Category: Uncategorized

Ok, I have said it before and will say it again but this time I heard a new term that is going round, “attention mining” to gain the attention and to keep people stuck on a social media site.

While this page is not a social media page, it is an old school blog and more like a look inside the creative mind of a photographer and videographer and business owner and it is my personal way to say what I want without any fear of it being censored by any social media company. This page is on my server.

So over the last month and a half, I have been stupid busy with several things. The weather was rocking with back to back winter storms. It was as if winter finally came back with a vengeance.

The other has been just trying to get the SCV pages up to date and working with clients for archive footage. We have a new partner in the footage industry that will be announced soon to help move material to clients and take a load off of my back.

Distractions? Yes, lots of them from having to repair stuff around the home like learning to rebuild a washing machine to the major news about a huge lawsuit involving one of the clients that we are not a part of but I still have received numerous phone calls about it. My short answer is my company had nothing to do with it and that is what lawyers are for.

Speaking of lawyers, it looks like we will be going down that road with several companies. I’m not naming any names as of yet but if I punt this to the attorney, I’m sure that a press release will come out. Turns out other footage companies that let anyone in to sell footage without researching who they are and where their content comes from are allowing others to pirate and resell copyrighted stock footage as their own, until they are caught and then try to hide behind the DMCA or Digital Minimum Copyright Act.

The only problem is these companies are NOT hosting companies that the DMCA protects but actually profit from the sale of stolen material that is also a crime.

The storm chasing business and video business is about to get a lot more interesting. Okay, time to get back to editing and finish this one project then back to the website and the 50 other projects I have to do…

Yesterday I was up in Clay County, Minnesota to document the start of the massive flooding from the melting snow pack.  The snow from last weeks blizzard and the large amount of snow that has fallen in the area all winter long is not rapidly melting and turning fields into lakes and small run off creeks into rivers.

I also uploaded the B-Roll package that I shot for The Weather Channel.

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What a day, it was pretty intense with the bulk of the snow in the northwest metro to Saint Cloud, MN again. Here is the footage I shot in the Twin Cities.

Winter storm hits the Twin Cities Metro area during the evening hour’s and causes numerous spin outs and crashes around the metro area.
Shot Description

Clip 1 Skyline with snow falling

Clip 2 Someone in their SUV stuck on Interstate 94 after a plow came by as they were trying to get on the interstate and they spun out into the snow bank and got stuck.

Clip 3 POV shot pulling the vehicle out of the snow bank.

Clip 4 Vehicle smashed into the cable barriers on Interstate 94.

Clips 5-6 Pickup truck stuck in the snow bank on the side of the interstate and looks like it was plastered by snow by several snow plows.

Clip 7 Vehicle spun out on the interstate.

Clip 8 Passing vehicle spun out on the interstate.

Clips 9-12 Minneapolis International Airport Control tower and aircraft de-icing.

Clips 13-16 Snow plows Gang Plowing.

Busy afternoon, the snow held off until later then forecasted but when it did hit, it hit hard.

Winter storm hitting the northwestern suburbs of the Twin Cities with heavy snow and crashes along Interstate 94 in Monticello, MN.
Shot Description

Clip 1 Sign warning of crash ahead.

Clips 2-5 Crashes along interstate 94 around Monticello, MN.

Clips 6-8 Snow plow on Interstate 94.

Clip 9 Traffic on Interstate 94.

Clip 10 Traffic on Interstate 94.

Clip 11 Crash

Clip 12 Traffic on Interstate 94.

Clip 13 Snow Plow passing in front of the camera.

Clip 14 Traffic on Interstate 94.

Probably the last major winter storm of the season.

Another winter storm hits the middle of Minnesota around the city of Saint Cloud where the heavy wet snow started to fall just after 4:00 p.m. and turning the roads to slush covered in a matter of minutes.
Shot Description

Clips 1-3 Vehicle in the ditch at Interstate 94 and Highway 15.

Clips 4-6 Snow plow on Interstate 94.

Clips 7-8 POV Snow plow coming towards the camera on Highway 15.

Clip 9 Semi truck on Interstate 94.

Clip 10 POV passing a crash on Interstate 94.

Clips 11-12 Overlooking Interstate 94 and traffic in the heavy snow.

Clip 13 Driving in the snow POV shot on Interstate 94.

Clip 14 POV snow plow on coming.

Clips 15-16 Snow falling with trees in the back ground.

Another powerful winter system is hitting Minnesota and causing chaos on the roads. Footage shot on Interstate 94 between Monticello and Clearwater, MN of the numerous wrecks on the interstate.
Shot Description

Clip 1 Vehicle in the ditch

Clip 2 Sign warning of crashes ahead

Clip 3 POV Driving in heavy snow

Clip 4 – 6 Passing a wreck on the interstate where a vehicle re-ended a semi truck

Clip 7 Passing car in the ditch

Clip 8 Car in the ditch with tow truck

Clip 9 Passing car in the ditch with tow truck

Clip 10 Passing car in the ditch

Clip 11 Passing car in the ditch

Clip 12 Passing car in the ditch with tow truck

Clip 13-14 Signs warning of crashes ahead

Clip 15 Passing several vehicles and Semi in the ditch

Clip 16 Flag in snow

Clip 17 Overhead shot of slow moving traffic on Interstate 94

Clip 18 – 19 Scenic shots of snow and trees

SID: Peter La Fleur.

For the few that have found this site while making the huge overhaul, I’m still working on the site move, it has not been forgotten about. Right now I’m down to about 410 pages that need to get moved over. Then I need to go back over all the stuff I never posted over the years and THEN it should be ready.

The last few weeks have been crazy busy with the record breaking snow here in Minnesota. So we go from nothing to OMG rush Rush RUSH!!!!

So back to work for me here, going to try and knock down a few hundred more pages by Monday.

Today I was back out in the crazy winter weather around Saint Cloud, MN.

Another powerful winter storm hit central Minnesota and just in the Saint Cloud, MN metro area where dozens of wrecks were reported just around the noon hour as another half foot of snow blanketed the area.

Video has lots of wrecks, cars, trucks and semi along with snow plows and people just stuck in the ditches.

Not even back for a day from ChaserCon and the weather keep’s hitting in central Minnesota. I was not even out for a few minutes when I came upon this wreck by Clearwater, MN.

Footage from Interstate 94 in Wright County where the roads became ice covered and extremely hazardous to drive on. Footage of numerous wrecks including a roll over where the driver walked away unharmed.

Clip 1 State Patrol responding to a wreck with lights and sirens.

Clip 2 Car in the ditch broadside and on top of the snow.

Clip 3 Truck on the side that rolled over.

Clip 4 Snow plow.

Clip 5 – 6 Roll over from different POV.

Clip 7 Two people stuck in the center ditch.

Clip 8 Snow plows passing the wide angle side camera.

Clip 9 Passing wrecks with side camera shot.

Clip 10 Same scene as clip 9 but from front dash camera.

Clip 11 POV Snow plow on Interstate 94 coming towards the camera.

Clip 12 Long clip of bad roads and then vehicles in the ditch.

Clip 13 Car in the ditch with tow truck trying to recover.

Clip 14 Truck in the ditch in the center cables.

Clip 15 Stopped and backed up traffic due to all the crashes.

Clip 16 Vehicle in the ditch and crash with pickup and semi truck.

Clip 17 Truck in the ditch.

Clip 18 Driving with blowing snow.

Clip 19 SUV in the ditch.

Clip 20 Car in the ditch.

Just driving back from ChaserCon in Wichita, KS and into the next brutal winter storm that is hitting the Twin Cities metro area.

After the snow came the very slick roads around the Twin Cities metro area of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN. Dozens of wrecks were reported the late evening all over the metro area. Footage show in Hennepin County on the northwest side of the metro area.
Shot Description

Clip 1 Crash on Interstate 694/94.

Clip 2 Crash on Interstate 94.

Clip 3 Crash on Highway 62 and France Avenue.

Clip 4 Road Block due to wrecks on Highway 100 and France Avenue.

Clip 5-7 Crash on Highway 100 and Minnetonka BLVD

Clip 8-9 MNDot Truck “DUMPING” a lot of treatment on the road way due to the extremely slippery conditions on the road. Location 494 Maple Grove

Clip 10 MNDot Plows blocking Highway 100 due to crashes and slick conditions.

Clip 11 Crash on Highway 100 that was a roll over.

Clip 12 Crash on Highway 100.

Clip 13 Clean up of crash on Highway 100.