just f8in around

First Camera

2012-01-16T16:47:00.000-06:00

Not mine, though.

Tara

2011-11-28T11:33:00.000-06:00

The greatest part of my job is getting opportunities like this to meet someone who just completely and inspires you. Gale wrote a great article, but I really wanted to shoot some video so that people could hear Tara explain her ethos in her own words.

Clips (the paper kind)

2011-09-10T15:39:00.004-05:00

Wanted to share a few pages from the paper from the past month. You know, with all the debate about print disappearing, it's easy to forget how great it is to see pictures on a page. Of course, you've got to have great designers and writers on board, but once they are, picking up an actual paper is pretty great.

Here's a Sunday story about the changing nature of the forest service here in Snohomish County:

This is a front page from a day that included the fall football preview and a some fair coverage.

2011-04-18T13:42:00.003-05:00

Never got around to posting these photos last summer, either. A gray whale beached itself twice on a beach just south of Everett (you can see Everett in the background of the pano photo) in July. It beached a couple times further north as well. Biologists thought he was pretty done for - whale's don't make that mistake that many times unless they're doing it on purpose - but amazingly he ended up swimming off back into the Puget Sound that summer, looking healthy and happy. Maybe he just had a cold?

To my surprise, honor and, honestly, delight, these photos were featured on the Boston Globe's Big Picture Blog in an "Animals in the News" post.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/09/animals_in_the_news_1.html

Culling

2011-04-18T12:48:00.003-05:00

These are from last summer. Had to shoot this for the paper - we only got one angry letter about dead birds and big knives. It was a cooperative effort to raise free-range meat chickens by a group of people, a few of whom we knew, so Annie ended up jumping in and culling some birds herself. It's pretty satisfying to know EXACTLY where your food comes from.

2011-04-17T23:16:00.000-05:00

Vicki (the goat)

2011-04-16T13:38:00.001-05:00

Braille

2011-04-16T13:28:00.002-05:00

Adoption Day

2011-04-16T13:24:00.000-05:00

Moving Day

2011-04-16T13:21:00.000-05:00

Trying to catch up on the blog with some new photos, but also some older and older.

2011-04-16T13:16:00.000-05:00

Only a drill

2011-04-15T13:12:00.001-05:00

Herald story:
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110412/NEWS01/704129911

Daily

2011-04-15T12:38:00.001-05:00

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110414/NEWS01/704149939

2011-04-15T12:35:00.001-05:00

2011-04-08T01:07:00.001-05:00

Two for One

2011-02-17T21:00:00.004-06:00

Accidentally only took one roll of film with us to the Flaming Lips concert last fall ... so, just rewind and shoot over it again - oh, film!

Not the best scans - real quick on a flat-bed, but they give the general idea. I'm going to try and keep-up posting on my blog - new stuff, but also a lot of these older photos sitting on hard drives or like these, on film.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T12:15:00.002-06:00

Illustrating love ... behind the scenes.

Memorial photo team effort

2011-02-11T14:01:00.002-06:00

The front page of Tuesday's Herald:

The main photo is mine, but the entire photo staff covered the memorial for Jayme Lee Biendl, a corrections officer killed by an inmate at the state prison in Monroe last week. We filled three photo pages inside the paper, and Annie produced a video for Heraldnet using staff photos and audio from the day. It's powerful. Watch it:

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ

2010-10-29T15:27:00.002-05:00

Put together a quick video for a bee keeping story that ran in the features section Thursday. You can watch it on youtube in HD if you like.

Chef Hazel

2010-10-23T00:32:00.003-05:00

This is the future album cover for Hazel's CD of cooking-inspired kids songs titled "Chef Hazel's Hootenanny Hits and Other Recipes for the Tiny Cook."

OK. Actually, this was a photograph conceptualized by Annie that was going to be used on a baby shower invitation. This came from Annie's brain, I just pressed the button on the camera. The picture never made it on the invitation though, so here it is.

Thank you Jerry and Jessi for the use of your baby.

Friday Fun

2010-10-22T23:49:00.006-05:00

Had a chance to take some portraits on Wednesday for a homecoming story that ran today. Different theme every day. Wednesday's was "Personal Flotation Device." I'd never heard of that one before, but a group of guys brought a canoe, so I won't complain.

Just something fun and a little different. Click for: Photo gallery and article

Up through the atmosphere

2010-09-30T22:05:00.006-05:00

I had a really random week at the end of August consisting of extremes of air and water. The week started with a ride in a Zeppelin. Not a blimp, a zeppelin. They were very insistent that a zeppelin is not a blimp.

The view south from the Eureka, one of only two Zeppelins flying anywhere in the world, Monday afternoon over Whidbey Island. The Farmers Airship will be flying sight-seeing trips over Seattle through the weekend from Paine Field in Everett.

A day or so later, with the help of Annie, a Lake Stevens police officer and police boat, a real wide lens, and a FISH TANK, I found myself on Lake Stevens photographing an invasive, underwater weed called milfoil.

Portions of Lake Stevens have been taken over by Eurasian watermilfoil, an invasive aquatic weed that mucks up watercraft motors and interferes with swimming. The weed is now part of at least 136 acres of the roughly 1,100 acre lake, according to Mick Monken, public works director of Lake Stevens.

And finally Friday, which found me getting to hop into a Waco UPF-7 biplane to preview a story about an aviation museum we have here in the county.

And just in the interest of full-disclosure, the image below is actually a panoramic image stitched together from a rapid burst of consecutive frames. We ran it as such in the paper with the explanation below. I'd never really violated the single frame like that before, but when I got up there, I just didn't have a wide-enough lens to capture what it felt like up there between those wings. So I shot a lot of images panning wing-tip to wing-tip with the below picture in mind but also shot a ton of just single shot photos.

Unfortunately a 17mm on a Canon 1D type camera just doesn't show a lot in that situation. I wish I had had the 5D and 14mm that I'd used for the fishtank photo of the milfoil above. Let me know if you have any opinions about that sort of stitching technique. Not something I'll probably do again, but it did capture what I saw, so ... argh.

With the Boeing Factory and Paine Field to the right and the Mukilteo ferry terminal directly behind him, Pilot Carter Teeters flys a Waco UPF-7 biplane south over the Puget Sound Friday afternoon. This panoramic image is composed by merging a series of consecutive pictures shot in a rapid burst while the camera was panned from wing-tip to wing-tip. This Waco UPF-7, which began training pilots in 1941 who would go on to fly in World War II and the Korean War, belongs to the Historic Flight Museum at Paine Field.

Ike

2010-09-30T17:40:00.003-05:00

Had to run out on Tuesday and grab a quick photo for our local youtube sensation, Ike Ditzenberger. Ike took the ball 51-yards for his first varsity touchdown Friday night, and the video of the play quickly garnered over a million views as Ike's story made it to some national news outlets.

One of our writers wrote a really nice feature story on Ike with some great photos by Jennifer B. about a year-ago. I felt a little rushed to run out there in half an hour and steal a couple shots like I did. Watch the video though, it's pretty feel good. There's some room for debate, but it's a happy deal.

Train v Truck

2010-09-30T17:34:00.003-05:00

Cleaning off my desktop. This happened just down the street from the office last week. No serious injuries, luckily.

EnduroCross

2010-09-14T13:24:00.003-05:00

I'm going to make a concerted effort to get caught up and back in the blogging groove.
To start, a quick video that I put together from a CLO (cut lines only) photo for the local section of the paper. The event was described as a "media opportunity" to preview a motocross event, but I happened to be the only media member to show up, and the organizers hadn't even quite finished the track yet.
A rider did show up though, and he was just such a darn nice guy, so I decided to make a little video from the stills and a little audio I collected as we sat in the back of his pickup truck while he put his riding gear on.

I'm starting to develop a little theory about video at newspapers. It's really sort of an all or nothing deal. You either go all out and make a real-deal documentary type piece, or you make something quick and/or throw up some raw footage. I don't think it's worth it to waste time creating something that folks would or could otherwise see on television. The video below is an example of something real quick that I didn't have to take too much away from doing my real job which was getting a photo for the paper (above). Any thoughts?

Dirty Job

2010-06-11T12:57:00.000-05:00

Exhibition Tomorrow!!!!

2010-06-02T19:10:00.002-05:00

CD Release Show

2010-05-27T14:10:00.003-05:00

A couple videos Annie recorded at our CD release show at the Can Can Club in Seattle this week.

Order the CD:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/vincemtztgby2

Southwest by Northwest & Anchor from Mark Mulligan on Vimeo.

Boy and Roberta from Mark Mulligan on Vimeo.

Last Night

2010-05-27T13:43:00.004-05:00

In which we watch the Sounders beat the Boca Juniors at Quest Field.

The Sounders third-string jerseys are actually that color - that's not the rave green - that's some sort of glow-stick yellow.

Walking to the train.

Oh, and we ate real good before going - Annie made some eggplant!

PDFs Old and New

2010-05-24T18:23:00.006-05:00

I've been meaning to post one of these PDFs for over a year now, so I finally will, beginning with a Sunday story from this week that is definitely worth reading. Good luck, Kyle: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100523/NEWS01/705239903

The article below one several awards last year both for Kaitlin's story and for photography: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090920/NEWS01/709209901

This final story was an end of the year graduation story that we followed up on in May: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090611/NEWS01/706119948

Found

2010-04-30T18:31:00.003-05:00

Found these last night when moving. Polaroids from Annie and I's honeymoon trip. Click on the photo to make it bigger.

On the road

2010-03-15T16:54:00.002-05:00

... to New Mexico

Surf and Turf

2010-03-15T16:03:00.006-05:00

On Friday I found myself photographing fish in the morning and beef and lamb in the afternoon. The story about salmon is actually pretty darn messed up but ultimately will have a happy ending. It's worth checking out: Shock at Fish Killings in Mill Creek

Thousands of dead fish piled onto a walkway where they were dumped.

The science center's caretaker and her son unload a container full of live salmon fry donated to the science center.

The brand new live salmon fry are poured into their new home next to Nickel Creek.

The next story involved grass fed beef raised on a farm near Arlington. The folks who own the farm also raise sheep (for lamb chops not for wool) and these amazing Australian cattle dogs.

Another Video

2010-03-09T15:49:00.003-06:00

I made this video last Wednesday during the first day of the state basketball championships to try out the Herald's new camera. I shot two games in the morning and then edited for a couple hours at the Tacoma Dome and uploaded. It was a good little project to see if I could get it all done in a pretty tight amount of time, on my laptop, on site.

My original intent was to shoot as much as I could with a four hundred. I wanted to shoot a bunch of details, do some stuff in a way people had never seen. Tight shots of eyes, hands, faces, sweat, all that good detail stuff shot nice and cinematically, BUT that required a tripod which the people running the tournament WOULDN'T LET ME USE! I was a little mad/letdown/disappointed/mad at first, but I had to get over it and just shoot. So it is what it is.

Thanks to the Lake Stevens band for the tunes (recorded in the stands before the first game).

You should be able to watch in HD.

A video

2010-03-03T00:36:00.002-06:00

A very Super 8 Wedding from Mark Mulligan on Vimeo.

Photographed in Super 8
by Joey Castillo and Callie Richmond

Music
composed by Dan Bui and performed by The Groomsmen

Thanks to all of the amazing people we know who just happen to be great friends, family, photographers, musicians, cooks, fireworker shooter-offers, and everything else who made this all happen.

Photographers' websites:
Joe Buglewicz - joebuglewicz.com/
Joey Castillo - joseraulcastillo.com/
Courtney Dudley - courtneydudley.com/
Jordan Gomez - jordangomez.com/
Meridith Kohut - photoshelter.com/c/meridithk
Callie Richmond - callierichmond.com/
Megan Shelby - meganshelby.blogspot.com/
Rob Strong - robstrong.com/weddings/
Ben Sklar - bensklar.com/

Today

2010-01-26T16:48:00.001-06:00

Inspired by Rob

Chasing Rainbows

2010-01-25T13:35:00.001-06:00

Annie and I were on our way out the door when we saw a rainbow arching across Everett on Saturday. A chase ensued:

Rainbow Chasing - Images by Chiron Photos

for Annie

2010-01-04T17:06:00.001-06:00

a Bronco at work

Too late for Halloween?

2010-01-04T16:36:00.004-06:00

Kayak-ing

2009-12-31T16:44:00.002-06:00

Somewhere up Highway 2, Annie and I stumbled on some kayakers on the Skykomish River. Brett, pictured here flying off of some waterfall, was nice enough to take us further up the river.

Skiing With Santa

2009-12-26T16:38:00.001-06:00

Awesome time spending a couple hours with Santa the other day at Stevens Pass. If you watch on youtube, you can watch in HD.

Fair photo from the end of summer

2009-12-11T17:16:00.000-06:00

Yesterday

2009-12-11T17:07:00.003-06:00

An amazing kid

Betsy

2009-12-07T22:39:00.002-06:00

synchro

2009-12-07T19:14:00.000-06:00

for KIm

2009-12-04T23:59:00.002-06:00

Random photo I made for my neighbor after a parade last summer. Too much sun? Maybe.

In case your curious, this bear is the female version of the local minor league hockey team's mascot, a boy bear named Lincoln. I'm not sure what the girl's name is though. Why is she dressed as a princess? Well, this parade was for the strawberry festival, so, obviously, the answer is, I don't know.

today

2009-12-04T23:46:00.005-06:00

These were both taken today. Both with the mercury hovering around freezing. Both with frost still clinging to the grass in the shadows. Both guys enjoying their days as they see fit.

"Winter time is the way to go," according to Gino Romero, 62, who did not let the freezing weather keep him from enjoying the sun while waterskiing across Lake Stevens late Friday morning. "We love this sport so much, we can't give it up just because summer ends," said Romero, who dons a dry-suit before plunging into the lake.

Matt Raney laughs as he pulls a Colorado Blue Spruce out of the frozen ground for a customer Friday morning. Raney is selling Christmas trees from his Lake Stevens home as a fundraiser for an upcoming mission trip to Swaziland.

Opening Day

2009-12-03T16:06:00.006-06:00

... and a face that keeps on giving.

What a great assignment. Go cover opening day at Stevens Pass. And, as a bonus, a beard like that. And then he takes his goggles off, and he has those eyes! (more photos with article)

recent

2009-12-03T13:42:00.008-06:00

... fake fire (link)

... if you're going to drunkenly side-swipe someone, make sure it's not an unmarked State Trooper (link)

... more dogs (link)

... nice story on drop-outs heading back to school (link)

... new bus system

... on the way back from an assignment

Home and Garden

2009-11-09T19:47:00.004-06:00

This is a self-portrait. This dog and I felt the exact same way. He, interrupted in his yard by strangers. Me, out on a home and garden about "scenic cover." We had an understanding.

Ref 71

2009-11-09T19:39:00.003-06:00

Ref 71 Passes in Washington

too long

2009-09-17T01:18:00.004-05:00

I told myself a week ago that I'd try and catch up on the blog by updating at least once a day while Annie was away in Texas. Instead I've found myself, well, not doing so. Instead, I've kept fairly busy at work catching up on some older work, a small part of which is seen above (a part that probably won't get used), and also busy with plenty of daily work.

Hots

2009-07-24T13:17:00.004-05:00

... page from a weekly series for our Good Life page featuring folks whose names are Aptonyms - names aptly suited to their jobs. This was Travis Hots, a local fire chief. He was called to an accident scene while I was shooting portraits, so he let me tag along. It's nice to shoot what I'd call a "real" portrait of someone rather than just a portrait portrait.

addendum: big credit goes to the designers who put this page together

today

2009-07-20T21:03:00.001-05:00

Lois

2009-07-20T14:17:00.004-05:00

I'm trying desperately to catch up on all the blogging I haven't been doing. This is from late May on a Saturday assignment where I had the pleasure of meeting Lois while a team of volunteers installed a ramp from her garage to her back door. Lois was navigating a 6-inch drop from door to garage floor with her walker every time she went through the door.
Upon using the ramp for the first time (bottom photo) 84-year-old Lois exclaimed, ""These are the most wonderful people I've met in my life!" regarding the team who installed the ramp and did yard work around the house.
Lois also told me about her youth growing up in Alaska, and how she learned to play the piano by ear by sneaking through the window of the woman's restroom at the church next door to her childhood home to play the piano when no one was around.

Lois from Mark Mulligan on Vimeo.

I had just gotten my 5D, so I took a little video of Lois playing. The picture at the top of this post came at the end of her performance. It's hard to decide if I should have kept the video going until the end. The chance at a still photo seems to trump video though. Truly an amazing woman.

Mr. Mohawk

2009-07-02T16:01:00.004-05:00

Making Mr. Mohawk from Mark Mulligan on Vimeo.

Video I put together a couple weeks ago that was published today with an article about Phil Andruss, a local guy whose a favorite of sports section fronts for his super-fanness.

Article:

This was definitely an experiment for me. Approx. 1000 stills in the piece. Took awhile to figure out how I wanted to put it together. Five-year-old computer with Final Cut Express did not appreciate handling that many files at once. Learned a lot though.

One year ago today

2009-06-18T01:47:00.002-05:00

Happy Graduation to all the students of AHLC!
Especially to Zee.

found

2009-06-18T01:36:00.001-05:00

12-year-olds with Cameras

2009-06-09T12:16:00.005-05:00

12-year-olds with Cameras from Mark Mulligan on Vimeo.

Annie spent the spring working with a group of fifth-graders at Quil Ceda Elementary School learning photography - documenting themselves, their families, their communities and their lives.

On Thursday, June 4, 2009, the kids had an exhibition at the school.

The kids' photos that were displayed in the exhibition are in a slideshow at Annie's new blog.

Analog Girl in a Digital World

2009-06-02T19:47:00.005-05:00

So, Annie has a new blog!!! And it just happens to be devoted to FILM.

Yes, that's right. And she's hard at work right now in the other room scanning photos taken by a group of fifth-graders she's been teaching photography to at the elementary school where she works.

The fresh print Annie's holding above was taken by one of the KIDS and is for the EXHIBITION the kids are having on Thursday night. Annie will be printing up twenty seven 11by17 glossy prints. They look great so far. I can't wait to see them all up on Thursday night.

Wow. Kids just take really awesome photos. It blows me away. These kids document the world in a way I could only dream. Truly wonderful.

Erin&Jason

2009-06-02T17:22:00.003-05:00

San Francisco, April 25, 2009
http://www.markmulliganphoto.com/wedding/erin&jason.html

Sun peeked out

2009-05-22T21:17:00.004-05:00

Greg

2009-05-21T22:25:00.001-05:00

Currently at the Poynter Institute doing some learning.

indeed

2009-05-06T18:03:00.002-05:00

Flower PHOTOS!

2009-05-06T16:26:00.006-05:00

... from a rainy Tulip Festival

Evergreen Speedway

2009-05-06T15:56:00.002-05:00

Weirdest "demonstration" ever

2009-05-02T16:46:00.003-05:00

... the infamous, nationwide TEA parties ...
They only threw the "tea," a plastic barrel with a rope tied to it, into the water four times, "so the people on the other side could see too"

(related note to this post: because I used the word 'infamous,' I just spent a couple minutes on youtube trying to find the scene in Three Amigos where the amigos get the telegram and try and deduce what 'infamous' means. I love that movie. I couldn't find a concise clip.)

racing homer

2009-05-02T16:11:00.002-05:00

2009-05-02T15:55:00.002-05:00

Just a grab at a school assignment
Actual Article is definitely worth reading if you're interested in trends in public education.

hysteria?

2009-05-02T15:30:00.004-05:00

Photo-ops everywhere! Look! Is that someone wearing a mask? Get them!!!
Showed up (with the rest of the pack of still and video shooters) at the Washington State Department of Health Public Health Laboratories Thursday afternoon where media were told on a press release that they could "watch staff test flu samples to look for signs of swine (H1N1) flu." This was the lab where officials tested 6 samples the day before that were sent off to Atlanta to be confirmed as swine flu.
We split into two groups (still shooters first), and went into the lab where the microbiologist was standing at his work station testing samples. As we started asking questions about what was what, what vile was the flu sample in, etc, it quickly became clear that he wasn't actually testing anything, instead he was performing for us with various tubes full of water, some even tinted ominous, eye-catching colors like red!
Yeah, so, not a real photo at all. It's weird and misleading because, if it's real, that's kind of a scary photo - there would be the stuff that people are freaking out about, right there in front of them in a tube.
Instead, you have a scary visual representation of something that's not truthful. Of course, the newspaper still wants it, so I tried to provide something that did NOT show him working and made it clear in my caption that he was demonstrating for the media.

Mark Mulligan / The Herald
Denny Russell, Lead Microbiologist at the Washington State Department of Health Public Health Laboratory in Shoreline, shows media the bio safety cabinet used in the process to test flu samples. The lab sent six samples tested in the laboratory on Wednesday to be further screened in Atlanta.
Photo taken 043009

Did you know ...

2009-05-02T14:57:00.004-05:00

That today is Astronomy Day?! Article here It was 400 years ago that Galileo made the first telescope, or so the good people at the Everett Astronomy Association tell me. I ran out last night to grab something for the paper today. The fact that the sun hadn't set before deadline last night forced me to really work getting one thing. It never actually lined up like I wanted.

I went back at 11 pm with Annie and our neighbor, Kim, to check out the stars for fun. Made me really miss my little, rural home in Virginia where I could walk by starlight and the moon cast long shadows across my room. I'm going to make a point to go outside more and, well, just look up.

eggs

2009-04-14T17:07:00.005-05:00

Easter Parade

2009-04-13T02:08:00.004-05:00

today

2009-04-11T01:16:00.004-05:00

March Madness

2009-03-28T16:00:00.005-05:00

... had a little bit of it after shooting a bicycle that would be cutout for an upcoming features article. At least I learned what the timing is on my self-timer.

Funny that shooting this picture today reminded me of November 2006 and shooting this picture.
It was nice to have a studio this time because back then I had a white paint sheet out on the sidewalk in front of a Key West bike shop.

Oh, and I'm having major trouble these days getting good color saturation with my blog posts. I think it must be my work computer and monitor being configured for our presses. Does this all look flat to you?

Tragic News

2009-03-27T12:54:00.002-05:00

Kate Puzey, a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Benin, was murdered earlier this month. She was a positive force in the lives of everyone she met, and I am sure that spirit will continue.

Her family has set up a fund to support causes Kate believed in:

The Kate Puzey Memorial Fund
Donations can be sent to:
c/o Smith, Gambrell, and Russel, LLP, Suite 3100
1230 Peachtree Street, NE
Atlanta, GA 30309-3592

Info:
boingboing http://boingboing.net/2009/03/14/xeni-on-the-road-in-1.html
Kate's personal blog http://beinginbenin.blogspot.com/
Kate's Photos http://picasaweb.google.com/catherine.puzey
AJC article http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/03/16/kate0316.html?cxntlid=inform_sr

It is truly tragic when a person so young, selfless and striving only to do good in this world can be so prematurely struck down. The only consolation is that this can serve as a wake-up call for those of us who often find ourselves idle, failing not just to live life to the fullest, but to live that life for others.

Callicoon, NY

2009-03-24T22:27:00.003-05:00

These are the images I shot the weekend of the Eddie Adams Workshop back in October in and around the town of Callicoon, NY. I kind of forgot about them after the workshop, but I always meant to do an edit. Let me know what you think. I could use some feedback. As I just told Annie, these are kind of a peek inside my brain as I wandered around for a few hours over the course of two days (some added hours when my team forgot to pick me up).

2009-03-20T01:42:00.003-05:00

Clown Salad

2009-03-20T01:22:00.001-05:00

Old news

2009-03-10T17:40:00.003-05:00

These are a couple photos from January of a middle school group loading the bus before leaving for the airport and their ultimate destination, the Presidential Inauguration.

2009-03-02T17:11:00.003-06:00

2009-03-02T17:08:00.001-06:00

Les Parks

2009-03-02T17:03:00.003-06:00

Shot for an article in the High Country News

the boxer

2009-03-02T16:43:00.006-06:00

for Drew

2009-03-02T16:05:00.002-06:00

Whom I promised to show these to long ago, after I saw these (I think we were both shooting this stuff on the same weekend), but am just now getting around to it. I'm also trying out the photoshelter embeded galleries. I'm curious to see if this works, and what I think about the color and saturation. They seem to load up sort of slow, at least for me. Please tell me what you think.

For Rob

2009-02-25T13:15:00.005-06:00

Happy birthday, my friend. Come to Seattle and capture this palette right, with YOUR camera

last night

2009-02-25T12:32:00.003-06:00

Peaches

2009-02-24T21:44:00.003-06:00

I'm conceding to Annie and Justin on the above image. I like the one below. But yeah, in the end, it's just a picture of a dog, named Peaches, sitting on a pink bed in a really PINK room.

WAKE(ing) UP!

2009-02-22T15:26:00.003-06:00

I just realized that's a rather misleading title for this post as this is a sunset, not a sunrise. What I meant by waking up is to 'wake up' my senses to what is right behind me at any given moment.
These photos were taken during a very specific assignment to shoot the above sign to fit in a tiny one inch box as part of a larger package for Presidents' Day. Just go take a picture of the sign. Make it a square.
What began as an example of the worst part of the job quickly turned into an example of what's best about it. The fact that I get to go out into this world with a camera everyday. There are no limits except those I put on myself. All I had to do was turn around, look past the droll, and see the sunset, the cows, perhaps a cliche, but a warming, beautiful moment, at least for me personally, all the same.
I often think of this blog as more of a visual diary than anything else. It's full of pictures like these which will never have a life beyond this page, but serve as a reminder to me of where I was or how I felt.
This day was one of the first in months where I felt the sun break through the clouds and the fog and the rain. I'm ready to shake off my winter coat.

catching up

2009-02-22T14:55:00.003-06:00

A couple weekends ago. A couple shots of the periphery of a memorial for a fallen firefighter. Shots that would not run with the story.
The boys on skateboards rolled up and stopped to watch. A firefighter asked them to move to another spot more out of the way. They complied, and watched silently with other neighbors. After the casket passed by, I asked them what they'd been up to. They'd been skating boarding at the skate park down the street, but "had to leave when this big kid started saying too many bad words," the youngest one looked up and told me.

A couple from Baker

2009-02-12T13:28:00.003-06:00

On a hunting trip with two amazing people, members of the Upper Skagit tribe. We didn't shoot anything, which was honestly fine by me. Totally worth it to hear the stories and feel the connection to a land and river that their ancestors have inhabited for generations.

Coho Derby

2009-02-09T16:26:00.003-06:00

I'm doing some archiving onto DVDs from one of my external harddrives today. Annie had one of her's crash last week. Everything gone in a split second. Luckily she's a good dvd-burner. I am not. So I'm slowly trying to catch up. Here are a couple frames from a morning Annie and I spent with some salmon fishermen last fall. There's also a link to the video we made for the paper. Erg, scratch that. Paper changed video services and it's no longer available. I'll just let you imagine it.

Snuggle Up and Read

2009-02-09T12:45:00.003-06:00

Annie put together an event for 4or500 kids and parents last Thursday evening at her school. I was recruited to take pictures. It was great. Lots of snuggling, lots of reading, lots of funny little kids.

2009-01-26T16:26:00.002-06:00

Saturday

2009-01-22T00:22:00.000-06:00

Awesome

Awesome

Awesome

Anyone else?

Zeb

2009-01-21T01:48:00.001-06:00

Annie liked it. I can't argue. Zeb's from Galveston, but been living in Everett since the 70s. Bona fide institution.

2009-01-21T01:43:00.001-06:00

2009-01-21T01:35:00.002-06:00

I keep planning to do one big update on all the crazy weather we've been having in the Northwest for the past month, but I keep finding new things to work on ... one day ...

2008-12-30T17:40:00.000-06:00

2008-12-22T02:52:00.001-06:00

"Make Magnum your home page and learn everyday from the top of the profession. Remember you are never there, so don’t get a chip on your shoulder. Remember there always is another level and keep working towards getting to that level. Always respect the subjects you are photographing and remember it is not about you! Always be humble, there is a photo God! Never stage a photo. Never plagiarize. Arrive early and stay late. You have to wake up every morning and want to take a great picture. Don’t ever get drunk before a big shoot…which could be tomorrow…work on developing a unique eye because this is the single most important thing that will set you aside from the rest. If you do all the above you have a 1% chance in making a name for yourself in what truly is the most amazing profession of all! Good luck!"

- Tim Clayton, Sydney Morning Herald
from an interview found here