Cleaning up toxicants..in the lab

I had the privilege to be in a class (The Science and Management of Contaminated Sites) that explored the relationship between science and media during my last quarter at college. The class prepared graduating toxicologists and journalists for the important work of talking about science to the general public. With a dream team of a toxicologist, a writer, and me (the visual journalist), we created a documentary about activated carbon, an emerging sediment cleanup technology, and reported on a lab group studying the effectiveness of activated carbon under a variety of environmental conditions.

I spent a ton of time with the lab group documenting their progress and learning about the experiment they designed. Unfortunately not all environmental science can be done outside, so I had to make sure I could portray the lab environment in a variety of ways.

Bodie Cabiyo and Thomas Craig inspect control solutions of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) , toxic organic chemicals that are harmful to living organisms and stay in the environment for a long time. Their experiment consisted of 16 variations of environmental factors that include water hardness, a low pH of 6 and high of 8, and humic acid. They tested how these factors affected activated carbon’s ability to capture PCBs.

Craig retrieves sodium hydroxide (NaOH), which the team added to water to raise its pH level to 8. When they first began adjusting pH, the concentration of their NaOH solution was not strong enough. “We can’t get much more concentrated than this!” Craig said.

Shannon Daughtrey mixes solutions of varying water hardness, which is one of the environmental factors the team added to the sediment containing PCBs.

After initial samples of PCB toxicity are tested, Cabiyo mixes activated carbon into the sediment samples. They waited a few weeks until the samples were thoroughly mixed before measuring how each environmental factor affected the ability of activated carbon to reduce availability of PCBs in the sediment.

(From left) Thomas Craig, Bodie Cabiyo and Shannon Daughtrey sing in the lab while preparing environmental factors to test their effect on activated carbon’s ability to capture PCBs in sediment, the soil under lakes, rivers and oceans. Scientists have fun too!

Dance: It’s No Big Deal*

Dance has been a huge part of my life ever since I can remember. Expressing music artistically through my body is both exhilarating and meditative. I dance to smile, I dance to cry, I dance to love.

I was recently in a performance that featured choreography by the Bachelors of Fine Arts dance students at Western Washington University. The beautiful culmination of their hard work exhibited mastered technique, told fascinating stories, and made the audience laugh as well as stare in captivation. I was able to photograph the performance during dress rehearsal as well as backstage. These are some of my favorite performance moments:

*”No Big Deal” was the name of the piece in which I danced.

Blood is Vital

Each issue of Klipsun Magazine has a different theme and the cover generally reflects the overarching meaning of the theme. The next issue, titled Vital, explores a variety of phenomenon that are vital to different people.

As photo editor, I was designated the task of taking the cover image. My mind jumped to water when I thought about vitals for life. Then blood came next, as a vital to all animals. I played around with a few ideas for wraparound cover images, and I came up with the pictures you see below.

Neither of these ideas ended up being the final cover, but I still liked the photos. Look for the next issue coming out soon at Western Washington University and in Bellingham to see the final cover image and read all the wonderful stories inside!

Biking in the Snow

Soft flakes were falling from the sky. The gentle beauty of the fluffy snow shone in stark contrast to knobby tires ripping through the mud, metal frames flying over dirt jumps and brakes squealing to a stop.

A few weekends ago I ripped down Galbraith Mountain with WWU’s Mountain Biking club on a photoshoot for Klipsun magazine. Originally the article I was photographing featured the team in the context of biking up hills. What I found while photographing is that biking uphill for this group of mountain bikers was not so common. But they sure found creative ways to fly down!

As stories go, it changed, and the photos I took were not used. (The focus of the story is now on cycling.) But the experience was still fun and it gave me the opportunity to experiment with weather-proofing my camera. Here are some of the action shots that tell the story of a photographer and some bikers in gnarly weather. Enjoy!

Members of the Western Washington University Mountain Biking Club roll through a sprinkling of snow before riding down the Unemployment Line on Galbraith Mountain.

Kristian Duft, president of the Western Washington University Mountain Biking Club, gains speed for a jump on Jan. 27, 2013 on the Unemployment Line at Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, Wash. He tries to get out on the trails every week rain or shine, and even if it’s snowing.

Kristian Duft, president of the Western Washington University Mountain Biking Club, is spattered with mud while riding on Galbraith Mountain.

Nick Turczyn runs his bike back up a hill to ride over a jump on the Atomic Dog trail on Galbraith Mountain.

Forrest Gale does a wall ride on a rock feature near the bottom of the Atomic Dog trail at Galbraith Mountain on Jan. 27, 2013.

Nicholas Blair, Zach Cohen, Nick Turczyn and Forrest Gale watch at Kristian Duft flies over a jump on Galbraith Mountain.

Raw Power

Three women and many men of all shapes and sizes showed their strength in a power lifting competition on Saturday, Nov. 17.

The competitors had three chances to squat, bench press and deadlift with maximum weight in the Wade King Student Recreation Center.

The most interesting part of this event for me was watching the lifters’ faces and they exerted all their energy into lifting sometimes more than 400 pounds.

Here are a few photos from the event. Enjoy!

Skye Storm squats 405 pounds at the power lifting competition on Saturday, Nov. 17.

Will Ruth waits for a judge to signal him to complete his deadlift on Saturday, Nov. 17.

 

Low Ridin’

A celebration of Chicana culture took place on a drizzly day in May on Western Washington University’s Red Square. As part of the festivities on May 20, there was a low rider car show along with Chicana music, dance and food.

Near the end of the show I ran to the top of one of the buildings hugging the perimeter of the square and shot down at the mosaic of cars parked around the fountain.

The 2012 Low Rider show comes to an end on May 20. It is the longest running low rider show in Washington.