I still like these eight videos from 2016

Like I said in my post from a few days ago, I’m not sure these videos are my best work from 2016. But, scrolling backwards through my digital year, I believe they are worth looking at one more time. There’s something about each one that I’m still proud of, months after making them.

I hope you find something in them, too.

Alexis Powers is a driven woman. Her athleticism is matched by her grace and determination. It’s a potent combination that turns heads, especially when she’s spinning a flaming hoop. In conversation, she’s down to Earth and prone to minimizing her hard work and talent. Don’t believe it. Just watch and you’ll see. Enjoy her full story HERE.

It took a little convincing to get Nicholas Gervin in front of my video camera. Like most serious shooters, he prefers to remain anonymous and behind the lens. I’m glad he let me follow him around one night last summer. He helped open up a crack in the Portland night that I could peek through and show my viewers. See his full story HERE.

I have a soft spot for candlepin bowling. I come by it through hazy memories of rolling those “little” balls with members of my church as a kid. We bowled at Westport Lanes, just down the street from Colonial Lanes. As an adult, I always went to Colonial. There was something about the friendly folks and carpeted walls. It was historic and unlike any other place on the planet. I’m sad that it’s gone. As I left it for the last time, owner Kevin Sparks gave me one of the beat-up, green balls from the wooden return chute. It’s now one of my prized possessions. See the whole story HERE.

In Portland, Kris Day is a go-to guy. He’s a bassist in high demand. He’s got the chops and plays with just about everybody and, for that reason, he’s sometimes hard to find.

“I think everyone sort of by now probably bases their schedule around his,” said Tim Emery. “Good luck getting him. He’s probably booked.”

See his full story HERE.

King Memphis were years behind the times when they started out as a band, 25 years ago. Now, they’re even further behind the curve of modern music. But for the cats and chicks who dig rockabilly, that’s a-OK, daddy-o. Dig their full story HERE.

Shooting this story about urchin divers and the new swipe card tracking system was a fun puzzle to work out. When shooting stories on fishing boats I always wish I was on a second boat so I could get a clear shot and not be in the way. An added rub in shooting this story was that half the fishing went on underwater. I ended up getting the submerged shots with a GoPro camera on a stick. Luckily, the ledge made for shallow depths. Read the full story and see the still pictures HERE.

Will Jodrie, who lived in Riverton his whole life, was a quiet, gentle man. He could see how things went together and how to fix them when they came apart. I chose to go back to the old technique of sound and still pictures for this piece. It just seemed to fit the nature of the man.

“He was always there. He was constant,” Heather Hilton, his granddaughter, said. “You live in a world where things are always changing, pieces are always moving. He wasn’t. You could always count on him to be there.”

Read the full story HERE.

Rev. Paul Plante knew he was dying. That’s why he agreed to talk to me, I think. He seemed to want to sum things up, to cap off a life lived in service to his church, his parishioners and to his art. If you didn’t look very hard, it might seem that he just painted the same thing, over and over again. But up close, you could see that he painted an infinite universe of variation, all seen in the eye of a bird. See the rest of his story HERE.

Troy R. Bennett

About Troy R. Bennett

Troy R. Bennett is a Buxton native and longtime Portland resident whose photojournalism has appeared in media outlets all over the world.