TinkhamTown Productions

If you're looking for the TinkhamTown Productions website, please go to www.tinkhamtown.org. This is only a blog about one TinkhamTown film, "Us In The US", a documentary about a mid-life road trip across the US in 2007.

Home At Last

After more than a month on the road filming a fiction film and then a short doc (which this blog is all about), I've finally arrived back in NC. Now, I'll begin editing both films while I continue work on two full-length screenplays.

Of all the beautiful places I visited, and of all the amazing things I saw, this full moon rising over Sedona, AZ, is among the very best I captured on film.

I should have a trailer of this film and the "Road Movie" (see www.tinkhamtown.blogspot.com for the "road Movie" blog) completed by mid-summer. I'll keep you posted. Cheers! Todd

My best friend, Scott Taylor, helped me grab a few more scenes for the TTP film, "Road Movie" while I was visiting him in the mountains of Colorado. Here we are in Eldora, Colrado, after a quick morning shoot.
This is the brand-new member of my good good friends' Scottg & Leyla's family. Adopted from an orphanage in Viet Nam, Tasha is 5 months old and in good health. More pictures of Tasha and her big sister, Sofie, coming soon.

In Yellowstone National Park, I saw at least 3 dozen buffalo, some very close, including this mother and baby that passed within inches of my parked van. I spent most of my time in Yellowstone outside, but when these buffalo got too close for comfort, I gladly jumped back into the van.
Outside Nederland Colorado, I stopped to relive myself in a small stand of trees. Noises to my right alerted me to the presence of three large animals grazing in the woods nearby. Moose! I grabbed my digital camera and got a number of shots and some video before they moved on to greener pastures.

US film - Day 6 - Missoula

Finally, I made it to Missoula, MT. And I would have left disappointed, had I not run into this mother/son team on the VanBuren Street walking bridge near the Uuniversity of Montana campus. Long-time Missoula residents Carl Grubbs and his mom, Alma Bartlett, ride their twin, battery-powered scooters all over town. When I met them today on the walking bridge, they were cruising by on their way to lunch. All it took was a simple "Hello" to get them to stop and chat. They sat for a short video interview for the "Us In The US" film, and they drove back and forth across the bridge a few times for the camera. Thanks, Carl and Alma. You really made my day!

US film - Day 5

In the small town of Adams, WA, not far from Walla Walla, I was nearly blinded by a huge field of yellow flowers swaying in the sunlight along Rte 11. Stopping to inquire about the flowers, Washington farmer, Jim Luallen, told me they were Canola flowers that would eventually be turned into Canola oil. He said the crop was doing well this year. This photo is proof!
Driving along the Columbia River Gorge between Oregon and Washington, the sites were amazing. Even the sky was a delight to observe.
Outside Pasco, WA, windmills spin silently on a hillside. Windfarms are not an uncommon sight in the American West. I think there's a certain beauty to them.

US film - Day 4

Yakima, Wa, at night. Perhaps one of the most spectacular sunsets I've seen in my life happened last night over the small city of Yakima, Washington. Surrounded by mountains, where two rivers meet, Yakima is a beautiful place, even at night.

US film - Day 3

Even the roads in Washington State are beautiful. I snapped this picture (top) while driving on Rte 12 across south-central Washington near Mount Rainier in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Pinchot is best known for his defeat of John Muir in the age-old argument of people vs environment. Perhaps it's fitting then that the forest bearing Pinchot's name is riddled with clearcuts like the six massive cuts I saw today (bottom).

US film - Day 2

Just before sunset, along Rte 38, just south of Eugene, OR, I spotted no less than 20 elk grazing near the road. They kept eating while I snapped a couple of pictures through my passenger-side window. They seemed used to highway sounds, and didn't mind my van idling about 50 feet from them. But when another motorist stopped and jumped out of his car to photograph them, the elk hustled off into the woods nearby. I could see dozens more standing along the dark woodline, watching and waiting, but by then the sun had set completely, so I packed up and moved along.

Us In The US

After 2 weeks of shooting our "Road Movie", everyone else flew back to the East Coast, leaving me to drive the van back to NC alone. Not that I mind. I'm seeing some awesome sights and meeting some great people along the way. Heading north from San Francisco, I stopped to shoot at several amazing spots. The Orgeon coast stunned me with its beauty.