Local photographer offers discount on online drone course

Here's a aerial video tour of the Idaho Falls Greenbelt and the LDS Temple made by Mark Richardson and posted on his www.camerastupid.com Web site.

Are you planning on getting a drone for Christmas? If you are, you might want to learn how to fly it, in which case Mark Richardson, a local photographer, is offering a course through udemy: Aerial Photography and Videography with Drones.

As a professional photographer, Richardson has traveled extensively in the United States and abroad to use quadcopters to capture aerial imagery for corporate and commercial productions. He has built a few of his own, but now prefers the DJI Phantom platform, because it is easy to use and portable.

“The people who know how to fly drones are about to have a whole new world of opportunities open to them,” he said. “The photography and videography trades alone have already and will continue to see major transformations as multi-rotors are used as flying cameras.

Richardson is offering the course at $49 to anyone who uses this link: https://www.udemy.com/aerial-photography-and-videography-with-drones/?couponCode=drone+49. In addition to 40 online course videos and materials, students will be able to get one-on-one instruction from Richardson himself. The course is comprehensive, offering information to people who already own drones as well as those looking to buy. The lessons also cover legal and safety issues.

A few things are needed:

• A computer, to update and calibrate the drone that I recommend.
• Basic tools such as soldering iron, wire cutters and screwdrivers, for customizing your aerial platform.

In addition to his work as a photographer and droneographer (does such a word exist yet? I predict it will) Richardson is also the proprietor of the www.camerastupid.com blog/Web site. Want to like him on Facebook? Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/camerastupid.

Camping World coming to Idaho Falls near Pancheri overpass

Work going on at the future site of Camping World, scheduled to open in May.

The dirt being moved southwest of the Pancheri overpass will be the new home of Camping World, a company that started nearly 50 years ago in Kentucky and most recently bought the OK Trailer RV dealership in Shelley.

The company and its Boise developer, Zoke LLC, signaled in May they wanted to develop 12 acres near Interstate 15. As the land was designated for high-density residential development in the city of Idaho Falls’ comprehensive plan, the City Council had to take action before annexation could take place and work could get started.


The site is bordered by Tara Street and Skyline Drive. It will feature multiple service bays, a Camping World retail store and a state-of-the-art collision center.

Camping World began with a small store in Beech Bend Park, an amusement park and campground outside Bowling Green. Campers at the park were requesting a place where they could buy supplies, so David Garvin, son of the park's owner, took out a loan and opened a store. Garvin amassed a large customer list as the years went by. In 1997, he sold the company to the current owners, Good Sam Enterprises of Ventura, Calif.

The company now has more than 100 retail and service locations throughout the United States, and also sells goods through mail order and online. The Idaho Falls center will be the second in Idaho. The other is located in Meridian.

Keefer’s Island plans grand opening Thursday

William and Eldora Keefer and their children in the early 20th century. Twins Fred and Frank are on either side of their parents. (Photo courtesy Museum of Idaho)

When the crew at the Shilo Inn were looking for a new name for their catering business, all it took was a look out the window, where Keefer’s Island sits right in the middle of the Snake River.

Formerly O’Callahan’s, Keefer’s Island Restaurant and Catering will be having its grand opening Thursday, starting with a ribbon cutting by the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber Ambassadors at 10 a.m.

Complimentary breakfast Danishes and beverages will be served.

In the evening at 6, there will be Champagne, hors d’oeuvres, dinner and drink specials, and live music by Happyville (the band in which I play guitar, if you don’t know that already.) For the historically minded, there will be a display of items from the Keefer Family Collection, provided by the Museum of Idaho.

The Keefers were one of the most important families in Idaho Falls’ history. William W. Keefer came to town with the Utah & Northern Railroad, and once the bridge and shops were built he decided to stay. With a developer's eye, he began buying real estate.

Keefer was a builder and a brewer, and his most lasting impact may have been on the Snake River itself. In 1909, he and his twin sons, Fred and Frank, built a dam and retaining wall north of Broadway, creating the actual falls and providing water for hydropower generation.

Fred and Frank were the most colorful of William and Eldora Keefer’s seven children, and it was Fred who filed a mineral claim on the island in the Snake below John’s Hole, then built a cabin. In 1962, he deeded it to the city of Idaho Falls on condition that the cabin stayed and that the island be called Keefer’s Island.

The menu features American cuisine, new and traditional, burgers, seafood and southern-style cuisine. Breakfast, brunch and buffets are served, and its hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The lounge is open until 1 a.m.

For more information, call 523-1818. For catering, 523-4318.

Local gasoline prices edging lower

Just like many of you, I've been waiting to see local gas prices nose below $3 a gallon, and today it looks like we have a winner. The Tesoro station at 125 S. 25th East has regular unleaded listed at $2.919 a gallon.

Don't everybody head out there at once. Although we have been lagging behind other parts of the country -- on Tuesday, Idaho gas prices were reported the seventh highest in the nation -- we can expect lower prices between now and the end of the year, said Dave Carlson, AAA Idaho spokesman.

Today, the nation's average is $2.76 -- 52 cents less than a year ago and the lowest average price since the 2010 holiday season.
 
Even some parts of Idaho have been following suit. Last Tuesaday, the average price per gallon in Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday was $2.80, and in neighboring Post Falls, typically higher than in Coeur d'Alene, it was $2.79. In Idaho Falls, however, it was more in line with the statewide the average of $3.06.

I know some of you have been tearing your hair over this, but let's keep things in perspective. This is the lowest price since February 2011 and 71 cents cheaper than it was on Labor Day.

"Lower pump prices should be around for a while," Carlson said. "Gas prices are down thanks to lower oil prices, weak demand here and abroad and plentiful unconstrained gas and oil supplies."

On the global front, Saudi Arabia's oil minister told fellow OPEC members on Thursday it was a bad idea to cut output. The Saudi view is to keep the spigot turned on in order to undermine the profitability of North American producers. This strategy could work over time. It costs the Saudis a lot less to get their oil from desert compared to the highly involved fracking process American producers have been using. But we're likely to see oil prices to continue dropping.

Carlson said Idaho's Idaho prices have stayed higher on the national scale because there is less incentive for retailers to cut prices. "An isolated market means less competitive factors," he said.

Also, any retailer who has bought gas at a higher wholesale price has to keep the price higher to make any sort of margin. It the station across the road gets a new shipment at a lower rack price, that's when the first retailer is more likely to slash prices in order to stay competitive.

Melaleuca moves to new headquarters; open house still pending

The empty parking lot at Melaleuca's old office building on South Yellowstone Highway.

Melaleuca, Inc., moved its operations last week from South Yellowstone Highway to its new $50 million complex near Interstate 15 Exit 113, but there are a lot of finishing touches to be made.

Company spokesman Anthony Lima said employees are settling in, but many of the common areas still need to be finished. He estimated the work could take another few weeks and that an open house may come after the first of the year.

Melaleuca broke ground nearly two years ago on its 371,000-square-foot corporate headquarters nearly triple in size of the office space it was occupying. The new location puts it closer to the company's research and development building and warehouse.

The stage for expansion was set in July 2012 with the announcement of a $399,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Bonneville County for sewer line extensions, a lift station and roadway widening. Melaleuca contributed $1 million of its own money to the project, bringing its total infrastructure investment in the area to $2.3 million.

At the time of the groundbreaking, Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot said he expected the project to result in new jobs, but declined to estimate how many. Melaleuca passed $1 billion in annual sales in 2011. The company makes and distributes close to 350 health and wellness products through a network of "marketing executives" who earn commissions based on product purchases by customers they refer.

Although the majority of Melaleuca’s business growth has been in the United States and Canada, global sales accounted for 45 percent of the company's 2013 revenues. Melaleuca does business in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.