Enjoying Frozen Earth
Author: Amy Linn Doherty Photography
Amy Linn Doherty Photography is a Washington, DC Area based photography and video production professional. She focuses on providing high quality, photography and video content for Websites and other media endeavors . VA, MD, DC
Additionally, Amy is an outdoor, travel enthusiast. who seeks out national parks and other natural settings for landscape and wildlife photography projects.
Race Across America for Hopecam.org
In the process of producing videos, I have often been in the company of accomplished and extraordinary people. Most of them adults. Most of them professionals. In the latest Pawpro Media video release we are highlighting the children of Hopecam who are, or have been, homebound and isolated by treatment for life threatening illnesses. It’s hard to not be impressed by their composure and strength.
For ten years Hopecam.org has supplied computers, cameras, hardware and any technical support necessary to connect these children with their school friends. Founder, Len Forkas, took on the mission to address this often overlooked, yet critical, aspect of long-term medical treatment for children after watching his son suffer with leukemia, and the painful emotional separation from his classmates at the age of nine. Often these children are separated from their friends for a year or more while being treated, which can have a significant effect on their psychological and physical well-being. The risk of a complicating infection is just too great.
Ride Across American fundraising Link:
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/lenforkas/rideacrossamericaraam
To hear former Hopecam user, Daniel, now 13 years old, recall his initial thoughts of being diagnosed with cancer, wondering how long he has to live, wondering whether he will ever see his friends again isn’t a topic of which we expect a child to be conversent. And his mother, Donna, recalling how she worried about how to “. . . keep him whole” in the process. But these children and families are forever changed by this event.
With Len’s participation this coming June in the famed cross-country cycling event, Race Across America, Hopecam hopes to reach more children and make more people aware of childhood cancer, Hopecam and the need for this connection in the lives of the children and families isolated by intensive medical treatment. Please help Hopecam raise $150,000 in 2012 to carry out this mission. Visit Hopecam.org to donate today.
Cross-Country Support for Hopecam.org
In the process of producing videos, I have often been in the company of accomplished and extraordinary people. Most of them adults. Most of them professionals. In the latest Pawpro Media video release we are highlighting the children of Hopecam who are, or have been, homebound and isolated by treatment for life threatening illnesses. It’s hard to not be impressed by their composure and strength.
For ten years Hopecam.org has supplied computers, cameras, hardware and any technical support necessary to connect these children with their school friends. Founder, Len Forkas, took on the mission to address this often overlooked, yet critical, aspect of long-term medical treatment for children after watching his son suffer with leukemia, and the painful emotional separation from his classmates at the age of nine. Often these children are separated from their friends for a year or more while being treated, which can have a significant effect on their psychological and physical well-being. The risk of a complicating infection is just too great.
Ride Across American fundraising Link:
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/lenforkas/rideacrossamericaraam
To hear former Hopecam user, Daniel, now 13 years old, recall his initial thoughts of being diagnosed with cancer, wondering how long he has to live, wondering whether he will ever see his friends again isn’t a topic of which we expect a child to be conversent. And his mother, Donna, recalling how she worried about how to “. . . keep him whole” in the process. But these children and families are forever changed by this event.
With Len’s participation this coming June in the famed cross-country cycling event, Race Across America, Hopecam hopes to reach more children and make more people aware of childhood cancer, Hopecam and the need for this connection in the lives of the children and families isolated by intensive medical treatment. Please help Hopecam raise $150,000 in 2012 to carry out this mission. Visit Hopecam.org to donate today.
Pawpro Loves GoPro
Perhaps it’s just the Valentine’s Day spirit, but I’ve got to say I just love the shots that come out of the GoPro Hero. The first Pawpro project to include GoPro footage is for Hopecam.org where we’ll focus on the founder’s upcoming cross-country bicycle trek in the famed Race Across America. Of course the Bicycle lends itself to some interesting angles, and the wide array of GoPro mounts oblige almost any angle.
This is just a sample of the possible shots. I’m sure there will be many other applications of its footage down the road. Just another tool that Pawpro can utilize to tell whatever story you need to tell.
Anything Is Possible 5K
How many races offer the allure of finishing with a negative time, and helping military charities in the process? This is a unique race series held on the night the clocks turn back each November. It is held in mulitiple cities, which included Denver, Seattle, Austin, Reno, Bethesda, Viera, Murfreesboro, and Virginia Beach in 2011.
It’s always good to finish another project, and share it with the public. This is the fourth video I’ve completed for Bob Fleshner and his race organizing partners.
Anything Is Possible 5K video released
Each video and production develops a life of its own. The latest release from Pawpro Media is no exception. This is the fourth video we’ve completed for Bob Fleshner and his superb race organizing partners. The Anything Is Possible 5K is held on the first Sunday of November on the night the clocks turn back, so runners can potentially run a negative time. For many athletes, that’s incentive enough. Others just like the idea of running in the middle of the night. The race was held in Seattle, Bethesda, MD/Washington, DC, Atlanta, Reno, Tampa, Denver, Virginia Beach, and Murfreesboro, TN. Proceeds benefit military charities Team Red, White, and Blue and Hope For The Warriors.
Because this race is held in multiple cities, Pawpro needed the help of cameras in Seattle and Atlanta–Stacey Jenkins and Jim Baxter. It was our first time working together, and a pleasure on all fronts. I hope there will be another opportunity to call on their talents again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y7HfMP5VHQ
Here are a few comical outtakes from our production. It was a cold January night when we were videotaping. Fingers, toes, mouths and brains became a little frozen.
Adjusting the Focus on Business use of Video in a 24/7 World–Videotaping Conferences, Presentations, and Instruction.
If your vision is a little blurry on how video and multimedia applies to your business or Web site and social media strategy, let me bring things into focus. First and foremost, research now consistently shows that over 50% of consumers begin their search for products or services online. In this new consumer world any individual business is just a few clicks away from a new client, or nothing at all. The first few seconds and the first impressions of a browsing consumer will either engage and provide the needed information, or it will send him away frustrated and looking for the answers elsewhere.
Company Web sites have also become a convenient and economical way for companies to engage and inform their own employees. It’s an easy oversight, but don’t forget, employees are no different from clients in that they all appreciate convenience.
Videotaping business conferences and presentations is nothing new. However, making these recordings accessible on company Web sites or other public video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Go Daddy is now less of a trend, and more a necessity. Plus, these days it’s easy to manage who can and can’t see this content.
Information sharing and the growing demand for accessible, intra-company content of all kinds has become an expectation rather than a high-end luxury. As employees and companies, small and large, manage the 24/7 world, online video content feeds the need for employers and employees alike. It’s also a cost-effective option as it reduces or removes the need to hold the same meeting in multiple locations or regions. Hold the meeting once, share the information and its content as many times as necessary.
Video also allows the message to be crafted and controlled so it’s uniformly sent and received, which is equally important whether the target is an employee or a client. It’s never been easier to incorporate PowerPoint presentations, Web site and computer screen navigation into a clean video format as the market of creative applications allowing their inclusion grows.
Here are two examples of the application of video in business.
Pawpro Media’s Bi-Coastal Shoot Tonight–Anything Is Possible 5K
Tonight, Pawpro Media will have crews working in Seattle, Atlanta and just outside Washington, DC covering the multi-city race, Anything Is Possible 5K, which starts and coincides with Daylight Savings and the clocks turning back. At, 1:50 AM runners will hit the pavement in Atlanta, Reno, Seattle, Washington, DC, and Virginia Beach trying to beat the clock and finish with a negative time–theoretically.
Videographers Stacey Jenkins (http://staceyjjenkins.com/) and Jim Baxter will be covering the races in Seattle and Atlanta, respectively. Pawpro Media owner, Amy Doherty, will cover the race in Washington, DC, which is technically in Bethesda, MD.
This race, for fun and a good cause, will benefit a handful of military charities which strive to provide support for wounded soldiers and their families upon their return from duty. Hope For The Warriors and Team Red, White and Blue are the main beneficiaries. The race has a number of national and local sponsors including Anytime Fitness, Puma, Subway, 5 Hour Energy, Hamburger Hamlet, Flippin’ Pizza, and Charm City.
On your mark, get set, go! You can still sign up.
Pawpro Chats-up OccupyDC
On Wednesday, before the rain and cold hit, I drove down to McPherson Square to talk to the residents of OccupyDC. I met Anthony and Annika.
Anthony is from Maryland, and Annika made her way to DC from Denver, Colorado hoping to be a part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but she’s now pleased to have landed at DC’s Occupy.
Similar to most participants of the Occupy Movement, they are here because of their mutual dissatisfaction with the political, federal, and financial systems in the U.S. Corporate greed and its subsequent influence over the political system is a common theme voiced. Occupy participants, the so-called 99%, who have seen their incomes, jobs, and wealth diminish over the last decade, have been called together by various online rally cries, fueled by common frustrations. They are protesting against representatives, corporations, and economic inequalities with the wealthiest 1% of Americans who have seen their incomes, in some cases, grow at triple the rate of the 99-percenters.
There is an Occupy presence in Atlanta, Oakland, LA, West Virginia, Tennessee, Rhode Island and Boston just to highlight a few. In some areas the squatters are clashing with local police or politicians. Notably in Tennessee a magistrate would not enforce a curfew against the Occupiers imposed by the state’s Republican governor saying there was no authority to establish a curfew at the location.
Some have characterized these groups as ex-hippies looking for a reason to commune, and, or conspiracy theorists hungry for a controversy. While I’ll admit many do have a hippie-like appearance, I wonder how it would be possible to look like anything else when living in the elements 24/7; and does that characterization somehow detract from their complaints? If you look like a hippie your opinion doesn’t count? The criticism does seem to have that intent. Anthony and Annika certainly appeared genuine in their resolve to affect change, and withstand the environmental elements headed their way. I heard many vow to fight against any Republican efforts to marginalize the protests and protesters, and any Democratic efforts to hijack the movement for their own political gain.
Washington Monument Gets the Once-Over by Climbers.
I couldn’t resist the opportunity yesterday to get some video footage of climbers/engineers inspecting the exterior of the Washington Monument for damage following the August 23 earthquake that rattled the East Coast. Reports say that these climbers, simultaneously dangling from all four sides of the monument, will go stone by numbered stone down the face looking for cracks and other flaws caused by the earth’s abrupt movement.
It was interesting to see a U.S. Park Service Ranger taking photos of the climbers from the highest openings on the obelisk. I was a little jealous of that perspective on the event. And, it also stopped raining for a few hours, finally.
Enjoy.
Amy Linn Doherty 
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