Tim Hatfield shoots a scene for the production, Shop with a Cop.
Tim Hatfield was sold on community television the first time he stepped into the Sun Prairie Media Center (SPMC) in February of 2020 to drop off a video of his church’s most recent service. “I was given a tour and I joined the media center on the spot.” Hatfield, a recently retired civil engineer, has always been interested in visual imagery. “I’ve been dabbling in photography most of my life, I bought my first SLR in the early 1980s. I honed my skills as a member of the Battle Creek Camera Club in Michigan, an excellent nature photography-oriented club -- some of the members actually sold images to the Sierra Club for its calendars.”
Once he became a member of SPMC he started producing videos. “For my first video, I taped my ride in a B-17 bomber flight over Madison. Since then I’ve taped parades, school concerts, city committee meetings and hockey games to name a few.”
Tim Hatfield and the Outstanding Volunteer award from Sun Prairie Media Center
In 2022, Hatfield was awarded SPMC’s highest honor for “Outstanding Dedication and Service to the Media Center.” Jeff Robbins, SPMC Executive Director said, “I can’t think of a year when we’ve had a more worthy recipient. Tim Hatfield is probably the single volunteer that we rely on the most for filming ANYTHING. Not only does he do great camerawork, but he – we hope – seems to genuinely enjoy it. And he does his own editing!”
Hatfield says, “I love capturing and editing video, it gives me opportunities to meet new people, to attend new events, plus it keeps me active.”
Hatfield entered the Best of the Midwest Media Fest this year with three shows: The Great Race (“The world’s premiere old car rally, brought 120 of the world’s finest antique automobiles to Sun Prairie and we were there!”); Landscape of Families: Presented by The WI Dells Singers and Dance Troupe of the Ho Chunk Nation (“A final glimpse of the Ho-Chunk enjoying their homeland prior to the start of forced expulsion from their villages.”); and Enduring Skills Weekend at the Historic Indian Agency House: Voyageur Canoe Excursion (“Have you ever tried blacksmithing? Flint knapping?... Many historical skills and techniques would be lost to time were it not for those who continue to practice and research them to this day.”).
You can see “Voyageur Canoe” below on Sun Prairie Media’s Telvue server by clicking the image below. Then use the arrows on the bottom right to make the video full screen.
