PROJECT: The 1st online only interview with a sitting U.S. President. George W. Bush granted an online only interview to our Yahoo! News crew. Mike Allen from Politico asked the questions. The above is one of the more entertaining clips out of the 18 edited pieces from the 25 minute interview. READ FULL TRANSCRIPT >>

MY ROLE: Cinematography and General Production.

PRODUCTION CREW: Director: Geoff Nelson. Cinematographers and General Production: Jon Brick, Didrik Johnck, Brad Williams. Executive Producer: Neeraj Khemlani. Producers: Erin Green, Robert Padavick, Jamie Rubin. Motion Graphics: Chris Strimbu, Ben Stahl. Click to enlarge. MORE BEHIND THE SCENES IMAGES >>

MY ROLE: Producer. Additional Roles: Directing, Shooting, Editing

HIGHLIGHTS: Pioneered the use of social media for this experimental series about American Subcultures. Original production and interactive features leveraged with user participation spread awareness of the series. Averaged over 500k uniques per episode.

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People Doing Good in the World —- A friend recently handed me a copy of the commencement address that author and environmentalist Paul Hawken gave to the class of 2009 at the University of Portland. It’s one of those rare speeches that gives one hope, perspective, connection, and ultimately inspiration to achieve.  He talks about how our society is in the midst of an unparalleled movement.  He says, “No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.” These days it seems like everyone of my friends and acquaintances is involved with a cause to improve life for people or the planet. That’s a good thing.

I want to alert you to one individual who right now is starting at the very grassroots level of this movement. His name is Zack Parker and his mission is simple, create better sanitary conditions (like clean water and proper toilets) for coastal dwellers in Papua New Guinea (PNG). He founded a non-profit organization called Walu International to carry out this plan.  I’ve been to hundreds of places on the planet where dysentery caused by poor sanitary conditions kills people. That sucks. I don’t worry about disease when I take a crap, do you? After spending time dodging crocs in the interior of PNG I went to the coast and saw first hand what Zack is talking about.

Walu International’s pilot project will be installing self-composting toilets and water purification systems at the local elementary school in Lido Village, Papua New Guinea.  This will go down in January 2010. Walu is holding a fundraiser in San Diego on November 18, 2009. I know a lot of the local surf community will be there to support the cause. Check out the site to learn more the event: http://www.waluinternational.org/?page_id=28

Give em a few bucks to build some toilets for kids.

Wingsuit fliers captivate. Besides the awesome, mind-blowing scenes here, this web video is a good example of a well edited and well produced web trailer for a NatGeo TV series starring Dean Potter. I stumbled on this by subscribing to the @natgeoscoop on twitter. Sender Films in Colorado are the creators.

When I saw a SanDisk publicity photo being used to illustrate Newsweek’s story, “A Decade of Destruction” and then again on the MSNBC.com homepage with the headline, “Decade in Review, How the Internet Ruined Everything” I laughed out loud because I think nobody at SanDisk could have predicted this.  In my opinion it is a great product photo. Here is my best guess as to how it happened.

Here is the photo published at Newsweek.com:

Screengrab of Newsweek.com from November 12, 2009

Here is same article on MSNBC.com article with a slightly different headline:

Screen-grab of MSNBC.com home page on November 12, 2009

A glance at the credit line indicates the photo was provided by Business Wire via Getty Images. Here is the link to the image with original caption at Getty Images and a screen grab below: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/51120725/Getty-Images-Publicity

Photographer John Canning was in Libya in 1994 when he created this image with Tourag nomads. He was trekking across the Sahara desert shooting photos with author Richard Bangs who was writing an article for Well Traveled on Slate.com. For this image, Canning thoughtfully setup and positioned his tech gear (logos are all perfectly position for Brunton portable power system, laptop, Lowepro camera bags, Pelican cases, and Indiana Jones’esque hat). He downloaded the images from his Nikon DSLR while the Touregs’ gathered around. Canning handed Bangs the camera who snapped the photo.

SanDisk got their hands on the photo via Canning. At some point down the road, either SanDisk or maybe one of their reps, used this photo along with a press release about something or other which was picked up by the Business Wire. Business Wire is in cahoots with Getty Images and anyone searching the Getty Images site will be served up Business Wire imagery when applicable.

Along comes a Newsweek story and the photo editor searches Getty Images. Viola’…. the perfect shot arises… a perfect juxtaposition of the old and new; rich and poor; black and white.  Was the photographer compensated for these uses? I have no idea. The moral of the story is that when an image does out on a wire service, kiss it goodbye as everyone will get a cheap and essentially unlimited piece of it. If you are the shooter, make sure you’re compensated for unlimited use on a wire service.

One of my images was sent to the Associated Press some years ago and published well over 1000 times. I never got a dime for it.

MY ROLES: Sr. Producer and Content Strategist.

NEAR REAL-TIME PUBLISHING: One of the goals of Richard Bangs Adventures on Yahoo! was to bring a sense rawness and immediacy to our audience of armchair adventurers. We did this by delivering at least one webisode (and in many cases 2 or 3) per day. The idea was that the audience would return each day to the site; essentially following along the adventure. This deliverable schedule required a well oiled field production machine consisting of producing, shooting, and editing within extremely short time frames. Turnaround time from from rolling the cameras to delivering a finished piece was anywhere from 4-12 hours.

We started with a short walk and talk in the oval office and then finished the interview in the Roosevelt room. Lots of local and national media (TV, print, and online) picked up the story. David Letterman used it in his monologue and Jon Stewart ran with it on his Daily Show.

As far as shoots go it was pretty routine; set up the cameras, lights, mics, etc…. What wasn’t routine was the opportunity to roll the cameras on something that had the potential to make national or even worldwide news. And sure enough “the boss”, as his staff affectionately call him, did not disappoint. Portions of the interview were picked up by all the major networks, but the highlight was the controversy that erupted over his seemingly benign comment about why he stopped golfing which caused MSNBC’s Keith Oberman to go ballistic.

Why he stopped golfing
http://tinyurl.com/697paf

MSNBC’s Keith Oberman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlD8FEwe2k

After the interview was over, our crew hunkered down in a conference room in Washington DC, chopped the footage in snackable clips, which were published immediately. Very little editing was actually done other than adding some photos and b-roll here and there. We did not touch Bush’s answers. We did not edit for brevity. What you see is exactly how it went down.

Here are all the clips. Bush’s “Dr. Evil” impression is getting some great play around the net (some might say it went viral).

These links take you to the Yahoo Video Player and once you are there you can browse all the clips without having to come back to this post.

Bush does ‘Dr. Evil’
http://tinyurl.com/6xzfyw

“I’ll consider” gas tax holiday
http://tinyurl.com/5mcods

Global warming “is real”
http://tinyurl.com/6l7svb

“America doesn’t torture”
http://tinyurl.com/68tmqd

Why not pull out of Iraq?
http://tinyurl.com/5z8a6p

Was Bush misled on Iraq?
http://tinyurl.com/5gca2r

Why he stopped golfing
http://tinyurl.com/697paf

The Middle East: What’s at stake
http://tinyurl.com/5qp4ue

Father of the bride
http://tinyurl.com/6l5m6c

Bush’s Dream Team
http://tinyurl.com/62z3hq

‘Assure fans like me’
http://tinyurl.com/3ryrug

Who will win on ‘Idol’?
http://tinyurl.com/69wvz8

The full interview
http://tinyurl.com/4sp2ve

In her article on the Hardest to Reach Vacation Spots, she reports the following:

“Whether you’re traveling just six or eight days to the base camp of the highest mountain in the world, or all 29,000 feet to the top, this trip is anything but easy. First, climbers must travel to Lukla and acquire a permit from the Nepalese government, which can cost up to $25,000. Then, to reach Everest’s base camp, you must climb to Namche Bazaar and across Kwangde River, eventually ending up in Khumjung, Nepal. Two days later, you arrive in the Imja Tse Valley and travel to Kala Pattar, which offers a stunning view of Mount Everest. A day later, you’ll reach the base camp. After two weeks in the base camp acclimating to the altitude, a trip to the top takes about four days. Most climbers spend between $1,000 and $2,000 on expenses.”

I enjoy reading the top 10 lists on all subjects that the folks at Forbes.com come up with, but this one gave me a good laugh. Why, well the author’s recipe for death is certainly entertaining and honestly, the words “vacation” and “Mt. Everest” don’t belong together in the same sentence. The trek to Mt. Everest base camp is one thing (and I encourage everyone to give it a shot), but her suggestion that a “trip to the top takes about 4 days”, while technically accurate (assuming perfect weather and snow conditions), completely misses the mark and is serves as a reminder of the many misconceptions about Everest.

For one thing, the 4-day trip to the top on the by the most common south side route is no picnic and is only possible after 4-7 weeks of an expedition style siege on the mountain by essentially climbing it multiple times (at least to Camp 3 at 23,500) feet while ferrying gear and stocking the intermediary camps (1,2,3 and 4) with food and supplies. Secondly, in condensing the information into requisite 150-word bite, the reporter mixes up critical differences between trekking to base camp and climb to the summit and in-effect trivializing the whole process and providing a recipe for near certain death (unless you are a genetic aberration).

Being in the broadcast media industry myself I certainly understand the reporters dilemma in trying to condense what may be a somewhat complex subject into a short, easy to digest, sound bite. If you really are interested in the Everest experience whether 2-3 week trek to base camp (which anyone can do) or dream of climbing Everest some day, here are some good resources to check out.

Adventure Consultants – Base Camp Trek: This commercial outfitter has a nice overview of the trek

www.mteverest.net – For Climbers: Some of the best Everest climbing info on the web

In the Spring of 2003, the worlds highest internet cafe opened at Mt. Everest base camp at 17,500 feet. It was also the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s historic ascent of Everest. I went to base camp to check it out. With the help of my brother who had recently learned php programming language we built a live reporting tool (aka: blog) that enabled me to send photo and text dispatches by satellite phone from the Himalayas. I’ve re-published the 5 text+image posts that I sent out while on the trail.

4/26/03 : Intro Hi-Tech Everest

First – the assignment — In search of technology in this region of the world my plan is to trek to Everest base camp and hopefully indulge myself in a latte while surfing the net at the world’s highest internet cafe at 17,400 feet. A little background — From the New York Times to NPR reports of the construction of the world’s highest internet cafe have been surfacing over the last six months. A young, technically inclined Sherpa, named Tsering Gyaltsen is planning to create an internet cafe at the base of Mt. Everest. Servicing the thousands of trekkers and hundreds of climbers that pass through base camp, the cafe will raise money for the Sagamartha Pollution

Control Committee (SPCC). The SPCC is the local environmental agency and is charged with keeping the natural environmental clean and healthy. It will take me about 10 days to get to base camp and I’ll be passing many, many villages along the way. I’ll see what other technological advancements are occurring in the area and report on them here. It’s also the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Mt. Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. Everest base camp is reportedly packed with expeditions and it will be interesting to see the developments over the course of the season.

I plan on arriving in Everest base camp around May 6th and will stay for about five days. I’ll interview Tsering and hear the story on how this ambitious project came to life. As I’m equipped with a sat phone I’ll try and upload a few images each day.

The images from this story are available for editorial license. For more information please contact April Jenkins at the New York office of Corbis-Sygma.

4/27/03 : Khumbu Arrival

Watching the flies land on my arm to lick the sweat and realizing that had I had not the energy to shoo them away was a just a tad disconcerting.

On all my previous trips to the Himalayas I was part of a climbing expedition and had trained vigorously for that purpose. Since climbing was not a part of this trip, I had neglected any form of exercise. My ego had gotten the best of me and now I am paying for it by feeding these hungry flies. The morning started with a twin engine Otter flight into the border like town of Lukla where I was greeted by hundreds of Nepali porters looking for work. As the plane made a quick u-turn after dumping the passenger luggage at the end of the landing strip, I stared at my four bags and was forced to quickly make a decision as to which porters to pick. From 9,000 feet at Lukla my porters and I trekked to t

he town of Monjo, about 5 hours away.

To be quite honest I’m simply exhausted and I’m going to bed. Didn’t see much in terms of tech today. Mostly barefoot or flip flop clad porters carrying items to villages higher up the Khumbu. Beer, whiskey, a television, wood logs, rocks, and the backpacks and bags of the few trekkers on the trail.

# 030427_025 — From the safety of their home, two children entertain themselves by watching the foreigners trek by.

# 030427_001 — Porters with full loads round the corner with the Dudh Kosi river far below.

# 030427_031 — A porter with an empty load returns to the Lukla airstrip to hustle his n

ext load.

4/28/03 : Rumor of the

World’s Second Highest Internet Cafe

With the flies still h

overing on each bead of sweat dripping from my forhead I plodded up the legendary, thigh busting Namche hill on my way to the Namche Bazzar.

Namche Bazzar is the largest village in the Khumbu and sits in a horseshoe shapped cirque cut into a mountainside. The sacred snow capped peak Kumbila looms above. In 1998 an enterprising Sherpa set up a computer with a 24kpbs dialup connection to Kathmandu. The computer was located in a small room next to the town bakery and thus the “World’s Highest Internet Cafe” was born. Since the local telephone exchange was notoriously unreliable and also blown up by the Maoists in 2001, no one really took the internet cafe seriously.

I figured the internet cafe would still be there, but in what condition, I did not know. I was surprised to find four desktop computers networked together serving up a “high-speed” connection at 94kpbs down and 64kbps up. However, at the time of my visit the place was empty.

There was a little more traffic on the trail today. Loads of porters carry anything that could be lashed down with a tump line around their forehead, and American, British, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and German trekkers. My search for tech on the trail did not yield much. A pair of trekkers operating a GPS unit was about it.

#030428_046 — Tenzing is

the manager of the former world’s highest internet cafe. Business is slow right now and on this rainy day there’s not much to do except drink milk tea and watch the rainfall.

#030428_039 — Pasang is the mother in law of my Sherpa guide. Although she lives in another villae, she rents a small apartment in Namche Bazzar where she stays during the trekking seasons.

#030428_039 — A busy morning at the internet cafe. Three tourists emailing and one computer blasting music.

4/29/03 : Lighting Storm Wreaks Havoc

Wreaks havoc on the internet connection that is….. After repairing the recently crowned “World’s Highest Internet Cafe” at Everest base camp, Tsering Gyaltsen ran down to Namche Bazzar yesterday arriving late in the evening.

While enjoying a cup

of fresh coffee at the bakery this morning, Sunosh informed that Tsering was in town. I was expecting to meet him at base camp so I wondered what was up. We sat down in the living room/office of his company, Namche Technical Services, and he explained the situation. Speaking in almost perfect English, although so fast I hard a hard time understanding him, he told me of the lightening storm that blew up one of the Cisco radio transmitters postitioned on the side of a small mountain called Kala Patthar. It had been a scramble to reestablish the internet connection on a different route, but it was accomplished. Immediately after he ran 30 kilometers from Everest base camp to Namche Bazzar.

The good news is that I can now report that indeed the internet cafe is up and running at Everest base camp. I will meet Tsering there around May 6 to see the entire operation.

#030428_018 — Relaxing in his office, Tsering Gyaltsen recounts the lightening storm which knocked out the internet cafe at Everest Base Camp.

#030428_039 — A busy morning at the internet cafe. Three tourists emailing and one computer blasting music.

#030428_045 — The Cyber Cafe adve

rtisement in Namche Bazzar.

4/30/03 : Ethernet Cable Severed

Up here the dog ate my homework doesn’t quite work, but maybe the yak stepped on my modem will.

Seriously though, my ethernet cable was severed this afternoon by a well meaning trekker playing with a sharp knife (note to self: Benchmade knives and ethernet cabling don’t mix) that I had loaned him. The ethernet cable connects my computer to the sat phone and allows me to send data (images, etc.) back to the states. Now I am uploading this dispatch from the cyber cafe in Namche Bazar. Depending on my skills in splicing tiny colored wires back together again, or finding a spare cable, I may send more images tomorrow. Otherwise my next dispatches will be May 6 to 10 from Everest base camp.

5/09/03 : First Morning in Basecamp

Arrived in base camp yesterday afternoon to thousands of prayer flags flapping in the wind.

After getting settled, I made my way over to the Cyber Cafe which was packed with trekkers sending email and surfing the web at a buck a minute. The temperature last night was a chilly 8 degrees fareinheit, however, with the door of my tent shut and the sun beaming in at ten am this morning, the high could reach amost 70. FYI-This dispatch is being uploaded directly from the cyber cafe. Photos to come momentarily.

5/10/03 : Images of the Cyber Cafe

This internet cafe or cyber cafe as Tsering and assistant Dinesh like to call it is fully operational.

With three laptops and a desktop trekkers and climbers drop in on a regular basis. Tsering’s wife Yangji serves up fresh coffee, tea, steamed momo’s and noodles (all complimentary), while Dorje the cook takes the orders.

Everest and Lhotse are lit up as the sun sets over Everest base camp

Bob Hoffman, expedition leader of the American Commenmorative Everest Expedition, pays a visit to the cyber cafe.

From noon to 2pm the cafe is usually busy with trekkers making the day trip from nearby Gorak Shep. Dinesh oversees the acitivity.

Three climbers huddle over the computers checking their hotmail accounts and downloading the weather reports.

Climbers outside the internet cafe.

I had a situation recently when being vetted out for a cameraman job on small documentary where the director took objection to the still photography side of my career. What I mean is that he considered me a still photographer and not a motion photographer. I was solidly recommended for the shoot by a person for whom I’d done video work in the past. As many freelancers do, I found myself position of explaining who I was and what I do. Apparently I seem to occupy a less than common niche of a pro-shooter that professes to be able to shoot moving and still pictures.

Why the big deal? Well for starters all my mentors in this field told me to pick a niche and then do it well. I followed this advice wholeheartedly, not only wedding myself to the medium of 35mm photography, but also to the subject matter. The jack of all trades approach was specifically discouraged. Climbing, mountaineering, snowboarding was my life and the subject of my photography. Things change. At this point not only has my subject matter greatly expanded but also the medium.

In late 2001 I immersed myself in the world of moving pictures; specifically online video. I studied and practiced and learned as much as I possibly could at the time. When no one would hire me to shoot video, I went out and made my own movies (most of which are so bad I’m embarrassed to show them). In that process I found there was a need for pro “image makers” that could be versatile and shoot still and video in the field and deliver it in near real time.

Great framing, composition, and lighting are critical whether your watching a movie or looking at a still photograph and that’s how I explain myself. On the video side I love the added elements of sound and story telling. On the still side the underestimated power of a single image which can move someone to tears or inspire a nation will never stop luring me.