Durango Herald Multimedia

Top honors

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:27:27 +0000

If you missed the article about Durango Herald awards recently, I’ll point out a few noteworthy winners from the website. The Colorado Associated Press Editors and Reporters, CAPER, has a pair of categories for online journalism. The Durango Herald placed second for Breaking News and second in the Online Special Package category for a staff effort covering the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. I was honored with first in that category for an entry about the opening of the new Durango Public Library. With the addition of Shaun Stanley and Phil Jones on the Web Desk here, we hope to provide you with more top quality work at durangoherald.com. Thanks for stopping in to see what we’re doing, and as always, contact us with your feedback.

post by Josh Stephenson

Screenshot of Readers Rejoice that was awarded first place for the CAPER Online Special Package contest.

Shattered – Documenting a nation in ruin

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:38:29 +0000

On January 12th 2010, in the span of just 37 seconds, the tiny impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti was devastated by a massive earthquake. My first experience in Haiti was in May of this past year producing documentary photography and video for Compassion International, an international aid and development organization. Haiti had a profound effect on me. Years of experience in third world countries in East Africa and a few stints in war zones did little to prepare me for the level of desperation faced daily by most Haitians living under extreme poverty. I learned of the earthquake within minutes via online news resources. My heart sank because I knew that in the fleeting minutes before the quake the majority of Haitians were simply struggling to survive the day by finding food and clean water. Now this.

Within hours of the earthquake I was making preparations to cover the tragedy. Food, water, shelter, electricity and a reliable data connection would be the highest concerns. The first two were easy to solve with years of backpacking experience. Shelter came in the way of a trusted bevy sack for no buildings could be considered safe to sleep within. A trip to Radio Shack was made to purchase cigarette lighter plugs with alligator clips and DC extension cords that could be attached to a car battery for electricity. I secured a satellite data terminal, a Hughes HNS-9201, which guaranteed a high speed data connection for uploading photos and video.

I arrived in Port au Prince, Haiti on the evening of January 25th with a team of doctors who were tasked with setting up mobile clinics in and around the capital city. The devastation was incredible. I quickly came to understand that although the death toll was enormous the real tragedy was being played out in the desperate living conditions of the survivors. Nearly two million people were living in the streets of Port au Prince. Food and water were scarce particularly for the young, old or weak who could not travel to emergency aid distribution points. I did not meet a single Haitian who had not lost a family member in the quake.

For the following ten days I was tasked with providing a visual record of this nation now shattered to its core. Hope was a difficult thing to find but the occasional smile of a child caught in a playful moment provided a glimpse of the resiliency of the Haitian people and the promise, although faint, of a better future.

Presented here is a slide show of photographs of my attempts to portray Haiti today.

A video may be viewed here.

Slideshow, video and post by Shaun Stanley.

Reader submitted photos

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:33:20 +0000

In case you missed it, or haven’t had your fill of snow, The Herald asked readers for their best snow photos. Hundreds were sent in via e-mail, and we displayed a slide show of some on the site.

If you have photos, snow related or otherwise, add them to our community Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/durangoherald/

The New York Times in Haiti

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:54:57 +0000

The New York Times has posted an incredibly powerful slide show, interview and an audio clip with photographer Damon Winter about his experience in Haiti. From New York Times‘ blog The Lens

Damon Winter of The New York Times arrived in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. He has been traveling through the city in a car shared with Ron Haviv of the VII photo agency and Timothy Fadek, both veteran conflict photographers. James Estrin spoke with Mr. Winter by cellphone at midnight Thursday. Excerpts of their conversation can be heard below.

Click here or on image below to access The Lens

Other New York Times multimedia includes the following pages.

Helping Hands

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:53:11 +0000

Recently, reporter Katie Burford began a series called Helping Hands, looking at local non-profit agencies and the people in our community that benefit from their assistance. The first in the series ran Sunday, profiling 15-year-old violin virtuoso J.R. Smith and the help he has received. To complement her work, each photographer followed someone to capture photographs and audio, Katie recorded interviews, I produced audio slide shows and Phil Jones and myself packaged the series here. Three more are coming down the line soon, so check back for more.

Post by Josh Stephenson

Click here or on image below to enter project.

Bomb threats shake Durango

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:55:06 +0000

During Wednesday’s bomb threat, we updated the article dozens of times as new information was available. A brief article and story came first, followed by photographs, then video and finally a map of locations affected. One element I feel was missing was a time line with a concise way to see when the evacuations were called, when students were transferred, response times for authorities and finally when various buildings were cleared and the threat reduced. If you have any other suggestions on how we can provide better coverage in these instances, please comment below or contact me at jstephenson@durangoherald.com.

Video by Shaun Stanley and Josh Stephenson. Post and map by Josh Stephenson

View Bomb threat locations in a larger map

Going for the championship

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:41:53 +0000

As FLC headed to the championship game once again, we tried to give readers as many options as possible to get updates. As well as updating the score on our homepage with each goal, a twitter feed from FLC soccer gave updates, a like directed readers to the NCAA for streaming video and local radio coverage was linked to as well. Photographer Jerry McBride sent back whopping 64 image slide show to boot. Going into Saturday’s game, check the Herald for updates.

Mayor of Main Street

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:53:46 +0000

Apologies to all checking this blog lately. We’ve been on a bit of a multimedia sabbatical.
Also on hold for some time has been the Our Corner project. Both will get renewed attention, so please check back and thanks for sticking with us.
The latest entry to Our Corner is Amador Tucson, owner of Tucson’s on main. Clipping hair and using traditional straight razors from 1969 to this day, the hard working now 70-year-old has a sense of humor as quick as most teens and is known by his faithful clientele as the “Mayor of Main Street.”
Tucson also plays guitar and keeps in tune during lulls in business. Working roughly 10 hours a day, six days a week, Tucson was hard at work on his birthday.
Click here or on the photo below to watch the audio slide show.

Photo, slide show and post by Josh Stephenson

Huntin’ for a chicken

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:30:09 +0000

When one of our reporters returned from a recent City Council meetingwith talk about the chicken that walked in and sat down in the closing minutes of the night, I chided him for a picture. A cell phone photo, anything. Why wasn’t a photographer called? With a description in the story, we had to have a photo of this mysterious chicken.
The following day, Marc Snider with Exposure Productions, who produces the City Span 10 programming, dropped off the DVD. Sweet, we were able to grab video.
Our curiosity blossomed, with the story topping our most read list later that day and a number of television stations clambering for the footage. All calls were forwarded to Snider.
Eventually, it ended up on television stations in Denver and Albuquerque as well as the Huffington Post and websites as far away as Tamba Bay.

In case you didn’t catch it the first time around…

If video fails to appear, please hit the ‘refresh’ button on your web browser.

Soccer, soccer and more soccer

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:50:56 +0000

With the Fort Lewis men’s soccer team doing so well, the Durango Herald has been covering their advancement in the NCAA Division II championships with regular updates on the website shortly after games, following up with slideshows and videos as soon as we have them ready. Veteran still photographer Jerry McBride has provided most of the photos, while I produced an audio slideshow and video. The last week of visual coverage is shown here. Keep an eye out for more as the Skyhawks (21-1) will host Cal State-Dominguez Hills (17-5-1) in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II tournament at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Post by Josh Stephenson. Slideshows by Jerry McBride. Video and audio slideshow by Josh Stephenson