Play Me a Song Piano Man

I had the opportunity to shoot a Billy Joel concert Monday evening at Taco Bell Arena in Boise. Here a few choice frames from the show.

Joyful Noise

On Sunday, November 18th I shot a Thanksgiving orchestra/choir concert called the Hymns of Thanksgiving. The light was less than desirable and because the performance was being recorded I was forced to pick my moves carefully. I made a few shots I was happy with and bolted to shoot a concert by the group Band of Horses. Pretty interesting going from a choir concert to a emo band but it was sure entertaining.

A Multimedia Kind of Weekend

For those of you who may not know it yet, there is a change in the wind. What is this change you may be asking yourself. Well it's not the coming change in season or the imminent transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Many of you may not even know it is happening, but everyday it progresses, continuing to change the way thousands of people do their jobs. Puzzled?

Well let me tell you what it's not. It's not business as usual.

In the course of about one month I have watched my profession change, right in front of my own eyes. It has been a buzz in the field of photojournalism for the past couple of years, but not until this week have I realized that web based content is changing the way I work.

In an industry that has been driven by the business model of advertising revenue and circulation numbers, it seems that the new industry standard is the mouse click or "hit". I have my qualms with it, but I'm not here to bite the hand that feeds me, rather share a few of my experiences from a pretty exciting spot in my career.

In the past week I have made four different attempts at what some would refer to as multimedia field reporting. On Thursday, November 8th I set out to produce a audio slideshow from the Northwest Linesman College just down the road. For those of you unaware of what students at a linesman college learn (which is totally reasonable) it is basically a trade school where students are trained to scale power poles and perform maintenance and repairs. I gathered the audio and stills that I thought would be necessary to create an interesting slideshow, however, upon returning to the office I discovered the information I had gathered really had no central theme.

As it turns out, it can take quite a bit of foresight to put together a project that keeps people interested throughout the whole show. I've made a few attempts at slideshows in the past, however, I don't think any have truly been anything i've been proud of, so it is my ambition to take that next step to make something I can hang my hat on. Unfortunately the Linesman project is still in the works. Here is a still to give you an idea of what to expect...


As for the three remaining slideshows, two were of high school playoff games which I covered this weekend in Northern Idaho. They are pretty much just event coverage slideshows but feel free to check them out...

Nampa Christian vs. Orofino Friday, November 9th, Moscow, Idaho
http://www.iptblogs.com/IPTmedia/slideshows/071109_NCHS/


Nampa vs. Lakeland, November 10th, Rathdrum, Idaho
http://www.iptblogs.com/IPTmedia/slideshows/071110_Nampa/


The last piece I put together was from an interview with an 86-year-old World War II and Korean War Veteran. Unfortunately he wasn't able to walk, and from the smell of his apartment and sound of his voice he has been a smoker for many years. Check it out...
http://www.iptblogs.com/IPTmedia/slideshows/071111_WWII_Veteran


So I have to say it's been an interesting couple of weeks and assuming things continue in the direction they have been, you will more than likely see more of these multimedia projects up here.

Thanks for stopping to take a look!

Welcome Home

Late Monday evening a group of 22 firefighters from Nampa, Caldwell, Middleton and Meridian Idaho returned back to the Treasure Valley after spending nearly two weeks helping residents of Southern California pick up the pieces after devastating wildfires raged through much of the region. The team of nearly two dozen took a total of five fire engines to California, almost a two day drive in one of these enormous rigs. I was able to catch a nice moment between the Captain of the Meridian Fire Department receiving a warm embrace from his wife and their 11-year-old son upon arrival back at the Meridian Fire Department. Unfortunately they didn't make their appearance until long after the paper had gone to press but oh well...

Blast from the past

This collection of photos is from a project I did a few years ago at a 24 hour Laundry in Corvallis, Ore. I dug these up from a box of random personal effects which has traveled with me from Corvallis, to Ames Iowa, to Minneapolis to Moscow to Boise. I thought it would be fun to share them...

A little work...

I think it's fair to assume that everyone, no matter what they do for a living, goes through a slump from time to time. As this summer came to a close I somehow found myself in the clutches of a wretched slump, although until just recently did I notice it. It's amazing how easy it can be to become complacent in what you are doing and in some cases how hard it can be to admit it. I found myself going through the motions for about a month and my work quickly began to show it. After much deliberation I like to think that I have come to terms with the bone of contention, responsible for my block in creativity.

Now that I've found something to inspire me from day to day I am excited about making great pictures again and am looking forward to the fun that winter will bring.

These couple of photos are from the past week of work. Take a look and if you care to comment, please feel free!




As always, thanks for taking the time to take a look!

Long Time No See

So it seems a month has passed since i've posted anything and the only logical explanation as to why is that time flies when you're having fun. The air has the feeling of fall to it and it means a couple of things to me.

First, wonderful weather for covering outdoor athletics. As of late I've had my fill of football, soccer and even golf and the cool temperatures and clear skies have made the majority of these events very refreshing and satisfying. Here are a few photos from a recent golf tourney as well as a shot from a Boise State football game from a couple weeks ago.





Second. The snow is coming, and this season I will have more access to the mountains than ever before, having finally abandoned the cold, dreary and isolated midwest.

That's about all I can say for now. These last couple of shots are from a Hispanic Cultural event and a Celtic Festival. Kind of liked them and I hope you do to!



In the immortal words of Jimmy Buffett... "The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful".

Thanks for looking!

Wild Weekend

Not a whole heck of a lot to talk about this post. I've been on the run the past few days with the Caldwell Night Rodeo rolling through town the same weekend as the Western Idaho Fair. Here are just a couple choice frames from the weekend...




Thanks for looking!

Rodeo Country

Well no major happenings to report this week. I’ve been keeping busy with a healthy dose of rodeos, county fair activities, and both prep and collegiate football two-a-days.

The most entertaining experience from the last week of work has been the week long County Fair and Rodeo in Homedale, Idaho. I covered action from the rodeo Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and I have to say, I’ve never experienced a rodeo quite like this one. It all started like any small town rodeo, cowboys and cowgirls young and old competing for fast times and high scores, but after the first night it was apparent that the competitors weren’t the only ones in for a wild ride.


On Wednesday, the first night of the rodeo, a bird flew into a transformer on a power pole causing the pole to burst into flames, forcing the rodeo to go on for an hour and a half with no lights or commentary. Not to be outdone, on the second night a pretty crazy storm settled in over the arena, bringing with it rain, lightning and, you guessed it, another power outage. Fortunately both Friday and Saturday went off with no major catastrophe.

The only other notable experiences from this past week have been a wild time at the local drag strip and the first fall scrimmage for the Boise State Broncos.



Coming up this week I will be covering the Caldwell Night Rodeo, which next to the Snake River Stampede, is the biggest rodeo in an area were rodeo is king. Hopefully I can come up with some interesting photos and entertaining stories to share next week, assuming of course I don’t get struck by lighting or nailed by a kamikaze bird.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Post

So for the past week or so I have been consumed by a whirlwind of activity, starting Monday the 30th. I usually look forward to Monday’s like most people look forward to Friday’s, and towards the beginning of the day I assumed it would be as slow as most Monday’s. Unfortunately it wasn’t.

My day was scheduled to begin with a 4:30 assignment in downtown Boise which turned out to be a bit out of the ordinary. I finally had my first opportunity to play red carpet paparazzi as Matt Damon came to Boise for an advanced screening of his newest movie, “The Bourne Ultimatum”. Long story short, I seriously underestimated the gusto of the countless 14 year-old girls who had to have the man’s autograph. Needless to say, the experience left me a little jaded and I now know the world of the paparazzi is not for me.

After surviving my Monday assignments I decided to make a weekend trip up to Moscow, Idaho to see my new nephew who was born a little over a week ago. He’s a super cute and totally healthy baby boy who I’m sure we’ll keep my sister and her husband busy.

Now I’m back to work and as I enter the home stretch of the summer months, rodeo season is coming into action and by the time the action is up, football will be back in gear. Should be a pretty busy next few weeks!

Canyon County Fair

Today’s Monday, and I am probably one of the few people who are thankful for it. The past few days have been long and hot, and I am pretty happy to have them behind me.

The Canyon County Fair rolled through town this weekend on the heals of the busiest weekend in Nampa. Like most fairs, the Canyon County Fair had a variety of people to see, things to eat, and crappy rides to ride. Unfortunately for me I wasn’t there to enjoy the sights and sounds, I was there to work, for four days straight. As the days passed by, my motivation began to slip in similar fashion. I returned each day to find that the events had remained the same along with the faces of the fair-goers.

I managed to survive and escape with a few photos worth posting, so take a look!




As for me I will be heading up to Moscow this weekend to see my newborn nephew who was welcomed into the world last Sunday night. Check back in a few days for more…

Snake River Dayz

Well ten days have passed since my last post and again, lots of action. The week following my previous post was the start of roughly two weeks of rodeo, and rodeo related community events, known to locals as the Snake River Dayz.

There were plenty of events which kept me busier than usual and instead of going into great detail about all I will just share a couple of shots from the rodeo that I liked.





I am particularly proud of the image of the gentleman on the horse in the American Flag shirt – not because it’s a great photo, but rather because it is the governor of this great state which I now call home. I can’t think of any other place that I have lived where the governor would so boldly express his love for all things red, white and blue. God Bless America!

If you’d like to see the multimedia presentations I created at a few of the events from this past week you can view them at this address…

http://www.idahopress.com/multimedia/

Just click on the drop down menu that says “Multimedia Library”.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Day Under the Hot Summer Sun

Well as I do every Thursday, I shouldered the camera bag and returned to work after an especially hot and somewhat boring couple of days off.

In similar fashion as Thursday’s past I was confronted by only a few assignments so I decided to head out in search of something wild ‘n crazy to shoot before my 7:15 AAA baseball game in Boise. After cruising the usual spots – the parks, the sand volleyball courts, the pools and the bike trails – I didn’t find anything that captured my interest.

After striking out in Nampa I decided to take the “scenic route” to the game, passing through Middleton and Star, Idaho. By the time I navigated through the countless orange barrels lining the seemingly endless miles of road construction it was about 10 in front of 7 and I had to admit defeat and abandon the feature hunt. Or so I thought…

As I drove into the small town of Middleton I saw an older gentleman sitting in a rascal scooter in front of the senior center who was waiving to every car that passed. I drove by and waved and then very quickly took a second look to notice that he had what looked to be an authentic Idaho license plate with the word JESUS spelled out in big black text. Immediately I pulled a U-Turn and passed by him again to get a third look. He waived again, not taking notice in the fact that I had just waived passing in the opposite direction. I hopped out of the car and talked with him for a few minutes and quickly realized that he was a devout Christian, who’d-a-thought? As we talked he continued to wave, not missing a single car that passed. Clearly he was comfortable enough with me being there so I asked his permission to take his picture and proceeded to fire off a hand-full of frames. I was so excited to have stumbled upon this guy that I actually forgot to focus on a few of the frames. I shook his hand, thanked him for his time and continued on my way to Boise.


I rolled up to Memorial Stadium, home of the Boise Hawks, shortly after the first pitch had been tossed – Gotta love media parking. It was another wonderful evening, perfect for a game. I’d have to say that of all the sports I shoot with any regularity, baseball is probably my favorite. Especially college and minor league baseball.

I worked to get a couple of solid action shots and after the infield was enveloped in shadows I spent another half an inning trying to make a few photos that played off the long shadows. Nothing all that spectacular but I thought it would be worth posting.


Now it’s Friday, Friday the 13th to be exact, and the days of slow to no news are a thing of the past as the Snake River Stampede rolls into town. I’m told that it’s THE rodeo of all rodeos, at least in the state of Idaho. There are all sorts of festivities that run throughout the weekend leading up to the first of five days of rodeo on Tuesday, July 17th.

So I guess take a look back after a few days and see if I’ve survived the Stampede. As always thanks for stopping by!

Update! Update!

After a month long absence, I’ve decided to get back to the blog and make an attempt at posting something new and interesting, partly because I know some may be sick of seeing the photos I published over a month ago, and partly because I finally have taken something that I think is worth putting up online.

Before I talk about the new work I want to just briefly bore you with a short preamble regarding the past months endeavors.

I am sometimes amazed at how quickly time can fly, here it is the middle of July and I can’t help but wonder what happened in to the month of June. As you may or may not recall, May was a bit on the busy side for me, and for reasons still unknown, June seemed to be the polar opposite. Days without assignments became more and more common and quickly I found myself longing for the days of back-to-back assignments, which I came to expect during the month of May.

Outside work I continued to attempt to fill my free time with something fun, most notably a failed attempt at adopting a dog - which I even came up with a name for, before realizing that my lease doesn’t even permit me to have a cat.

I’ve extended my circle of friends by a few after getting to know the employees of the local coffee shop, where I seem to spend almost all of my money as well as most of my free time.

Other than that things have been pretty stable. I eat, sleep every once and a while, read when I can, and go to work most times in between.

As for work, I’ve spent the past week or so really working at developing photo slideshows accompanied by audio. I’ve made two attempts, one which was a disaster at best, and the second, a mild success. The amount that I have learned in only a couple of attempts has been incredible, however, I am also coming to the realization that gathering, edited and presenting audio along with stills is tremendously complex… Complex but exciting.

The two images that I have posted below aren’t really anything to write home about but I thought they were interesting enough to share. The second was actually taken in an indoor rodeo arena and this gentleman on the horse happened to walk in front of an open garage door. I saw the opportunity for a cool silhouette and when he walked by again I fired off a few frames. I kind of wish the background wasn’t so distracting but oh well.


So that’s that. Thanks for stopping by to take a look. Hopefully I’ll be able to start turning out some more photos so I can post more often. Until then, take’r easy!

The Weeks That Were...

As the mercury continues to rise into the 100’s, the weeks continue to fly by, leaving me with only moments here and there to sit for a bit a catch my breath.

The final two weeks of May absolutely flew, beginning with a daunting schedule of High School graduations and ending with a few Memorial Day ceremonies stretched out over the Memorial Day weekend.

While many were out enjoying the three day weekend at a nearby campsite or a favorite swimming hole, I was logging around 100 miles-a-day, driving from cemetery to cemetery, respectfully documenting the ceremonies meant to recognize the reason for which we all get three days off at the end of May.



After surviving the weekend I was rewarded with a three day weekend of my own, and since my 23rd birthday happened to be on the 31st of May I decided to take the time off to explore south central Idaho with a couple of days of Mountain Biking.



Time off almost always gives me a chance to recharge my batteries, and after spending three days in the foothills of south central Idaho with little to no human contact, I was ready to get back to work.

The week or so since, like any week, has had its ups and downs. I’ve had a few tough assignments and a few real jems. I rounded out the first week of June with a community festival in Star, Idaho and a Ben Folds and John Mayer concert on Sunday, June 3rd. Ben Folds was spectacular and John Mayer, well lets just say he was marginally entertaining.




So that’s it. The past few weeks have been busy, and if I could have it my way, I’d hope that the next two will be much the same.

As always, thanks for taking the time to stop by and check in! If you feel the need to comment please go right ahead… Feedback is always greatly appreciated!