Author: Doug

Went out in the mess here in Minneapolis this afternoon and mess is an understatement.  The weather was bad with about 6 inches of snow in the afternoon and rush hour that turned into grid lock that made a 20 minute drive into a three hour crawl home.   But I got a lot of unique footage including this clip.

Ok, so today I spent most of the day trying to finish up a major stock video project when another one is dropped in my lap. Then the computer anti virus goes off because of some sun java update that shuts everything down until the scan is completed. So I just goofed off tonight after seeing the flame war on Storm Track about the Twister Sisters new show on WE TV.

When I posted that Tony and Bill and a lot of others are part of the show, people stopped and thought about it and then thought about it some more as it was not all about the Peggy and Mel.

But Tony had to joke about it and it gave me an idea…

So I blew off 3 hours coming up with this for the hell of it. When it was done, I called Tony as soon as I posted it to Storm Track and I was almost in tears laughing my ass off. My jaw hurts from laughing so hard at what I did. Crazy eh?

Yesterday was pretty good for the first winter storm of the season. Maybe a little hyped but it was not under forecasted. In the south metro there was a lot of snow and then back up north it was 8 inches of snow at Neva’s place. The roads on the interstates were not that bad outside of the metro area.

I only saw one car in the ditch from the metro to St. Cloud. And south of the metro there was nothing to shoot for cars in the ditch south of Lakeville. But in the metro, people were not as lucky.

I was out most of the day filming and I started out filming around the airport then went around the south side of the metro filming people in the ditch and snow plows.

Here are two videos I posted to YouTube for the event today.  The first one is of airplanes being de-iced at the Minneapolis International Airport.

The second video if snow plows and people out in the snow while driving around and some crash aftermath footage.

Here is a 4 image series of an SUV spinning out on Interstate 35W near Cliff Road in Burnsville, MN.

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In other news, were just slacking today and relaxing. I’m working on stuff on the laptop and Neva is putting up the tree.

Ok, so it’s been a week since I have posted a blog.

Well, everything is wonderful as you can probably guess by the new profile photo. |

Without sounding too sappy, life is great.

Business is good, my health and life in general is good and for the first time that I can remember in years, I am happy and relaxed.

Well, I’m getting ready for the big winter storm that is suppose to head this way. Here is a screen cap from yesterday of some of the video I shot. This guy was lucky he was just in the ditch. I passed a wreck about 2 miles up the road where the front of a Mini Van was missing.

Okay, off to get some sleep before I go out and play in the snow.

Okay, been busy with the latest rounds of video that have been sent into me for the new stock footage catalogs and wrapping that stuff up next week. Having fun watching tons of new footage for the site. Lots of new HD footage is going to be coming on line soon.  
Outside of working, Neva and I spent thanksgiving at my sisters house with my my family. Everything was pretty laid back and we had a great time. Well, I should get back to work here 🙂

Wow, I forgot how great everything just clicks together when you connect with someone that is totally amazing. Everything is good.

Okay, this goes out to all of my storm chasing buds.

The Reverend Chaser Needs Some Prayers. I was doing the big day chase prep work with all the guys I know that might be chasing the mod risk today. 

Right now we have several chasers out in the field for BNVN to chase the setup today.  I called Tim Baker, aka The Rev since he really is a pastor in Colorado to see if he was going out to chase.  http://www.tornadochaser.net/ Turns out he is working a funeral service for a good friend that was killed in a car accident.  Now loosing a good friend is hard enough but having to do the services as well, Tim could use some thoughts and prayers. 

It just makes you realize how short life really is and how you have to make the most of everyday. 

Well, I don’t know how else to explain it but 3 years of work is finally coming to an end with the new website for BNVN.

The database is done and now I have just some simple site layout stuff to work on this weekend and next week and then the whole freaking thing goes live. 

But all in all, there is over 800 videos ready to go live to CRUSH THE HEAD THAT IRRATATES (reference from the band Hot Karl / Dumpster Juice song and some storm track posts) and pretty much redefine the freelance video market and ENG stuff.

And for those of you that actually read this and check out the new page www.bnvn.com and the new intro video, yes that is real shark footage of a shark passing in front of the camera less then 5 feet away looking for a snack. 

Man I can’t wait for the whole site to launch on Tuesday. All the b.s. I put up with over the years from everyone, it’s been worth it to come this far.

Okay this is a first. It is October 5th, I’m in Minnesota, and I have the Air Conditioner on.  Early this morning I got a call to wake up and go out and shoot some lightning video from the news desk in NYC and in town and got some pretty sweet footage for KSTP and ABC.  The video is up on KSTP’s site.  I’ll post it on line when I get some time this weekend.  I’m off to go back to bed and get some sleep now.

Ok, sorry for the delay but I have been busy catching up on sleep, work and working out. Wow, I feel good, down 20 so far 🙂

Now on to the photos from a couple days ago. I was out shooting flooding video again in Dodge County MN and it was amazing.

Here are the photos. Note to self… bring a change of clothes next time I decide to walk into flooding from farm fields with cow crap… Ewwwww. At least I can wash the scuba gear off but I did not even have that with. I did have an interesting time waking up a couple on County Road 7 and 540th street. I was following the surge of water down the river and when I got to the next major road, I looked at my GPS and saw that their was a home right next to the Zumbro River. The river was rising and they were still up waiting to see what happened but as soon as I showed up they took it pretty serious.

Lucky for them, the water stopped a few feet from their home when it crested.

Here are the video’s that I shot of this event.