Click to start slide show

New larger format, and more pages!

I’m going to be doing a larger format one this year 9.5×13 (or so) so the images will be bigger which is great for those of you that like to cut the photos out after the calendar is done.

It will also be a 16 or 17 month calendar so you can enjoy almost 50% more images and have it hanging that much longer.

Order now to get pre-print pricing, save $5.00 each!

I need to get an idea of how many to order so here’s the deal.   Order now and pay $25 each, which will save you $5 off the regular price which will be $30.  If you want to order more than 5 I’ll give you an even better price – please contact me and tell me how many you want, and I’ll give you a quote.

This price does NOT include shipping.  If you require your calendar(s) to be shipped I will need to get prices from the post office based on the size and weight once they are here, and invoice you separately for the freight costs (I charge you what they charge me, no mark up on shipping).   Last year for one within Canada it was about $4, and to the US was $7 – so expect it to be slightly higher than that because of the larger size, but not much likely.

Calendars make great gifts!

Buy one for yourself and a few for gifts.   Remember they will last well into 2013 so it’ll be great for those forgetful people that never get around to getting a new calendar.  By they I should have a new one for 2013, perhaps Hawaii?

Get yours now

Please click on the Paypal button below to purchase your 2012 Turkey calendar(s) now.  If you want more than one, just change it on the next screen to reflect the quantity you want, or contact me for 5 or more.
UPDATE: This offer has been removed and is no longer available. Sorry about that.

When traveling overseas with your beloved camera equipment, it is best to take some preventative steps and precautions to ensure the safety of both your equipment and yourself, while traveling. Here are a few things to think about, and some items you may want to consider purchasing before you head out on your next big trip.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

• Choose a camera bag that is comfortable, and keep it on your body at all times. Do not sling backpacks over one arm, or sit them on the chair next to you (unless you padlock it to the chair, I’m not kidding!). You may also want to choose one that has less zippers or that zips against your back like the one I use, the Lowe Pro Flipside 300 (which also come in bigger and smaller models 200 and 400).
• Make sure you have adequate insurance and that if you opt for a rider on your home policy that your insurance company has the brand, model numbers and serial numbers of each piece of equipment you own.  Some camera bodies are considered “pro equipment” by insurance companies and if they deem it to be such and you haven’t discussed it with them prior to a claim – they may decide not to cover you.  Inusurance companies are funny that way. If they can find a loophole they will! Best thing to do is to ask them before you leave, just to be sure. You may have to pay a little extra for it, but make sure you also get “replacement value” not market value coverage. Your two year old DSLR might only be worth a couple hundred bucks on the market to sell it now, but to replace it with a newer one will cost more.  Make sure they cover the latter.
• Register your camera equipment with Canada Customs (or the customs agency wherever you live) before you leave the country – especially if your camera equipment is new or looks new. You don’t need any proof of purchases, just show them your gear and they take inventory of it and give you a little registration card (also handy for insurance claims if need be!).  When you return home it will save a LOT of hassle at customs if the agents think you have purchased your gear on your trip.   Unless you can produce a proof of purchase at that time you could be dinged with a hefty customs and duty fee on your already bought and paid for camera.  If the customs desk is not opened prior to your flight you may have to make a special trip to do this – otherwise if you have a midday flight just go a bit earlier and do that at the customs office in the airport before you check in for your flight. Once you’ve done this you only need to take the card next time, or update it if you buy more gear.
• This may be obvious but I’ll say it anyway – bring at least two camera batteries and your battery charger, along with any necessary plug-in adapters if you are going overseas.  You don’t want to be caught with drained batteries at a place you may never visit again.  Be prepared with a second one, or even a third one. You can even get some chargers that have their own battery so you can charge them up and then they will handle several charges of your battery before it needs to be plugged in again.  That’s what I did and it gets charged in my hotel room at night, then in my camera bag by day my batteries get charged.  Also handy if you’re backpacking or somewhere there’s no power. 

ON YOUR TRIP

• If you carry a DSLR you become an instant target for thieves in many places.  Keep in mind that even an entry level DSLR camera with a value of around $1000 is more than whole families make in an entire year in some countries.  A higher end model like a Canon 5D Mark II or a Nikon D3X can really stand out. It makes you look like a professional photographer, whether you are or not, so you may find yourself being watched or scoped by some less than trustworthy looking characters.  The biggest pieces of advice I have on this are: always put your camera strap diagonal across your body, not over one shoulder or no strap at all (way too easy to grab and run);  and be aware of your surroundings and who is in your “space” at all times.

• get a small travel lock something like the one above left, and use it for securing your bag to your chair or table in busy restaurants, or even to the plumbing in the bathroom at the hotel so your bag itself doesn’t walk off while you’re out having dinner.  Remember to get one that will go through all the zipper pulls and isn’t easily cut or broken. Another option is a Pac Safe bag protector (above right) which is a wire mess that goes over your whole bag and locks to something solid.
• one other lesson I learned the hard way is to bring lots of memory cards but perhaps the largest size aren’t always the best option.   I opted for two 16gb CF memory cards for my Canon 5D on a recent trip to Turkey.  One of them failed upon download back home and I wasn’t able to recover the over 1000 images on it.   Stick to slightly smaller cards, 8gb maximum and just buy lots of them or get a storage device like an Epson Picture Pad P-5000.
• Try to keep your full memory cards on your person, or leave them in the hotel safe.  That way if your bag or your camera is stolen you won’t lose all of your images.
• Two things to keep in mind if you are a victim of a robbery.    First – they probably need the money more than you do and may be willing to fight for it.  Secondly, while you may lose some images if they take your whole bag or camera – you still have you memories and your life – fight for your camera gear isn’t worth losing that, let them have it willingly.

Now having said all that it seems like I might be a bit on the paranoid or overly pre-cautious side.  One might think so – BUT I have NEVER had an issue (other than lost images due to card failure which was my own fault) while traveling.  So I like to think that my safety measures and precautions have paid off.  If you follow these tips, hopefully you’ll have nothing but happy, safe journeys too!

Travel safe, have fun, and look for my follow up post soon on “What to do when you arrive at your destination”

After playing phone tag for a while, we finally talked to her last week, and it was both a pleasure and an honor.  She asked about our journey, and our thoughts on the Dwight area – but you can go read the article for yourself to find out exactly what we talked about.

The Dawg House Diner image that started it all.

Read the Article Featuring Our Roadtrip 2011 Calendar Photographs

You can read the full article here in the online version of the paper.  We are on page ONE, and continued on page 18.

She also mentioned my 2011 Road Trip Calendars which are still available in limited quantities.  If you want one – get it now before they’re all gone!

Thanks Meta for a fabulous article!

I’ve recently been reading and connecting with Sean’s other site Location 180, about living location independent and being able to work and live anywhere you want!  I was actually lucky enough to enter a contest he ran and won a copy of the “War of Art“ which is next up for reading right after Chris Guillebeau’s book, the “Art of Non-Conformity“.

I stumbled upon Chris’ blog of the same name, accidentally one day.  It is about “unconventional strategies for work, life and travel” and what he and Sean write really resonates with me right now.

Chris also offers packages to help you learn how to be a Travel Ninja and Frequent Flyer Master – I’m also in the process of reading those.  Wanna travel more but it’s too expensive?   Want free travel?  But his guides!

If you’ve ever wondered “Is this all there is?”   If you’ve ever wanted more out of life but maybe you don’t even know what that is?  Sign up for both Chris and Sean’s blogs and see if you aren’t as inspired as I was and am!

Keep up the good work guys, and thanks again Sean!

Dots Diner is also on the cover of my Road Trip 2011 calendar, featuring HDR images and others from our 17,000 mile RV trip around North America and Canada in 2010.

A couple years ago I did a calendar of some of my favorite images of Peru.   I got to thinking, since I took over 17,000 images on our six month RV trip south – I should do the same this year!    So here is the official launch of Road Trip 2011.  It includes 13 fabulous images from our 26,000 km (over 16,000 miles for my American friends) in full color glossy pages in 8.5×11.

The calendars will retail for $20 plus GST, shipping is extra if needed – I just charge you what it costs me.  Shipping will be added to your total if you order online here.  If you pick up your calendar I’ll give you a cash refund for the shipping cost.

CALENDARS MAKE GREAT GIFTS – ORDER A FEW!

Calendars are great gifts for xmas, staff or co-workers and those hard to buy for people.   The best part is even those tough to buy for guys on your list will like it because there’s cars in it!   I went with a theme this year of Road Trip as that’s exactly what our journey was – one big one at that!  So the images are things along the Roadside, or things that were once on the road.  We even hit Route 66 a couple times so look for some cool diners and gas stations.

Here are the images that appear in the calendar.  It’s a slide show, so just click the picture to start it.  Of course they are much more impressive in print but this is a good teaser.

Click to play slide show

Odell Station on Route 66

This photograph of the Odell Station on Route 66 in Illinois is one of Rob’s (my husband) favorite images. He says he has a lot of good energy around it.  We were running out of light and I wanted to make it to this town to photograph this station. We got there and it was all but dark and no lights on the building. So we started photographing with our car headlights on it for any light at all. We tried using a flashlight on it and as we started running around lighting bits of the station up – the motion sensors came on and we had an “aha!” moment. So we used the lights to our advantage – each one set off in a different exposure, some of them at long at 8 minutes. Then I worked some magic in Photoshop to combine about 9 different shots into the final image you see here. Is that cool or what?

I just remember having to go to the bathroom the entire time and when you’re doing the Pee Dance 8 minutes for each exposure is a loooooong time!

What you don’t see in the image is Rob running around setting off the motion sensors and then hiding behind the posts or around back of the station while the exposure finishes.  Trust me, he’s in the picture a lot, but he’s always hiding out of sight.

I asked him why he likes it so much and he told me that after a great day exploring Route 66 with me, we got to this spot as the sun was just setting.  It was quiet and peaceful with virtually no other cars around to interrupt us.  The stars had come out, the sky was clear and the air was so very fresh.  His helping me set up the shot and running around the building setting off the light sensors just allowed him to fully appreciate the place and be fully present during the making of the shot.  He says he was in pure joy for a good hour.

Calendar Images Featured Elsewhere

Reporters from Dwight Illinois (on Route 66) found out about a few of my images from their neighborhood and interviewed us. The Dawg Diner HDR image and a few others were featured in their small newspaper and we were quite pleased with how it all turned out.

As well, my cover shot for the calendar, the HDR image of Dots Diner in Bisbee Arizona was featured on Sean Ogle’s Daily HDR website.

Back to the Road Trip 2011 Calendar. To order one please click on the Add to Cart button below to make your payment by Paypal.  If you’re in Edmonton I’ll be keeping a list and you can come pick your order up from me directly once I get the calendars.  If you require shipping and billing to the US, please use the button below for US Orders.

Canadian orders here!

USA orders here! Quantity/price One calendar $20.00 Two for $40.00 Three $60.00

For orders of more than three calendars please email me with a quantity as I’ll have to get a quote on shipping. Then if you want to proceed I’ll send you a custom invoice including the freight.

If you like what you see here – please consider buying the book to help me support the children of Peru. To read more about the book please go to the “Visions of Peru” Book page.

Click on the image about to purchase the book.

This is Washington – affectionately, Washi

He was our guide on the trip but he is so much more than that. We all grew to love him, and to admire his tenacity and passion in helping his people, whom we also came to love. With money we raised prior to leaving for Peru, and his help – we were able to directly affect the people most in need, sometimes in remote areas. I saw first hand the poverty and suffering this people live with, yet they smile and offer us food when we enter their home. You can read and see his story and theirs in “Visions of Peru”.

I met Mama Sentuza, 84, who can barely see and who lives in the dirt and rock house she’s lived in her whole life. She has no running water except the stream beside her home, no electricity, no health care, and no help – except for Washi! You will meet her and see inside her home in “Visions of Peru”.

We met two children that tagged along with us during an afternoon visit to some Inca ruins. We learned how their story so very closely mirrored Washi’s own story, and how his has turned out with a happy ending thanks to the generosity of a lady name Mama Sharon and how hopefully with Washi’s help and guidance theirs will too. Without help, their story is sad and bleak. Four children being supported by their mother. The dad is gone and they live in a small one room house with only the clothes on their backs, no beds to sleep in, no money for school supplies, no money for food. This is the story of literally 100s of children and women in small towns everywhere in Peru. They are forced to beg for food, or sing for tourists – as they did for us, as Washi did some 20 years ago – just to survive.

We took 500 pairs of shoes to a mountain village and put them on the children’s feet ourselves. I saw first hand how bad the need is, and for such little money (to us) we can do so much good. For $1 a pair, they simply cannot afford the luxury of new shoes when they’ve outgrown them. The support and sharing I witnessed amount those children was awe inspiring. The older ones cared for their younger siblings and did without if there was none for them. I watched them help each other find a new pair to fit and give their old pair to a younger child that didn’t get any. Much can be learned from these people!

PURCHASE THE BOOK NOW

Traditional publishing is very expensive and you have to make 100′s or 1000′s of copies and deal with sales, distribution, delivery and shipping. So I was not able to go that route at this time, but Blurb.com has provided me a means to make this dream a reality. It comes with a higher price tag, but I can assure you that 100% of the profit I make from all sales of this book will go directly to Washington to help the children.

Think of your book purchase in this way. You get:

• A gorgeous coffee table book full of over 200 of images the scenes and people of Peru, taken by an award winning photographer
• To feel good about helping the very people you see on its pages
• A tool for gratitude to remind yourself daily, how much you have when so many in the world have so little – and yet they are happy
• To make my dream come true, and help Washi with his dream of a better Peru for his people. One at a time!

How can you NOT fall in love with these faces?! I did

You CAN make a difference – please help! Buy one or more copies of the book. Give it as a gift for that hard to buy for friend who also likes helping people. Give it as corporate gifts or rewards for staff or clients. Buy it for anyone you know that’s ever been to Peru and has been touched by it as I have. Buy as many as you can – and then spread the word to others please.

If you cannot get a book, you can also help by passing along this story and link to this page. Put it on your Facebook wall. Twitter about it. Email it to all your friends and colleagues. In order to make this happen we need to reach as many people as possible. I can only do that with your help.

Thanks for listening.

PURCHASE THE BOOK NOW

Visions of Peru

By Darlene Hildebrandt

Book Preview

Enjoy and thanks again.

In your thin scruffiness,
black and white against
sand and stone, I think
of your well-groomed, fattened
relatives guarding luxury
in North America, as you
guard for the hand in the south,
that feeds you, no matter
how sparse, the dry bone.

- Sandra Mooney-Ellerbeck

Old Woman

old woman
on your face lies a gift of fields
stories unfold in the pleated furrows and long tales spill
across the white fence of your smile
phrases slip easy through narrow gaps
where pickets have fallen away
and I lean into the clear space of your calm contentment

I roam free in the gift of your eyes
ponder dimensions of the dusk you now inhabit
while the ripened sun spins out of your path

I am drawn by the gifts you carry in your hands
parrafin tapers antiqued and bent
and the bronzed shelf of your arm
warm against my back

Primed for your last hour
you are comfortable
in the history of your bones

- Barbara Mitchell

you are the definition of endurance
standing firm against the backdrop of your native country
and I am the same
wedged between the busy streets and avenues of my own

we are no different really, you and I
your eyes a watercolor of secrets
tracking survival from the dusty grounds
pulling in a wish, inventing a dream that might save you
while my own secrets flock to my eyes
from the weathered places I track daily
a lost mother, a broken union between man and woman
things too painful from the past pushing in

we both stand in our dry surroundings
contemplating life through the history of our fortunes
yet we are not broken by the paths we are forced to take
we breathe scraps of hope into our skin
and the flush of them covers us
makes us into something strong
turns us into a signpost of resilience.

- barbara mitchell

Still Life

From your rock-hill
view, are you looking
into desolation,
or dreams?

Do you see blurred nothingness
in green spurts rising
from continuous sand?
Or is your vision inward,
colored like your rainbow-poncho?

Do you breathe more than arid-air?
Do you thirst for: the cities, the jungle,
the rainforest, the Andes?
Can you see up to Machu Picchu?

Are you in thoughts of Quechua—
meditating about Intihuatana
(the place to which the sun is tied)—
the great sundial?

Are you silently worshipping
the Sun-God?

Or are you just being
hungry in what you know,
posed in a moment
of your routine
without dreams?

- Sandra Mooney-Ellerbeck