Things have been trucking along here at the newspaper over the month of May. As of late, I’ve found that I’ve been up close and personel with a lot of animals on assignments lately. I adorned a bee keeper suit as I photographed a guy and his bee colonies, I’ve had my head chewed on and nuzzled by a friendly farm horse and later huddled close to a fallen tree as hundreds of wild bison trotted feet from me as federal authorities hazed them back into Yellowstone National Park. It’s never a dull moment in my line of work. I’ve been enjoying myself. More photos to come. Thanks for looking.
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I’ve been excited to post this project for a while now. Over the past six weeks, I documented the journey of a young couple who just had their second child here in Bozeman. I was looking for a long term photography project. Something that would challenge me to slow down and really tell an in depth story through pictures and sound. Upon meeting Rosie, the sister of Knikka (the mother) at the Bozeman Film Festival, I was able to introduce myself to the rest of the family and get the okay to start documenting their lives. It started sooner than expected. That night Knikka went into labor and I met her and Chris at The Birth Center in Bozeman, Montana at 1:30am to watch their new daughter Ryleigh be born. What an amazing thing to witness…the birth of a child. I began this project because overall I was drawn by the sense of family these guys all had. Rosie had just flown out from Connecticut to help her sister and her husband Chris become adjusted to life with a 3-year-old and a newborn. For the parents, Knikka and Chris, it was balancing the needs of their children while juggling their own relationship. Each are working on their degrees while attending college at the Montana State University. The running theme in my head was “It takes a village to raise a child.” I had many different facets to document and I put no limits on myself. I also had no agenda or a deadline. This was a different approach to storytelling that I am used to documenting. So much of what I do at the newspaper is rush around making deadlines. The growing trend of small editorial staffs, budget cuts and big workloads prevent us from doing more of these in depth documentaries. This was a intimate, personal story. One with no clear end or direction in sight. Having a family isn’t anything new. There weren’t any big news hooks to it. It was just their story and their life. A story I felt was worth telling. Through the countless hours I spent watching and documenting this family, I came to learn a lot about them and realized there path in life could easily have been a very different darker one. I focused my approach on telling the journey of the parents Chris and Knikka. I wanted to show how their unexpected journey into parenthood changed them, derailed their previous path of substance abuse and switched course to give their kids the best life they could give them. This multimedia video is the result. I hope you enjoy it. -M
-To read the story and see more photos you can view them on the Bozeman Daily Chronicle website.
Some recent work from the last week or so. Thanks for looking. -M
Tis the season…to catch up on blog posts! I’ve been meaning to get some new work up here for a while now but I’ve been pretty busy as of late running around Bozeman and documenting all of the festivities of the season. Without further ado, here is some of the better images I’ve made in the last month. Thanks for looking, -M
Here are some of my more successful images from the last couple of weeks working at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The battle continues. Thanks for looking. -M
Whew! What a month. Between the start of my 2012 wedding season and the workload of being the only photographer at the newspaper, things have been go go go here on my end. But I’ve never been happier. Here are some of my favorites from the past couple of weeks.
Ahhhhh, Graduation week. That special time of year when working as a staff photographer feels a lot like the movie Groundhog Day. The same over and over again. One of the challenges that my fellow shooters and I bestow upon each other is to try to reinvent yourselves as the week goes on. Because on the surface, all of the graduations are so similar. Repetition in the ceremonies, the speeches, the celebrations, etc that it can quickly feel like you are taking the same pictures. This year I was assigned to shoot three of the five high school ceremonies. I tried to keep a look out for something different than the typical ecstatic hands in the air shots of the graduates. The class president of the student body offered that chance. My favorite photo from the week was the one of the girl with the monarch butterfly in front of her. The caption for the photo ran as follows:
Vanden High School graduate Heaven-Leigh Christensen, 18, center, is visited by a monarch butterfly during the Class of 2010 graduation ceremony Friday afternoon. Butterflys were released by class president Sharlayne Moynahan, 18, not pictured, as a symbol of hope and transformation into new beginnings.
This shot was made well after the release of the butterflies. I saw this moment happening out of the corner of my eye and turned to snap a couple frames before this rogue monarch flew off. I thought it was a pretty neat ideal to incorporate in a speech and a different twist on the graduation photo scene. It made me think back to all of the transitions I’ve had in my life since high school graduation. These kids are in for a wild ride. I wish them the best. -M
To view more photos from my graduation coverage of Vanden High and Fairfield High, click on their names.
One thing I have really come to enjoy about covering prep sports on the west coast is the difference of activities offered at these high schools than ones offered back when I was in high school in Illinois. A couple Saturday’s ago, I got to cover a high school sailing race called the Keelhauler Regatta. The annual event is hosted by Cal State Maritime and draws numerous high school sailing teams from throughout the area. Definitely not your typical prep sport and not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon. -M
Here are some snaps from this past month. I’ve been working hard with some business items for my photography. Change is coming. Stay tuned. I am so thankful for all the love and support all of you have given me over these years. It gives me strength to keep going further. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. -M
Alas, my fall sport shooting opportunities are winding down. All of the local teams are finishing up their seasons and I am bummed to see them go. Indoors that is. The northern California fall has been epic this year. Gorgeous colors and a steady 60 degrees. But the inevitable rains are on the way and with them activities and daily assignments will tend to be held indoors. Not necessarily my favorite place to be. Oh if only there was high school downhill skiing in Fairfield. Wishful thinking. Here is some of my recent outdoor fall sport pictures. Best, -M
Well the weather here in Northern California is finally clearing up. We have had a ton of rain and it has forced a lot of my photo sessions indoors. Over the last week or so many of my assignments have revolved around individuals learning something new. The first two images were taken of a local grade school gym teacher who was gearing up for his first MMA fight. I spent some time out at a local wildlife refuge where I photographed docents in training for a biology tour. The winter sport seasons are winding down with the state basketball tournament happening this weekend. I look forward to changing things up. The basketball photo here is of these grade schoolers who went undefeated in their winter league season. The last two images are from a story on the increased use of cell phones in grade schools. It was crazy to witness all these little kids pouring out of school with a phone up to their ear talking with friends or calling for rides home. It was one of my first “old” moments where I remembered back when I was their age we used payphones and usually had to just hope the rides would come. So much has changed since that time. Crazy.
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