Category: Photography Blog

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Arriving Into Tuscaloosa

It has been a great first day of volunteering.  We were at the warehouse where the Salvation Army is taking in all of the donated goods from all over the country, sorting through them and then redistributing them. I even had the chance to drive the forklift.  I will have video up in the morning from that impactful day. 

 Later today, we went to our new friend Russell’s project in Hurricane Creek.  One of the places of destruction was this area called Hurricane Creek.  Is is this beautiful natural habitat outside of Tuscaloosa and has been almost completely wiped out of it’s tree population.  I have pictures and will share more about that tomorrow also.  As for now, I will leave you with these pictures from when we first arrived into town yesterday.  There is still so much work to do.  Take a moment to recognize what it is in your life that you’re thankful for. 

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The Farmer’s Market

When is the last time that you have gone to your local farmer’s market to do your shopping?   Do you know the benefits to meeting who is growing your produce, making your cheese, processing your meat? Does it hold any relevance to purchase food that is found locally to help with the economy of your community? These are all definitely great reasons to invest a little time at your farmer’s market.  For me, it is about all these things but it happens to also be a great social activity. 

While I lived in Madison, WI, I had a ritual on Saturday mornings that was similar to many people throughout our country; get up early, get the shopping done, clean the house and then would get into whatever plans that Saturday would have in store.  In the warmer months, my shopping was mostly done at the farmer’s market downtown around the capital square.  I would get there early, meet a friend or two for coffee and a pastry, and then make a loop or two around the market to get the supplies I may need for the week.  I formed relationships with some of the farmer’s and got to not only know their lives, but what was happening on their farms and what I should be watching out for.  It is like having a tip on the stock market, but with produce.

The farmer’s market also gave me the chance to see what local social issues were being taken on.  The farmer’s market is a great opportunity to meet a lot of people in a short amount of time and share with them the passion that is moving your cause.  While I was hanging out today, I checked out The Human Project and Amnesty International. 

These pictures are from the farmer’s market this morning in Madison.  A great place to find your local farmer’s market is at localharvest.org.  You can find a local farmer’s market as well as different kinds of specialty farms.

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Norman Rockwell Project

Last night as I was just catching up on some work things before I went to bed, I started looking at this Norman Rockwell book that my Grandma has in her apartment.   If you’re unfamiliar with Norman Rockwell and his works, you most likely have still seen at least

This was from the Four Freedoms series to promote the buying of war bonds during WWII

one piece of his.  He was an American painter and illustrator who was prolific for his “slice of life” realism that his pieces portrayed.  Each of his works tells a historical story about what was going on in that moment of our American History.  He began to really be recognized in the Great Depression and went right through both World Wars, The Civil Rights movement, into the Vietnam War.  We lost Norman Rockwell in 1978 and were left with the gifts of his moments in time otherwise known as his life’s work.

Norman Rockwells' painting about Ruby Bridges being court ordered to go to first grade at an all white school

Today, we have the benefit of photography that can be produced quickly with very limited resources but yet, we still get pictures that explain what is happening in our society and how we are moving forward as a society.  I have a request to people following Project Kinect.  Could you look through your pictures and if any really pop out and share what is happening in our country, past or present, could you email them to me at Gregg@projectkinect.com.  I would like to use them in a photo essay here on the project as well as the online magazine, DiGn2it.  Give me a little description of what was happening and what you were thinking.  This would mean so much to me, thank you.

Here are a few of mine that I would possibly share with you in a project like this.

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We Have Hit Three Months

It wasn’t until I heard my friend tell me a story about her visit to China while she was in the graduate school on a cruise ship that I really began to digest what I have been doing for the last three months.  If you haven’t been following me and Project Kinect, here is a rundown of the first three months.  Writing this down also helps me comprehend what I have done and where this year is going.

I started out the end of February in Las Vegas. There I met with the Human Feng Shui Project, witnessed my god daughter’s baptism and got a good look at the economy of Vegas and what they are doing to try and grasp the magnitude of their situation.

From there I was in Texas.  I spent a good amount of time in Austin with my friend Jess.  There I helped with the Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations (APASO) conference, witnessed the South by Southwest Interactive portion.  I also got see some extremely innovative theatre and learn about the ATX equation.  Austin led me to San Antonio, a thriving city, and then to Beaumont, which is a barely hanging on city. 

 With the assistance of my friends Alyssa, Levi and Megan, we journeyed to Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Mobile and onto Saint Petersburg. Outside of Mobile, AL we checked out Dauphin Island and how it has coped with hurricanes, the BP oil spill and the constant erosion that is inevitable for an island in that location of the gulf.

  In the Tampa/Saint Petersburg area, I learned about what is being done to fight against the high rate of pedestrian accidents.  I spent a night in the Gram Place Hostel and met Jo and Valoree who are contributing to their communities in great ways.  After the hostel I met Stacy, a friend of a friend and we got to talking about technology in schools and what that looks like as an educator. 

Stacy brought me to the train station and I went to New York with a fifty degree change in weather and an incredibly empty pocket book.  In New York I met with the Central Park Conservancy, The True Colors House and a whole bunch of different people adding their gifts into their communities.  New York was amazing because I had a chance to see what ten years of healing looks like after the travesty of September Eleventh.  New York came and went so fast that I feel like I hadn’t accomplished any connecting but then look at my picture from the today show and remember what great strides were made.

From New York I went to Connecticut, more specifically Mansfield, CT and hung out on the University of Connecticut (UCONN) campus for a few days.  I chatted with some graduate students about how their lives had changed at UCONN and sat through the technical rehearsal of Urinetown which is a musical that has so much relevance to our society right now. 

I then was in D.C., had a great sit down at the EPA, realized how amazing it is that majority of the Smithsonian Museums are free, and just took in our nation’s capital in a way that I had never done before. Washington D.C. was pivotal for me though when I realized I had connected an idea from one community, Yoga for youth, to another community.  That was when I realized what I was doing was actually getting people to think about what is happening in their communities and what they can learn from other communities that don’t cross their train of thought.

D.C. brought me to Baltimore.  In Baltimore I learned about what a city with such a bad representation with crime does to change the opinion of an entire nation.  Baltimore’s most significant addition that I saw was The Circulator that is a free bus.  It has three routes that venture through much of the city and prides itself on ten minute services until nine in the evening.  When I return, I will look further into the managing of this by the local government and how that bus system got budgeted in.
I then arrived into Milwaukee where it was raining, snowing, hailing with thunder and lighting and I was whipped around like a leaf from a leaf blower.  My friend Melanie picked me up and got me safe to Rockford where I gathered for her birthday, painted a wall and spent some time with Dana from the Weed & Seed Kishwaukee Corridor. 

Dolly came and got me from Rockford where I went home for a week, spent some time in Madison getting some follow up news on the Governor Walker Protests in February and March.  I had a quick look at Porchlight and the AIDS Network while I was there but I really wanted to spend some time with family before I was off to Los Angeles. 

In Los Angeles, other work had to take priority but I still got a chance to talk with the film maker Katherine Brooks and her summer project Face 2 Face where she is going to spend the summer meeting fifty of her facebook friends and filming it.  How amazing is that?

From LA, I flew into Minneapolis/St. Paul and went to an organizational meeting for the creation of a new nonprofit that will be dedicated to the goal of connecting LGBT youth so they have an even larger support system which will ultimately help to lower the rate of teen suicide.  To be on the ground level of such a purposeful endeavor was truly a gift.

I then went to hide out at my father’s house in Eau Claire, WI.  I spent some time up at our cabin, and then attempted to get caught up on editing and developing the next three months.   I had a chance to inquire into my Circle K club from college and to find out that this once small service club that I was once the president of is currently the second largest club of the entire international organization.  That is a ton of service hours helping to benefit the world that we all live in from an enormous group of selfless young people. 

I then made my way back to St. Paul and the Minnesota Aids Walk with my friend Danny’s kids from St. Paul’s area Gay/Straight Alliance clubs.  The following day was a huge rally at the capitol building where I interviewed people who were fighting for the right for gay and lesbian couples to marry.  The week gave me a chance to see four different people from extremely influential moments in my life.  It was a great week of reflection and then two fantastic female Lutheran Pastors drove me back to Wisconsin Dells where I am now preparing for a month helping out the schools that were destructed in and around Tuscaloosa, AL.

As I proofread this, it reads as if someone else has done this.  I sit and digest that this is my journey and I think how it is missing so many great details.  If you are reading this and this is your first introduction to Project Kinect, then please read what you’ve missed.  Something may inspire you to look at the communities in your life and involve yourself in a new way. 

If you are a faithful follower of what I have been doing, then please continue to follow and PLEASE share this with your friends.  My project doesn’t work if it isn’t shared.  I need people to continue emailing me, commenting and adding what they feel when reading and watching what is happening.  It is a group effort and in this group, everyone counts.

Well, next is Tuscaloosa.  I’m going to go get dirty with my friend Alyssa for a month and really try to help a group of people who lost everything.  I’m teaming up with The Forsaken Generation but still need your help.  Larger sponsors haven’t joined on yet so I’m still depending on the last of my savings and donations for living.  If you have been wanting to donate and haven’t yet, now is the time:  Now that my fourth month is starting, there is really no turning back…

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Mothers Day

The most difficult job in the world is raising a child, especially for the mother.  From the moment of conception, it is a task that continuously causes emotional and physical pain. For some reason though, a mother continues to be there for her children.  She grooms them, teaches them, scolds them and molds them even on days where they do not make a very good human being at all.  This is the most significant selfless love that there is.

I personally have had so many mothers in my life.  Growing up in Lyndon Station, with only a handful of children in our small town of four hundred, mothering was a group effort so in addition to my mother and grandmother, I had Deb, Connie and of course Kim raising me.  I still have moments when I’ll say something and wonder where that came from and then I’ll realize oh, that is what Kim used to tell us before we left the house.

As for my biological mother, I don’t know how she handles me.    My mother made it possible for me to dream as big as I do and not set any boundaries on myself.  Her selflessness amazes me every time I speak to her on the phone and it comes time to end the call, or am at home about to leave again, I know it can’t get any easier every time she sees me leave because I know it doesn’t get any easier on me.  She pushes through though, tells me she loves me and reminds me that she supports whatever I happen to be doing. 

In my mid twenties I got an addition to my repertoire of mothers.  Patti, my father’s wife, is able to mother me while she adds her own positive objective point of view.  She looks at my life as a parent, but also sees the bigger picture and brings a practicality to it that helps me all the time. Not only was she a phenomenal addition to my father’s life, but she has been right there while I have made some extremely difficult situations in the last few years.

Today, as I celebrate with the mothers that raised me, I also look back at all the mothers that I have met while I’ve been travelling for Project Kinect.  Some are mothers that I knew and are friends of mine, and some were brand new people that I met on the road.  It takes all kinds of women to be a mother and that can definitely be seen every day as we move forward as a society.  Today, I give all the love in my heart to all the mothers out there.  It really is you who we thank for everything we have in life.

Last year I wrote an essay to my mother and grandmother.  If interested in it, you can find it here.

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A Walk In the Park

 After two days of rain in New York, the sun came out and the temperature rose enough to take a stroll through Central Park.  My sister and I went wandering around for a while and were able to really absorb the necessity of the park in Manhattan.  Even though the concrete jungle takes it’s toll on certain aspects of a local’s life, it still offers great places for rest, conversation, entertainment, forums and everything else that parks are needed for.  A community is definitely defined by what is offered from it’s parks.

On that particular day in Central Park, we were able to see a couple organizations raising awareness for Central Park Conservancy as well as Hand in Hand Project for Japan.   The best part though was just to see people out with one another, connecting face to face, having that human contact that we need in which technology has no relevance.  The next time you’re on a walk with a friend or sitting down with coffee to enjoy another person’s company, I challenge you to not pull out your phone. We are so dependant that it is a reflex to check it in any free moment.   Try not to and use that energy to just look around, listen, and take in your company.

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Free D.C.

I know it seems that people would want to just naturally go to our nation’s capitol, but there are incentives to making the long haul with a bus load of teenagers to Washington D.C.  The main ones would be the monuments as well as the Smithsonian museums.  Do you realize that most of the older museums, at least the ones around the mall, are all free?  I didn’t.  I walked up to the United States History Museum attempting to budget what I could to try and get out of the rain.  As I approached the door with fear because of my extremely slim budget, I walked up, showed the inside of my bag and then all of a sudden was inside.  I didn’t have to pay.  I was so confused and guilty that I asked if there was something I missed and nope, there wasn’t.  These pictures are from the Mall and D.C.  If you get a chance, it is well worth it, if not just for the beauty. 

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Stopping Pedestrian Accidents

Saint Petersburg, how very beautiful it is, happens to be struggling with some of the hardest obstacles in the country. It has the highest murder rate in the country, the largest number of pedestrian hit by vehicle incidents and like many other places in the country, the housing market has completely bottomed out. There are things that are being done though in order to raise the safety levels for the residence.
One program, Bicycle/Pedestrians Advocates (BPA) is fighting to get more bike lanes in as well as creating pedestrian trails throughout Sarasota. Much of that they have been doing is focused around Sarasota and Manatee, but can easily be used and help the Saint Petersburg/Tampa Area.
In Tampa, the community of Largo is adding enforcement to help to bring down the number of pedestrian fatalities. They have given plenty of warnings and a large amount of tickets to traffic violators and have seen a decline in the number of pedestrian. Unfortunately, the problem still will still take due diligence in the community and just time for the locals to really get conscious of the problem.
Despite the level of severity that these problems are at, people continue to come here to live and vacation and these pictures show why. These problems, with the effort of all the communities involved, are on their way to becoming less of an issue but until then, we just need to continue to raise awareness. Hopefully other communities that are having similar issues can look at Saint Petersburg and Tampa for leadership and ideas at what to do to help them solve the problem before large numbers of people start losing their lives. Communities working together to better each other: That is Project Kinect.

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Dauphin Island and Southern Alabama

Dauphin Island was a three hour unexpected surprise. When we got onto the island, we really had no idea what it was that we were looking for.  We drove around, looked for any signage but didn’t see anything that was significant to Project Kinect.  Then, once we were in line for the fairy, we found something of interest.  The ferry pick up spot was also the location for the Saw Grass Point Marsh Shoreline and Habitat Restoration.  Not only are they attempting to make precautions to save the shoreline, but they are also setting up cement barriers to slow down waves as well as help prevent and destruction from possible oil spills in the future.

These pictures are of the Shoreline and Habitat Restoration as well as Dauphin Island and the surrounding area.  As you see, all the houses are on stilts in attempts to battle any future hurricanes.  While we were driving through the area, we couldn’t help to notice how many homes were up for sale.  In the last several years, this area has been hit by many hard storms as well as suffering from last year’s oil spill.  With that and the economy, it makes for a bad equation.  The residents that have been around for many years though are diehards and have no plans of moving anytime soon.

**All three links are different and have additional information to what is happening in this area.  Please check them all out if you’re interested.

To get off of the island and get back on track of our journey toward Saint Petersburg, we took the Dauphin Ferry across to the eastern shoreline of Alabama.  It really looks like an untouched part of the country that I’m afraid, because of the low cost of real-estate, will soon be developed and the natural beauty will be history.  The final pictures are of this shoreline.  I absolutely fell in love with this part of the country.  I look forward to getting back there at some point soon after my journey.

 

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Shopping Cart Heaven

As we were on our trip from New Orleans to Saint Petersburg, we thought that we would take a detour to Mobile, AL to get a look at how the recovery of the BP oil spill was really coming along.  We could all see the propaganda of “Thank You BP” but we wanted to get a better look of what clean-up has happened and what still may have to be taken care of. 

Well, everyone was taking a nap and since I was driving without a navigator, I thought that I would make some executive decisions before waking them.  I decided that I was going to go to Dauphin Island because I figured, it being off the coast of Mobile, it must have taken some hard hits from not only the oil spill, but also Katrina and the other Hurricanes that have hit the gulf over the last seven years.

On our way out to Dauphin Island, we had to cross St. Charles Island and what we claimed to be the place where shopping carts came to die.  With hundreds of shopping carts stacked and lined up on this island so far from any obvious place for a shopping cart, we thought we should stop and check it out.

What this place turned out to be was a place for fisherman to fish without having to fight for a place on a pier or bank somewhere.  There was plenty of room on the shore and if they cared to, they could pay a small fee and go out onto one of the three piers and fish. It was a small business that an ex-fisherman started to give more people the opportunity to fish.  The shopping carts come into play by being karts for the men and women fishing to get all of their gear from their car to the place the fishing is happening.  It turns out that this man running the business found a great way to recycle these carts that would otherwise be found in a landfill somewhere.

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