welcome puppies!

Nietzsche is a mother and in 4-6 weeks Ranjana and I will be too :)

Sing.



Swing.



Salsa.

time to celebrate

for a handful of reasons.

The men of the family

...or at least some of them.

Barrett, Tim, Dad, and Uncle Rick enjoying each others company at Clayton's wedding.

Reagan High School struggles

Reagan High School from Courtney Dudley on Vimeo.

This is my final project for Donna's doc video class. I'm relatively pleased with how it came out, although I always envisioned it as a audio slideshow (boy, have I missed shooting stills). I hope to continue working to expand this project in the future to better encompass and be more wholly representative of the education reform issue. Its a lot of small problems compiled to make one giant one... and then I want to include a solution, which... well... does anyone know what that one solution might be? Its a tough thing to tackle.

I'd love to hear thoughts/critiques/ideas.

camp

Krause Springs. Freezing cold. So much fun. Happy birthday, Sarah Moore.

funx3 '08

St. Vincent was one of the best shows I've seen and shot in as long as I can remember. Keep it up Annie.

And I'd venture to say that Fun Fun Fun fest, and other smaller festivals like it, are much more enjoyable than the big mega-fests like ACL. I could shoot as long as I wanted in the pit, there was free beer/snacks/earplugs backstage, our cell phones didn't loose coverage and it was easy to hop from stage to stage without fighting through the masses and sweating profusely. As a regular attendee, you could show up at the stage mid-show and still get super close, if you're slinky. Fun, fun, fun.

African Americans and the media from Courtney Dudley on Vimeo.

This is a little video I helped V shoot for her Citizen Journalism class. We talk a lot about the history of African-Americans in the media (remember OJ on the cover of TIME?) in our journalism intro classes. But these issues, like the lack of coverage and the inaccurate representation of the black community, seem to leave the forefront of our minds somewhere between J315 and becoming a "real" writer, reporter, photojournalist, or whatever.

"The responsibility in covering the news is to provide an accurate representation of society and if you are excluding people you are perpetuating stereotypes of people and you are not fulfilling your obligation as a journalist. This isn't about 'this is a nice thing to do,' this is really about good journalism." -Dr. Paula Poindexter

It's something we all need to remember. Sometimes I get really idealistic, inspired and borderline crazy when talking/thinking/pondering about journalism, especially the photo kind. I mean, we have the power to make change... really, we do! We can't make people read the news, we can only go so far as to provide it. So lets be and write and show the change we want to see in the world. Lets give an accurate representation of society so that society has the knowledge and the information that it needs to change and improve.

Get Live.

Reagan High homecoming dance 2008.

Reagan High

I've been hanging out with high schoolers every day- and its a dream come true. Really, I've been trying to get into a school like Reagan to shoot for over a year now. And this is a great one to start with; Great kids, great teachers... but Reagan is the next Johnston, meaning that if they don't bring their TAKS scores up, this is their last year. I hope to spend the rest of the semester covering all sorts of goings-on at the school, and hopefully getting to the bottom of the issue, if there is one. Here's the beginning.

The Reagan High Football team, otherwise known as the Raiders, plays Crockett this weekend during the finale to the homecoming week extravaganza. Reagan has to win this game to have a chance at going to state. Both teams are number one in their districts.






And a few days in the life of a high school student:

golden hour at maker faire

finally!

Malaria in Goa from Courtney Dudley on Vimeo.

What a weight lifted.

Jordan and I shot this during the last week of the India trip. It's been haunting me ever since.
More on India here.

I recommend clicking on that little "HD is off" on the right hand side and watching it in the big Vimeo player. Thanks Joey.

family portrait

Sometimes, when just gotta pick up and go to Little Rock for a National Society of Chemists conference, you end up going on the best road trip ever.

UTMB

Ranjana and I have been working on this story for quite a while (since before the storm hit) and its set to run tomorrow. Heres a sneak preview:



Mr. Jesse Aiala moved from his hospital bed to a chair a few days after undergoing a liver transplant surgery. Mr. Aiala and his doctor, transplant surgeon Philip Thomas, were evacuated from UTMB in Galveston in a helicopter that flew him to Seton Hospital in Austin less than 48 hours after undergoing one of the most major surgeries possible today.

Seton does not have a liver transplant unit on site and was ill equipped to handle so many patients so quickly (about 90 patients were moved to the Seton hospitals over the course of a few hours), but their doctors worked with the UTMB doctors to quickly set up adequate care. According to his doctors, Mr. Aiala made a shockingly quick recovery.



Mrs. Barbara Aiala, Jesse's wife, laughs in the lobby of the hospital. "When I found out he was going to be here in Austin, I freaked out," she said.

"What a blessing," she said. "To have your physician to fly with you... this was great."


On a completely unrelated note: Is anyone else as bothered by the term "Gotcha Journalism" as I am?

I understand the connotation; twisted, manipulative and out of context quotes meant to imply something different than what the speaker was getting at. And I would never condone that kind of journalism. But I can't agree that Sarah Palin's fumbling and mumbling and inability to explain what she meant when she said that Alaska's proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience was "Gotcha Journalism." I don't think the questions were leading or meant to corner her, it was just a question that she couldn't answer.

"Gotcha" implies that there was some kind of work on the part of the journalists to make her look stupid. Wasn't Katie just asking the questions she was supposed to ask? The way Palin answers those questions are her responsibility.

I'll get off my political soap box now. Hah. We journalists aren't entitled to opinions.

loose ends

Overcoming HIV from Courtney Dudley on Vimeo.

Finally finished the 'reworked' version of this story, seen above. I've got one more big project from India to finish and then maybe I'll get some sleep.

I put a lot into this. I care deeply for these kids. That should go without saying. I just hope it shows in the piece.

happy birthday.

Battle of the Bands

ACL Sound and Jury from Courtney Dudley on Vimeo.

Ike video

Posting this just in case you aren't checking www.dailytexanonline.com and watching the videos everyday. Shame on you.

Ike cleanup

Galveston is not a happy place to be right now. Hurricane Ike left it even more ravaged than predicted. What were once buildings, restaurants and homes now lay as piles of sticks and rubble-- and it all happened overnight. I was reminded of what an incredibly powerful and dangerous entity the weather is as I stood amongst the debris, listening to the stories of those brave enough to stay behind and face the storm.

hurricane ike

Ike refugees trying hard to stay entertained outside of the Delco center in Austin. Media is not allowed inside.

Floating the river



Behind the scenes at Antone's.


Ive decided that I'm not allowed to wander around shooting unnecessarily until I deal with the giant mass of photos and audio that I'm sitting on from India. Its one thing to go abroad and shoot, its an entirely different thing to come back and be able to organize it into something cohesive. I'd just much rather be getting lost somewhere with a camera than sitting in front of my computer for hours. duh.

love and happiness

Callie and I shot a wedding last week. We are pretty much the best tag team ever, although I guess I might be a little biased. Tell all your lovestruck friends- we are for hire.