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I recently photographed a statewide campaign in Montana which aims to bring public awareness to renew The Land and Water Conservation Fund. Created by Congress in 1965, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) was a bipartisan commitment to safeguard natural areas, water resources and our cultural heritage, and to provide recreation opportunities to all Americans. National parks like Rocky Mountain, the Grand Canyon, and the Great Smoky Mountains, as well as national wildlife refuges, national forests, rivers and lakes, community parks, trails, and ball fields in every one of our 50 states were set aside for Americans to enjoy thanks to federal funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It’s up for reauthorization this fall and has provided Montanans with lots of open space like Peet’s hill here in town. As a fly fisherman, I support good public river access. Public land access is what makes this state so great. I’m proud to be apart of this cause. Sign this petition to let our Senators know how you feel about access to outdoor spaces.

Mike Greener/Chronicle
Logan and Kim Dickerson, right, burst from their seats in reaction to a missed goal attempt by the United States during their World Cup match against Germany Thursday afternoon at the Bacchus Pub in downtown Bozeman.

Some recent work I did for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Happy 4th of July everyone! -Mike

A sampling of some favorite images from the past month working at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

Another fun month has come and gone. Here is some recent work from my staff photographer position at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Happy 4th of July everyone!

I had some fun making these photos. This past weekend, as part of my newspaper‘s monthly photo page called the “Viewfinder” I decided to pack up the photo studio and bring it over to the Gallatin County fair grounds this past Saturday and make portraits of Bozeman locals and their new old bicycles. The Viewfinder can be anything. It really gives us photographers a chance to get creative and do photo studies. It’s an opportunity and  challenge I look forward to. But sometimes it can sneak up on us due to the busyness of the daily newspaper. Combing the events calendars looking for ideas, I stumbled across an add for the bike swap being hosted by the Gallatin Valley Bicycle Club. Bingo! I remembered how excited I was as a kid to receive my first bike. It was a feeling of freedom and independence. A simple machine that would serve as a reliable companion accompanying me on countless adventures throughout my youth. Waking up early on Saturday morning, I set out to try to capture that feeling in a well lit portrait series. These are the results. Thanks for looking,  -M

Hey all, What a month. I’ve been busy working on a long term documentary project all this month in addition to all of the normal daily assignments and I’ve just now had a chance to post my recent work. Whew! My project “For the Family” debuts tomorrow! Stay tuned. For now, a look at some of the more successful images I’ve made this past month. Thanks for looking. -M

 

Happy New Year everyone! I ended my 2012 on a high note and have been working hard to keep the momentum going into the new year. As always, I’m looking for ways I can develop and grow in my photography and I hope to improve on some things for the new year. So far so good. Here are some of my favorite images I’ve made so far in 2013. Thanks for looking, -M

What a year! Looking over the photos I made from this past year, I found it difficult to pick favorites. How do you narrow down the very best photos after such an interesting year? For me 2012 was a new beginning. I started my year in a new place after having been hired at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and spent most of my time in a state of creative reconnaissance, exploring all the beauty southwest Montana has to offer.

In the end, I chose photos that made a personal connection. I wanted to show you all photos that make you feel something. So much of what photojournalists do everyday is bring readers into the lives of their subjects through captivating, storytelling images, to quote SI Photo Editor Jim Colton, “that reach down your throat and give your heart a tug”. Whether they succeed is in the eye of the beholder.

As I was editing down this year’s take of images and trying to pick out ten for the printed newspaper, I realized that trying to capture the essence of the Gallatin Valley in a handful of photos was a fool’s pursuit. Thankfully, the people in this community that make it such a great place are too vast and rich in culture to show in its entirety within a select few favorites within my “Best of Photography” slideshow. I have much more exploring to do.

I look forward to what the new year will bring. Thanks so much for all of your support and I hope all of you have a bold, adventurous new year! -M

 

I recently finished up a portrait marathon for an assignment for our weekly business journal. In three days I made twenty portraits of individuals in the Bozeman community that have made an impact on the community through their personel drive, local job creating endeavors and their overall contribution to the betterment of the community they live in. It was a fun project for me. I don’t get to work in the studio that often, so I decided to challenge myself by trying to make different portraits all with keeping the same lighting set up in the studio here at the newspaper. I wanted the photos to be about the subject and not their clothing. With this in mind, I chose to have this series be in black and white. I liked how it turned out. To read more about each individual’s story you can check out our interactive story on the Bozeman Daily Chronicle’s website. Thanks for looking.

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

Blink an eye and you realize summer is almost over. Crazy. I’ve been keeping pretty busy these days traveling nearly every weekend out of town for magazine assignments for upcoming Montana Quarterly articles and traveling to California for my wedding business. The combination of the two, has left me little time for much else. Though exhausting at times, luckily, I’ve been enjoying the journey. Here are some of my favorite images I’ve made at the newspaper during the last month. Thanks for looking. -M

Here’s a collection of images I made for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle over the past couple of weeks. Thanks for looking! -M

I spent last week chasing down old veterans for our Memorial Day coverage here at the newspaper. In my line of work, I meet a lot of veterans and I’m always impressed with the stories I here from them. Having not been raised in a military household, I have always struggled in separating my views as a 2012 citizen regarding the military and understanding the role and sacrifice these brave men and women have given to serve to protect this country in the past. Now, as a much older and wiser journalist, I’ve come to really appreciate them. Chronicle reporter Whitney Bermes and I spent hours with these interesting men and walked away with a better understanding of what they had to go through during a different time in this country. Fascinating guys. I had a lot of fun making these images. -M

Well, life has improved ten fold now that my second photographer Adrian has begun to settle into his new digs. It’s allowed me to make more time to hangout on my recent assignments and hopefully make better images. I must say I am still adjusting to being back in a mountain climate with it’s sporatic weather patterns. One day it will be 80 degrees and sunny the next day it will snow. Alas, I’ve rediscovered that spring comes slowly to Montana. The good weather will be here soon enough. I’m looking forward to it. Here are some favorite photos from the past couple weeks. Cheers, -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.

I love Montana! I’ve been having a blast this past month exploring the Bozeman area. Here are some of my latest images I made at my new staff photographer gig at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The snow is melting and spring is slowly settling in. I’m looking forward to what’s around the corner. Thanks for looking, -M

In the blink an eye, I’ve realized that it has been almost a month now since I’ve been living and working in Bozeman, Montana. I’ve been settling into my new position at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle here quite nicely. My transition from the busy world of California into the calm wild openess of Montana has been a surprisingly quick and painless journey for me. It’s a place that already feels like home. Like all newspaper gigs, I’ve had a gamut of different things to photograph lately. The one major difference has been the change in temperature. Where in California I would consistantly be shooting out in 100 degree heat, I was quickly re-introduced to the polar opposite of Montana’s winter and trying to operate my camera and my numb fingers in the daily snow storms here. In all, I’ve been having a great time photographing in a place and culture that fuels my soul. I feel like I’m just racing out of the starting gates. I can’t wait to see what awaits around the corner. Here some of my work from the last couple of weeks. -M

Note: I’m trying to figure out why my work computers are making my images look all flat when I save them for web. I’ll work on the annoyance. Thanks for looking.

Well the final hours of my last day as a Daily Republic staff photographer have come and gone. I’ve had a great 3 1/2 year run covering the Solano County community here near the San Francisco Bay Area. I did a lot of growth here as a shooter and now I look to the horizon towards my new staff photographer gig at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle working in the mountainous paradise of Bozeman, Montana. Four words: Epic Fly Fishing Country! I’m pretty excited about it. Montana is where I began my journalism career and I’m looking forward to returning to it with lots of experience under my belt and excitement to document the culture that I love so much. I’m already thinking of some great story ideas to tackle out there. Here’s to new beginnings! -Greener