Around the Lens – Episode 18
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/126783/Around%20the%20Lens%20-%20Episode%2018.mp3 This week we featured panelists David Bergman and Tess Freeman. We discussed the importance of publishing imagery from the Brussels bombings, the photo rights of a monkey and the best means to take notes while photographing. Our picks this week included new imagery from the Nikon D5 showing the low light capability, amazing underwater imagery, the image deconstructed and free Nik software. Please support the show and sign up for Dropbox.com through our referral code. Subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes or YouTube, or via our direct feed, follow us on Twitter and and like us on Facebook. To see our bonus topic support us…
You Don’t Know What Liberal Means
I get lots of e-mails from Jenny. She’s always asking for money. There’s always some looming threat from “LIBERALISM!” or “LEFTISTS.” Which is weird, since as a leftist and a liberal, I feel like there’s always a looming threat from CONSERVATISM and FASCISTS. Now I’m not Tea Party Patriots founder Jenny Beth Martin’s equal. She’s the head of an enormous organization with hundreds of thousands of members and millions of dollars. Her group sways national elections. I’m just a journalist who notices things. From the e-mail above she writes: “[Obama] has unions, leftist legal groups, and every liberal lobbying organization…
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN.com – Disbelieved Fairbanks Four alibis show how anti-Native bias taints justice Eileen Whitmer knew Marvin Roberts wasn’t guilty of murder in 1997, because when the Fairbanks Four were supposedly on a rampage killing teenager John Hartman, Roberts was sitting at a table with her at a wedding reception. CNET – Oculus creator Palmer Luckey flies to Alaska to deliver first Rift VR headset to customer You order the Next Big Tech Gadget and lo and behold, the creator of the gizmo materializes at your office to hand you the device. Sounds like something out of virtual reality, right? Nope….
The Bible, False Prophets and Pete Kelly
Happy Easter to all those who celebrate this day. Polls show Alaska is one of the least religious states in the nation. That’s probably true for organized religion but I suspect most Alaskans are pretty spiritual people. It’s hard not to stand at the top of a mountain, in the middle of the wilderness or at the base of a glacier in Alaska and not believe in some higher force. When Sunday morning rolls around and my partner says, “You wanna go to church?” I will be on the boat halibut fishing pretty soon. If I were to generalize, I’d…
Caucus Chaos in Anchorage
Even though it was eight years ago, the chaos of the 2008 Alaska Democratic Caucus was still fresh in my mind as I approached West High School this morning to attend the caucus that would take part in delivering Bernie Sanders a dominating victory in Alaska over Hillary Clinton. Early signs of trouble arose as I drove north past Romig Middle School, with lines of cars pouring in there to park as I headed naively north in the hopes of finding parking closer to the caucus site. We ended up parking about five blocks away from the school, arriving at…
Bird of the Week – Barn Swallow
Barn Swallows are uncommon in Interior and Southcentral Alaska, but pretty easy to find in Southeastern. WC got this photo near the Yakutat Airport. For many years, WC chased steelhead trout along the Situk River, outside of Yakutat. For obvious reasons, WC carried only a pocket camera while fishing, so image quality isn’t great here. The Barn Swallow is the most widely distributed and abundant swallow in the world. It breeds throughout most of North America, Europe, and Asia and winters in Central and South America, southern Spain, Morocco, Egypt, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, India, Indochina, Malaysia, and Australia….
Photos: TheMudflats at the Right Wing CPAC Conference
It’s been an odd couple of months for me. Usually I’m covering the fringes of politics – from OWS to Ferguson protests to civil rights marches. Maybe a third party candidate or an environmental struggle that no one will care about for another couple years. But so far this past year, I’ve covered Presidential Candidates, Koch Brothers conferences (Americans for Prosperity), NRA conventions and now CPAC. CPAC, if you don’t know the initials, it stands for the Conservative Political Action Conference. It’s an annual conference where all of the biggest names in conservative politics get together and conspire for good or evil…
Blackfish Wins and more Visual News – Around the Lens Podcast Episode 17
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/126783/Around%20the%20Lens%20-%20Episode%2017%20-%20Jose%20Alvarado.mp3 This week’s episode featured panelist Jose Alvarado. We discussed Sea World and their changes recently in response to the documentary Black Fish, social media in the age of visual journalism and a cool device from Syrp that allows for timelapse that rotate over time. For our picks of the week we chose fun St. Patrick’s day photos, velcro and the pressure of Sierra Mardre. We also talked about a few documentaries to include Supersize Me, Chasing Ice and the Cove. Subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes or YouTube, or via our direct feed, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. Watch…
Are We All In This Together?
An email from a reader this week asked me to remind Alaskans, and myself, to “appeal to the better angels of our nature.” I’ve been rolling around that phrase, “better angels,” for days. It was first used by Shakespeare in his play, “Othello,” later by Charles Dickens in his novel “Barnaby Ridge,” and still later by President Abraham Lincoln in his inaugural address. (His secretary of state, William Seward, added it to the draft. Yes, our Seward, the guy who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia.) With Alaska news outlets reporting daily on the fiscal crisis facing our state,…
Bird of the Week – Bank Swallow
Yep, another swallow. This one more correctly named, because uniquely among Alaska swallows, it excavates a nesting cavity in a dirt bank. The Bank Swallow’s scientific name – Riparia riparia – neatly describes its preference for nesting in the lakeside and streamside (riparian) banks and bluffs of lakes, rivers and streams. This is a highly social land-bird with a Holarctic (Eastern and Western Hemispheres) breeding distribution. It nests in colonies ranging from 10 to almost 2,000 active nests. One of only a few passerines with an almost cosmopolitan distribution, it is one of the most widely distributed swallows in the world. In the Old World,…