Archive for Photography

I Was Born in the Wrong Time

{ June 1, 2012 @ 7:32 pm } · { Life, Photography, Rant }
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Renaissance Festivals are always interesting events to go to.  They bring an odd assortment of individuals.  You have the fantasy characters that show up in armor, with fairy wings, tails and an odd assortment of weapons.  Then you have the pirates that show up.  You get the people in full suits of armor, decked out with battle axes, swords and maces.  You find those that dress up as royalty, pheasants, men at arms and court jesters. 

 Hundreds of individuals search through vendors tent’s as they sell replica ad battle ready weapons, artwork and clothing of the era.  There is good food, interesting shows, entertainment and, as always, good times for all. 

 One of the largest crowd gathering specials is the armed combat.  Entertainers wield blades as they circle one another and put on a show.  Knights in shining armor ride against one another in the joust.  Swords flash and lances shatter, even though no blood is spilt on the grounds.

 While it is all fun and games, one of my favorite parts of the Ren. Fest. is the musicians.  Between guitars and violins, singing and dancing, the sound of music echos throughout the shaded paths that intertwined throughout the faire grounds. 

 It makes me believe that I may have been born in the wrong century.  Though I did not dress up for the Tennessee Renaissance last weekend, I enjoyed every moment of it. 

 God Bless and PEACE

The Finger of God

{ May 22, 2012 @ 9:11 pm } · { Life, Photography, Rant }
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Today marks the one year anniversary of the EF-5 Tornado that ripped through Joplin, MO.  It was on this day that thousands of lives changed forever.  The stories of survivors still stir our hearts as they speak of loved ones that passed from this world that night.  Scars can still be seen across the landscape, even though the wreckage no longer litters the ground.

For hundreds of AmeriCorps members, this was the moment in their term of service everything changed.  Members of the St. Louis Emergency Response Team (ERT) and the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) responded that night.  Others received the call the following day and in the days and weeks to come, hundreds poured in. 

I remember that day like it was yesterday.  While responding to the Good Friday tornadoes in St. Louis, a small group of us decided to take our first real break from disaster response by going to Six Flags.  It was a beautiful day, where we spent time reflecting over the year, enjoying the day off of work and coming closer as team members and friends. 

Throughout the day, we were constantly receiving alerts and texts about the weather.  As the day wore on, the clouds began to build up and the winds increased.  Soon, the distant rolls of thunder could be heard as we departed the park. 

Upon our return to our housing, we heard the first whispers of Joplin.  As I checked in with family, I discovered how true it was as my parents informed me of the damage that they were witnessing on national news. 

I went to sleep that night knowing that we may eventually get called to serve in Joplin. 

The next morning, I woke early to help set up breakfast.  Oddly, nobody showed up, so I sat and ate in peaceful bliss.  Upon my arrival upstairs, I was met with a scene of chaos as the 21 other individuals from two teams were frantically packing.  We had recieved the call to respond to Joplin, and nobody had bothered to tell me.

That was the beginning of the deployment that changed all of us.  Joplin challenged us.  Brought out the best in us.  Changed us.  We were no longer Corps Members, but part of something that was bigger than all of us combined. 

We became leaders.  Organizers.  Teachers.  Family. 

Yes, Joplin changed us.  It shaped our experience and it molded the lives of each person who lived there, who poured in to volunteer, and who supported one another when it felt like life could no longer go on.  It changed us as individuals.  It changed us as a team.  As a community.  As a nation. 

It’s been a year since the tornado hit the ground.  It seems like it was only yesterday.  Tomarrow, another day will have passed.  But we will still remember.  It has become a part of who we are. 

God Bless and PEACE

[note: For those who missed it, the title of this post if from the movie Twister.  When asked what an EF-5 is like, the table of tornado chasers goes silent.  The response, "It is like the finger of God."]

Looking Back (Good Friday Tornado)

{ April 22, 2012 @ 4:40 pm } · { Photography, Rant }
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A year ago, this day, a series of storms dropped several tornadoes across the city of St. Louis.  Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed.  STL Airport received a direct hit.  Many neighborhoods were reduced to nothing but piles of ruins.  One house was gone, the next almost untouched.  While there were several injuries, it was a miracle that nobody was killed as the line of tornadoes raced from west to east across the city.

That night, members of the St. Louis AmeriCorps Emergency Response Team (ERT) responded.  Over the next couple weeks, hundreds of volunteers and organizations poured out.  Among them, All Hands Volunteers with the help of two AmeriCorps*National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) teams based out of Denver and two teams from the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC).

While we started off doing damage assessment throughout the destruction area, most of the work we did was debris clearing.  Working alongside the ERT, the WCC, and the various other volunteers gave us the experience needed to step up and become leaders.

We learned a lot about chainsaw work (bucking and limbing), teamwork, and the strength of a community that was brought to its knees.  The experience prepared us for bigger challenges that we were going to be facing in the coming month. 

Today, we remember the devastation that ripped through St. Louis a year ago.  We also stand and remember the eleventh month anniversary of the destruction of Joplin. 

Just some thoughts…

God Bless and PEACE

Diving Into the Flames

{ December 11, 2011 @ 8:20 pm } · { Life, Photography, Rant }
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Several months ago, I headed down to Fort Campbell to join the Department of Public Work’s Forestry Division as a Wildfire Suppression Technician.  Basically, I run around the base and the back areas putting out the fires that the army and special forces start. 

While most of the fires on base put themselves out or are in the Impact Areas where we are not allowed to go due to Unexploded Ordinance (UXOs), active ranges and a multitude of other reasons that are too numerous to list, there are several fires that we are called out to fight.  Then, there are those that we light as prescribed burns. 

We have burned hundreds of acres of grasslands, fields and forests.  We ride around on ATVs, 4 wheelers, and pump trucks loaded down with hundreds of gallons of water, lighting stuff on fire and watching it burn. 

This job isn’t just fun and games.  Fire is dangerous.  We take all the precautions that we can, all the way from planning to having somebody up in the Fire Tower, 100 feet above watching the smoke drift up from the landscape.  We enjoy what we do because we know what we are doing and have been trained to react to the dangers that we face. 

God Bless and PEACE

In the Land of Legends

{ August 17, 2011 @ 4:38 pm } · { christianity, Faith, Photography }
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Last Week, I began my journey through Ireland.  At one time called the Island of Monks and Scholars, it is a land overflowing with stories, legends and rich in history.  It is a mystic place filled with ruins, mystery and the unknown. 

Although Ireland’s recent past has been filled with violence and bloodshed, ancient sites across the island have been preserved and remain a reminder of times past. 

Wherever you look, you can see the influence of the Christian Religion and the faith of those that lived within these hollowed grounds. 

Memorials line the roads, honoring men who fell to violence in the Great War (WWI), World War II, fights for freedom and independence, as well as struggles between brothers. 

The land, as a whole, remains as it once was.  At times, one feels like you have been drawn into a dream, the past come to life, as the simpleness of the land remains unbroken by time. 

Legends of giants, warriors and heroes shape the landscape.  It is in this history that we find simple truths long forgotten by the minds of men. 

God Bless and PEACE

When Trouble Rises

{ August 3, 2011 @ 11:52 pm } · { Life, Photography, Rant }
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In the past ten months of service, I’ve experienced the explosive power of tornadoes after responding to both the Good Friday Tornadoes in St. Louis and the Joplin Tornado a month later.  In both instances, wind ripped apart everything in its path, trees pulled from the ground, and tossing cars through the air.  The damage in Joplin was explosive. 

About five weeks ago, the river in Minot, ND overflowed its banks and sent water spilling into the streets, flooding houses, basements and, eventually, a good chunk of the community.  I traveled up to help repair the damage in my sisters basement after five feet of water seeped in. 

Part of me expected the explosive damage that I got used to seeing from disaster response to tornadoes.  Unlike the damage that I’ve seen, the damage caused by flood waters is more long term.  All around us, we saw shells of houses, gutted and ripped apart from the inside.  The waters rot away almost everything taht it touches, cracking foundations and warping wood.  Everything, walls, floors, personal items, must be ripped out and thrown away.

Flood damage is a slow rotting away from the inside, not unlike a cancer.  If it isn’t ripped out, everything will collapse inwards on itself. 

Throughout the past several days, I helped repair the damage done, using some of what I learned as a Corps Member in AmeriCorps NCCC, but mostly continuing to learn as I worked alongside my brother-in-law and father. 

God Bless and PEACE

Little Miracles

{ August 1, 2011 @ 9:59 pm } · { Faith, Life, Photography, Rant }
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There are moments in life that, no matter how rough the road of life seems to be, one is filled with joy for a single moment.  All the stress, the pain, the frustrations seem to disappear and all the thoughts the constantly flow through your head, all the anxieties, the scenarios, they all go blank. 

It seems like a lifetime ago that I received a call telling me that I was going to be an uncle.  I was training alongside the AmeriCorps NCCC Fire Management Team, Fire 2 and the El Paso County Sheriffs Department.  Then several weeks later, twins.  I was rejoined with my team, Sun 7, in Tulsa, Oklahoma preparing for tax preparations.  Then several months later, as we helped to clean up after the Good Friday tornadoes hit the city of St. Louis, I was asked if I would be the God-father of my niece, Zoey. 

Several weeks ago, my sister gave birth to a set of beautiful, yet tiny, twins.  Neither of them were fully developed, and each day after their birth was another battle and another miracle of life. 

Soon after graduating from AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) I mad my way up to Fargo, North Dakota to visit my sister, mother and my niece and nephew.  I didn’t realize how small they were till I held Bryce (my nephew) in my arms. 

As I basked in their presence, everything seemed to fade away.  Yes, I was still concerned about my future, how I was going to get from point A to point B, possible job opportunities, but yet, for those precious moments, none of it mattered. 

To say that these two little ones are miracles would be an understatement.  In their short little lives, they have already had an adventure, though they probably will never remember it (they got evacuated out of Minot, ND about a week or so after they were born due to the flooding).  Each breath is a victory that makes all of us, the family, smile. 

Take a look around you.  There are moments that pass by each and every day that are miracles.  We don’t see them because we are not looking, we are distracted, and we are overwhelmed by our society.  These miracles are the heartbeat of God. 

God Bless and PEACE

 

Choosing Your Shot

{ July 23, 2011 @ 3:47 pm } · { Art, Photography, Rant }
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Throughout my last project with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) I rarely took my camera out onto the work site.  It wasn’t that there were not shots to be taken, nor were there not opportunities to capture some good images.  I felt that it would be inappropriate for me to pull out my camera while leading middle school kids through wilderness camps. 

It’s a conflict of morals, ethics and personal judgement.  Others on my team took some amazing pictures while working camp.  I didn’t due to the fact that it didn’t feel right. 

As an artist and a photographer, I understand the desire to capture that perfect image, but there are times when my personal beliefs outweigh the urge to document everything around me.  There is a code of ethics that many journalists follow that makes me struggle to lift my camera.  I saw it in Joplin where the call to capture the emotions of a scene ment that the photographer in question acted like he had no soul or feeling.  Without being asked or warned, many individuals found a camera lens in their face. 

I struggled with this knowledge day after day in the field, where I often refused to lift my camera, despite the visually striking image of emotions.  Ethically, I feel that those grieving should be given their space, that if a photographer takes specific images, they are loosing a part of their soul.  I am not willing to sacrifice that which makes me who I am as an artist and individual.

Working at the Lake Houston Wilderness Park, I found myself unwilling to lift my camera yet again.  I felt that my taking out my camera and taking photos of camp would lead me away from why I was there; Serving those kids. 

So, lo and behold, I do not have any photos of camp.  In our four weeks on project, I pulled out my camera three times and only used it twice…

One afternoon, before camp started the next day, a number of us got the opportunity to help set up the archery equipment and received a crash course on how to shoot a bow and arrow.  After that, we enjoyed an hour of relaxation and shooting at targets. 

God Bless and PEACE

Images Across Missouri

{ June 8, 2011 @ 7:44 pm } · { Art, Faith, Photography }
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For the past three months, I have been out in Missouri alongside of Sun 6, an AmeriCorps NCCC team based out of the Denver campus.  We started our journey in Williamsburg, MO, working with the Missouri Dept. of Conservation (MDC).  We enjoyed the hard work of controlled burns, trail building, invasive species removal and chasing frogs. 

From there we responded to the Good Friday Tornado in St. Louis, where we worked beside the St. Louis Emergency Response Team (ERT), the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC), Earth 2 (another team out of Denver) and All Hands Volunteers.  We did a lot of manual labor, swamping and dragging limbs and debris to the curb so that the city could pick it up, chain saw work, and learning from experience. 

Less than 24 hours after the EF-5 tornado hit Joplin, MO, we arrived and started helping set up the Volunteer Reception Center (VRC).  We were joined by two more teams out of Denver (Water 4 and 7, i believe), members of the Conservation Corp of Iowa and Minnesota, Environmental Corps out of Texas, and several other smaller AmeriCorps programs (Read and Learn, Habitat for Humanity, Teach and Serve, to name a few).  We were doing a lot of the volunteer management, running the operations, and behind the scenes work in the VRC. 

Below are a series of photographs that capture the whole experience of the past three months (including the 36 days on disaster):

 All of our boots, covered in dirt, ash and… well… you don’t want to know.  All the Corps Members (in NCCC) are issued steel toed boots in the beginning of the year, now they are torn up and weathered. 

 This was the highlight of my time in Williamsburg:  the night burn at Marshal I. Diggs Conservation Area.

 A hard hat and sweater left on the ground in St. Louis.  It just caught my  eye and defines (for me) what we did there.

 A portrait of one of the St. Louis ERT members, hard at work in the VRC in Joplin.  Most of the work that I did in Joplin was in the VRC, entering data.  This is an example of the behind the scenes work that never gets recognized. 

 One of the WCC guys as a squad leader out in the field.  Many of us did not have experience leading 100+ volunteers on our own each day, but the dedication of the AmeriCorps members out in the field made me proud. 

 Another portrait, this time one of the Directors of AmeriCorps St. Louis.  This was probably the only time he wasn’t directing all the organization of AmeriCorps, but out in the field listening to the stories of victims and survivors. 

 I finish off with this self-portrait, knowing that who I am now is just a shadow of who I once was.  These experiences have changed me and I am still processing everything that I have experienced in Williamsburg, St. Louis and Joplin. 

God Bless and PEACE

The Debris of Life

{ June 1, 2011 @ 10:16 am } · { christianity, Faith, Life, Photography }
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All throughout Joplin, MO one can see the damage and destruction caused by the tornado of 22 May.  One can see the structures that are missing walls, roofs or both.   Foundations standing alone beneath piles of debris.  For miles and miles, the damage stretches on and on. 

Throughout this chaos, a new form of graffiti has emerged.  Hundreds of structures marked by rescue workers and families.  Notes of hope and gratitude, warning and loss.  Signs that read “All OK” or “All Safe” or “We’re still here” over top of X’s that mark the progress of the Search and Rescue crews. 

As I have been venturing out into the path of the tornado, I have been attempting to document some of the spray paint and graffiti.  Below are some of those images:

Joplin High School (renamed Hope High School with Duct Tape by volunteers) received a direct blow from the tornado.  Located in the middle of the path of destruction, the structure still stands, but the damage has been severe.  Many walls are missing, parts of the roof collapsed in, windows blown out, but at the same time, books and pictures still line the walls and bookshelves in the exposed classrooms, one even has origami figures still hanging from the ceiling. 

This location is one of the many staging grounds for supplies, volunteers and the Search and Rescue teams.  (note:  All volunteers need to register at MSSU.  Please do not just show up at a staging ground, expecting to head out.)

This little bit of graffiti was one of many we saw in some of the hardest hit residential areas.  One house had a sign reading “House / Basement for Sale” except that the word “House” was crossed out.  It’s good to see a little bit of humor throughout this path of destruction. 

Above is an example of the evidence of the Search and Rescue teams.  The X’s can be seen throughout the damage, marking almost every structure and vehicle that received damage.  Each is accompanied by a series of numbers and letters, revealing who searched and what was found.  Several buildings and structures have several of these X’s, the result of the thorough checking and re checking of the Search and Rescue teams. 

In the area at the top of the X, the name of the group is put.  Many of these are Fire Departments (FD) or Sheriffs Offices (SO).  To the left is the date.  To the right is what was found.  A blank or 0 marks that the structure / vehicle is clear.  Below is other important information that is either a hazard or should be known before entering the house.  Examples include “Gas line broken” and “Flooded”. 

Not all the graffiti is positive.  Some are warnings.  Yesterday, we saw a little girl sitting outside her home holding what looked like a BB gun.  The sign next to her said “Looters will be shot.”

All across the city, you can see this message written on walls and signs.  It was something that started in response to the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC)’s claim that the tornado was the wrath of God because of the sins of the people.  While the WBC claim that God hates Joplin, residents, Christians and volunteers everywhere are proof that God’s love is present here in this city. 

I finish with this piece that stood out to me.  It is a message that resounds across the city and across out lives.  God does have a plan.  We may not understand what it is, nor why things happen the way they do, but they happen for a reason. 

So, I’ll leave this with you.  Think about it.  Process it.  And begin to understand that God will always be in control. 

God Bless and PEACE

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