And So It Begins

Today, with the death of The Rocky Mountain News began the long road of a ailing industry. What the future holds is anyone's guess.

Watch this high quality, very haunting video till the very end.

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts

Rocky Mountain News publishes final edition

By CATHERINE TSAI, AP Business Writer Catherine Tsai, Ap Business Writer – Fri Feb 27, 5:20 am ET

DENVER – Questions about the future of the Rocky Mountain News had become so common, the newspaper's staff put up a handwritten paper sign on the news desk that said, "We don't know."

On Thursday, someone wrote over it in heavy black marker: "Now we know."

Colorado's oldest newspaper, which launched in Denver in 1859, printed its last edition Friday, leaving The Denver Post as the only daily newspaper in town.

"Goodbye, Colorado," read the headline on a 52-page commemorative edition wrapping the regular newspaper. "STOP THE PRESSES," read the front-page headline inside.
(whole story) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090227/ap_on_bi_ge/rocky_mountain_news_closes

Crossing the Desert

There is nothing like careening across hundreds of miles of desert at high speeds in the dark to make sure you have a boarded-up cross photographed in "good light." About 300 miles round trip to Cima Road where it was 81 degrees today, gas was $3.29 and the nearest Starbucks was 100 miles back to Barstow.
Taking it up a notch, the U.S. Supreme court is debating the location of a cross in the middle of a national preserve. The American Civil Liberties Union has taken this religious symbol on "public land" (in the middle of the preserve, but Congress moved the land into private holding)to court. It stands covered with plywood for now.

A 8-foot-tall metal cross bolted atop Sunrise Rock along Cima Road in the Mojave National Preserve is the center of controversy and is being reviewed by the Unites States Supreme Court. Erected as a war memorial in 1934 in the vast California Mojave Desert by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Eric Reed/Photographer


L.A.Times Story: http://www.latimes.com/business/careers/work/la-na-supreme-court-cross24-2009feb24,0,6413397.story

Pressing NASCAR

Matt Kenseth in his Carhartt Ford #17 pulls out from the garage to enter the track for the Auto Club 500 practice at the California Speedway in Fontana,Calif., Feb. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Eric Reed)

Tony Stewart, driver of car 14 after qualifying 11th for Sunday's Auto Club 500 at the California Speedway in Fontana,Calif., Feb. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Eric Reed)

What makes a left turn for 500 miles. Well, this weekend its about 50 drivers going 186 MPH during the Auto Club 500. Friday was practice and qualifying and it was for me as well. On assignment for the Associated Press this weekend at the California Speedway I was in practice mode. I have shot about 18 races here in Fontana but I had a break for two or three years, which had me scrambling and begging for information. You see, when it comes to celebrity car racing I am not a fan so playing catchup with the who's who on the track and in the garage was my speed Friday.


In the media lounge at lunch during the Auto Club 500 qualifying at the California Speedway in Fontana,Calif., Feb. 20, 2009. (Eric Reed/photographer)

"Look for guys wearing the driver (overall type) suits and wrestler type shoes." my good friend and NASCAR mentor Will Lester tells me while we try and not get run over by cars and carts of equipment, constantly stuffing my earplugs further into my skull. It was a 12 hour day of shooting and moving pictures, shooting and moving again. Trying to keep up with the fastest and well-known drivers and constantly jockeying for position with scores of other photographers from around the world. One cool caveat to a long day was seeing my pictures in publications world-wide in a Google search the next morning.





THE FOLLOW UP:

A fourteen-hour-Sunday left me scrambling for my chiropractor's number Monday morning. Two valuable things I learned on Friday, that luckily I remembered on race day, were: wheeled luggage and noise-canceling headphones. Both made the walking commute from the car and the nose level more tolerable. See for your self...


I also worked on a shot (I thought went well) called the poll cam. A D700 with a 20mm atop a mono pod --extended-- and held out at arms length about 8 to 10 feet. Then triggered with a wireless remote. I set the camera on ISO 2000 and on P for "professional" mode because it was away from my eye. (Me and Blair in the Photo Media Center during the race for a test shot)



Matt Kenseth's team pulls a last, late-race pit-stop on a rain-induced yellow flag before going on to win the Auto Club 500 race at the California Speedway in Fontana,Calif., Feb. 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Eric Reed)