My first attempt at a VIDEO...

Well I must say, I had an absolute blast watching my 4 year old daughter Kelly play "Mario Carts" on a Wii system this afternoon. I shot this and had most of it edited before we left the new "Ice Cream Internet Cafe" in town. I you live in Waynesville or surrounding area, I highly recommend this place on the corner of Depot St and N.Haywood St. They charge $5.00 for an hour on the Wii with the game of your choice... Anyway the video speaks for itself. Always amazing to watch a young one experience and learn, even with a video game! DC

An Anniversary of Sorts...

This day July 5, 2008 is an anniversary of sorts for me. In fact I can say that it now joins only a handful of other dates on the calender of my life as being what some would call a milestone.

You see it was a year ago last night that after having a cookout with friends and family that we decided to head out to Lake Junaluska, NC to watch the annual fireworks show. I since, over the last several years had become quite well versed in the art of night photography... My favorite aspect of it actually. I saw that night as an opportunity to shoot the fireworks at a set location, rather than as in the past being on the road most holidays and not knowing exactly where I would be on a given moment. I arrived at (an unspecified location) set up my bogan pod and waited. As darkness fell and the fireworks were launched, in that moment I was in my element.. Simply awesome. Photographer? you know exactly what I'm saying. That moment when you know that you could not be more prepared and the conditions are perfect for great images.

Upon arriving back home that night i decided to take a closer look on a larger screen. I was so excited. It was just a feeling that this time I had something that others might possibly enjoy as much as I. I woke up the next morning did some mild editing, saturation, lite sharpening, burned a disk, created a contact sheet with header and headed to the local newspaper. The Mountaineer... See where this is going?


I walked in to the front desk, asked to speak to the editor. The young lady called upstairs. She told me that the editor had about three minutes to talk because she was on deadline for the next paper. She gave me directions upstairs to her office. I made it upstairs where I saw a young lady behind a desk and asked if she was the editor. She replied "I'm one of them" I then told her a summery of the events surrounding the photos. It was at that point I realized that she was NOT the person I needed to be speaking to. She said they did not usually use other photographers photos in the paper... I reached over politely removed my photos from her hand and proceeded down the hall towards the "Newsroom" (there was a sign). I walked in, asked for the editor, and introduced myself. Nervous as I could be I might add, but at the same time confident. I presented the contact sheet and CD to Mrs. Hyatt. She then showed a young man the photos and said that they would use one as a "teaser" on the front page for the next edition and mabe one for the photo page! We talked for a minute or two, then Mrs Hyatt asked me if I had a minute of two. She walked me down the hall and introduced me to the sports editor Chuck Fiebernitz. He explained to me that there was always more sports than the department could handle... In short, I stayed in contact with Chuck over the following weeks, went out and took photos of a local evening softball league. I must admit at that time I had never even considered shooting sports.

Six months and nine days later I became the lead staff photographer of The Mountaineer newspaper in Waynesville, NC.

The point of this whole story... Dreams do come true. But not without a little perseverance and know how. I mean I always understood "LUCK" as when good timing meets opportunity, along those lines Mrs. Vicki Hyatt, thank you again.

So now, seven months into my adventure. And shoots with Bill Clinton, Hilary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Linda Davis, Artis Gilmore, Arnold Palmer, Rhonda Vincent, several other unmentioned shoots with many state and local politicians the days just get more exciting as they go on...

Onto this morning, as I walked into the local paint store to pick up a few gallons, I looked at a Mountaineer newspaper box to see my photos on the front page. Including one of the originals (top left) of that fateful shoot on year ago last night...

Thank you for being a part of my story... DC

DCs Column in June30, 08 Mountaineer

Here we are again, another July 4th! The time of year that just seems to be one continuous photo opp... Family cookouts, parades, fireworks and good times.

Attached you will find the latest column of mine published in The Mountaineer newspaper here in Waynesville, NC. I had hoped that this would run soon after the original story and photo spread about Trooper Blanton's funeral service. It was intended to be a means to share what it was like for me the photographer to cover such an event. However, there was a few readers that expressed concern over possibly violating the privacy of Blantons widow by choosing to print the photo of her slightly larger than the other photos on the photo page. These opinions ran in the "Letters to the editor". I then felt that this column may be mistaken as a rebuttal to those letters. This is not the case at all. The timing of print was simply not in my favor.

If there has been anything to learn about this, is that regardless of how gentle you are in documenting certain events. There will always be those who have an opinion to the contrary. I welcome these opinions with open arms.

Happy 4th of July everyone! DC