Here we are, IT IS SPRING!!!

            I do my very best to be as content as possible with every season.   I try to never think about the weather being too cold, too hot, too this or too that because that inevitably makes you leave the present and look forward to some other weather / time combination that probably won’t be perfect when it presents itself either.

            That said, I love spring for all of the reasons that everyone else does.  There is a feeling of rejuvenation as the snow melts, valleys fill with water and you realize that healthy grass is actually green and not brown.  I feel it does the same with the soul.

            After the last few months of winter, work and travel, I found myself in a state of complete, desperate exhaustion; gas tank empty in the middle of nowhere kind of exhausted.  Then I took a look around and birds were chirping, the snow was receding from my steps and a quick glance over Carson Valley confirmed that things were happening.  Carson Valley is considered the desert, but for these precious few weeks (or maybe months this year due to record snowfall), it is full of water and life.  Calves are filling the pastures and migratory birds dot the reflective marshes of a normally brown, barren landscape.

            Even the name, “Spring,” conjures thoughts of bouncing forward with energy and enthusiasm.

            Suddenly, I am not exhausted anymore.  All it took was seeing and feeling that change and I underwent my own transformation.  Instead of feeling beat down, stressed and stretched to the limit, I feel light, nimble and able to jump the hurdles in front of me. 

            I wrote about a lot of these seasonal changes in me last fall in a post called, Transitions.  I mentioned an association of time and place with seasons and how at each turn of the year, old memories of that period in the calendar resurface.  For me, spring is about hanging out with good friends, completing tasks from the previous months (school, assignments, etc…), getting into rivers swollen with the year’s snowmelt and in general, resurfacing.  Coming up and taking a breath, looking around and appreciating what an amazing change is happening.

            One of my favorite ways to feel and celebrate that change is through kayaking.  Like I said, around here rivers are swollen with the year’s snowmelt coming down in a rush of energy, transporting new life in all directions for hundreds of miles.  It can be scary and challenging if you pick that sort of run to get on, but I don’t know any other way to completely immerse yourself in that change than to paddle through rapids with water charging all around, feeling the slightest changes in current and adjusting, reaching the lip of a drop and taking one long and calculated stroke, pulling forward out of the water and landing in a pool with your buddies laughing and cheering.

            To me, that is spring.

(Not my best image, but it illustrates exactly what I am talking about.  
Good friends on Oh Be Joyful Creek, Crested Butte, CO in Spring '08.)

            As always, it has been very busy around here lately, and I am hoping to release some big news in the coming weeks, but in the meantime I wanted to take a minute to keep folks updated with a few recent tearsheets and stories.

            Last summer I was asked by the wonderful folks at Boys’ Life and Scouting magazines (magazines under the Boy Scouts of America) to shoot a five-day rafting trip on Oregon’s Rogue River as well as a nine-day fishing adventure on the Kobuk River in northern Alaska.  Being a river person and someone with a deep love affair for Alaska, I politely accepted, then hung up the phone and did my own little dance around a coffee shop in Boulder, Colorado where I happened to be parked at the time. 

            The Rogue River was one I had always heard about and had hoped to get on for years.  It is not particularly full of crazy whitewater, but it is one of the most scenic rivers around and I was in desperate need of disconnecting from the world and making life as simple as shooting images and telling the story of a trip.

            From the ridiculous coffee in the morning (yes, one of the participants owns a coffee roasting company) to the great guides handling logistics to the troop itself, it was an amazing trip.

            Soon afterwards I headed on up to Alaska for seven weeks of personal adventures and shooting as well as the next assignment in line, floating the entire length of Kobuk Valley National Park on the Kobuk River with Troop 300 of Wasilla, AK.  Once again, I was exactly in my element, no phone, no computer, camera in hand and nine days away from the world.  It was perfect!

            Both stories ended up being the cover story for each magazine and I couldn’t be more pleased with how they both turned out.  Thanks again to the amazing folks at Boys’ Life and Scouting magazines and everyone on those trips who made them so memorable.

            The next tearsheet is one I am particularly proud of as well.  It is one of my favorite images, shot on my own while on a personally funded photo endeavor to Hawaii, in print as a double page spread in this summer’s Patagonia catalogue. 

It is a true honor to have my work appear in the pages I have drooled over for so many years (both for the photos and the gear, haha!), but this tearsheet is particularly special to me because this was one of the scariest images I have ever taken.  It may look peaceful and tranquil, but I was swimming in a known Tiger Shark area by myself at sunset in deep, black water next to hundred foot cliffs and ten-foot crashing waves to get this image.  There was no way out, my heart was pounding out of my chest and all I could do was shoot through those last moments of sunlight and hope that nothing would make a snack of my bold (dumb might be a better word) move. 

I don’t normally operate this brazenly, but I had been trying to get out with this group during one of their practices the entire time I had been in Hawaii and it finally came down to the last day, literally hours before my flight back to the mainland, when I got the call and folks were heading out.

Again, most people probably wouldn’t go do something like this only a few hours before their flight, but when you have put as much time, effort and money into your own pursuits over the course of many years as I have, you pretty much never say no to a cool shooting opportunity that you created.

Without getting too much further into it, you are beginning to see the variables that shaped my decision to get in the water that evening.

In the end, I am really happy we got the image, I am really happy that Patagonia is using it in their catalogue, but I am most happy about the fact that I got out of the water that night, all limbs attached.

Thanks to the good folks at Patagonia for choosing this image and to the good folks at Kamanu Composites who made this all possible!

            I have been truly humbled.

            Sunday morning I arrived at Miami International Airport after a weeklong shooting assignment on a remote island with no Internet or phone connectivity.  I powered up my phone as I stepped off the plane, went straight to my email and there it was, “Congrats!  Your Kickstarter project has been successfully funded!”

            I stopped dead in my tracks as the line of travelers behind me kindly pushed me aside.  I could not believe what I was reading and just stood and stared blankly.  I went numb and the raucous world around me went quiet.  All of my focus was on the subject line of that email.  I just couldn’t believe it.

            I slowly came back to the world and realized that I had another flight to catch on a different reservation, which would necessitate a visit to baggage claim, the check-in counter and security all over again in about 25 minutes.

            I didn’t make it, but that is a different story.

            I can’t remember another time in my life when I have been so overwhelmed with a feeling that I could not explain.  We know when something feels good or when something feels bad, but what happens when you don’t actually have a way to categorize what you are feeling?

            I guess it means it is a brand new one that deserves a new category.

            I think my new category is “Overwhelmed.”

            In thinking more about it, I realize that what I was feeling was this incredible rush of support from everyone who has helped this project along.  I am a lone photographer.  I work alone, travel alone and depend on my instincts.  I don’t ask for much help, and when I do, it is because it is the very last option.

            My momentary “What is this?” was me feeling completely floored about the fact that I had asked for help and that you all showed up.  My family, my friends, industry professionals, colleagues, clients and complete strangers all showed up for me, for Jessie and for this project, and for that I cannot thank you enough.

            Your support will give this project as much potential as possible and hopefully help spread the word about the GOOD work being done by Jessie Stone and Soft Power Health in Uganda.  There is still plenty more work to be done, but this is an absolutely incredible milestone!

            I would like to once again thank every supporter of this project, and in keeping with the promises laid out in the Kickstarter rewards program, I would like to extend a Special Thanks to:

Sabrina Lau                                                   Charles Adams

Jean O’Keefe                                                 Cristin

Vince E. Camiolo                                           Smith Tallant

Jonathan Greenlee                                        Ryan Grimm

Lance Adair                                                     Parker Gates

Mike C.                                                              Morgan Petroski

Jeremy Reppy                                                 Monissa

Derek Bradley                                                  Isaiah Downing

Lauren Gaines                                                 Krista Abbaticchio

Amy Marquis                                                    Marc

Morgan Heim & Joanna Nasar                     Jimmy Graham

Andrew Kuhlberg                                            Cindy Ruppenicker

Peter Dennen                                                   Karen Kraus

Cherie Ve Ard                                                   Randy White

Logan MB                                                          Mat Rick

Folia Yu                                                              Steven Rushing

Anthony & Michelle Klotz                                Kathly Trabert

Cartson Ko                                                         Andrew Luter

Jessica Stuart                                                    Biff Ramsey

Rich Kidd                                                            Alisha

Erica Willis                                                          Howard Alter

Anna Ruppenicker                                            Jose M. Rivera

Ken Gagne                                                         Martin Burns

Jennifer Chong                                                  Christie C. Salomon

Peter Hill                                                             Amanda Abegg

Charles Adams       Rose Demoret

            A few generous backers chose not to select a reward and for those reasons are not named.  Some may have chosen for anonymity so I have to assume that reason for everyone in this category.  If you are in this category and have no problem being named, please let me know.
    I would also like to especially thank the good folks at Patagonia's Cleanest Line for doing their part in helping spread the word.
    Thanks again everyone!!!

            This post is long so I want to start by getting to the point.

            For as long as I can remember holding a camera, I have wanted to use it as a tool for GOOD.  In college I really thought about documentary and war photography, but I struggled with the lifestyle and mostly with the subject matter.  To be completely honest, I found myself very depressed about embarking on a life that would not be for me.  I knew that if I went down that road, I might never see real happiness for myself.  You may think that a lifetime of good deeds could bring only happiness, but it is in fact quite different when you are the one holding back your tears and swallowing the lump in your throat because you HAVE to shoot images of what is in front of you, no matter how tragic.

            I have never been in a war zone so I cannot pretend to understand what the people in those places go through.  In my short career as a newspaper photographer I did shoot car accidents, plane crashes, wildfires and random acts of violence.  I saw a deranged husband shoot his wife and then himself and families running in terror as their houses burned to the ground.  I shot funerals and crime scenes.  One Sunday morning I found myself kneeling over the burned and lifeless body of a man who was just pulled from a private plane crash.

            It was the news, it was what was happening and I had to report it.  I had to make the photographs.  Even without looking around I could feel the disdain coming off of every police officer and firefighter in the vicinity. 

In their eyes, I was the scum of the earth. 

In their eyes, this was a good morning for me because I had a story to report.  I overheard one firefighter’s comment about how these people had families and didn’t I care about them at all.  I felt so many horrible emotions that morning that I finally walked up to the fire Chief and told him face to face that I did not want to be there.  I had no choice in the matter and that I would shoot the scene as fairly and respectfully as I could.  I had a job to do just like everyone else and if my photos could help in their investigation they would have all access.

            That move changed the tone for the scene and I was slowly accepted, but it didn’t make me feel any better about shooting it. 

An hour later I was assigned to shoot a community tennis tournament.  I showed up still down about the morning and realized I needed to be happy and approachable in order to gain access to the court and players.  It was a hard thing to do, but I put on my happy face got what I needed.

All of this is not meant to bring pity on me for what I went through.  I was not the one that died.

The point I am making is that I think some people are built to tell certain stories.  There is no mistaking the James Nachtways of the world who spend their lives in war zones or tragic natural disasters.  They do it because they are built for it. They see more human suffering than anyone else on the planet and manage to keep shooting.  They do it because they owe it to the person in the photo to tell their story in hopes of change.

In college, I applied for an internship with VII Photo Agency to work under James Nachtway and his very like-minded compatriots.  I made it to the second round of interviews but never heard anything further.  I breathed a deep sigh of relief and the world seemed to open up for me.  That was when I knew I wasn’t built for tales of human suffering.

I have since put all of my efforts into the adventure and outdoor world of imagery, but there has always been something missing.

Maybe I wasn’t built to tell stories of tragedy and despair, but I was built for sharing tales of GOOD; stories of GOOD people doing GOOD things.

I have been waiting patiently since that realization, hoping for something to come up; a story, an assignment or a project someone pays me to go shoot. 

I have waited and I have realized that you should never wait to do something GOOD. 

They say timing is everything, but it never seems like the right time to take a risk.  You can talk yourself out of it every time thinking that way.  That is why I have decided to pursue a personal project and head to Uganda to share a story about an amazing person doing amazing things.  I would love to tell more about the story, but nobody really wants to hear the ending before they watch the movie.

If you are truly interested and want to learn more about this big undertaking and how you can be a part of it, please click on the image below.  If you cannot donate, the very best thing you can do is help spread the word.

I feel strongly about this and am taking on this project whether I reach my funding goal or not.  The donations will determine how far we can go with the project or how much I am in the whole after it is all said and done.  Please help spread the word.