Nuclear Waste - JJH Productions
In which JJH and crew make a Super 8 film!
Jesse Jame Hennessey, a local filmmaker and super cool dude, has asked me to assist a bit with his submission for the Straight 8 Film Competition. The limits of the competition are simple> Straight 8 sends you one roll of Super 8mm film and you make a one-take film. No editing, no sound wizardry, no SFX! Challenging and Fun
Nuclear Waste has been in the planning stage for several weeks and Jesse and the team have made a few dry runs but last Saturday (3-19), the whole gang showed up for a few hours of blocking, camera choreography and practice runs. It's fair to say that we had a blast. If you happen to see a few cans of PBR in the images ... those aren't props!
Take a look at the wonderful folks we've assembled!
CAST
Dan Anderson – Heart
Amy Sue Encinas – Flower
Tahlia Rubin – Meadow
Jason A. Young – Patches
CREW
Jesse James Hennessy – Writer/Director/Producer
Shaun Springer – Assistant Director
Tom Edwards – Props and Set Decorations
Amy Calkins, Wild Angel FX Make-UP - Special Effects/Makeup
Annamarrie Gorny - Makeup
Dani Wiyrick - Makeup
John Carl Toth – Composer
Tami Tisha, HB Sanitarium – Poster and Media Artwork
Daniel D Baumer, danscape – Social Media and Set Photographer (That's ME!)
John Austin – Set Photographer
Today, we go out and film the official version. I'll be certain to post some of the images I capture during the filming and the promotional images that I create.
Stay tuned!
The Geometry of Snow
The Geometry of Snow
We live in a beautiful portion of the country. From any part of Spokane, you're just a few minutes in any direction to being in the wilderness, the prairie or the rolling farmlands. Mountain streams and the hidden valleys abound. With this heavy snow, even a walk through the South Hill becomes an escape into nature.
The Trade Winds Motel
What was once an ultra-cool travel lodge is now, well ..... a sh#thole!
From the Spokesman-Review:
Once a fashionable motel, built when the country loved Tiki-style architecture, the Trade Winds in recent years became a rent-by-the-month apartment complex for Spokane’s hard-luck crowd.
Well, yes. It has become, how should I say this ...... a shithole ..... but it's a shithole with amazing textures and colors to it. In a different world, it should be brought back to its motor-lodge glory and made a hub of hipster coolness. I suspect that's not going to happen, though. Too many strikes against it. Shame. It's cool to look at so I'll enjoy it while I can.
Stevens Lake by iPhone
I've already told you about this trip to Stevens Lake in a previous post so I won't bore you with the details again. I suppose that I could add some cute poetry but I suspect that you'd rather see the pretty picture.
There may have been some skinny-dipping involved. The water was as chilly as you might expect so I didn't last long.
As the trail winds through several types of forests and gains elevation quickly, every bend and turn provided a new view or a new type of forest to walk through.
I so thoroughly love every aspect of the Stevens Lake Trail. It's my favorite escape valve in North Idaho.
Stevens Lake - iPhone - danscape (18 of 69)
Stevens Lake by GoPro
One of my favorite places in all the Inland Northwest!
From the All Trails/NatGeo website:
Stevens Lakes is a 5 mile out and back trail located near Mullan, Idaho that features a lake and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for fly fishing & hiking and is accessible from June until October.
I love this place! When I need a one-day escape from the world, I often head east to this getaway nestled in the Bitterroot Mountains just outside of Wallace, Id. Though I wouldn't call it an easy hike, it's really only steep in a few short places. Really manageable for most hiker. What I always find amazing about the trail is how it winds through a few different geographic zones.
In one area, you'll be surrounded by cedars and walking through great dampness. A little while further you'll be on an exposed rock slide face that is more dry pine. Just a bit further and you'll be walking under deciduous trees and have very different shrubbery surrounding you.
Let's not forget the lakes. This most recent trip showed them at the lowest level that I've seen. We had an easy winter and it was near the end of a dry summer so it wasn't unexpected. Nor was it disappointing. The water was still clear and cold. The ancient deadwood logs were still scattered along the banks. As I was alone up there, I did go for a skinny dip in the icy water. As I am a wimp, it didn't last long. The chill was washed away within minutes of stretching out on a rocky bank and soaking in the sun.
The nap induced from the warmth made the short trip to the upper lake a slim prospect. I would have had to circle back around the west side of the lower lake and head up. Not a hard scramble but my time was running short. Had to get back to Wallace.
Again, I'm thankful to the good folks at Huppin's for the loan of the Go Pro. A cool tool for capturing interesting angles.
Break Dancers at Huntington Park
With the chill in the air, Summer is but a memory. But what a fine memory!
The Storm over the 'Storm over Garland' - updated
Here's the iPhone pic that started it all.
I'm doing some Event Photography and Social Media work for the good folks in the Garland Business District and their upcoming street fair. It's always a popular event and our goal was to get it a bit more attention and to have a number of great images captured so folks can remember the experience. In preparation for it and to build up a bit of buzz, I've driven and walked through the area a couple times recently to capture a few images for our Twitter feed.
On Tuesday evening, after a full day at work, I visited again hoping to get a few sunset images of the area. Just as I parked, I got a weather notification regarding a potential storm. Almost as soon as I got out of my car, I saw the skies to the south looking crazy dark. I also noticed that the town smelled of earthen dust, a very unique smell. It was the haboob being pushed by the storm. I took a few pics with both my phone and my DSLR and captured a few winners that I Tweeted out. They got a bit of buzz from a few friends and news sites but nothing too big. There were a lot of folks tweeting some really cool pics and weather updates.
I continued to walk around and captured a few more images including this winner of the Quinn Marketing building. As the storm got worse, I packed up my gear and was about to head home when I saw, to the west, the best ever cloud formation. I parked and grabbed my iPhone. It was raining too much for me to risk my good camera and there were too many cars for me to get to where I wanted (the middle of the street) so I just got the best vantage point that I could and took 3 pictures, including the one above.
Almost immediately, I knew that it was a great one, even for an iPhone pic. I quickly posted it on my Twitter feed, @danscaper, and the Facebook page of the Garland Business District. I'm familiar with how to monitor Facebook stats and I could see that the image got very popular, very quickly. It was going very well in Spokane but once KXLY Radio shared it on their page, it went crazy from there.
It almost died down when another popular local station, 92.9 ZZU, shared it, too. More sharing and liking ensued, the likes of which I haven't been involved with before. Really cool stuff and a great way to highlight both me and the Garland Street Fair.
What threw a wrench in the works is that KHQ posted the pic on their Facebook page as a submission from one of their followers. They admitted that they didn't know who took the pic but admired it enough to post it anyways. Not the way I would have liked but I'm pleased that they enjoyed it. It quickly got tons of play (571 Likes and 69 shares as of this writing). Again, I'm pleased but those are stats that I can't track because the images wasn't shared properly.
After a quick note to KHQ, they were happy to tag me and danscape photography and I'm grateful for it. Any attention is good attention and they certainly meant no harm. Plus, they threw in a plug for the street fair. Where it got screwy is how a few folks claimed credit for it in the comments section and another few folks doubted who actually took it. One guy went so far as to copy the image and then share it on his page. He said that he did it to make certain that proper credit was given so I guess he meant well. There, it went on to get more attention (268 likes and 25 shares as of this writing) that I couldn't track because it was now a copy of a copy. After a friend of mine reached out to him and let him know whose it was, he sent me a friend request and tagged the image. Again, I couldn't track it but it was still nice of him to share it and give credit.
So were are we at now? Many lessons learned about the etiquette and power of sharing, LOTS of positive attention, several new followers and friends and a fantastically popular image.
Oh ..... that image! I took it home, spent some time with it in Snapseed, Lightroom and Photoshop and came up with this ......
I'm working on a few different ways to make it available in print or poster form and I'm planning on using it to raise funds for a local charitable group, a civic organization that helps out those that have troubles helping themselves.
Spokane, thanks for the positive experience and the opportunity to take and share such a fabulous image of our town.
A screen cap from the fella that shared the image. Basically, my suspicion was correct, that he totally meant well and just liked the image and wanted the proper artist tagged.
Just further proof that if you're looking for cool folks and good stories, you'll find them. Thank you, Shauk.
The Little Captains
Another Hoopfest image that I'll treasure. Team Miami Baller, keeping the streets ..... and 'Merica, free!
