuver. We managed though. Then all you do is stick the net out in the water and wait for the fish to swim in, which doesn't take long if you're there at the right time of day. In two days of taking it easy we pulled in 26 silver salmon (our combined limit with our good friends is 70). This was enough, once filleted, to fill a small 15 cubic foot upright freezer 3/4 of the way. Can't complain about that. If you come visit you to can have some. :) I've included a few photos, but will add more later.

Summer is official

2008-05-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

No photos for this one folks, but I'm sure you can picture it all in your head. You're walking along a path and in the distance you can hear alomost inaudible hoots, hollers and the occasional sharp clank of metal. As the sun drifts towards the horizon your mind thinks, "I should shiver," but your body is to busy soaking up the late evening rays thinking, "finally I'm rid of those over abundent clothes-thingies."

Then without realizing it you've cleared the trees and a short distance from your flip-flop supported toes is the source of all the laughter and constant metal CLANK! Even with the sun directly in your eyes you can't help but to stop and watch. To listen. To hear. Ah, little league has arrived, which means summer is finally in motion.

It was awesome to just stand and cheer on the half-pint players. The littlest ones just stuggle to keep the helmet above their eyes, let alone swing a bat that stands almost as tall as they do. All the while the left-fielder has started amassing a rather large "grass pitching mound" of his own and then with confusion on his face he looks up as the ball rolls by. I'm sure he was mostly confused as to which game would be more entertaining in that moment to continue. The shouts of his teammates won out in the end and he proceeded to throw the ball towards home plate. To be honest I'm not even sure it made third base, but hey, it didn't matter he could now go back to his grass clipping collection. Hmmmm.....

I guess not much has changed about summer evenings on the diamond since my t-ball and little league days. :)

Wow....

2008-05-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

I never knew it could be so exciting; so exhilarating; so wonderful; so absolutely amazing. The joy of relaxing. Someone should write a book, "Everything you always wanted to know about a relaxing weekend, but were afraid to ask."

I guess by now you've deduced that I had a good weekend. It was. Friday night a few friends and I rode our bikes to dinner. Originally we were going to eat at Ray's Vietnamese Cuisine, but they were closed do to a "new arrival" in the family. So, we peddled our two-wheelers a little further down the road and ate Mexican instead. It was a great night of warm tortilla chips, spicy chicken and ice cream covered sopapias. Dinner was then followed with a nice bike home, which included a short interlude at the local playground, and plans for Saturday night.

Saturday turned out to be no less amazing than Friday night. I slept in for the first time in at least 5 or 6 months. This was just glorious. I awoke to beautiful, blue-bird skies and the warm rays of the early afternoon sun. As a spur of the moment quest I wrangled together some gear from my all too messy garage and headed up Arctic Valley. I wasn't entirely sure what adventure I would set out on, but for me it didn't really matter. I had hiking boots and tele boots. Either way I couldn't go wrong.

After the long dirt-road-drive I proceeded to find free parking and then decided to go with the tele gear. This seemed the wise choice since the side of the mountain was covered in a nice mixture of spring snow and sunshine. I skied up the ridge line to where I could overlook the next valley. The great thing about springtime is that everything south facing is lacking snow. Thus I skied to the edge of the snowline, popped out of my skis and proceeded to find a nice tuft of grass to lean back on while taking in the grandeur of the wide valley below. I unplugged my feet from they're small torment of miss-sized boots, stretched out in the sun and dozed while a soft breeze blew by.

When the nap ended I suited up again and had some excellent turns down the mountain. Ah, how I do love nice snow and beautiful turns. The rest of the day was spent catching up on house chores. Such items included laundry, fixing the vacuum, clearing inches of paperwork from my desk top and other oddly things. From chores I moved into another great night spent with close friends.

This time we ventured out to Kincaid Park, which is along Turnagain Arm, and with warm clothes in tow, hiked out to the beach. Now mind you, this was at 10pm. The sun at this point was only beginning to think about kissing the horizon. We toiled to collect drift wood, entertain the small Jack Russell with us and take in the magnificent view. Well okay, the last item didn't take much "toiling." It just took a lot of jaw dropping and gawking. We didn't leave the beach until 2am-ish. Lucky for us our friend has a key to the park gates (due to his job) so we were able to get out. And then for a second day in a row....

I slept in!

Happy News!

2008-05-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

I found out some happy news today. I was playing around on Google this morning and discovered that I won an award on one of my photos from last year. I took 3rd place in the Alaska Press Club yearly contest for "Best Arts Photo." The judges said, "Interesting flash use elevated the photo into top three." The photo was from Gov. Sarah Palin's inaugural ball here in Anchorage. She is dancing with one of her daughters. This was a great way to start the day.

Ahh, the life of still photography

2008-05-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

Not that I really want my boss to see this, but I do have to admit that I am still very much in love with still photography. Don't get me wrong, I really, really enjoy working with video and am constantly enamored by all that can be accomplished with talkies. However, there is still nothing like a frozen moment in time that can be stared at for hours and still not be fully comprehended. For me frozen moments of hilarity fall into this category. One of my favorite subjects to photograph in the still world is sports. And within sports I have found a strong ability and passion to shoot soccer. Talk about some funny expressions captured. Well, it's soccer season and I spent the past three days photographing. Below are a few highlight photos.

Serious by being less serious

2008-04-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today has been an all around good day. Mostly because part of it included the finalization of a long overdue project. Perhaps many of you remember back to fall time when my bicycle and I had a bit of a disagreement and, well, the bike seemed to win. This disagreement put me behind on my domestic duties. One such duty was chopping wood to help keep our gas bill down. This is what the pile looked like then (about the beginning of October).

But as I left work in the warm afternoon Alaska sunshine, which is funny because this is what it looked like only five point five days ago . . .

when we got a record breaking 2ft in some places. Bummer for all the school children because it happened over the weeken. It was deffenitely a "get of school" type day.

Anywho, I became inspired to enjoy the warm rays as much as possible. And we all know how I can be project driven. Okay, well, maybe not all of you know that fact, but actually now you do, so I guess the whole point is mute. Hmmm, then why did I have to write that whole sentence?

Alright, alright you're sidelining me with silliness. As I was saying, the warm, refreshing rays beat down upon my countenance in a alustrious and beakoning way. I had to answer them. I decided my best course of action was to finish chopping all the wood for wintertime (hey, there's still next year). And like a good neighbor I walked across the street and asked my friend to borrow his maul. He obliged and I began to chop. And I must say that with every swing there was much celebration and excitement. I swung and I swung and I swung and I swung.........

And eventually the task was done. The pile was depleated and I was full of an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and joy for sunshine. Also a bit of gratitude for my neighbor always willing to lend me tools and the like. Here's a sample for you visual enjoyment and I imagine it's more understandable and straight forward then all these meandering letters that have been strung together without much regard for those being forced to read them. Yikes, that's you, I just had to type them....you have to comprehend them. Um, good luck on that.

Oh, I've also included a some quick video footage. Isn't strange to see yourself doing something. I really need to start carrying a full length mirror around more so I don't have the utterly shocking moment everytime I see a photo of myself...or video. Ha, ha! Catch ya'll on the flip side.

Last week's adventures.....

2008-04-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

This is from a week ago. It seems in a week Anchorage drivers "forgot" how to drive in the snow and on ice. Listen to the story for the details.

This is just a good natured story with a happy ending. Nothing wrong with that.

This a "nat" piece I put together for our website. Nat means that there's no reporter voice. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, but it still okay. If you're here anyway you should go ahead and watch.

Wayward blogger

2008-04-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

Alright, alright, so the blogs haven't been happening as often as I originally intended. I seem to be having difficulty finding the time for taking in, processing and writing about life. Ironic since I'm always surrounded by time...or so I'm told.

How is it going. Well, the official stance of Joshua has become, "I'm slowly becoming a morning person." Unofficially, I'm still very much a night person. It's all very conflicting. Around 7:30 I begin to feel the slow draw of being pulled into dream land, but I still maintain this need to keep going and going and going and going............mmm maybe that will pass in another few weeks. Na, I doubt it.

In other news our Anchorage weather can't seem to make up its mind. It's feels like we've had more snowy days in the past week than we did all of Nov. and Dec. Unfortunately, none of it is sticking down here in the flatlands, well, not for more than a day. Yesterday's "snow" was actually a little hopeful since it was more a "snrain" than a snow. Although at 3:30 this morning it was more like freezing rain.

Aside from sleep and weather life is moving along at a swift Talkeetna River pace. The world of video seems to envelope my world more and more each day. You know how when you're a kid and adults are always saying, "I never pictured myself doing this." Well, I'm that adult. Wait. I need to rephrase. I'm using that saying more often. I think at this point adult is still to strong of word. When I set out as a photographer I never imagined having anything else in my life. When I picked-up my first video camera four years and four months ago it was supposed to be a non-attached consumeristic, "I just want this for fun" kind of purchase. Little did I know that there was apparently a different plan in store for my need to feel like a consumer. Here I sit at a broadcast news station with more and more of my freelance work heading into the video world. It's all very strange. Fun...but strange. Okay, okay enough talk on to the show.

Another Video

2008-04-01T17:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a story on the growing price of wheat. I learn a little something everytime I shoot and edit. This time it was a lesson on not being too focused and remembering to always get a few extra detail shots. I'm happy with the final outcome, but as always I can find things to improve upon during my next assignment.

Some of my work....

2008-03-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple samples of my work thus far............

Municipal Gardens

Little Bread Makers

Native Craft Fair

Ice Fishing (this is the video I did on a whim and it helped get my job at KTUU).

All of these videos were photographed and edited by me. They may not be award winning material, but I'm happy they're in focus and not a funny blue color. I've tried to make them a fairly small file size. However, they may still take a minute or two to load. Enjoy!

Living out of sync....

2008-03-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

I have begun a new life. With that in mind I thought that it would be fitting to begin a new blog. Picture for a moment your life. Got it? Now take your life and instantly turn it upside down, shake it and then run it over with a really large steam engine (if you can find one). This is what my new life has entailed over the past two weeks. I am caught between two dimensions. I now go to bed at 8pm and begrudgingly awake at 3am. I work from 3:30 until 12:30. Although it seems I can never get out of the office much before 1:30. I arrive home surrounded by our glorious, full-beam Alaskan sunlight with the feeling that I have so much of the day still ahead of me. However, a couple hours after my safe arrival everything shuts down. My body screams for sleep, yet, my mind is still craving movement; to get things done; to enjoy the sunshine. Let's just say it's been interesting and a slow adjustment.

3:30 am....I know it begs the question, "What in the world am I doing at that hour of darkness?" Well, my new job as Editor / Photog for KTUU. I put together bits and pieces of the 6 am news cast. Afterward I become the morning photographer. As you might imagine there is not a whole lot of action going on at 8am. So really I do a lot of sitting, staring and trying to detach the concrete blocks from my eyelids.

There are good and bad points to this new schedule. It is very quite in the morning; once adjusted, I will have my afternoons to enjoy outdoor activities; the job is lower stress; I get the choice of almost any parking spot. The biggest down fall is not only disconnection with general life, but my lack of stimuli for photographic improvement and understanding. Since I am on my own I do not really have the opportunity to receive useful critiques of my work and how to improve. This seems to the biggest conundrum I have run into thus far. The idea of the 3:30 shift is for "newbies" to make their way into the KTUU world, but no tools are afforded them to promote healthy technical growth. Thus they linger between two dimensions only to be slowly ripped in half day by day and shunned by those from each existence.

But hey, what's life without a little split personality............. ;-)