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'Nother week, another slew of pix

2009-11-07T18:06:00.000-08:00

This was originally destined to be like three different posts, but somehow its next Tuesday already...

Halloween night we went trick or treating with our friends the Trudell's. Their son Tristan went as Ben Franklin, complete with the "skullett" hair piece. We met some interesting people along the way.

Wyse went as a dinosuar (he loves dinos right now), while his sissy went as Pebbles, though I don't know if she's ever actually seen the Flintstones, but loves the cereal). Ness made both the costumes, which was pretty cool.

On Thursday I was driving around looking for a weather pix, and instead shot my first buck ... with my camera of course. This six-pointer was hanging out down by Waikiki Beach and was nice enough to hold still for awhile so I could get a few frames. The autumn color helps, though I wish I could've gotten closer.

Later that night I drove to Westport, the home of Ocosta High School to shoot Naselle's final regular season game, where they clinched their third straight playoff berth. At halftime I saw something unusual, as some of the guys washed off the mud that was caked on them. As I told Austin, first time I'd seen guys take a shower at halftime. You can see a gallery of pix from the game HERE if you like. Naselle plays Tacoma Baptist in a first round game this Friday night in Tacoma, course I'll be there. You can check out our week-long coverage of the game at the Friday Night Sights Blog.

Friday afternoon I was up in South Bend again as once again Brian Brush was in court. The main reason for me going was because he has apparently been on a hunger strike and was noticeably thinner.
While taking the pic above his lawyer decided to block my view with his folders, which actually made for a pretty good pic IMO.

Saturday afternoon I shot pix at the North Head Lighthouse again. This is for another story about its deterioration, this time about a non-profit group trying to save it. Thankfully the lighthouse was open to visitors so I could get some interior pix. Last time out I got stuff of the crumbling exterior, which you can see HERE if you like.

I must've had a thing for pix through doors and windows Saturday, as I made it out to Knappton Cove for a quick pic from the L&C event they had going on there.

As I returned to town and was stopping for a peppermint mocha my wife called and said they were down at the beach and I should come check it out. After picking her up a pumpkin spice chai and headed down I found a virtual winter wonderland — only it wasn't snow, it was thick sea foam that was created by the remnants of last months algae bloom and the rough weather and washed ashore by an extremely high tide. A few clammers were checking it out but most stuck to their cars as wind and sneaker waves blew it all over the place.

-DKM

Rainy night sights

2009-10-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was at the Naselle-South Bend football game, a huge local rivalry. Naselle dominated the line of scrimmage all game to pound out an impressive 22-8 win to secure a playoff berth for the third straight year. What was perhaps most impressive was the fact that they didn't let the sloppy wet weather affect them, switching up their offense a bit and ramming fullback Alan Erickson into the end zone three times. Last years team was really good, but I am now totally convinced that this years team is truly great and can beat people so many different ways.
Anyways, enough of the accolades, here's some pix from tonight.
Here's coach Eaton getting doused with the water cooler shower. I thought it was somewhat suspect that there was a water cooler on the bench for the first time all season (they usually use water bottles) but I didn't really suspect that they'd get him since we were all soaking wet already. But sure enough ... I was lucky enough to be right in front of him when they got him, but I wasn't so lucky to come away unharmed myself. In the course of getting the pic a player backed up into me causing my camera to nail me above my right eye. As I was leaving, one guy was nice enough to tell me I had blood running down my face...
Alan Erickson is such a heart and soul of this team, and with three TDs tonight? Defintely deserves to get a little silly afterward.
Oh, did I mention it POURED tonight?
Pregame national anthem moment. Dig the hair.
Pregame touching moment between friends.

If you wanna see more pix from the game go HERE
Well, here it is almost midnight, getting ready to head home, only to get up at 7 to drive to Olympia to shoot the district cross country meet. C'ya

-DKM

Wyse - 4 pix, 1 day

2009-10-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I got one of my cameras back after it had been in the shop and I had yet to reprogram it to my specifications if you will. I finally got around to it yesterday and took some test shots of the boy. I really love this one.

Wyse's favorite show is Sesame Street, the first TV he ever showed any interest in, and that was only like 9 months ago. Here he is dancing along to the "fruit dance" song — he loves going bare-legged at home.

Last night was Kenz' final soccer game of the season. He decided to bring his baseball and glove to keep himself occupied.

One of our friends needed a pic of a parent interacting with a child for a presentation she's working on, so I snapped this one of them sharing a book on the couch last night before bed. He just looooooves books.

-DKM

Endless, Nameless

2009-10-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

Todays post is named after the "secret song" at the end of the Nirvana album Nevermind. On some of the original CDs after seemingly ending the album with the hushed acoustic track Something in the Way, if you let the disk keep playing for like another six or seven minutes you get the long, loud, lyrically unintelligible track that just keeps going for almost 7 minutes.
After more than a week without posting anything, what you're basically getting here is one long recap of last week or so for me. I'll try to keep my rantings a little more coherent than the song.
So we begin two Saturday's ago at the Naselle High School homecoming game. I like to think that they were thinking of me when they decided to schedule the game for a Saturday afternoon, but I know better. I will say that I'd gladly speak at a school board meeting and make a passionate plea to have more Saturday afternoon games in the future if anyone thinks it will do any good. Love shooting football during the day!

These are two pix that didn't make the paper that I liked from the coronation at halftime. I always think it makes a good pic when a football player wins and gets the cape and crown. The Comets were so far ahead by then that the coach actually let the players sit along the sidelines and watch, rather than heading off to the locker room. Can honestly say I've never seen that before.
The start of last week was also the start of what I'm referring to as the "sick days" at the Mulinix house, as my daughter came down with the flu. My wife took her to the doctor and was told that they aren't screening people for H1N1, but that we might as well assume that's what it was. By my day off on Wednesday everyone in my house had it — except me — to varying degrees. In fact, save for some added tiredness and a rough throat for a day or two, I was just fine. No clue why. I told Ness it was my superior Polish genes, but I have my doubts. As I was assessing the scene that afternoon I sent an email to my boss saying that my house was like the Dawn of the Dead with all the zombies around. I also considered putting a quarantine sign on the door like the one on the LOST hatch.

Anyway, by the time Thursday came around I was more than happy to get back to work. Here's an outtake from a little parade by the Boys & Girls Club kids I went to.
Later that evening I was up in Naselle to shoot volleyball. After a hot start to the season the girls hadn't been doing so well — they'd yet to win a league game. Guess I caught them on a good night, as they made short work of North Beach. And while I would like to think that I was some kind of lucky charm for the team, I have my doubts yet again as a bunch of players came down with the flu a day later and they had to cancel their appearance in an invite tourney Saturday.
After a drive up to Menlo in the afternoon the next day I was out in the cold at Peterson Field for the Ilwaco homecoming game. The coronation at halftime was a little different as the seniors came out escorted by their family and are then made to each open a box in front of them that shows if they have won. Annika Wolters was the queen this year, to which she and her mom were pretty excited about. The girl has had a tough year, and it was nice to see her classmates get behind her.
The king, Troy Harkness' mom Maryann was pretty excited as well. You may remember a few weeks back I caught some ridiculous flack from some staff at the school for a picture of two students briefly kissing before a football game. Hope they don't have the same feelings about this one.
The game itself was a pretty rough affair, as the team the Fishermen were playing started taking cheap shots late in the third quarter. I guess they figured they could get away with it since the referees essentially turned a blind eye to it. The Fishermen hung tough for quite awhile, but couldn't keep up in the fourth quarter.
The next morning I had the chance to meet up with a father who was taking his 12-year-old daughter hunting for the first time. Now, I'll have to add that this was not her first time out, more like her fourth or fifth, but this season has been her first. It was mostly a lot of walking, as we never saw any game. Jerry said that was likely because the weather was so bright and calm. There also wasn't many chances to catch them interacting much, as it is a fairly quiet and almost solitary kind of thing. I like these ones though. I also have plans to go out with another family that duck hunts, so we'll see how that goes.

Lastly, later that night I went to the candlelight vigil down at the Bolstad beach approach — part of domestic violence awareness month. What really made it poignant was the fact that it took place less than 100 yards away from the memorial for Lisa Bonney, and the fact that her sister Kim and several friends, including the woman in the pic below who had been a friend since childhood, were there. I got to talk with her some afterward and found that she lives in McMinnville, and has for several years. In fact she lived there when Me and Ness did, and her apartment is only a few blocks away from the house we lived in. Small world I guess.

-DKM

Blessed Beasts

2009-10-15T18:17:00.001-07:00

On the Sunday before I went out of town I visited the Methodist Church in Ocean Park to photograph the blessing of animals by Pastor Rene' Devantier. This was in honor of St. Francis of Assisii, the patron saint of animals. We used a couple pix as a front page package this week and I put together a short audio slideshow HERE if you wanna check it out.

While getting his face baptized by Coco the dog Pastor Devantier said "You're giving me blessings, I'm not giving you blessings."
And while most of the animals being blessed were dogs, one young woman brought this baby chick that was particularly afflicted — born with one eye, which had since dried up, and a crooked beak. But she loves it, and named it Popeye.

-DKM

Director Dad

2009-10-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

Last week I headed south with Wyse to catch my dad's directorial debut in California. In the last few years he has gotten back into the theater, which was a big part of both my parents lives for several years. Now debut isn't totally true, as he directed a summer melodrama summer before last, but this was his first time helming a full-fledged musical.

The show was "The Fantasticks," a show that he was in when he was like 20.
It's tradition to have an "energy circle" prior to the start of each show. I remember doing this when I was in a production of "The Music Man" by this theater company back in the late 80s when I was like 12.

Wyse was cool, he hung with Gramma backstage before the show and then sat contently watching the whole two hour show, even clapping after the musical numbers.

We went on opening night and it received excellent reviews from the audience, much to my dad's enjoyment. Great job old man!

-DKM

Grilled Berger

2009-10-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

I know this is a little late, but I was out of town most of last week to go see a play my dad directed in California (pix to come soon). Anyway, the day before I left town I shot the Ilwaco candidate forum, which featured the folks running for city council and mayor. The council has been best known over the last couple years as being a particularly cranky bunch, with the meetings filled with infighting and personal scores between each other. Usually I wouldn't go to shoot something like this but with their history I had a feeling it could be interesting. Turns out I was right.

This is Don Berger, a candidate for one of the council seats getting into an animated argument with two local business woman — Wendy Peterson and Karla Nelson — following the forum. The fact that two other candidates are laughing behind his back is typical. Nelson told reporter Amanda Frink afterward that the argument stemmed from an accusation by Berger that the two ladies had cut down one of his campaign signs... A couple days later Berger sent me an e-mail refuting that he ever said such a thing.

I love this town

-DKM

Towering inferno

2009-09-27T21:49:00.001-07:00

Last night I was assigned to get a photo of a firemen training exercise where they practiced battling propane fires. A local propane dealer donated several hundred gallons of fuel, which sent a tower of flame over two stories into the air once lit. Chief Glasson said that near the blaze it was putting off 3,000-plus degrees as the firemen approach to turn off the valve as part of the exercise.
We don't have a lot of REAL large fires here (thankfully), but their practices can be pretty awesome.

-DKM

Kenz on the pitch

2009-09-24T22:20:00.001-07:00

Tonight was Kenz' season opening soccer match. This is her fourth year playing, but my first time taking pictures of her doing as up until this year I coached her teams. I have to say this was a lot more fun and less work.

She's really pretty good, especially when she gets to play offense, cuz she's quick and can handle the ball while moving downfield.
She even assisted on a goal by her teammate and came pretty darn close to one herself.

As it is little league they switch the players around to all manner of positions. She even spent time in the net as goal keeper. And while she admits it's not her favorite spot to play, get her out in the open field as a forward, you better look out!
Awesome job tonight Kenz!

-DKM

Bear River Battle

2009-09-18T23:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the big local rivalry game between Ilwaco and Naselle. It was a weird game, as Ilwaco arrived about five minutes before kick-off (on purpose mind you) there were turnovers, funky ref calls, an interesting new offense from Ilwaco, etc. In the end Naselle blocked a field goal try to win 22-20.

This is quite possibly my favorite football picture of the year so far. I got it as the players were dressing in front of their bus they just arrived on. If his girlfriend were just a student in street clothes it would have been one thing, but to have her be a cheerleader, well, I guess the gods were smiling on me. Ooooh, I love high school football.
You can check out a gallery of pix from this game at the football blog if you like.

-DKM

**POSTSCRIPT**
I just wanted to make a quick note about the photo above that was also featured on the front page of the paper this week. While youthful innocence was supposed to be the message conveyed in the photo of a cheerleader and football player sharing a brief kiss before the game Friday, it seems that some found it in someway inappropriate. Granted, kissing on campus is not allowed, but this took place outside of Ilwaco school grounds and much after class time was over. As I understand it the couple have been dating for quite some time and the girls mother said that she loves the picture and bought an extra copy of the paper. If her parents have no problem with her giving her longtime boyfriend a quick smooch after school, why should anyone else disagree? And to suggest that that it somehow reflected poorly on the school itself by publishing the picture is patently absurd. With all the tragedy that has taken place in our community in the last few weeks, my hope was that the photo might offer a glimpse at a more whimsical side of life that has been missing lately. Sometimes I think some people just take life way too seriously.

Back in court

2009-09-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

Brian Brush was supposed to be arraigned today so I was back in superior court in South Bend to photograph. The court was considerably fuller this time around, a large group of whom were family and friends of Lisa Bonney — including her eldest daughter Elizabeth, at right. Unfortunately it was a waste of time for all of us in the end as the prosecution asked for and received a two week continuance before arraigning him.

There have been a couple of people who have called and complained to the paper over my photo that ran on the front page of the paper this week of Brush in court on Monday, and I just wanted to say that there was a fair amount of debate as to how to use the photos this week. We decided that we would use the photo of Bonney's memorial at the top of the page, while having Brush's photo, which was the bigger of the two, be split between fold of the paper. We are certainly not trying to be sensational or anything like that, but the fact that he is standing trial for this crime is news that much of the community has an interest in and it is our job to report that news. I hope that people understand that while our personal feelings may say one thing, our duty calls us to cover this story from all sides, ugly or not.

-DKM

Nellie & Brian get married

2009-09-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

As I'm known to do from time to time, last Saturday I was once again up in Oysterville to photograph a wedding. Of the 1,600-some I shot here are some of my favorites. Congrats Nellie and Brian!

-DKM

A sad story

2009-09-15T13:15:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty unusual day as I photographed the fallout from the murder of Peninsula resident Lisa Bonney, who was shot in broad daylight at the Bolstad beach approach Friday. The man accused of doing it, former boyfriend Brian Brush, was seen by multiple witnesses and two police officers on patrol.
It was late Friday when I first heard about it. I found out it was Bonney later on. The next day I found out it was Brush who was arrested — an odd side note, we ran a photo I took of them dancing together in the paper just a couple months ago at a ballroom dancing class.
So yesterday I watched all the TV reports on the case online and then headed down to where people had made an impromptu memorial for Bonney on a park bench near where she was killed. A woman came and placed a flower, wiped away a tear and walked away. I made two pictures.

A few hours later I was on my way up to South Bend to photograph Brush in his first appearance in superior court. From the moment he was brought in he was sobbing off and on.

The prosecuting attorney had yet to arrive so they placed him in the jury box near me (this is actually the second time this has happened to me while photographing in court in the last year). It gave me a good opportunity to show him in his shackles with the deputies watching over him.
He had yet to be given an attorney, so the court took a short recess as he talked with counsel for the first time in the back of the court. I made a few pix like this, felt this one was the most emotional. Sometimes I feel odd about taking photos in situations like this, but honestly, I felt nothing this time as he sobbed away, facing possible life imprisonment. I thought about this a lot on the drive home. Maybe it had something to do with what I overheard the prosecuting attorney tell the defense attorney in regards to the wounds he witnessed during the autopsy —"quite possibly the worst thing I have ever seen in my life." This was also a factor in him asking for, and being granted, a record $50 million bail amount for Brush.

This story is of course the lead in the paper this week, here's a LINK to the lead story, and it's SIDEBAR

My photos are also being used as the lead of the News-Review in Roseburg, Ore. today, and you can see that story HERE

Such a sad story,

-DKM

Back on the field, pt. 2

2009-09-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

After feeling half dead for the last few days and not being able to do much other than lay in bed, I felt good enough to make it out to the Ilwaco home opener tonight. However, the Fishermen played close to how I felt as they got clobbered by South Bend. For the first time in a long time I left before the game was over, as the score was 40-0 in favor of South Bend at the start of the fourth quarter. I don't feel too bad about leaving early though as it will get me back home to bed a few hours earlier than usual (hopefully I sleep the rest of this crap away tonight).

As halftime approached I caught Ned Bittner's little girl swatting bugs under the scoreboard.

At halftime the Ilwaco band performed while the cheer squad presented a giant flag in honor of the Sept. 11 anniversary today.

After the performance they scrambled into place for the rest of the halftime show.

You can see more pix from this game at the Friday Night Sights Blog Here

-DKM

Back on the court

2009-09-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the opening of the local high school volleyball season, and what better way to get things going than the Bear River Battle volleyball match between Naselle and Ilwaco? As I'm sure I've noted on here before, while I like volleyball, like shooting, it has never really liked me — meaning I have a heck of a time shooting it with any degree of success. I've tried probably a hundred different ways of lighting it, angles of shooting it, etc. Last year my best match by far was the last one I shot... So I took a long look at how I shot that match and tried to duplicate it tonight, with varying degrees of success. It still needs some fine tuning, but I feel pretty good about my chances this season...

You can see more pix from the match HERE at the Observer Sports Blog if you like.

-DKM

East meets West

2009-09-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

Amazingly enough we have bellydancers here on the Peninsula. Oh, but it gets better. There are actually two bellydancing groups, or classes, here on the Peninsula and are featured this week on the Life page.
I photographed the first group a couple weeks ago when they performed at the Golden Sands Assisted Living Center.

I got to hang out with Var'yin, who teaches classes out of a guest room at her house. She was quite good, but I kept trying to get her son into pix as he kept showing up in the doorway or windows watching her.

-DKM

Back on the field

2009-09-04T23:51:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the opening night for local high school football, and it just so happens that I found myself shooting the same team that I ended last season with, the Naselle Comets.
For the second straight year the Comets opened their season with their rivals, the Wahkiakum Mules, in the annual KM Trophy game. The Comets showed signs of a dominant running attack that powered them to a 21-12 win to bring home the coveted trophy for the first time in what is believed to be over 20 years. What a great way to start the season.
As per usual with me I found that I was making my best pictures away from the action — pregame, halftime and postgame.

I was wondering if any graduated players from last years state third place squad would attend tonight, sure enough I saw at least three or four, including all-state LB Mike Shirley, who hung with the team along the sideline for the majority of the game, even wearing an old practice jersey (I have a feeling that he would've loved to slip some pads under it and go hit some people...)
Yep, quirky, what else is new. Here the coaches son tries to dry off his dads clipboard after a steady rain fell for most of the first half.
In the movie The Dark Knight the Joker tells Batman "Tonight I'm going to make you break your one rule." Well tonight I broke my one rule and I shot action with a flash on camera. Haven't done that in a few years for football really. Didn't have a ton of success, but hey, 20% success rate with a flash as opposed to like 5% success without (especially under the NHS field lights).... You can see those along with a bunch of other shots from tonight's game over at the Friday Night Sights blog
Ooooooh, I'm so glad football's back.

-DKM

An evening with Brian ... and all his friends

2009-09-01T22:38:00.001-07:00

Last night I shot the townhall meeting by Congressman Brian Baird in Ilwaco. With all the unusual stuff that has been happening at these things lately we knew it had potential to be a good story. But it seems that our mellow beach manners got the best of us as people stayed pretty civil throughout the two hour event.
I got there an hour and a half before the start of the meeting, having read that there had been picketers outside of other Baird townhalls, and in some cases LaRouche supporters with their "Obama as Hitler" signs. When I arrived there were only about 25-30 people outside. These folks here were the first to pull out signs.
Local GOP chair Nan Malin was out there as well, talking to folks and tweeting — I told her she was way trendy. She agreed.
When it came time to let people in, they had to leave their signs outside — including those supporting Baird (rules of the house is what they telling people, as it was a school building).
But even inside the signs were still present. This fellow here was really the only lefty signholder. I thought it was interesting how they separated themselves a few feet apart on the sidewalk. I thought it was also interesting how people didn't really engage each other, even though some of the picketers were standing essentially in the way of the ramp to get inside and people had to walk through their group to get in. A group of about 7-8 stayed outside, despite the fact that there was still room. From what I heard from them talking amongst themselves they didn't like the fact that people would be drawn from a pool to ask questions and that you had to be a resident of his district in order to ask a question (they were from Oregon).

Once inside things were pretty mellow. That's my boss, Matt Winters, editor/publisher of the Observer, to Baird's right leading the flag salute. He was the moderator for the evening.
People who signed up to ask a question were given a number and Matt drew from the bunch a few at a time to see who would go next.
It was interesting that in a community that votes so blue so much that IMO the greater majority of folks there were GOP-affiliated or at least right-leaning, as were the majority of questions asked. A couple times it seemed on the verge of maybe getting a little heated, but (unfortunately for the sake of my photos) never did.

And then there was Mrs. Snider, who was quite animated in her reactions to his answers, and was pretty entertaining to watch.

All in all I think Baird held his own pretty well, and IMO, I think he showed in his answers that he isn't a super-lefty, which I think maybe some feel that he was. He said repeatedly that he had not made up his mind on how to vote on the health care bill, and seemed pretty interested in what folks had to say. He's definitely come along way from the first time I shot him, flipping pancakes at a fundraiser for his first campaign for Congress in 1999 while I was working at the Columbian.

-DKM

Court jesters

2009-08-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

My preseason workouts tour continued yesterday as I visited Naselle and Ilwaco volleyball practices. Once again, looking for something a little different than just girls doing the typical bump, set, spike stuff.
Here we have the McDonnell girls having fun during a squatting drill (yeah, really) at IHS.

Over at Naselle I was lucky enough to catch them practicing their dive and rolls. Seems some of the girls needed a bit more practice in that area. One of the coaches said "looks like you came on the right night!" Yeeeeeah.

-DKM

A fair night

2009-08-28T22:40:00.001-07:00

Tonight I was up in Menlo to shoot stuff at the Pacific County Fair. Originally I was going to be shooting a feature on one of teh contestants of the Fair Queen pageant, but it didn't work out, but I figured I'd still check out the coronation, which I was told was tonight — only to find out when I got there that it was actually last night. Soooooo..... I spent a few hours just cruising around taking in the sights.

I took a bunch of pix of these dead dive bomber planes I kept finding on the ground
While checking out the elephant ear cooks I was sidetracked by the hypnotist who was performing on the mini stage. He had a large group of kids and adults "hypnotized" (ahem, not so sure...) and having them do funny things. At this point they were supposed to be laughing at "the funniest thing ever." Made for a good frame, even if they were just playing along.

Hit the midway, found our buddy Barack hanging out with Eminem, 50 Cent and what appears to be an Aztec God with a low rider...
This was a nice find to end the night, this family from Raymond who perform as the Merry Makers were playing some old timey tunes at the entrance to the foods building, right in front of the prize winning jellies and jams.

-DKM

Sisters by saddleback

2009-08-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Over the last week and a half I had the opportunity to hang with Makenzie and Makayla Matthews of Rosburg. The sisters were the subject of our Wahkiakum County Fair feature that is running this week on the Life page. The girls are active in raising horses and I got to catch them on the farm and at the fair. We didn't have as much space as I had hoped to run more pix, so here's a few that I liked, some outtakes, and some that made the paper.
Makayla had a great quote that ran in the story that I also used as part of the cutline for this pic in the paper: "I wanna be nice to him so that he'll come to me, so I give him lots of treats so I don't have to chase him around. That's the fun part of having a horse — to be in love with it."

I know literally nothing in terms of horse-related stuff, but I thought it looked cool as the girls were "lunging" their horses, which is apparently a way to work out the horses excess energy before riding them.

This is easily one of my favorites as they were polishing their riding boots in a lean-to shed that also was home to that great old pick-up truck.

At the fair things moved pretty fast and I didn't get exactly what I wanted, This one I thought was kinda odd/funny as Makayla finishes a quick change in between events. A moment before this the horse was trying to help her with the belt so she had to slide over a bit.

I wish I would have stopped down the lens maybe one more full stop so that the horse in the foreground was just a little more in focus...

A lot of the time what dictates whether or not a photo runs is whether or not it is related to what is said in the story. In this case, I really liked this pic of Makenzie and her friends, but she didn't really talk about them in the interviews and so it wasn't really a part of the story.

Here's a link to the story if you wanna check that out. As I was wrapping it up on deadline I was commenting to my boss how every time I end up having to write a story I am that much more convinced as to why I don't do it more often...

-DKM

Free audio slideshow tutorial in Olympia Oct. 2

2009-08-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

As part of the annual Washington Newspaper Publishers Association convention, which will be taking place in Olympia this year, I'm going to be heading up a free two-hour audio slideshow tutorial workshop. This will be a basics class, mostly for people just getting their feet wet, or need some help getting off the ground in making a good show. For those more advanced I'm happy to offer reviews and feedback and would love to see you there as well.

It'll take place 10 am to noon at the Red Lion (where the convention is taking place) in a yet to be determined conference room. I helped lead a similar workshop at the Bellingham Visual Journalism Conference in July, though this will be a little more basic in nature.

Questions? Wanna sign up? Just drop me an email: dmulinix@chinookobserver.com

-DKM

Q&A on Friday Night Sights

2009-08-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Friday Night Sights football blog that we do here at the CO posted a little Q&A with yours truly about shooting football. You can check it out HERE if you like.

-DKM

Oooooh, it's that time again.

2009-08-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

I have sooooooo missed shooting sports this summer. This is possibly one of my favorite weeks of the year, the opening of fall sports practices, especially football.

Last night I was up in the valley to shoot Naselle's practice. Over the years I have shot A LOT of pix of the Comets doing their pregame stretches because they are so cool looking. I don't know if this one is new or not (I don't remember it) but they call it the "Frankenstein walk" (ABOVE) which reminded me of something from like Monty Python...

One of my favorite spots to shoot during preseason at Naselle is the water fountain where all the players grab a drink during break. This time I got down on the ground since they all have to bend over to get under the flow. I also knew I needed something to run with a sidebar this week about having players properly hydrated during practices.

Here's Riley dropping for 10 after jumping offsides during an offensive drill.

Tonight I was at Ilwaco for one of their practices. Once again shooting some cool looking drills, here is the Fishermen doing "monkey rolls."

Prior to hitting the field the team went over playbook stuff together.

I've been finding myself dragging the shutter more and more these days, though never really being that happy with it.

Another kinda odd one. Never seen this before either, where players haul another on their back for 20 yards and then do 5 squats (man that sounds hard). Only 2 weeks till opening night...

-DKM

Baby Marlee

2009-08-14T21:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to spend some time with baby Marlee Hughes with her family in Chinook. Marlee is the subject of our lead feature next week. I like these two the best from my take, though the second one doesn't look as good in color which makes me wanna go with the first one as the lead, but IDK, the second one is a strong moment.

During her six-month check-up it was found that Marlee had a cancerous mass in her abdomen called neuroblastoma. From the story written by reporter Amanda Frink: "Close to 50 percent of neuroblastoma cases occur in children younger than two years old." In May she had the mass surgically removed, a harrowing tale for sure. She's doing much better now, but goes in for regular doctor visits each month.
I have to say that I love working on stories like this where people have had to overcome such hardships. They're a great family and I really hope that things continue to get better for her. Definitely be sure to read Amanda's story in next weeks issue.

-DKM