Pioner pictures6/5/2023 ![]() ![]() I jumped on the back of a parked fire truck and then jumped up to the top of a garage to get this angle of Bemidji fireman James Winsor. But 2007 was a very good year this image won me several first-place awards. Through 30 years, I could probably pick a favorite from each year, but never just one, overall favorite. ![]() This one always puts a smile on my face a good way to be remembered. I had this image blown up to a door-size print for a photography show in 1996 it presently is on display on the Pediatrics unit on the second floor at Sanford Bemidji Medical Center. Sullivan's kindergarten class in 1981 is one of my favorites, plus she never gets tired of my stories. I give photography speeches in classrooms, mostly about the crazy stories of how I capture images. One of my favorite images, it’s a Norman Rockwell-esque type of photograph. Secret Service wore all dark suits with earpieces - priceless. Note in the photo, the security for Gorby are in trench coats, the U.S. We had better coverage, photos and colorful stories to tell than all the big dogs (metro newspapers). I drove home while both reporters wrote their stories longhand in the car. One Bemidji reporter picked Raisa's visit to a young girl’s home there was an empty slot for a photographer and she jumped for it with her little point-and-shoot camera - perfect. When he left, he bypassed his limo and walked down the street. Gorby made the visit surreal as he got out of his limo and walked to the mansion, he was so close to me, I could have tipped off his hat. And as it turns out, I’m glad I stuck with this choice as everything ran late and he never did make it to that far. I wanted to tag along on Gorbachev’s visit to a local farm, but it was too late in the day. I picked his visit to the Governor’s Mansion in St. There were no cellphones and we are all at different locations, so everything had to be timed perfectly so we could drive back quickly to get it in the next day’s Pioneer. There was no Bemidji connection we were just lucky to have a boss willing to let us go. In my 30 years at the Pioneer, the highlight of my career is when I traveled to the Twin Cities in 1989 with two other reporters to cover Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s and wife Raisa's visit to Minnesota. But we asked him to pick a few of his favorite shots over the years. In typical Monte fashion, he didn't want a lot of attention about his decision. Monte's 2014 portfolio of photos (we submitted them for him, of course) was picked as the best in the state by the Minnesota Newspaper Association. After a stellar 30-year career at the Bemidji Pioneer, the community's photographer of record, Monte Draper, is hanging up his lens. ![]()
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