My name is Scott Kesterson. I am a freelance photojournalist. Over the course of the next 16 months I will be embedded with the US Army's 41st Brigade as they mobilize and deploy to Afghanistan as part of the on-going activities of Operation: Enduring Freedom. The 41st Brigade is composed entirely of National Guard volunteers, with this specific deployment calling-up over 6000 of its soldiers nation wide. I will be living the entire tour along side of the men and women of this Brigade, photographing and recording my experiences here through this blog.

My project is one of passion. It is the realization of a life long dream to work as a combat photographer. Having served with the Oregon Army National Guard, 41st Brigade during the mid 80's, in both the enlisted ranks, and eventually as a 2nd Lt., I also have a personal interest in documenting this narrative. My focus is and will be the human part of the story; that element that too often gets passed over in the face of headlines and dramatic events. I am a strong believer that the real drama is what happens in the lives of people through the events of the day to day.

Throughout my embed I will be reporting the events as I see them. Through my words, still imagery and video feeds you will be able to follow the operations of the soldiers of 41st Brigade. The mobilization and deployment will be in two parts. The initial 90 days will be at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, where the soldiers will be in-processed into the active Army, and, trained and conditioned for their work in Afghanistan. In June, the initial wave of deployment will begin, with deployments throughout the country of Afghanistan.

Some technical information:

The photography for this project will come exclusively from the Sony HVR-A1U HD video cam. This is a first in photojournalism to rely exclusively on video for the capture of all still imagery for an embed of this scope and duration; I will not be carrying a still camera. The techniques I will be employing stem from over 5 years of development by my mentor and friend, David Leeson of the Dallas Morning News. These methods have opened new opportunities to the manner in which the news is reported and the story is told. The processing of images and editing of video will be done on the new Apple MacBook Pro. With the use of this new laptop, the HD video images will be loaded, and edited through to a finished story in the field, and then uploaded to the FTP for links to the blog. So that there is no misconception, this project is entirely self-funded. My reference to specific products are provided to offer background to the story. That said, a great deal of time and research was given to my equipment selection in preparation for my embed. I feel strongly that the equipment I have listed is the best choice for this project.

I would like to thank Rod Gramer and Jim Parker of KGW Channel News 8 and KGW.com for the hosting of this blog. If you enjoy what you read and would like to make a contribution to the project, you may use the contact below:

Scott Kesterson Photography, LLC
1224 NE Walnut Street
Suite 179
Roseburg, OR 97470

Copyright, Scott Kesterson- 2006

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