back from Belize

Frequent flyer miles (thank you New York Daily News), a winter-time slow-down and a tiny spark of an idea paved (ironic?) the way for me to work in Belize. This was an experiment in working on spec in a foreign country. Could I come up with good enough ideas that would sell? Would I make ANY money on this trip? Am I crazy?

our reliable driver getting us to Blue Creek. (picture: TalismanPHOTO)

The idea was to work with Tally on a personal project, while we each tried to gather individual images of interest. I had a very non-committing nod from a wire news service toward interest in stock agriculture pictures. Another thought was to attempt a travel picture story pitch for a magazine.

It's a tough time for journalists. Oddly, publications aren't as interested in packaged stories with photos, it seems. They want to be able to break apart and rearrange pictures and words from multiple sources. I'm trying to grasp this concept with the emergence of multimedia work hitting the websites of news agencies, and I figure those editors will be looking for multiple sources of all media.

I'm a story teller who relishes the details and subtle flavor of a good piece of journalism. I wonder how these subtle elements will survive being mass produced and packaged as raw materials for assembly overseas. That's why I did as much detail gathering as I could for a work that Tally and I will build and finish ourselves.

Video and photos will be posted here as they are ready.

Oh, and my wire service friends came through for me and bought the agriculture pictures. Sweet.