Blair Witch Project meets prairie snow storm . Squirmy video project ,no one really likes to talk about , a chance to do something really different before I'm done . Brilliantly edited by Tyler Walsh . Don't do this at home. Needs a better title .
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/multimedia/video/local/first-person-perspective-of-harrowing-perimeter-hwy-drive-240562161.html.
The piece was inspired while working the early morning breaking news shift . I was on the west edge of the city when the storm alert for the City of Winnipeg was lifted . I encountered high winds and blowing snow ,and was aware the lifting of the alert was giving permission for drivers to head into and out of Winnipeg to go to work. This is the thing our readers do everyday and in these conditions . Spouses , parents , and adult children wish each other to wait that extra hour for daylight and not to travel . This video was to give further argument to wait that little extra time . I was not expecting the short trip to be so harrowing , but when is it too dangerous to put yourself in the shoes of our readers ? Once I started there no turning off or back. I was on divided highway , the only turnoff was into two way traffic . This was too dangerous. Without the “words” of warning a TV piece would give by spelling out the obvious , those who favour discretion over valour have this one extra argument. The Sony flip camera I was using added to the drama of the trip , the auto foucus was more confused than I was . The focus chaos enhanced an already muddled chain of shots in ways that could not be predicted . I thought later that Google Glasses could be away to create this unusual hyper reality journalism .This could be that missing link between newspaper journalism and a hybrid online reality journalism .We as photographers see a lot of very cool and interesting things on our travels . The experience of travel and the energy of people during events has value , the other half of the newspaper business has no idea of this opportunity . This reality has value in the first person experience and record keeping .