We are back in Denver after a week on the road, camping in Grand Teton and Yellowstone, seeing friends and getting close to the land. We had a Dodge Ram Pro-master Van that we rented through Outdoorsy.com. It is the perfect size for two people who get along. It was fabulous to sleep under the stars and respectfully share the forest with the wildlife. It … Continue reading Travels with Ca$hy
In normal times this headline would probably be a bit of a bore. But these are not normal times, and since I’ve been back from our trip people have wanted to know what it’s like to fly and what it’s like in Florida as their coronavirus cases go through the roof. I approached our trip to the Pensacola area with considerable anxiety. Could I really … Continue reading Our Trip to Florida (during Corona)
When I’ve produced stories in the past I’ve always been on location with my crew. But times in television, well sometimes, they are a changing. This story about the serious problem being caused by an overpopulation of Moose in Newfoundland was a collaboration between cameraman Greg Locke of Straylight Media in Newfoundland and me in Colorado. We met via Google. I set up the story … Continue reading The New Normal: Moose in Newfoundland
Very early on the morning on May 5, 2007 I got a call from NBC News to hurry from Denver to Greensburg, Kansas. There had been a huge tornado and the town was devastated. Go! Go! When I pulled into the town six hours later I was stunned to see wreckage so complete that even the bark had been pulled off the trees. These skeleton … Continue reading The Greening of Greensburg
A plan by the government of Tanzania to build a road through the pristine Serengeti is so misguided, especially when there are other options for commerce. To put a busy road through one of the last untouched spaces on earth is a crime. Thank you Richard Engel of NBC for exploring the subject and to NBC’s Today Show for giving him the time to tell … Continue reading Serengeti Highway: Going the Wrong Way
Just bought a Nikon D7000 camera and Nikkor 18-200 mm 1:3.5-5.6 GII lens. Have set a goal to teach myself to shoot and edit video in the year ahead. My television colleagues are trying to talk me into Final Cut Pro. Also looking into continuing education at the Santa Fe Photography Workshops. Need to enhance the skill set. Time to step up as a photographer … Continue reading Photography: Stepping Up My Game
In June I visited Murchison Falls National Park, one of East Africa’s gems, with my colleagues Paul Hillman, Godwin Opuly and Mark Jordahl. We went stealthily into the Northern Ugandan game park to document oil drilling there. In 2008, we had been in the park, one of East Africa’s best kept secrets, and upon returning in 2010, we found busloads of oil workers, private roads … Continue reading A Golf Course? You Kidding Me?
I finally got to the Gulf coast to work on a story about the oil spill for the PBS Newshour. I didn’t see any oil but what I saw was a a boat load of fear. Correspondent Tom Bearden and I visited Bayou La Batre, Alabama to attend a town hall meeting with Ken Feinberg, the Massachusetts lawyer who must decide how to allocate BP’s … Continue reading Oil Spill: The Ripple Effect
Just returned from a three week trip to Uganda where we did more video production for BeadforLife (http://beadforlife.org.) The highlight was seeing women who were dying of poverty just three years ago celebrate paying off homes they saved for and built themselves. In a joyous ceremony BeadforLife presented 22 women with the titles to the land they sit on. The women paraded from home to home dancing and ululating, … Continue reading Out of Africa
Richard O’Barry gets misty eyed when he talks about Cathy. His beautiful girl died in his arms. Suicide he says. Cathy was a bottlenose dolphin, one of five he trained for the 60’s television hit, “Flipper.” Her death in captivity at the Miami Seaquarium changed his world and set him on a course of activism. “I knew she was tired of suffering,” O’Barry says. “She … Continue reading Animal Suicide
Vicky Collins Online 