B-I-N-O-C-U-L-A-R-S

I'm exhausted. After steadily shooting with a 300mm padded in mufflers at the State Spelling Bee for 3 hours and then editing photos and audio for the slide show, I'm ready to close up this laptop for the next week which means I should post this now. Luckily for me, these kids tell the story. The faces, expressions and reactions are priceless and it's what gets me in gear to shoot this annual event. Some of these guys surprised me as they sat quietly and stoically (I needed spell check for that one) all night until one little tweak of the eyebrow clued me in that there was going to be a major upset. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. And also, take 2 minutes out of your day to watch the multimedia piece I spent oh so much time producing. The alphabet is swirling in my head and singing me to sleep....good night. Spell check. Done.

The Spelling Bee Slideshow!

shooting the pipe.

I had a pretty awesome week. I was busy but on some fun assignments outside and in some of the most beautiful places in Vermont. I started my week shooting the Vermont High School Alpine Ski Championships (photos to come!) up at Stowe Mountain Resort. The girls were competing in the GS Giant Slalom on a very windy, cold and blustery day. But, I donned by snowpants, thermals and base layers and found a sweet spot by the final gate with the 300mm to capture some dramatic images. On Wednesday I was off to shoot at Stowe again, but this time I was hiking up their Lower Standard trail in search of the mountain's rail park and halfpipe. The Vermont High School Halfpipe Championship was going on and it was a beautiful day. The sunshine left me with a few freckles on my nose. I wasn't sure what sort of skill level I would find at the high school level and knew that the pipe would prove a difficult shooting scenario. Where would they pop out? There were no Shaun Whites in the crowd as few of the riders managed to get out of the pipe. A bit disappointing, but the ones that did find some air managed to give me some great images. This first guy completely caught me off guard as I have taken a break to warm my numb fingertips but I heard loud cheers coming up topside so I knew this kid's run had to be promising. I shot this as I fell backwards since I was a bit too close to the edge, thank god for quick focus. I was happy with my takes especially being my first time shooting halfpipe. Enjoy!

Town Meeting Day

A year has passed since I came on staff at the Burlington Free Press. I started last year on Town Meeting Day which is one of our biggest coverage days of the year. Last year I covered Brookfield and kept my head above water, but this year I covered Franklin county and racked up some miles on the car between Montgomery, Bakersfield and Sheldon. In Vermont, Town Meeting Day is a special reminder of how small town politics still thrive. On this day, even the tiniest of towns will gather all together at the town hall or village school or local grange to discuss the annual budget, vote on elected officials and then crowd together to share a potluck meal perhaps in the nearby historical society hall. Wooden benches, tattered American flags, little kids bundled up nestled in their parents arms, 89-year-old voting officials, Girl Scouts hawking their cookies, and the smell of cow manure are all things that greeted me when I entered the quaint and quintessential Bakersfield Town Hall on Tuesday. The hair styles are dated. The eyeglasses much too large. The rubber boots tall. And, the trucker hats worn proudly and without a single notion of who Ashton Kutcher is. This is Vermont, preserved, quiet and friendly. We're old fashioned in many ways, but isn't that makes us great?

The various towns each had their own way of voting whether it was through Australian ballot, vocal voting by "ay" or "nay", paper ballot, or a raise of hands. The hot button issues: salting and grating the dirt roadways and finding the capital to buy that new truck the maintenance crews so desperately need. Practical concerns for practical needs. The budget amounts were reasonable and not inflated...it was refreshing.

The most challenging part of Town Meeting Day (besides not having cell or internet service for miles) is capturing an image, or images, that stands above the rest. How do you find a moment that is different than all of the years preceding it? We're talking about people sitting in chairs or benches voting. I found the details most interesting and focused on those since if you look at the big picture you're really just looking at a bunch of seated people looking very plain. These are my favorite takes. I shot hundreds of photos that day, as did the rest of the photo staff and our freelancers. Three huge online galleries later, the photo staff swept Vermont for a massive blanket coverage of Town Meeting Day and our hard work showed.

the final edition of The Rocky.

I haven't posted in a while, call it a lack of inspiration. But, I think I've had other things on my mind lately. The economic downturn is affecting everyone, and now today it has taken away a 150-year-old institution, The Rocky Mountain News. The Rocky published their final edition today and it's a huge and unfortunate loss for not only the residents of Denver, Colorado, but this country and certainly the newspaper industry. Newspapers have been battling to survive for several years now as the old business model strains to embrace today's fast, instantaneous methods of information delivery. We are losing the population charged with the responsibility of finding the truth. As internet bloggers, live chats and Twitter feeds supplement our news feed, we are forgetting who and how this information is collected. I fear we will accept hearsay and gossip over top notch, in-depth reporting.

I'm posting this video produced by the staff of The Rocky Mountain News not only because it is incredibly informative and visually interesting, but also to show how much they cared to deliver such an introspective piece knowing their days were numbered. Please take a few minutes out of your day to spend with them. The industry needs it.


Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

lauren.

Meet Lauren. She's my niece and she's pretty much the cutest thing around Vermont these days. You ask, "Why haven't you posted about her sweetness before?!?!" I know, I know. I have thousands of photos and she hasn't even hit her first birthday yet. I've got a gallery set-up with her photos and I have to limit my obsession there. Tom and I had the honor of babysitting her today and we played some power rock ballads on my piano, typed out some emails on the broken keyboard and did some bouncies on my BoSu Abdominal Trainer. Because, let's face it, somebody's got to use it and we're lacking in the baby toy department. Lauren's the cutest and most precious baby and so easy to hang out with and I just try to document every moment with her because these baby years pass way too quickly. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. Babies make the best subjects, right?!?!

free time.

I know, I know. I haven't posted in weeks. My excuse? I've been busy. Incredibly busy. Between work, wedding planning and that dwindling thing called a social life my blog really hasn't seen much love this year. But, I'll leave you with these photos from a walk Tom and I took with Bear. We've found a new favorite Sunday walk spot with LOTS of puppies for Bear to romp with. I've got lots of photos to post and am taking a long weekend this weekend so MAYBE I'll get around to working on them. Crazy 2009 has just begun.

Enjoy!

weezer weezer

So, I met and photographed the bassist from Weezer today. Good start to the week. Mikey Welsh played on the Green Album that topped the charts and brought hits like "Hash Pipe" and "Island in the Sun" to instant stardom. He didn't, however, play on my favorite album, the Blue album, that I've been listening to since I was nine-years-old. Pretty amazing that a single CD could withstand 16 years of listening, abuse and love. My tastes have changed considerably but that album still makes me happy. So, I'm working on collecting some multimedia for this piece and will post the completed project later. But, I'll leave you with this single image to whet your palette. I know you check my site every day.

...and thank you.

six voices, six votes.

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

I have spent the last two weeks traveling the state with Free Press reporter Sam Hemingway (whom I worked on the OxyContin series with) collecting interviews and photos from six Vermonters who are headed to DC next week for Obama's Presidential Inauguration.

Sam has a real gift for delving into people's lives and finding the heart behind a story. I try to pick up interview tricks from him as he is a true veteran of the field and I'm a lowly greenhorn, so maybe someday...someday...I'll be able to draw such poignant and meaningful responses from my interview candidates. For now I'll focus on producing top notch multimedia content which is an enormous task within itself. Hundreds of photos and hours of recorded interviews later, I had all of the components to make an in-depth multiple-perspective multimedia piece on why each of these six Vermonters are driven to attend the Inauguration. Each person has their own, unique and touching story that gives them a slightly different lens from which to experience the event. I wrapped my project earlier this evening after several grueling days of sitting inside editing. I picked a good week to plunk down with the computer though (for all you non-VTers) as temperatures dipped below zero for most of the week. Please take a few minutes of your time to sit down and enjoy the audio slideshow (link below). It's a bit longer than the rest, but for such a historic moment as this, I think it rightly deserves the attention.

SIX VOICES, SIX VOTES.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

(Gannett News Service, Rob Curtis/Army Times)

gazacrazy

I'm a little behind with this post, but a couple weeks ago I covered a protest in downtown Burlington in opposition to the recent air strikes by Israeli forces against the Gaza strip. The "usual crew" of local activists appeared as they marched from Rep. Peter Welch's office to Sen. Leahy's to Sen. Bernie Sanders offices asking for their reaction and plan regarding the recent air strikes. The crowd swelled and grew with every stop and the weather got colder...and colder. I couldn't believe the wind whipping off the lake that night - it was unbearable. But, people showed and even a dude on crutches hobbled across Main St. to get in on the action. It's hard to pull unique images from a protest unless something unexpected happens, especially in Burlington where we all seem to know each other and the faces are very familiar. I thought the setting sun worked to my advantage as I liked the light in some of these shots. Enjoy.

DairyDays

I had an early morning the other day. I needed to be up for a morning milking out in Morrisville just outside of Stowe nestled in our great, Green Mountains. I began my career at the Free Press with a slightly traumatic milking experience up in Hardwick. You can read about that: here. Let's just say this milking trip involved much less pitch black snowshoeing, flash popping and nervous encounters with a strange, woodsy, sugar tapping man. I met up with life-long dairy farmer, Ted Keith, and his 60 Jersey heifers. Ted milks twice a day and carries out hours of farm chores in between. As I told Keith, I truly admire any individual who works in a tangible profession. Good hard work and manual labor is so often overlooked, so I admire those that have the gusto and willpower to take on these jobs. So much of our days is consumed with iphones, computers, cell phones, digital everything, ipods and now, now, now devices. I use most of these things everyday for work, but I justify it by getting outside and taking pictures. Keeps me sane. I spent just a couple hours with Ted that morning, but I managed a peek into his world and well, all of the smells that go with it, too. Several loads of laundry later I think I've managed to eliminate that dairy cow barn smell, but I'm not sure how the aroma managed to settle into my cameras. Shooting portraits two days later I had to apologize because the stench was so strong. Turns out I was the only one that noticed. Oh well.

Watch the audio slideshow I produced right here: DairyDays