It’s raining today. Raining! Not snowing, well, sort of sleeting, but I’m calling it rain and that means spring!! So, as we near the end of winter, I figured I’d share a few of our favorite moments where we really made the best of this crazy cold, long, snoooooowy winter we’ve had. I took the photo above on the coldest day of the year (it was somewhere around -40 F), and I was fairly skeptical about why I was living here, rather than, say, Hawaii. So, here are some of the reasons why we love Minnesota. Just so we remember. Because sometimes it’s easy to forget. 
We went tubing for the first time this year and I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on this for the last 22 years that I’ve more or less lived here! So. Much. Fun. Like can’t wipe that ridiculously silly grin off your face kinda fun. Kinda like this other activity we did this winter. But, as you are laugh-screaming while your face is sprayed with snow as you speed down the slope, you can’t help but have an inkling that, at any moment, this could be a serious disaster if you were to let go. But no matter, you keep holding on for dear life, tethered to your friends tubes, and as you reach the bottom, you all collapse in a pile of laughter and relief that you are still alive. And alive is how you feel. And, as soon as you can stand again, you find yourself running back to do it all again. Continue Reading →
Underwater
We spent our last afternoon on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) enjoying some much needed beach time after a long three weeks of work. And it was the most perfect day, meaning the water and air were both warm enough that we could play in the ocean much longer than usual. So we got out the GoPro and decided to have some fun. 
I kinda love using our GoPro camera these days because it doesn’t have a view finder (and it’s waterproof). The lens is wide angle enough that if you point it in the general direction of what you want to photograph or film, it will get it. So it brings back a lot of that mystery and excitement film cameras used to have for me, in that you never quite knew what you were gonna get until you picked up the prints. And then flipping through them was full of anticipation as you looked to see if you got one of those perfectly composed and lit shots. The one you saw in your head, but didn’t know if the camera captured quite as well. 
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Finished with production! (mostly)
We spent three weeks in February shooting the rest of the documentary we are working on, Eating Up Easter.* While it started out as a film about food and resources on Easter Island and the importation of food, it has shifted and drifted quite a bit since that starting point. Now, we are following three main characters and a few secondary characters, highlighting their daily life on this most remote little island, and the many ways in which they are working to move their community forward in a positive, loving way that nurtures their island’s unique and invaluable resources. There is much to learn from their stories and we are thrilled to get to share them.
*Eating Up Easter is getting an overhaul and will soon have a new website. In the meantime, we have a facebook page, where some of you may have been following our progress during the shoot. Like our page, Eating Up Easter, to stay informed about the everyday happenings of the film. 
When we first arrived on the island, it was the tail end of the Tapati Rapa Nui Festival, a two week long celebration of the culture of Rapa Nui, in which sporting competitions, singing and dancing fill the days and nights and culminate in a day long parade in which locals and tourists alike are painted with soil-based paint and dressed in traditional clothing (which isn’t much). Above, Mark, one of our cameramen, shoots our main character Mama Piru as she leads a group of women pulling a float. 
The only beach on the island, Anakena, was overloaded with tourists in February, the busiest month for tourism on the island. 
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We’re Back (again)
Some of you may have seen on our facebook post a few weeks ago that our blogging computer decided to take a diving vacation (aka, it got some serious water damage) while we were headed to Rapa Nui. And since our other computer was downloading and processing filming footage just about 24/7, internet is sporadic and only available in about a 10 x 10 foot square within the hotel, and we rarely were sitting still unless we were sleeping, we decided to let the blog go for a bit.
But we are back in business. The computer has been rebuilt and we saved (wince) half the price of a new computer! And we are back in the land of decent internet speeds, also known as the frozen tundra of Minnesota. We have a lot of fun posts planned for the next few weeks, starting with an update on our filming progress. We just about finished all the filming we need for the documentary, so endless nights and weekends of editing are in our future. But, we are so excited about the footage we got that all the work ahead actually sounds fun.
I was worried I might not take well to the whole filmmaker career switch, but I have to say, so far so good. Being on a film shoot these last three weeks was exhilarating and included everything I love: being outside everyday, switching fast from task to task, jumping at spontaneous opportunities as they arise, and of course, getting to direct people and make decisions and, well, be in charge. Cue a big sigh of relief that this whole husband and wife documentary team thing might just work.
{photo of Tahai archaeological site by Pineapple Tree, adapted to watercolor using the iphone app Waterlogue}