Jun 26, 2008

Warm day, past and present

Today the weather warmed up a little bit, as you expect it would for being almost July, but hey, it's the Peninsula...
A couple days ago I got some pix of the kids playing in the back yard in the sun and thought I'd share a few in honor of another sunny day today.


Mac, who finally had the chance to try out the Slip n' Slide she got for her birthday months ago, had some interesting ideas on how you're supposed to slide down it.

One of Wyse's many new tricks...

-DKM

Jun 25, 2008

First salmon ceremony


Watch the audio slideshow HERE

Last Friday I had the opportunity to photograph the annual First Salmon Ceremony of the Chinook Indian Tribe. I've been wanting to shoot this ritual for a while. I missed it last year due to the fact that it was the same day as my sons birth, so I was pretty pleased that it worked out this time around. I get to shoot a couple things with the tribe each year it seems and they are always great, very kind and welcoming.
We used this as the lead in the paper this week, and as per usual, I was up until 2:30 am finishing the audio slideshow for the package. One of these years I swear I'm going to figure out a system for work and home that will allow me to work on this kind of stuff during normal hours... Anyway, I think it came out alright. I like the audio and most of the photos, but I feel like it's missing something. I think it might be too straight up info-related, as there isn't really a storyline per se to hang your hat on as it has essentially a general event coverage feel to me .... IDK, maybe I'm just realllllllly tired? I am pretty stoked over the jumbo sized viewer I'm going with now. On my 15 inch MacBook it's pretty much full screen. Give it a look and let me know,
cheers,

-DKM

Jun 19, 2008

Blog links & FUTBOL!

So Blogger recently added a new goody for the sidebar of blog pages, it is the Blog Roll. I'm calling mine Cool Photo Bloggage and features a list of blogs I check out on a regular basis that I like and are photo-related. Here's a quick run down of what is there:

pictures. — Rob Finch's personal photo blog, features pix from work, pix of labradors and pix of radishes...
Shooting from the Hip — Scott Strazzante's blog features a lot of personal project pix from his long time diptych series
Mastering Multimedia — Now that Multimediashooter is no more, this is by far the best blog for advice on producing MM stuff
Strobist — A cool site that gives tips for using speedlight strobes for lighting games and other stuff
p l e c h l — Dave Plechl's blog for his art and photos
Thomas Boyd's Untitled Bloggage — Tom Boyd's photo blog
My Life at f/22 — Chris Detrick's photo blog
On the Other Side — A former photog who is now a page designer at the Seattle Times
The Wild Weird World of Sports — The title says it all, Sol Neelman's ongoing weird sports photo project
Redlights and Redeyes — Chip Litherland's photo blog
youarenotyourego — Richard Koci Hernandez falling back in love with photography

Atlas ties Boca 1-1
Last night I went to my first Liga Hispana game in well over a month and a half and was treated to some great light as the sun was going down. The game itself was not very eventful though and I missed THE shot as the lone Atlas goal was a header that happened like 10 feet in front of me as I was set up near the other team's goal. I got the short lens camera up in time to get the shot below of the Boca goalie, but....





-DKM

Jun 17, 2008

Trip continued to the other side of the coin

So after leaving Ness' dad's house last Tuesday night we continued on down to Crescent City, Ca. where my folks live. I was pleasantly surpised to find that my sister, whom I haven't seen in a couple years, made a surprise visit from so. California with her finance', who recently proposed to her around her birthday last month.
Speaking of birthdays, one of the reasons we made it down there last week was to celebrate Wyse's first birthday. He had a great time devouring his little cake. I think he almost had a hard time believing that we were actually letting him have at it like that. We all had a really good time playing on the beach, playing cards and wiffle ball. My mom even suggested a family picture, which we haven't done in many years. Although my brother bailed out, I made a couple nice frames by setting the timer and jumping into the picture. We of course had to do a crazy one too once we got a keeper.
Anyway, you'll find a lot of what I'm talking about below:










-DKM

Jun 8, 2008

Remembering Laverne

On Saturday our family joined with many others from Vinessa's family to remember her grandmother Laverne, who passed away in early April. I posted some pix from my last visit with her HERE. I always really liked her, as she was someone who was always very nice to me throughout the years and made me feel like she enjoyed me being around, which is always a nice feeling. Anyway, here's what I saw during the memorial service.









-DKM

Jun 4, 2008

The Grand YOUNG Party

I did an audio slideshow for the story I did about the young delegates at the state GOP last weekend, if you wanna check it out click HERE
I think it came out pretty good, though I must admit it took me a while to get to doing it as I was engrossed with watching Barack seal his historic nomination tonight.

-DKM

Jun 3, 2008

Baptized at the beach

Last Sunday our friend Kortney was baptized by another friend of ours, Jarrett Johnson, who is a pastor at the Presbyterian church in Seaview. What was particularly interesting about this somewhat normal religious ceremony was its unusual location — Kortney was baptized at Waikiki Beach in Ilwaco. Since the water is about 50 or so degrees this time of year she borrowed Ness' wet suit for the afternoon. Here's some pix of the ceremony.





-DKM

Jun 2, 2008

GOP convention outtakes

Last Thursday afternoon I drove to Spokane to shoot a story about three young adults from our county who make up the youngest delegation in Washington at the state Republican convention. This was an interesting and eye-opening — and in some cases actually eye-closing — experience for several reasons.

I like going into situations like this with at least some semblance of a plan. I met with Nan Malin, who is one of the top GOPs in the state and had taken these three under her wing, in order to figure out when and where I would have access during the two days I would be there. It was all set, she had arranged for me to have access to several events and I was feeling pretty good about it. This all changed however almost as soon as I got to the convention the next morning. Apparently due to security concerns arising from the uprising that was the Ron Paul supporters, a lot of the convention and its activities were closed to the media (as well as the alternate delegates) for some reason. At one point during the day I went literally nose to nose with the convention chair in charge of such things and later found out that I almost got my credential pulled. This left me shooting things that really didn't show what all a delegate does at a state convention, which was very disappointing for me.
The saving grace though was the kids themselves, who were great. Smart, friendly and willing to discuss differences — I think some of the adults could have taken a few pointers in this regard. I really wish I could have had the opportunity to really see them in action.

Anyway, I had a lot of unexpected downtime in between the opportunities I did have to be shooting them, and ended up taking a lot of pics that have no place in the story, but were things I saw at the convention.

The security line for the delegates going into the convention was long and almost airport-like.



Dino Rossi was the belle of the ball and so I guess that's why he got the biggest sign. Security was everywhere, lots of city cops and county deputies keeping an eye on things. This however did not stop Nan from getting nailed in the head by some dudes flag he was waving.



While represented pretty well amongst the seated delegates, a grand majority of the alternates were also Paul supporters and took every chance they could get to make that known. They were actually pretty entertaining, despite the fact that they were really ticking a lot of people off.

This was the only evidence I found the whole time I was there of Bush being the sitting president, which I found interesting. I mean, the GOP has had the president in office for the last seven years, and they were speaking about how they need to "save this country" which made me wonder if this means they need to save it from themselves?

Here's me riding the elevator back to my hotel room for like the fourth time on Friday.

When I finish the audio slideshow from the story I'll post it on here tomorrow.


SPJ honors
On my way back from Spokane on Saturday evening I attended the awards dinner for the Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, or SPJ, which is in honor of the winners of their annual Excellence in Journalism competition. I had entered four single photos and a portfolio of my best work from last year and had been notified that I'd won something and since it was essentially right off I-90 I made it part of my return trip.
Of course, looking as if you'd just driven for 5 hours (which I had at that point) made a little uncomfortable amongst the masses in ties and jackets, but oh well. I sat with a couple who felt the same way and were particularly nice. He's a writer for Washington CEO magazine and she is a front page designer for the Tacoma News Tribune.
By the end of the long night I was pretty happy, as I was given the Portfolio Award, a first in spot news photo, and second in sports photo and a third in feature single photo (all in the non-daily categories). The portfolio was a selection of what I felt were my 10 best pix from last year, the spot news was my pic of the couple at Washaway Beach last December, the sports pic was of Kyle Burkhalter competing in the triple jump and shot from directly above the pit, and the feature was from the pie eating contest at the Wahkiakum County Fair last summer. It was very cool to be honored alongside some of the other shooters in the state that I admire, like Rod Mar and Alan Berner.

-DKM