the August 2010 russellgraves.com Newsletter

RUSSELLGRAVES.COM UPDATES2010

August

Made with 100% Texas grit...

IN THIS ISSUE THE DEBUT

FEATURED COLUMN

GAME DAY

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SYNDICATION INFO

PHOTO ESSAY

PHOTO TIP

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NEED TO KNOW NEWS

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Summer’s End

PHOTO TIP

It’s hard to believe that summer is coming to a close. It seemed like it was yesterday when summer first began and I was prowling West Texas and learning about the region.

I see it like this: after a while photography becomes a chore. To compensate, I sometimes find myself going through the motions. When I sense that, I know my work won’t be as good as I’d like for it to be.

Therefore, I put my cameras away.

Meanwhile, my kids have spent a glorious summer of swimming, fishing, The temporary hiatus from and having fun just like kids should do. photography always refreshes me and get’s me ready to be creative again.

For the past month or so, I’ve really And it’s about time to get creative been laying low and producing new again as hunting season is nearly here. content has came to a crawl.

However, that’s all for a good reason. Dove hunting season starts in less One of the most common questions I receive at seminars is how to maintain creativity. The question is so common, I have it built into my seminars. Among the half dozen tips I give for maintaining creativity, one of them is putting your camera away for a while.

That’s right - one of my keys for maintaing creativity is to not take pictures at all.

Tell a Story When shooting a series of pictures I always try to approach the subject with an end story in mind.

Pictures tell a story so I always think about the beginning, the middle and end of a scene. Look for details as well as wide scenes that help tell the whole story.

Look for details as well as wide scenes that help tell the whole story.

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than a month and I already have a trip planned with my brother, my dad, and my kids and I am super excited to capture the event with both still photography and videos just like I have in the past. It should be fun, as these trips always are.

It’s going to be a great fall.

-Russell Graves

FEATURED COLUMN Miracle on Ice I am not sure why I am writing this column as it has little to do with the outdoors. For some reason, however, it seems appropriate. Because ultimately, I think the topic has a little bit to do with who I am today.

I am writing this on Sunday morning, February 21 while I am setting in the lobby of the Angel Fire Ski Resort in New Mexico. The lifts aren’t yet open so I slipped down to the lobby brainstorm on a new column. When I turned their television on, ESPN was playing and I so I watched. Immediately after a commercial played, I watched a short documentary about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team and how, against all odds, beat the Russians (who had one every Olympic gold medal in hockey except one since 1956). It seems that that February 22nd is the 30th anniversary of the most phenomenal upsets in all of sports history.

When I watched the documentary, memories trickled back. I can remember seeing the game when I was a little boy and being enthralled by the win. The next day at school, me and the rest of the boys in my grade (all ten of us) played hockey on the school’s old concrete tennis court with a tennis ball and sticks that we’d broken from a pecan tree that shaded the playground.

Although I was ten at the time, I can remember the turmoil our country was going through at the time. A recession, the Cold War, the energy crisis and gas lines, the American hostages in Iran, and the other factors that led our nation into the morass that defined the late 1970’s.

“... Do you believe in miracles?”

Being a boy, I couldn’t relate to the social and economic forces at play in our nation. All I knew was that the United States won a big game and we were excited about it - excited enough to emulate the American exceptionalism that was on display in front of the entire world. Mind you that Dodd City, Texas isn’t a hockey hotspot. However, on a cool February day back in 1980 me and ten of my classmates were Mark Johnson, Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig and the rest of Team USA. I am no sociologist and I cannot claim that that win helped bring us out of the social and political rut of the 1970’s. I can say that it did inspire ten little boys from Dodd City, Texas. The most unlikeliest of hockey fans were, at least for a day, caught up in the outpouring of national pride that gushed from Lake Placid, New York.

Before that fateful game, Coach Herb Brooks told his player, “You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.”

About Russell Graves Outdoors

That whole attitude is one I’ve always tried to live up to and is one I tried to instill in my students when we’d compete in contests when I was still a teacher and it is one I try to instill in my own children.

Ironically, it seems our country is struggling with many of the similar issues of the late 1970’s. However, I am confident we will find our way through because we are Americans and we are exceptional. Still I can’t help but wonder what sort of seemingly innocuous events will inspire someone like my daughter (who turns ten in September) just like the hockey game inspired me thirty years ago.

At the end of that game, Al Michaels proclaimed “... Do you believe in miracles?”

Thirty years later, I know I do.

syndicated newspaper column that

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GAME DAY

The Opener Nothing beats dove hunting for its social aspects. One of the great events in the Texas outdoors, dove hunting attracts family and friend afield in a grand kickoff for a new hunting season.

Make no mistake about it. Dove hunting is challenging. I’ve heard that nationally, hunters shoot eight times just to take a single bird.

That’s good news for the ammo makers, the doves, and hunters too. That just means you get to stay out longer for a limit.

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The Skinny Date: Various Location: All over Texas Camera Gear: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 1D Mark III, 16-35mm f2.8 lens, 300mm f2.8 lens, 70-2000mm f2.8 lens

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NEED TO KNOW NEWS

hunting and any other image with the keyword embedded in the image.

Search Features Did you know that you can you can

You can easily refine your

refine searches on the website? It’s

search by clicking on the link at the top of the search results

really easy and works like this:

page. You can then add

Say that you are looking for deer

additional keywords like trophy that helps you

images and just type in the term deer.

The system will find ALL images with deer in the name and return results of not only deer images, but also deer

refine and drill down your search results.

Check out the new videos in the gallery section at russellgraves.com.

New Articles I just posted three new

Connect with me!

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Upcoming Speaking Event

articles in the gallery. These are pieces I wrote and photographed and

Come join me at the Purina Wildlife Management Series as I speak on

appeared in the print magazine,

telling the outdoor story.

Landscapes.

October 7, 2010 7:00pm Childress, Texas City Auditorium

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