Deep Hanging Out at Collaborations for Cause

Posted 11 May 2012 by Sara in Announcements, Exhibits and Presentations

I’m happy to report that Collaborations for Cause, Blue Earth’s first annual storytelling retreat for photographers, nonprofits and communications professionals, was a huge success! Over a hundred people from places like Seattle, British Columbia, South Carolina and New Mexico joined us on Whidbey Island for two days of “deep hanging out” (see Scott Macklin’s four Rs of storytelling below).

Benj and I shared six case studies from recent projects. Benj also moderated a fantastic panel on publishing, partnerships and environmental advocacy, featuring Hellen Cherullo from Mountaineers Books, Dan Ritzman from the Sierra Club and Gary Hawkey from ioColor. The group discussed To the Arctic, an inspiring new photography book by our friend Florian Schulz. Florian himself gave a powerful keynote later that evening.

There were too many other amazing speakers and topics to list in this post, but here are five bits of storytelling wisdom that I came home with:

“Engagement first, stories second… Don’t just tell stories, give them something to do.”
— Dan Green, Gates Foundation

“Vision is more than a collection of opinions. It’s what ought to be.”
— Milenko Matanovic, Pomegranate Center

“Don’t dumb it down, break it up.”
— Suzie Katz, PhotoWings

“Hope is not a strategy, but it’s core to our work.”
— Helen Cherullo, Mountaineers Books

And here are the four Rs of storytelling according to Scott Macklin, Associate Director of the Master of Communications in Digital Media program at the UW:

• Relationship: Don’t just create stories about people. Make stories with them.
• Relevance: Ensure your story is relevant through “deep hanging out.”
• Rigor: Practice your craft.
• Result: It’s not all about getting an “A” on the first draft.

Finally, Cathy Britt (@CathyABritt) from the Burke Museum put together a comprehensive summary of key points, tweets and case studies:
storify.com/CathyABritt/collaborations-for-cause

A big thanks to everyone who came out. Get ready for an even bigger and better retreat next year!

All photos © Tim Matsui.

Oyster Country

Posted 15 April 2012 by Benj in Facing Climate Change, Field Notes

Over the last month we’ve made three trips to the wet and windy Washington Coast for Facing Climate Change. Our focus is ocean acidification and how that is changing the operations of small, family farmers on Willapa Bay. (You can learn more about recent research in Craig Welch’s article in last week’s Seattle Times.) This story will be released as part of our new series on climate change in the Pacific Northwest.

A huge thanks to the folks at Goose Point, Harrolds Fish & Oyster Co, and Taylor Shellfish for all their help!

UPDATE: Here’s a fantastic article from Crosscut that explains the issue in more detail.

Back to Swinomish

Posted 9 February 2012 by Benj in Facing Climate Change, Field Notes

Last week we were back in the field for Facing Climate Change. We’ve been chipping away on a climate change and coasts story with the Swinomish for the last year. On this trip we sat down with Larry Campbell, Brian Cladoosby and Ed Knight for closing interviews. We also spent time exploring the tribe’s economic development zone that’s perched just a few feet above sea level. We’ll release this story, along with seven others, this coming May. Thanks to our good friends Libby and Rusty for providing a perfect Skagit home base.

An update on Facing Climate Change

Posted 16 January 2012 by Sara in Facing Climate Change

We’ve been working with a lot of great clients recently, which hasn’t left us with much time for our personal project, Facing Climate Change. However, we have some exciting news to share!

Over the summer and fall we received two generous contributions that allow us to focus exclusively on finishing a new series of stories, based in the Pacific Northwest, through this spring. One of the grants came from the Kongsgaard-Goldman Foundation for $8,000 and the other is from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for $12,000.

The other good news is that we have a new project partner, the Washington State Department of Ecology. They helped us connect with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and we plan to work with them to distribute the stories through a series of community events next summer. It turns out that our series fits perfectly with a community outreach mandate they have for their upcoming Climate Change Response Strategy.

You can learn more about Facing Climate Change on our website, and follow our progress over the coming months on this blog.

Back to Bell Rapids

Posted 16 November 2011 by Benj in Facing Climate Change, Field Notes

Before the snow began to fall, I made a quick trip out to Hagerman, Idaho to revisit the Bell Rapids agricultural development for Facing Climate Change. Sara and I completed most of our fieldwork for that story in 2010, but it’s a tale of change in Big Sky Country and I knew I had to get above it. (Field notes from our first trip are here.)

Once again I turned to LightHawk for help. LightHawk is an organization that supports environmental initiatives with mission-based flights and this was our third collaboration for Facing Climate Change. With beautiful clear weather, pilot Dennis Fitzpatrick and I spent several hours in his Cessna working our way up the Snake River and over the 25,000 acres of abandoned fields.

What had been missing from our coverage – the scale of this economic shift and landscape-level change – was easily captured from the air. I made images of ghost pivots (the abandoned tracks of irrigation systems) under the shadows of new wind turbines, empty potato barns with their roofs blown off, and the Snake River winding its way through the dry plain.

A big thanks to Dennis and LightHawk and stay tuned for the release of this piece and the rest of our new climate change series later this year!