Today's video from the fair:

I was at the Puyallup Fair yesterday as more than 3,000 people crushed the gates trying o get a job for the 17-day run of the fair this year. Employees from WorkSoft worked to process all the applicants but the line never stopped coming through the door of the portable office they had set up near the corner of the fair by the roller coaster.

Susan Brown, center, and Claudette Dean, right, with WorkSource, work to process fair jobs in a makeshift office near the corner of 5th St. and 9th Ave. in Puyallup, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009. About 3,000 people turned out today to apply for the fairs 3,000 jobs, a process that usually takes three weeks, officials said.

This morning, figuring there would be more people, I headed down there again. Today they handed out numbers to the first 600 job seekers and sent the rest away. The first group in line when I got there were four high school-aged teens from Federal Way. They arrived at the fairgrounds at about 12:30 a.m. They all hope to get jobs with the games this year. A couple of them said they wanted to make some money for cars or school and a few talked about having some fun and meeting people.

Cody Olson, right, from Federal Way, fills out an application at the Puyallup Fair as his brother Colten Olson, Keenan Walch and Levy Molina stack up to do the same, before the gate opened at the Puyallup Fair, Thursday morning. The group showed up at 12:30 a.m. to try and get a job at the fair.

I talked with several folks waiting in line and to the WorkSource supervisor for a video I am working on. Check back later, I'll post it here when I'm finished.
Joe

Part of my conversation with WorkSource's Theresa Hoffman:

The 600th person in line this morning was Peggy Coffey. Coffey has been working mostly day-labor for a while after her government job went away a few years ago. Things have been slow for her at Labor Ready and her gas has been shut off. She hopes to make enough at the fair to get caught up with the gas company before the cold comes. This is a bit of our conversation:

I've always been interested in the crafts and creation side of fairs. I found these folks who spent a great deal of time and energy making clothing. Enjoy!

I spent a little time with Ken Campbell from Azimuth Expeditions at Owen Beach the other day. He had a few Stand Up Paddle boards down there and was letting people try them out. Looked like a blast!
Joe

This is a project I started a few weeks ago that got blown off track. It was pushed to the back burner for a bit in part because I tried to do too much with it and got a little overwhelmed. Too much footage...none of it seemed to mach the interviews...and the piece just didn't come together well. So, after a week or two of working on other stuff I sat back down and cut this together. It is, essentially, a daily feature that turned into an infomercial. There is some good information in the final cut and some footage that I like, but next time I'll try to avoid overshooting in the first place and stick to a simple narrative.
I'll take all feedback. Thanks,
Joe

Boxing event for charity. Police against Firefighters. This is a preview for the event that will be tonight at the Emerald Queen. All the money goes to charity, so go have some fun.

I was reminded that the Sound to Narrows 12K is just around the corner, so I resurrected the preview from last year. Still a good reference for anyone thinking of running it this year.

I made this video yesterday and cut it today. We had a chance to hang out with some folks from the DOT at the Nalley Valley bridge project. I can't get my mind around the number of details are involved in building something like this bridge. The guys we saw were making 14-foot wide holes in the earth so that other guys could come and fill them with concrete so that other guys could follow them and build the bridge...wow! Cool stuff.

I set up a camera to make a photo every 30 seconds. I then turned it into a short video in case you weren't able to be at the parade. Enjoy!

A late-season winter storm over the weekend dumped nearly two feet of fresh powder on the Summit at Snoqualmie ski area.

At least they were this weekend. My wife and I headed down to The Nisqually Wildlife Refuge for a walk and to shoot some birds. For the $3 per car fee it was a great value. The boardwalk-style paths made for a fun walk and there were a ton of families who took advantage of the dry weather.
Here are a couple of images from our trip.

I shot this in a few minutes and cut it last night. The idea was that with even a simple video that we might be able to add little bit to to a reader/viewer's understanding of the how a baby can sign and how a family can use that to communicate. Let me know what you think.
Thanks.
Joe

I started on this a few days ago, but got caught up in other things so I'm afraid the timeliness is a bit off. But, the music and interviews still give you an idea of what it was like to roam the halls at the 16th annual Wintergrass.