A photograph of mine was used in the production of the documentary Carbon Nation.

Carbon Nation is a documentary film about climate change, which is directed by filmmaker Peter Byck and narrated by Bill Kurtis. I am sure you will recognize Bill’s voice. Byck’s film focuses on the solutions to the possible climate change and the people who bring them to us.

My image appears at about 11 seconds. You can see the image here:

www.flickr.com/photos/latitudes/117503944/

If you want to learn more about Carbon Nation you can visit these pages:

▪ Carbon Nation
▪ Bloomberg
▪ St. Petersburg Times
▪ Clean Skies TV Interview
▪ The Huffington Post

In all likelihood, even with less snow this year than in past years, the 53-mile road that traverses Glacier National Park may not be open until the middle of June.

So far they have only plowed two miles of the road on the east side, which is the closest entry point for yours truly. On the west side near Apgar the plows have only progressed three or four miles. To make matters worse, they will be working on the road this year and will not open the road past Logan Pass until the work is completed. And there have been approximately seven or eight fatalities in the region as a result of avalanches; three times more than died in all of North America last year from bear attacks.

Despite the road being closed, though, the views from the perimeter of the park are still awe inspiring.

These videos might give you a better sense of the challenges facing snow removal crews at Glacier National Park:

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A lone tree silhouetted against a blue, winter sky outside of Monticello, Wisconsin.

Today I began production of my weekly YouTube video series “Havre, MT: The Chronicles of Me & Steve.” I call it my quasi-documentary.

I’ve never worked with video before, so this will be quite a learning experience. As such I’m a little worried about all of the layers that go into the making of a video. And then consider having to do it every week. I just hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew.

There are several key elements I am working on for my first video. The most difficult task will be figuring out a way to firmly attach my camera in the back seat of my truck. I am setting it up so it will take a photograph every 20 seconds along my long trip from Wisconsin to Montana. When I’m done I will have captured 3,240+ images during the 18-hour, 1250-mile journey it will take to drive to Havre, MT. Then I will need to process all of the images and stitch them together to create a 2 to 3 minute video segment. I will also interlace some video I shoot along the way. In other words, you should see just about everything I see on the first leg of my journey.

Another key element will be the “intro” and “outro” for the video. These are the brief interludes at the start and end of a video. Once completed I will reuse each of them in all future episodes. I know how I want them to look and feel; now I just need to figure out how to do it. Of course the music I use will be important. More on that topic later.

Audio is the last big obstacle I need to overcome. Again, I am a still photographer and not a video or audio person, so understanding and overcoming this will be a hurdle. I don’t think I will use much audio captured from my camera itself. I will instead narrate the videos after the photographs and video have been spliced together. I need to purchase an Edirol R-09HR MP3 Recorder this week in order to accomplish this task. I also plan to use it to capture some of the ambient sounds while I’m taking pictures (i.e. birds, waterfalls, thunder) and use them on later videos.

After I tackle each of these hurdles then I need to start planning episodes two and three.

Ugh, all in a day’s work.

Amateurs who are flattered by a byline without a pay check (or pennies on the dollar, as many stock photography houses now offer) are stupid. I get worked up about as much as Ellison does.

“I don’t take a pee without getting paid!”  Absolutely love it.