Archive for June, 2007

Finding Hope in Photos: Children and Uganda

June 26, 2007 | Charity, Photo Contests, Travel

cross-posted to Marketing Roadmaps

This spring, as I wrote in May, I did some blogger outreach to mom bloggers about HP’s Capture Your Ever After photo contest. This post is a direct result of that project.

The background: Part of friendship is to say thank you. We decided to thank the bloggers who wrote about the contest  by making a donation of an HP digital camera, compact photo printer and some supplies to a charity of their choice.We also decided to send the gear directly to the women, so they could have the pleasure of donating it personally to their favorite local charities.

Because the donation aspect was not promoted in advance, it was a bit of a surprise to the bloggers when they got the email offering them the gear, but  none of them had any trouble thinking of a cause that meant something to them personally. They also all took the time to let us know what they planned to do with it, even though we didn’t make it a requirement that they do so.

Tracey Clark’s donation is going to war-torn Northern Uganda next month with Katie Gardner of San Diego.

Katie is part of a group connected with Children of the Nations. They will be spending three weeks working with children and families in the IDP (internally displaced people) camps.  Some of the folks going will be doing counseling, but Katie and small group of four or five others will be doing photo projects with the children.

She told me that working with third-world children, giving them a chance to use photography as a creative outlet has been a dream of hers ever since she saw the documentary Born into Brothels which documents the lives of children who live in Calcutta’s red-light district.  

“When kids take pictures, they have a unique view.  I’m really looking forward to helping these children experience the world in new ways through photography. I hope it gives them hope for the future.”

Including the camera and compact printer donated by HP, Katie has two brand new digital cameras, two printers, a handful of used polaroid cameras and cash donations from friends and family to purchase supplies. They still need a scanner so they can scan in the polaroids and leave the originals with the children. If  you’d like to help, drop Katie a note at katieann10@gmail.com.

Katie thinks it’s important that we hear and see the smaller stories from Africa and other third world nations, not just the larger than life efforts of celebrities like Madonna and Bono so she is developing a blog to document her Uganda trip. You’ll also be reading more about Katie’s project here and on Tracey’s blog, Picture This.

Over the summer, Katie’s kids in Uganda, Tracey’s daughter Julia (age 9) in California,  Douglas (age 7) here in Massachusetts and two friends of Katie’s in San Diego, ages 7 and 9, will take pictures using some simple themes, including laughter, friends, sunshine and where I live. When Katie returns in August, we’ll do a series of posts showing their worlds through their eyes. It should be interesting to see  the differences and similarities between the American and Ugandan children.

Katie says she hopes these pictures will help Americans better understand what is happening in Uganda:

“Not only do I want the kids in Uganda to have a creative outlet to think about their lives in a new way, I want people back home to be transformed by seeing the world though these kids’ eyes. And I want both sides to really see the potential for hope in places where people have been suffering for so many years. I want people back home to be moved to see how they can make a difference; and even if not in Africa, then how can we make a difference in our own backyard? I’m lucky enough to go overseas, but it’s so easy to be the catalyst for change in our own families and neighborhoods when we allow ourselves to open our eyes to what’s going on around the world.”

Bon voyage, Katie.

*****************

Check out Invisible Children, another group that helps the children of Uganda.

Update, 27 June: Tracey’s post Picture Hope

Tags: children of the nations, invisible children, HP, Tracey Clark, Katie Gardner, charity, digital pictures

The week that was

June 24, 2007 | Animals, Douglas, Family

No easy way to say it. Last week, a good friend died unexpectedly and way too soon.  He was a good friend to Dave and me, and my brother in law Dick’s best friend since, well, forever. Rest in Peace Flip.

Dick, my brother in law, came up from Pittsburgh for the funeral. Here is a picture Douglas took of his Uncle and Dad.

In more lighthearted news (unless you are a field rodent or a chipmunk) our nine-year old bitch Music and her best feline friend Merlin have been casing a section of the fence. I rescued a chipmunk yesterday from a fate…. well, you know.

Edited in Picasa, image size reduced in irfanview.

Finally, for puppy fans, here’s a picture of the puppy bitch at two weeks.

 

Their eyes are open and they should be walking, albeit like drunken sailors, within the next few days.

Tags: dogs, puppies, Scottish Terrier

World in Focus Travel Photo Contest

Photo Contests, Travel

Actually, it’s two contests – one for amateurs sponsored by National Geographic Traveler and one for professionals sponsored by Photo District News.

Categories: Wilderness Photography; The Human Condition; Extreme Exploration; Urban Landscapes; Snapshots; Open Series.

Entry fee for amateurs is $12 per entry, for professionals, $35. Deadline is August 21, 2007.

Tags: travel, photo contest

Planes and Automobiles

June 19, 2007 | Photo Walks

Every year on Father’s Day weekend, the Collings Foundation, a local non-profit dedicated to restoring old planes and autos, has an open house. This is pretty much the only chance for the community to view the Foundation’s impressive collection of Indy race cars, antique autos (including a 1940 caddy built for Al Capone) and vintage airplanes. We try to go every year, since it is about 5 minutes from our house.

This year, Douglas brought his camera for the very first time. Here are some of his pictures.

Uncle Doug at Mom’s desk

A neat propeller (with a little editing in Picasa to lighten the image)

 —

We’ve gone a few years in a row, so this year for my pictures, I focused mostly on hood ornaments, plane art and advertising slogans. Most of these images have been edited in Picasa, but very simply — some cropping, sharpening and the “feeling lucky setting.” 

 

—

On the Packard ornament, I converted to B&W to make it a bit more stark.

 

—

On the Indian hood ornament,  I increased the shadow to make the image pop.

—

You can see all our pictures from the day on Flickr. Mine here, Doug’s here.

Tags: Collings Foundation, vintage planes, antique autos, hood ornaments

Are you a feminist?

General

A post about our weekend outing to the Collings Foundation in Stow Mass is coming.

In the meantime, are you a feminist?

Tip of the hat to PunditMom - lately I haven’t had time to check out BlogThings, and I would have missed this one.

You Are 100% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn’t mean you’re a man hater (in fact, you may be a man). You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It’s a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.

Pupdate, June 18

June 18, 2007 | Animals

Last week was pretty much work and puppies. All are doing well and have doubled their birthweight.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for eliminating “blue eye?”

Puppies

June 11, 2007 | Animals

Readers of my business blog Marketing Roadmaps know by now that I breed and show Scottish Terriers. Our three-year old bitch Reva had her second litter on Friday night. Mom and pups doing fine. 

Three Piggy Opera

June 10, 2007 | Douglas

Last Thursday was the 1st Grade production of the Three Piggy Opera. You know the story — huff, puff etc.

Douglas was a Stick Peddler. I got some okay shots, but this was the first time I wished for the control that an SLR gives you. They somewhat dimmed the lights, and the lens on my little Canon Digital Elph just couldn’t cope with distance and dimness. So we may start looking around, pricing the options. Maybe for Christmas.

But I still don’t want all that weight when we are on the move, sightseeing, hiking etc., so I suspect the point and shoot will always be with me.

Here’s a picture of Douglas saying his lines. I softened the image (soft focus) and then focused on him (focal B&W) using Picasa.

More pictures on Flickr.

Another entry for the HP Shrek Photo Contest

June 9, 2007 | Photo Contests

One of the best things about blogging is that you “meet” people that you would never have the opportunity to meet in “real life.”

Over the course of working on the blogger outreach for HP’s Shrek photo contest, now in its home stretch, I met Melody from Slurping Life. (What a great name for a blog!)

Melody learned about the contest on Picture This, was kind enough to blog about it and tried, initially unsuccessfully, to enter it.

The folks at HP and Snapfish reached out to her and she patiently helped them troubleshoot the problems. You can read all about it on her blog.

The good news: she was finally able to successfully enter a picture in the My Little Ogre contest going on now. Please take a moment to check it out and vote.

Tags: HP, Shrek, photo contest

The First Grade Field Trip

June 5, 2007 | General, Photo Walks, Travel

Yes, it’s true. I was a chaperone for the first grade field trip last week. And lived to tell the tale. So did the 5 boys in my group.

We went to the EcoTarium in Worcester, an excellent choice for kids of this age (6-7 years). There’s enough to do to keep them busy for a few hours, with enough variety that every kid will find something to interest him, but the place isn’t so big that you’ll lose track of your kids. Even if they are running in two or three different directions.

The teachers were also very smart. We had a list of animals to look for, which kept the kids moving along as they wanted to spot as many as they could.

Here are some of the highlights of the day. More pics on Flickr.

My field trip group. Douglas is the first one on the right left. I “whited out” the names of the two boys whose name tags were also visible using an open source graphics program called GIMP that my brother recommended. He said it has the functionality of PhotoShop without the cost. I’ll report more as we investigate it.

 

They had a whole exhibit about insects that eat blood — leeches, mosquitos, ticks and so on. As you can probably imagine, 7 year old boys thought that was cool. One of the best bits was the game of twITCHer. In the second picture above, Douglas had a case of red eye. I removed it with a simple photo viewer called IrfanView, also a discovery of my brother.

It was a cool day, so the polar bear was actually out of his den.  This is a color, unedited photo, but I managed somehow to get just the bear and the rocks, without any of the colored balls (or whatever they were) floating in his pool. As a result, the picture is stark, monochromatic, almost severe. I really like it because I think it conveys what a polar bear really is. Not a happy fluffy cartoon that sells soft drinks. A serious, deliberate survivor.  

Tags: EcoTarium, IrfanView, polar bear