BY LISA DENSMORE
As I extend my latest and last invitation to you to come to the 2013 OWAA conference, I am winging my way from my home in Montana to my hometown near Lake Placid. I’m most excited about the month of June, which I will spend with my family and friends hiking, fishing and canoe-camping. I’ll squeeze in a few bike rides around my local lake, waterski, as well as paddle my kayak and photograph birds, wildflowers, misty sunrises over the water, epic mountain vistas and whatever else inspires me. I’m looking forward to time in the Adirondacks, enjoying its many backcountry opportunities. This is not a vacation, mind you. It’s honest field work. Aren’t we lucky to be outdoor communicators! We make a living doing what the general public can only do on weekends and vacations.
Coming to the OWAA conference in Lake Placid is the perfect opportunity for you to get some field work done. On what topics you ask? If my previous articles haven’t given you enough fodder, let me at least give you some inspiration. Better yet, a guarantee! I guarantee you can find at least one story, and probably several, when you visit the Adirondacks in September. Permit me to use my current trip there as an example, as I intend to get at number of feature stories out of this trip and a couple thousand images for my stock file.
You want specifics? Two articles will cover the first-person experience of canoeing from Long Lake to Tupper Lake down the Raquette River, one of the classic paddle-routes in the Adirondacks. The first article will be about the family outing. The second will focus on fishing.
Another article or two will cover hikes up Algonquin Peak and one other to-be-determined mountain on specific assignments for a magazine called Adirondack Explorer. You’ll meet the editor, Phil Brown, if you come to the conference.
I’m developing an article idea on the value of wilderness which I hope to place in at least one regional and one national magazine as this is the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act which used the Adirondack Park as a model.
I’ll also spend a day at the Olympic training center interviewing and photographing Hannah Kearney, the defending Olympic gold medalist in mogul skiing who missed last season due to injury. She’s in Lake Placid through mid-June perfecting her aerial tricks into water in preparation for performing them on snow at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. I’m writing a profile on her for a six-magazine group in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Only time will tell what other stories I might come up with after being there for a while. I’m also hoping to relax a little in one of my authentic Adirondack chairs and listen to the loons yodel across the lake from my house, but that’s a rare event for me. There’s so much to experience in the Adirondacks! If you need help narrowing down the options, call my phone number and leave a message. Odds are high I’ll be busy playing, ah, working, but I’ll call you back as soon as I get a chance to sit in one of those Adirondack chairs. ◊
A former OWAA board member and an award-winning television producer, writer and photographer, Lisa Densmore is local Chair of the 2013 OWAA conference that will take place Sept. 14-16 in Lake Placid, N.Y. Contact her at densmore1@aol.com.
Lake Placid: Story ideas
