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  • 2010, May 13

    Welcome!

General  /  Photographs  /  Updates
Update for Friday, July 11, 2014

2014, July 13

Well, it’s been a VERY eventful last few days! My luggage never arrived at Entebbe before I needed to head out to Hoima, which is about 4 hours away. So Friday I left Entebbe with just the clothes on my back and all my camera gear. Despite the difficulties, it has been awesome here, though.

On the way to Hoima, we stopped in Kampala and bought a waste water pump for the drilling operation. The motor on the one they were using had died (smoking terribly, they tell me), so we stopped by one of the coolest stores. It had tools and power equipment galore! I was in heaven…

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Africa  /  Updates
I’ve Arrived!

2014, July 10

Well, it has been a very eventful last few days! I left Rochester on July 8th, 1 day before my 15th wedding anniversary, and then sat in the airport because of weather delays. Some of you might remember the weather we had that afternoon. But that delay meant that I missed my flight from Washington D.C. to Brussels. Which meant I had to get a whole new itinerary. So I ended up flying from D.C. to Frankfurt. Frankfurt to Ethiopia, and Ethopia to Uganda. It was a horribly long process, and it also means that I haven’t slept more than about 5-6 hours in the past three days. Because I cannot sleep on airplanes very well at all. So I’m actually falling asleep as I type this, and am debating whether I even go to dinner or just eat some granola bars and go to bed… Not sure which is more powerful right now – my need to eat or my need to sleep!

But I got to see the sun rise over the Horn of Africa from 30,000 feet, and I got to experience African bathrooms. I also got to have lots of conversations with different people from all over the world. I even sat next to a sweet little Japanese girl this morning, whose unabashed awe at the sight of the little trees and houses an clouds far far below us was very contagious.

So, anyway, I’m here. A day late. Oh, and my checked bag didn’t come either, so I don’t have any new clothes. But it should be here tomorrow. I hope.

Anyway, without boring you with too many details, here are some photos I took in the last three days. They’re all with my cell phone, because I didn’t want to get out my big cameras since they were both packed so well, and that would mean going through that process again.

Enjoy!

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Preparations  /  Updates
Lessons Learned

2014, June 29

Only a bit more than a week to go!!!  I’ve been running a whole gamut of emotions these past few weeks – I’ve been so excited I could barely contain myself. I’ve felt stressed. I’ve been honestly panicked.  But what’s been my biggest lesson is that I just can’t do it all myself. I’ve had – and still am having – to learn to let go of some things. Learning that I can’t control everything.

(more…)

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General  /  Preparations
Adventures in Fabrication

2014, June 16

So last night I was working on my shoulder rig – making the design too fancy as usual. I wanted to make it have a section I could swap out to put the camera closer or further away from my face. I decided to use small thumb screws to lock the sections together. So I was drilling them with my drill press, but reached a place on it where I just couldn’t use the press, so I went to drill it “by hand”. On the second hole, the drill broke through and went into my hand! Ouch!

I immediately went in a washed it out with cold water, then rubbing alcohol, and then betadine, and the wound only looked about 1/16″-1/8″ deep. But when I went back out and looked at the drill bit, there was tissue on the bit around 1/4″ – 3/8″ away from the tip. So I sat down, had Father’s Day dinner with my wife and kids, and then drove myself to the emergency room. The doctor wanted to do an X-ray to make sure I didn’t hit the bone, which, it turns out, I didn’t. But she also said I was very lucky – I missed one of my tendons by the barest fraction of an inch on one side, and missed a rather large vein on the other side by a little less! So there was a lot of grace in this… I should have full use of my hand within the next couple of days (I’m typing with it right now), and as long as there is no infection, this will end up being a very minor deal.

The funniest thing about the whole process is that I have ended up in the ER every 5 years in the summer/fall… And this is 5 years since the last one! The funniest part though was the inevitable question, “When did you have you last Tetanus shot?” To which I answered, “Last Wednesday!” I got this crazy look, and I could see that the nurse was thinking that this was my second ER visit in a week! I let the silence play out for a second – just for the drama, and then told her I was heading out of the country.

All in all, it was a very eventful Father’s Day. I’m not ready to share pics of the finished video rig yet, but here’s a couple from “the incident.”

Never thought I'd be here on Father's Day...

Never thought I’d be here on Father’s Day…

Big bandage for a little hole

Big bandage for a little hole!

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Equipment  /  Preparations
Drop a Lens? Don’t Have Money? Fix it Yourself!

2014, June 11

Last summer I dropped one of my favorite old lenses: My trust 50mm f1.8 EF lens. Now, it was a cheap lens when I bought it (sub-$100!), and I bought it as a senior in high school. So I’ve gotten my money’s worth. But I certainly didn’t want to buy a new one, since I’m doing this trip on the cheap. Or, at least, trying not to spend more money than absolutely necessary. So, after several months on my desk in a couple of pieces, I decided to fix it! In actuality, it wasn’t too bad! Took me a while to understand a couple of tricks about how to get the lens elements out of the casing, but with a little help from the Internet, it’s working like new! Now on to my old 20-35mm lens… Maybe I can fix that one too! (I’ll update you this weekend if I get it back together again – it’s in progress)

In Pieces... Back Together!
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Equipment  /  General  /  Preparations
Go Fund Me Site

2014, June 6

Time is running short! In just a bit more than a month, I’ll be boarding a plane for Africa! It’s incredibly exciting, but also a little daunting. I’m finalizing all my preparations, including get stuck multiple times by all sorts of needles in an attempt to get all my vaccinations finished. I’m gathering equipment and trying to figure out what bags I need to take. And I’m also doing the finances and trying to figure out if I really have enough money to go. Some things have changed recently (gotten mroe expensive), and the problem is that I don’t.

The two organizations that I’m going with don’t have the money to pay me to go, or to take care of my travel expenses. But I consider it a great blessing and opportunity to help!  And both mission organizations are full of people who are volunteering their time to make sure that they succeed in Africa.  So I’m humbled that they would want me to help them in this area.

I have had a lot of people supporting me these past few months. A lot of my family members have donated money for this trip. The problem is that I still have some more to go. There are pieces of equipment that I’ve needed to buy that have set me back. Immunizations that are very expensive and not covered by insurance. All those things are adding up, and I’m a bit short. So I’ve started a GoFundMe site, where I can hopefully make up the difference.  It’s the 11th hour, but I’ve got to have faith that it will all work out.

GoFundMe
Click Here to go to my GoFund Me Page

So please consider giving a gift. A small amount, added up with many others, can make a huge difference. If several people give $20, or even $50, I’ll be able to make my goal and go on this trip and do my best to help these organizations make a difference in Africa.

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General
What Am I Doing There?

2014, June 6

So, you might be asking yourself why I am going to Africa, and what I am doing there. The answer is pretty simple: I’m going to help!

The continent of Africa accounts for roughly 1/3 of the world’s impoverished people.  There are over 48 million orphans in Africa, and barely 50% of the people in Africa have access to clean water, while the rest find what water they can. If they are very lucky, they might have a water well nearby.  If they’re not, then they may have to walk to a parasite and disease-ridden watering holes, if they can even find one. The average walk to get water in Africa is over 3 miles, and in order to survive, they must carry an average of 44 pounds of water back to their homes.  Add on to that the AIDS epidemic, civil war and terrorism, and you are faced with the reality that the people of Africa need a lot of help from the rest of the world in order to have hope for a better future.

There are a lot of great, well-known organizations working hard in Africa.  Organizations like Unicef, World Vision, the Christian Children’s Fund, and others do a great deal of good.  But they can’t do everything.  And there are a lot of smaller organizations that are sharing the load and doing great work in Africa, often times in a smaller geographic area, with a more local focus.  Two such organizations that are near and dear to my heart are Ugandan Gold Coffee, and Rehema Home Orphanage.

Ugandan Gold logo

Ugandan Gold Coffee is a non-profit that was started many years ago to create a self-sustaining coffee plantation by the CEED (Christian East-African Equatorial Development) Trust. The farm is managed and worked on by local people, who prepare the coffee for sale in the U.S. The profits from the sales go back to the farm and village for water wells, health care, and all sorts of other needs that the people in that area have. I am going with a team who will be drilling water wells, repairing wells that have broken down, working on other repairs on buildings in the area, working with a local orphan ministry, and doing other various jobs around the coffee farm.

Rehema Home logo

Rehema Home Orphanage is an home in Nairobi, Kenya that takes care of over 100 orphans. A friend of mine’s parents started it many years ago (he basically grew up in Kenya), and it is an incredible place of hope and dignity for children who have been orphaned or otherwise abandoned. I will be documenting the children and the difference that Rehema Home is making in their lives.  It’s a fantastic organization, and a great cause.  (In fact, my high school held a benefit concert called “Goatstock” last year, and the money raised went to Rehema Home.)

Both of these two organizations are doing amazing things in Africa! But they also have the desire to do more. There is a lot of need, and the bigger organizations like World Vision, etc., can’t do it all. Africa needs these types of smaller missions organizations just as much. And these smaller missions need to have more people getting involved in what they are doing so that they can help as many people in Africa as possible.  And that’s where an artist and photographer like me can help the most. So my job is to capture the stories of the people these organizations are helping, and show the people here in America why they should give their time and money to causes like these.

So that’s why I’m going. I’m a do-er. I hate just sitting back and watching a problem when I know I can help out. So even if I’m not an engineer who knows how to drill water wells, or a corporate businessman who can help create a model for a self-sustaining farm, I can still do something to help these missions do the great work that they do. And that’s exactly what I hope to do.

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General
Getting My Video Rig Started

2014, June 5

Since I’m doing this trip low-budget, I can’t really go buying a $1500 shoulder rig from Redrock Micro, as much as I’d like to…  SO…  I’m going to make one!  It may be a bit heavier, and it may not look as nice, but the one big benefit is the ability for me to get a completely custom fit.

So, after an afternoon of cutting and testing, this is what I have so far:


That’s my Canon 6d attached on there…  And the rig isn’t even glued yet!  So it’s pretty stable. I’m going to wait to glue it until I can get some more gear put together so that I know I’ve got the fit right. But I’m happy with it and it’s a good start!

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Life
Switchfoot Lead Singer Jon Foreman shares his thoughts on the idea of “Christian” Music

2014, April 26

The title of the linked article below is rather misleading, but I thought that the quote from Jon Foreman, front-man of the band Switchfoot, very awesome. It really describes how a lot of people feel about this idea of “christian” and “non-christian” music.

I’ve always struggled with this… Not with whether or not I should listen to christian or non-christian bands, but rather with the people who seem to think defining such stuff is so important. I’ve found far more meaning in many “non-christian” band lyrics than most “christian” lyrics. (And I listen to both) I’ve heard “Christian” bands drop more f-bombs than many Non-Christian bands. And, in many cases, it didn’t really bother me when they did. As the fabulous quote from Jon Foreman states, “…judging from scripture I can only conclude that our God is much more interested in how I treat the poor and the broken and the hungry than the personal pronouns I use when I sing.”

Really, in the end, it’s really stupid to even argue about it all, because this is actually a commercial distinction – a distinction that runs more along demographics than anything else.
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Photography
A Good Lesson in Truth-Setting – Getting it Right is So Important, Because of the Power That is in a Photograph

2013, February 28

In this story in The New York Times by David Gonzalez, Paolo Pellegrin, a photographer who has won some very high awards this year seems to have manipulated at least one of his images to mean something a bit more than it really should. Especially with everything going around right now concerning gun control, it certainly seems that thew photographer may have had a political agenda with this photograph. And maybe that’s not bad – at a certain time and place. But in this instance, I think maybe the photographer did not completely do his job here.

One of the most interesting things about the story is the subject’s explanation of what happened. Especially where he says, “One of the first things I thought was that’s strange, asking us to do something. I’m a student, he’s Magnum. I not going to question him.” I think this is a very important and telling statement. We must always remember that the photographer has a lot of power. The power of persuasion and the power to portray our subjects and manipulate them. How will a photographer use that power? Sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse.

It’s one thing to move your subject(s) to a better background. It’s another to manipulate them in a way that portrays the exact opposite of what – or who – they are, which I believe has been done in this photo. There’s always a fine line a photographer must walk – the difference between making a good photograph by exaggerating certain parts of a photograph to make the truth more evident, and changing the way the subject is portrayed to change the identity and meaning of the subject completely.

For even more information, read the article linked below:


A PrizeWinning Lesson in Ethics by David Gonzalez, New York Times
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