An Ashland videographer with extensive television experience creates a nature DVD for kids that is already drawing accolades

ASHLAND — It’s only natural that the arrival of his first grandchild would propel Mark Brown toward creating a DVD for infants and toddlers.

Brown, 58, has worked in TV news and video production for more than 30 years, most of it around nature and environmental issues.

Those skills get put to use in a new way in "A Baby’s Stroll Through Nature," the DVD Brown released this fall with his wife, Cici, and their daughter, Chelsea Witnauer.

"A Baby’s Stroll Through Nature" is a seamless series of engaging nature shots — dragonflies, waterfalls, sunflowers, bears, a moonrise, the ocean — all shot by Brown and set to the music of Bach, Debussy, Grieg and Rogue Valley pianist and composer Robin Lawson.

Its recurring theme is a baby’s feet sticking out of a rolling stroller. The feet belong to Witnauer’s daughter Mackenzie, 2, who has been using the DVD as a learning tool, the Browns say, shouting out the names of animals as they come on screen.

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"We were inspired by the competition, Baby Einstein, which invented the genre," said Cici Brown, 58, a longtime ceramicist and a founding member of the Clayfolk ceramicists group. "They used still pictures of animals and plastic flowers and still managed to sell the concept to Disney for a million dollars. Ours is a lot better than that."

The DVD already has won an honorable mention in the children’s programs division of the Accolade Awards, a contest that recognizes film, video and television and accomplishments.

Shooting nature is nothing new to Mark Brown, who has worked as a news director, producer, anchor, reporter, assignment editor and as a videographer, his true love.

Over three decades, Brown has become a fixture at all three Medford commercial TV stations, free-lanced for years for CBS News and at Portland stations and run his own Southern Oregon News Service for 10 years. He retired from "stressful" TV news two years ago after a bout with cancer and is official videographer for Oregon Shakespeare Festival, producing video news releases and a digest of shows for cable access stations.

His images of the Klamath Wildlife Refuge got the ultimate nature photographer’s honor in January last year when CBS closed out its "Sunday Morning" show with lingering minutes of his work set to music.

For "A Baby’s Stroll through Nature," Brown shot the ocean at Brookings, bears at Wildlife Safari near Roseburg, pelicans at the Klamath River, moonrise at Emigrant Lake, Rainey Falls at Graves Creek,

see NATURE, Page 2B

Clark’s nutcrackers at Crater Lake and dragonflies in the pond behind his Ashland home. Also featured are geese, hummingbird, bees, tree swallow, goldfish and pelicans.

After the holidays, the Browns, through their new Itty Imprints company, plan a campaign with major studios, Amazon and other online book-video outlets.

They will publish a companion book and also launch into production of two more "kid vids" — one on the colors of nature and another on the vast variety of wheels in our world, of course including the potter’s wheel.

The "Colors of Nature," will feature close-ups on pods of whales to be arranged by the Browns’ other daughter, Cedar, who conducts floating tours out of San Francisco. A production on musical instruments will follow.

"A Baby’s Stroll through Nature" is targeted specifically to grandparents — the most likely purchasers. The Browns also intend the 15-minute production, which sells for $14.95, to fill out the education and sense of appreciation among city-bound children who seldom interact with nature.

"The shows are designed so parents and grandparents can really enjoy them," said Witnauer, manager of Quinz Restaurant in Ashland. "Kids love what’s on the market now, but grown-ups can’t stand it and, let’s face it, grown-ups have to be able to sit through it. With ours, they experience calm and fun, plus they’re entertained."

Itty Imprints is available via the Web at www.ittyimprints.com.

John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.