Costa del Mar / Texas Monthly present Jungle Fish

Costa del Mar and Texas Monthly co-present a screening of Jungle Fish this Wednesday in Austin, TX at Pelon's & 508 Bar.

Jungle Fish DVD

The DVD is now on sale through Costa's website for $15. Get it here.

Costa del Mar has launched a 'Protect' branch of their site promoting the eco-tourism/conservation project I've been helping with the past two years - shooting video twice last year for a documentary film on the project directed by Louisianna Kreutz titled "Jungle Fish". See the trailer HERE. The film can be purchased online through their store.

I went down to Guyana again this year to shoot still images, which I also did on the previous trips. Still images are embedded throughout the site, and there is a gallery HERE.

I'm back from another trip to Guyana and have plenty of catching up to do, but am incredibly flattered to receive an Emmy nomination for my contribution to a NPR/ProPublica piece on traumatic brain injuries in the military. The piece can be found here. The story was in the later stages when I was called in and so my contribution owes a lot to the investigative reporting from Daniel Zwerdling and T. Christian Miller at ProPublica, John Poole's video interview at NPR and photo editor, Coburn Dukehart's ability to weave it together into a well crafted multi-media story.

But of course, none of that work compares to Victor Medina and the other servicemen and women who have had to deal with TBI and have had the courage to try and change military practices for the better.

http://vimeo.com/14680989 I shot a story for National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) on the Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico earlier this summer, capturing both stills and video/interview material. I enjoyed working on a larger, collaborative editorial project with a process that everyone was exploring. I worked with Jason Bosch at Aurora Novus, the multimedia production arm of my agency, Aurora Photos to produce the video under the guidance of Amy Marquis, associate editor at the magazine.

This parcel of land is, of course, quite stunning, but also has an interesting cultural history behind it. It's been logged and mined, though mostly used as ranch land for the past hundred or so years. It's mild summer climate and situation at the headwaters of the Jemez River make it an ideal summer habitat for many animals. It shifted from private to public ownership and has been in an interim management policy, though is now in the process of coming under National Park Service management, though is likely to remain under the 'preserve' model.

As serene as the caldera is, my time there was definitely focused on making work. I was fortunate enough to catch an incredible evening of weather. It always strikes me at how wonderful and amazing "bad" weather is.

http://vimeo.com/12660458 Coming back from an assignment in northern New Mexico, I headed straight for Dallas and hopped in the car with Brandon Thibodeaux to head just outside of Charlottesville, VA to the LOOKbetween photography festival at Deep Rock Farm on June 11-13.

It was an amazing time - over and finished in way too short of a time. I got to catch up with a number of great friends and even meet a few new ones. I just wish there would've been more time to speak with some of the people I didn't know. I was really impressed and inspired by the quality and range of projections that were shown on Friday and Saturday night.

I conducted a few interviews with the Creative Action Team to both foster dialogue and get to know the working process of other photographer/artist/creative folks there. I could've easily spent two weeks doing this but all the magic was squeezed into a short weekend.

It was a true pleasure to be out at the farm, see old friends, meet new ones, swim in the lake and a mountain swimming hole, see the fantastic work, listen to live mountain music, and share the power of photography. Many thanks to all who contributed to the event.

SLIDELUCK POTSHOW convened in Austin for the second time, approximately one year after its debut appearance. It was at the Shangri-La again, which was a fantastic outdoor venue again. I didn't have the opportunity to help out with production this year due to having zero free time, but did have a piece in the show.

I put together a piece on the migratory massing of snowbirds in Quartzsite, AZ. Once home to the training ground of military camels, then a precious rock & gem show, and now thousands upon thousands of RV-based snowbirds who flock seasonally to the Mojave Desert. Its a rich fieldsite for invesitagating swarm intelligence.

Trained as an architect, Lula Marcondes is a visual artist from northern Brazil who draws inspiration from regional folk art where he grew up. I captured sound and images during the opening, as well as conducted a short interview, in order to weave it together into a multimedia piece to document the opening.

Lula performs in a Brazilian folk band, Seu Jacinto, as well and they performed at the opening. The music supplied a festive ambience to the opening at the multimedia piece as well. It was really enjoyable weaving different media together to tell the story of Lula's art. He draws his inspiration from the spirit of the people of northern Brazil, and so keeping that evident was essential.

See the multimedia piece here.