Since February 2010 I’ve been involved in helping to produce “Amie About Town” with Amie Winters. We’ve got some forty stories to our team credit now. Our philosophy of with “Amie About Town” (AAT) is as follows:

That Sounds Like Fun.

That’s it. That simple. If it’s fun, we’re in.

Sometimes Amie is at the center of the fun, sometimes she’s just along for the ride like you are.

To round out the details, we do have what you might call “categorical parameters.” Fun can assume the shape of: food, dance, art and literature, recreational sport, music, dining out, film or theater, or “zoos/anything else/miscellaneous.”

   This past week was a perfect example. While plotting out our story schedule for the summer and fall Amie and I decided we’d like to do a story on the Irvine Park Zoo. We had no physical plan or strategy of approach — other than show up with camera and batteries during operational hours. Both of us knew that the combination of kids, camera, animals, and Amie would offer intriguing possibilities. So we just piled out of the car and hit the little button that said “do a TV story, go.”

   Sometimes feature shoots are like that –- an exercise in free flowing creative application. One of the first things that happened that day at the zoo was that we spotted a Guinea Fowl standing on a nearby railing, with several children gathered around. A Guinea Fowl is a bird from West Africa that looks like a knight’s helm with a spike sticking out the top. I noticed that the bird was amazingly tame, so I hurried over and began stalking it, camera rolling. When Amie came over I introduced her to the bird. Moments later, Amie blurts out “That duck over there is moving its mouth like it’s talking…” Summon forth the Lennon Sisters, a touch of audio manipulation, a rolling pony, an “angry” goat (but that’s okay!), and volleyball-playing pig, and the rest is WQOW history.

   Even the promos (the little fifteen or thirty second “self-promotional” clips that run during commercial breaks are fun. Like the time we duct-taped the camera to the drivers’-side rear-view mirror and taped Amie “waving at herself” in downtown Eau Claire, or the time we taped her “popping up” about town.

   “Amie About Town” is about community. AAT is about creativity. AAT is about fun.

   Recently we just wrapped up shooting for the current ten-story “third” season.

   Season Four?

   Sounds like fun!

   (You can see this season’s stories on our website, under the Amie About Town page.  While there — be sure to check out “Norwegetarian” and “The Vinyl Countdown” — two other of my favorites from this year.)

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?

Rise Above it All

   The videographer is always interested in trying new and novel things, especially when they involve action, drama, humor, or take the viewer to new heights. I think that it would be incredible to put together a TV story on sky-diving. You know, have the camera in hand and rolling during the entire jump. That way, if my chute didn’t open, I could leave a recorded message for my wife reminding her to roll the garbage out to the curb in time for Tuesday pick-up.

   One of the things I always wanted to do was document a trip in a hot air balloon, and after several unsuccessful attempts, I finally got my chance in the summer of 2008.

   I was stringing together stories for my Weekend Getaway series and I’d contacted Ivan &  Mary Idso of Windrider ballooning about hitching a ride in their balloon. As I’d been told by other balloonists, my chances rested entirely upon the winds of fate. For conditions to be right for a launch, the weather had to be storm-free, and the winds could neither be too strong or too light.

   The three biggest logistical problems with taping a hot air balloon story are getting airborne (see above), landing, and that you get one perspective in between  -– from either ground level or inside the basket. Being inside the basket is of course the place to be, but the view from Earth provides the better shots of the balloon itself. Balloons –- in case you haven’t noticed — are VERY camera-friendly objects –- always colorful and dramatically positioned against a wide open blue sky.

   Inside the basket there’s not much room to move around, but the views both pointed directly up into the balloon, and down at the passing countryside are incomparably photogenic. And there’s nothing at all like the sound – or lack thereof.  Unlike a plane or helicopter, a balloon moves silently (outside of the occasional burst of flame and fan) as it glides over the farm fields, homes, and treetops. As you skim the forests, you can eavesdrop on the intimate conversations of birds below you.

   And landing? That’s an adventure all its own. It is both impossible to tape a landing and at the same instant grab a secure hold of the basket as it reunites with terra firma and bounces along to an eventual stop. If you don’t drop the camera and you live to tell about it, it’s the kind of memory that will last a lifetime of less risky pursuits…

Here’s a clip…

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?

   Squeeze Bus

   As I often say, many of my story ideas are triggered by neighbors and family. The world is too wide to keep track of all by one’s lonesome.

   Sometimes I’m simply out of the loop. Sometimes I’m too close to the story to think like a journalist. Sometimes I just miss the bus entirely.

   I owe “Squeeze Bus” to my neighbor Pete Hable.

   A couple of years before the story actually aired, Pete –- who is an adept musician – mentioned to me that a couple of his friends had developed a tradition of performing concerts on city buses during the Christmas season. My journalistic antennae sprang to full attention at that, I promise you. Pete said he didn’t know when they were planning the next event, but that he’d let me know.

   After missing one winter entirely, I finally got word that the musicians –- Paul Cook and Joel Jensen -– had scheduled a play date on the Margaret and malls bus.

   I got to the transfer station in downtown Eau Claire early enough to hear Paul And Joel –- who go by the name “Squeeze This” — warming up with a few holiday classics. As the faithful –- some adorned in holiday-appropriate attire –- assembled, I worked in an interview.

   By the time we loaded up, it was standing room only. The theme was “ride-along sing-along”, of course, so the passengers –- most of whom were riding solely to experience the music –- joined right in on classics like “Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer” and Frosty the Snowman” –- unless, of course, Paul decided to change up the lyrics.

   At stops along the way, more than one unsuspecting traveler ascended the steps of the bus, plinked a token in the till, and looked around dumbfounded. I have heard it told that some bus passengers even react angrily to the musical imposition. But most seemed pleasantly assaulted by the prospect of live music for the ride home from work or shopping.

   When we completed the loop and disbanded at the transfer station, people were still laughing or singing to the strains of two squeeze boxes trailing off into the cold and dark of the December night.

    A part of the story as aired is embedded here…

Squeeze Bus

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?

Stop & Smell the Roses

   Remember that nightmare road trip to Akron, Ohio?

   That was one of the worst travel experiences of my career. The best was an all-expense paid trip to see the Badgers win the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California in December 2000 on the cusp of “The New Millennium.”

   From 1964 through 1993, a span of 30 years, the Badgers earned a grand total of zero Rose Bowl appearances. They have made four Rose Bowl trips since.

   By December of 1999, when I traveled to Los Angeles, the Badgers were still feeling the afterglow of a Rose Bowl victory over heavily-favored UCLA the year before. The 86^th Rose Bowl Game was played on January 1^st, 2000, the day the “world was supposed to end.”

   Though I’d been to California once before, I’d never been to Southern California or Los Angeles. From the moment I exited the L.A. airport in a rental car I was overwhelmed by the scope of the sprawl and the unending sea of artificial lights. I had arranged to arrive two-and-a-half days ahead of the sports anchor so I could enjoy the opportunity to explore the area’s birdlife. Scooting north in the dark to , then rising before dawn the next morning, I explored my way down Highway from Santa Inez northwest of Santa Barbara to Ventura, Santa Monica, Palos Verdes Point, Huntington Beach and Upper Newport Bay. At about 7 PM, just as the daylight ran out, I got this misguided notion to drive across “town” to the desert on the other side, where I’d be spending the night. Until then I’d been smart enough to avoid the worst of traffic, but for the next two hours I experienced a surreal of topping seventy one minute and parking in six lanes of back-up automobiles the next.

   After another day of birding the San Bernardino National Forest and San Jacinto Mountains I returned to the airport to pick up the sports reporter and we both checked into our hotel in Century City, about thirty minutes from Pasadena.

   My job for the next two days was split almost literally into halves. The first half was taping the pre-game hype surrounding players, coaches, and fans –- including interviews with Ron Dayne and Barry Alvarez. We even shot the team portrait session.

   The second half was the post-game rush of celebratory interviews on the playing field and after that, “live shots” sent back to Wisconsin. In between I was expected to sit on my hands and simply watch the game from the press booth high atop the stadium.

   The final score was 17-9 Wisconsin, and Ron Dayne was the game’s MVP. The Badgers ended up 10-2 for the year, and it was the first time in history that a Big Ten team won back to back Rose Bowls.

   A terrorist plot targeted for New Year’s Day at the L.A. airport was thwarted by security, we returned safely to Wisconsin, and the world, as you have certainly deduced by now, kept right on pushing up roses.

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?

My Waterfall

   I was out and about one fine day when I got this idea for a big story project (this happens a lot…). Wisconsin and Minnesota have lots of pretty waterfalls, I thought… so… what if I did a year-long, four-season portrait of some of our prettiest falls?

   The concept had its drawbacks; it would mean traveling to four waterfalls in locales sometimes far from Eau Claire. Timing would be crucial and tricky. The four waterfalls I ended up choosing were 

1.    Gooseberry Falls along the North Shore of Minnesota (because I’d seen it once, thought it gorgeous, and stumbled upon someone who liked to take photographs there…)

2.    Amnicon Falls south of Superior (because I’d camped there many times…)

3.    Big Falls in Eau Claire County (because it’s one of those popular summer hotspots…) &

4.    High Falls of the Pigeon River, in Grand Portage State Park along the border of Minnesota and Canada (because it’s waaaayy up nort and kind of exotic…)

   Since each of the falls would be highlighted in a separate season it also meant four trips, and how would I justify that? In the end, it was not only the creative of the assignment that satisfied, but the economy.

   To save on time and gas I carefully “doubled up” efforts for each of the shoots — taping another more immediate story at the same time and (approximate) place.  Pretty clever, huh?

    But that was the easy part. First I had to line up the Minnesota photographer. Then arrange for two established Western Wisconsin poets to meet me at Amnicon Falls in chilly see-your-breath April. Then wade across the Eau Claire River and brave the slings and arrows of sunbathers who didn’t approve of a TV camera invading their “sanctum” (I did find four young men and four young women who granted me interviews though…). Then I had to line-up the park manager for Grand Portage State Park (Even then he was an hour-and-a-half late for the interview.) Ah well. Water over the damn…)

   High Falls is a fixture at Grand Portage State Park, which is actually part of an Indian reservation.  It’s bordered by Canada on the north and east. You can spy Lake Superior about a mile east off the east.

   The completed story was a videographer’s dream and one of the prettiest pieces ever to air on WQOW’s Northland Adventures. It won a first place national award from the Outdoor Writers of America, and –- because of the effort involved, the scale of the project, and the resultant imagery — it’s one of the most satisfying stories I’ve ever produced.

   Here are a few highlights selected from the full story (which is too long to embed here…)

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?

G With D

   In 2008 I was invited to join Chief Meteorologist Doug Michaels and Brian Hahn of Hahn’s Meat Market in producing a weekly summertime grilling series. For three years “Grillin’ With Doug” meant blending Doug and Brian’s acting talents with the back patio of WQOW News 18 and lunch on Brian.  Beginning with Memorial Day and wrapping up after Labor Day, “G With D” was a creative dream. It meant having your fun story and eating it too.

   It worked like this;

   Brian would settle on an idea for a weekly menu item. Then Doug and he and I would gather ahead of time to tape the cooking process. Sometimes I would even think of a “grillin’ motif” for the episode ahead of time. Sometimes we’d make it up as we went along.

   We ended up producing about 43 episodes in all. The following are a few of my all-time favorites…

Breakfast in Bed

   Brian starts out by pointing at his watch, which reads noon, and explaining that Doug is “sleeping in.” He then prepares ham and egg muffins and carries them in through the front door of Doug’s apartment to “Good Morning Starshine.”

Chow Bella

   Brian and Doug prepare pizza on the grill with their voices dubbed over in Italian. It’s hard to read Italian at speed, so I can hardly keep up with the action and must aggressively snip frames during the audio editing process to make my bad Italian sound “faster”, and to keep pace with what Doug and Brian are saying. I still don’t know how I got away with this one. Surreal TV… 

The Old Switcheroo

   Brian suggests that he’s tired of the same old routine, so Doug reaches over, grabs a hold of his head and “zaps” him with a bolt of high energy, thus swapping identities. I then have each of the guys read the others’ lines and overdub the voices –- until Doug – as Brian — switches things back to normal.

Reunited

   The first episode of season three has Doug and Brian returning to the WQOW TV 18 patio arms open wide –- only to embrace the “Holland Gas Grill” and the “Big Green Egg.”

Grillin’ With Doug the Musical

   Doug called upon a group of his buds to serve as musical backup as Brian ran down the menu for baby back ribs. “I…want to grill with Doug all night!”

   A few clips are embedded here for your viewing pleasure…

GWD Highlights

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Grand Opener

   I’ve been a Brewer fan since they were the “former Seattle Pilots.” When the Brewers –- led by Paul Molitor and Robin Yount — won the Eastern Division in 1982, I was “stuck” working at Glacier National Park in Montana, and the only way I could get game results was to check the newspapers the day after the game. By the time they made the World Series against St. Louis, I was working in Big Bend National Park along the Mexican border in Texas. I missed every Series game at old County Stadium.

    People around the nation didn’t think much of Milwaukee County Stadium, though I never minded it. It was a classic old stadium, and you could watch gulls and even hawks soaring over the game, or watch the moon rising from over the lake. I once saw a Simon and Garfunkel concert there as well.

   From the start, the new Miller Park was built of controversy. There was the “Big Blue” crane collapse, and the residents of Racine County were so bitter about the tax levied that they recalled the legislator who decided the vote at the last minute (They’re still sore about the 0.1% sales tax…).

   On April 6^th, 2001, the problems were mostly forgotten, of course. It was opening day, and the new stadium was all set for unveiling. Here’s a written account of the stadium’s key features…

   “The stadium has a retractable roof, built in a unique convertible style, with the roof panels opening and closing simultaneously in a sweeping manner from the first- and third-base sides toward center field. The complex and massive roof was a significant factor in the $392 million cost of the stadium. It allows the seating area to be heated 30 degrees warmer than the outside temperature when closed, allowing games to be played in inclement weather and in more comfortable conditions than an open air stadium.

The park, completed in 2001, features North America’s only fan-shaped convertible roof, which can open and close in less than 10 minutes. Large panes of glass allow natural grass to grow.”

   The stadium was designed to rival Baltimore’s Camden Yards –- at that time the model for inspired stadium design. The real –- not artificial turf –- was installed less than a month before game day. No Metrodome, this. Baseball is meant to played outside, not underground.

   The capacity of the stadium is listed as 41,900 capacity, but 42,024 fans somehow packed into the stadium that day. The first pitch was lobbed by then President George W. Bush. I taped some of the game, the requisite interviews and stand-ups, but mostly got to sit in a seat and watch.

   After nine innings were played, the home town team beat the Reds 5-4, even though Reds players claimed the stadium’s first ever hit, the first run scored, the first home run, and the first RBI.  Jeremy Burnitz and Jim Sexson each homered for the Brew Crew. Jeff D’Amico started but David Weathers got the win. And oh yeah — the brat won the sausage race.

   But one of the most unforgettable moments of the entire day occurred after the game, when they opened the roof for the first time  to Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra, and  Moby’s “God Moving Over the Face of the Water” and forty-some thousand some people stood cheering and ogling as the starry sky made its first appearance of the evening.

   Since that day the Brewers have had problems with winning. I’ve only been back to the stadium once, as part of a birthday celebration for my Dad. Maybe one day I’ll get to see a World Series return to Milwaukee, where on a fine autumn day, baseball is played with the roof open.

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?

Miss Dee

   Only once in my career as a journalist have I ever met and interviewed someone strictly via pseudonym. I met her in 2010, as part of my “In Person” series featuring some of the Chippewa Valley’s most influential, inspiring, and intriguing people. 

   To this day I know her only as “Miss Dee-Lovely.”

   You’re familiar with terms like “cross-dresser”, “female impersonator”, and “drag queen”, but Miss Dee refers to herself as a “gender illusionist”. She’s not trying to convince anyone that she’s female, but, man –- she sure dresses the part.

   I was fortunate enough to gain access to the dressing room at the Little Theater when Miss Dee underwent her multi-hour “transformation.”  I was told this isn’t anywhere near standard procedure — that she rarely allows anyone to tape her out of drag. By the time she had glued on the lashes, positioned the wig and laced up her boots, she was a glamorous six-foot-four version of Marilyn Monroe.

   Now I know what you’re thinking…

   She is a “he.” And how can you possibly call that “glamorous.”

   My response? Open your mind like a window. Let the sun shine in. Art is its own justification, and Miss Dee is a true artist. The fact that she can sing and act has landed her fat roles on area stages. She can look the part and she can play it all. And in the ensuing nearly hour-long interview she demonstrated a keen insight into performance art, psychology, and culture. The completed episode –- pared down significantly from the full interview due to the typical time and space constraints of the daily news program — won us a Wisconsin Broadcaster’s Association award in the Best Feature category. But I didn’t do the bulk of the work; I just turned the show over to Miss Dee-Lovely.

   Highlights of the story are embedded here for your enjoyment…

 Miss Dee

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?

   24/9

    There are certain sporting events that are tougher to shoot than others, both for reasons practical and aesthetic.

   Everybody knows that baseball can be terribly slow-moving.  To the connoisseur, that’s elemental; to the news photographer, it’s problematic. You have to click on every pitch because you never know if it’ll be driven to deep left. Track is difficult to shoot because it’s always moving away from you in an arc or coming at you full speed. Golf is just about the worst. It moves slowly like baseball, but you have to follow that tiny white ball though the viewfinder, all the while worrying about your changing focus. Mission Impossible.

   Shooting hunting or fishing is also grueling –- for other reasons. Shooting fishing is so easy one could strap the camera to the head of a chimp and get satisfactory results. Just make sure to hold long enough for the “Nice Fish!”

   Hunting is just the opposite. It’s the toughest work you’ll ever do as a videographer for the least returns. Pheasants and grouse are always flushing at secret angles to the camera and flashing past like feathered bullets. The video is always shaky and after a half hour of that, your back and shoulder are screaming.

   Biking presents problems too. Bikes move fast as pheasants, so you can catch them at the start of a race or at the finish line. Or you can try and ride along on a bike holding the camera in one hand –- basically an accident waiting to happen. Or you can catch a ride in a vehicle and hold the seven thousand dollar camera out the car window with one hand or sit in the back with the trunk open, legs dangling.  I’ve tried all of these with varying results.

   The most challenging and I believe most satisfying biking shoot I ever tackled was in Wausau during the summer of 2005.

   The premise alone presented intriguing taping challenges. The race is called “Twenty Four Hours of Nine Mile”. It’s held in the Nine Mile County Trail near Rib Mountain outside Wausau, and is –- as the name suggests –- a looong relay-style bike race – starting in the morning and running until the next AM nonstop. Teams are composed of multiple riders who may race as many loops as they like, or “pass the baton” to a teammate.

   My challenge as a photographer was to capture the spectacle over both time and distance; to track the riders through the varied course and throughout the duration of the entire twenty-four hours.

   Obviously, there’s no need to tape continuously. What the videographer does is select specific segments or episodes of an event and then edit them together as a representation of the whole. It seemed to me that to capture the feel of 24-9, however, I needed to be present at the start, at the finish, and at several points in between – both during daylight and during darkness.

   While daylight is no obstacle to taping, darkness is. Video is notoriously bad in low-light conditions. Night-shooting requires the assistance of added light. Natural light is rarely strong enough to illuminate the subject at night. Starlight is useless. Even a full moon doesn’t shed enough light to make the subject visible. The additional of artificial light is always required — usually supplied by the photographer, but not always. Car headlights, for example, can do the trick nicely.

   As is typical in popular athletic events, the start of the race was crowded, and colorful. The racers actually start off running toward their parked bikes. As the race progressed, though, the racers dispersed widely, until the trails were humming with a steady flow of riders. One could position a camera at any bend or view of the trail and capture racers speeding past. As the day wore on, I recorded several teams switching off riders, and interviewed several teams at their “campsites”. I taped more of the race as the sun set, then packed up the gear and turned in at a nearby hotel.

   I returned to the course after midnight. At one point along the trail, a checkpoint had been constructed. Around a bonfire stood a cluster of cheering bystanders. With the help of a prepositioned battery-operated light, I managed to tape just enough of the passing riders to document the nighttime segment of the event.

   By dawn I was once again busy taping, and when the first finishers arrived, I was right there recording the triumphant moment.

   The results were a nine minute mini-documentary of a unique sporting venue, and while I never once sat atop a bike, I felt like I’d experienced the thrill of the race firsthand. The full story is too big to include here (space issues!), but I’ve embedded a few of the re-edited highlights below…

24Nine

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?

Mike’s Doghouse

   As I’ve already written, I’ve had the chance to cover the Green bay Packers as a photojournalist.

   One day at training camp in 1996 the team was practicing at their indoor facility – the Hudson center.

   The Hudson center is a big metal “shed” large enough to hold as full-sized football field – or more accurately parts of two full-sized football fields. It’s then possible to run two separate drills on each of the artificial turf mats. Along the western edge of the “north” field is a “buffer zone” of space about another twenty yards wide between the field and the shed wall.

   The reporter and I were waiting for practice to let up so we could grab a few interviews and there wasn’t much going on, so I decided to taske a break. While Mike Holmgren and the staff mon itored the drill from the sidelines, I took a ook behind me at the empty space behind us. There wasn’t anything like a seat or bench or chair, so I walked over to the wall. where I noticed a six-inch wide beam near the base of the shed wall. It was just wide enough for me to lean my backside against it.

   Not more than thirty seconds had transpired before I heard a shout. I glanced up to where the sound came from to see Mike Holmgren glaring in my direction.

   “If you want to sit down, go somewhere else.,” he bellowed.

   My first reaction ws to do one of those “who’s he talking to” look-arounds. My second reaction was “Oh-oh! He’s yelling at me!”

   The entire squad was now staring in my direction though Coach Holmgeren had already turned back to the scrimmage. Several other staffers, having picked up on the coaches ire,  had advanced closer however.

   “No one is allowed to sit during practices.” one of the junior staffers shouted at me. “Part of the rules.”

   “You’ve got to be kidding me?” I said out loud. I was twenty yards away from the nearest players and had my back pressed against the side of the building.

   “Hey – you don’t like it you can leave!” the staffer rejoined.

   I was considering my options when the reporter interceded. His profuse apologies and explanation that I probably wasn’t aware of the “house rules” seemed to mollify the assistant, who – with ohjne last glance to make certain that I had resumed standing – returned to the sideline and practice.

    From that moment I knew that I would never again start as a Green Bay Packer, and I’m convinced that to this day that Big Mike – even though I’ve forgiven him for yelling at me in front of the gang  — carries his resentment around with him like a football tucked high and tight.

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?