Life Paul Newton Life Paul Newton

Breast Cancer Didn't Stop Her: Fitz Koehler's Journey to Staying Strong and Uplifting Others"

"Despite the challenges Fitz faced with her diagnosis, she remained active and vibrant throughout her treatment. Her story is a powerful testament to the healing power of exercise and positivity. As Fitz herself puts it, “Cancer doesn’t define me; I define cancer.”

Fitz’s story is one of resilience and determination in the face of adversity. Her experience is a powerful reminder that cancer doesn’t mean the end of an active, fulfilling life and that a positive attitude and a commitment to staying active can make all the difference in the world."

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Life, Movies Paul Newton Life, Movies Paul Newton

Why am I still a Solo shooter ten years in?

I wasn’t schooled in the way of shooting or writing things those days. I just did it by the seat of my pants. My actors would sometimes ask me “what am I doing this for?” I would answer with “just trust me, it will work”. It did work for the most part. I only have one film I shot that no one has seen.

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Life Paul Newton Life Paul Newton

On the brink of friendship; "A man and a Cardinal".

Until he returned. This time he was sitting in one of the trees that are near my front porch. Further away, but still glaring at me intently. I looked his way, and again he fluttered away. I thought, "ok... this is kind of fun." Admittedly, I was super bored, and the thought of being attractive to a wild Cardinal was intriguing. But he left again, and that should have been the end of it. It wasn't.

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Life Paul Newton Life Paul Newton

COVID-19 Has me in a stranglehold

Some people have told me to take the time to write and finish that screenplay or story I have been working on for years. That would be a great idea if it weren't for all the quiet and solitude.

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Life, photography Paul Newton Life, photography Paul Newton

Isolation makes us do strange things.

I did create something exciting this weekend, though. I broke out my fog machine and filmed an eerie scene of smoke coming through the slats on a chair in my yard. Donald showed up for a few minutes. We stayed six feet apart, just like you’re supposed to (we do that anyway, no biggie).

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Life Paul Newton Life Paul Newton

I might have had Corona, or I didn't. All I know is that it sucked.

If you haven't paid attention to my Facebook feed (you probably didn't, and that's ok.), you would already know that I was extremely sick this winter. My symptoms are quite familiar to almost all of us now. It started one day with an unbearable sore throat that came out of now where. One minute I was filming products for the company I work for, and less than thirty minutes later, I could not swallow. My chest began to run with crud, and breathing became somewhat tricky. I went home and found that I had a mild fever, and the coughing started. It was a dry, hard cough.

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Life Paul Newton Life Paul Newton

Bikes Blues and BBQ, and other stuff.

Yeah, yeah… I know I am supposed to write in this blog space every day, but life is worth living when you get to experience it. Sometimes writing about what I did just takes the fun out of it. I mean, what's fun about writing a lengthy article that takes forever to proofread?

Yeah, your right. It is kind of fun to write these things. Kinda.

Kelli and I went to BB&BBQ on Dickson street a while back. I found it to just be a craft fair for bikers. Kind of a snooze for me. If I was still riding, it might have a little more appeal, but I quit riding over ten years ago. I wasn’t that big a fan of the culture then and now that it has nothing to do with me, even less.

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Life, Acting, Movies, Screenwriting Paul Newton Life, Acting, Movies, Screenwriting Paul Newton

Making short films always seems to turn into something bigger.

I love making films. If you didn’t know that already, well, now you do. Sometimes we have a fleshed-out script, and sometimes we don’t. The real fun of making films sometimes comes from not knowing what I am going to film and figuring it out as we go. I know that sounds dumb, but it always seems to work out.

This last weekend, we did exactly that. We had outlined a few scenes and practiced some stunts with the actors. It worked out alright; it was one of those times when working on a wing and a prayer just felt right.

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Life Paul Newton Life Paul Newton

Fireworks and an Explosion on the news.

Everyone was watching and enjoying the spectacle, drinking beer, pop and being eaten up by vampiric flying syringes, otherwise known as mosquitos when a massive explosion went off near the staging area. The immense fireball rose above the treeline, the flames lighting up the entire area. The heat from the fireball was still prominent three hundred yards away, where I was taking photographs. I wondered to myself if anyone was hurt or if there may have been any damage done by the explosion. It seemed like everything was fine after a few minutes, the show continues, no lights or sirens from emergency vehicles. Ok, cool. Everyone is ok.

Then it hit me, I may have a picture of it! I immediately began to scroll through my images and there it was. Frikin Awesome!

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Life, photography Paul Newton Life, photography Paul Newton

On the hunt for a great Landscape

The end of a day; the sun making its nightly exit known to all. Its colors are the last grasp with the exclamation that it will return. It's rays folding through the trees, over the fields and bringing the depth of what is real to a warm and loving close.

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Acting, Life Paul Newton Acting, Life Paul Newton

My Audition and the real threat from the River Valley flooding.

So, I just spent almost four hours and fifty bucks in a car to attend a meeting that made me want to give up acting forever, and now I have to drive back home.

Now, we have had a lot of rain recently, as we all know. The River Valley (Fort Smith Arkansas) has flooded, levees have broken, and roads are closed. The water from the Arkansas River hit record levels, and here I was driving through it. Another reason for a rental car.

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Life, photography Paul Newton Life, photography Paul Newton

Is the world ending? No, I'm just sick.

Over the past three weeks, I haven’t posted much or taken that many photographs. It may seem like I am neglecting my duties, but in reality, I have been very sick. Over my life, I have had pneumonia dozens of times. This time I thought I was OK until I wasn’t. It put me down hard. In fact, I didn’t know how sick I was until after I started to get better.

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Life, photography Paul Newton Life, photography Paul Newton

Why do photographers cost so much? (a consumers guide)

For those that don’t know or haven’t had the privilege to book a photo session in the past three or five years, the current going rate for a truly professional photographer may shock you. A traditional wedding shoot with just one photographer starts at about five thousand dollars. That’s a lot of money for photographs! Honestly, if you want really good photographs of the wedding and the reception, you need two shooters since one photographer can’t be everywhere. To add that second shooter though, you're looking at another twenty-five hundred dollars. OUCH!

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photography, Life Paul Newton photography, Life Paul Newton

Wow, What a long weekend!

When we got the the park we looked at the hills, studies the trails and some topographical maps and this thing looked brutal. Maybe not for the guy or gal that walks or runs ten miles a day, but for two guys that spend ninety percent of their time sitting in front of a computer screen, yeah…

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photography, Life Paul Newton photography, Life Paul Newton

Bomb Cyclone brings end to photo shoot

I went to the University of Arkansas to find a great spot to get the stadium and all that traffic. The video I got was all made in camera and isn’t the quality that I will get when I do it for real. This is just a scout to see what it might look like. Honestly, I am not going to use that spot again, it’s just not that interesting. But that’s why you scout!

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