Moments in Baja

A round up of a recent trip to Baja, Mexico. We peddled our way down 450 miles of the southern Baja Peninsula, slept under millions of bright stars at night, among cactus galore and ate fresh, delicious food the whole way! And, we didn't get run over by any trucks... just.

The Future is Bright! The Future is Green: 20 ECOVATIONS

A very interesting article on the Guardian Newspaper website - "20 Big Green Ideas"

There are some very cool and exciting ideas listed in Lucy Siegels article and I included a couple of my favourites below:

8. The world community grid

In a nutshell: Your computer does ethical stuff in the background.

The clever bit: The considerable spare capacity of our home computers is used to make lighter work of some of humanity's most important calculations. The idea is simple: while you use a fraction of your machine's capacity to go about mundane stuff, IBM's World Community Grid runs calculations in the background pertaining to molecular mechanics in order to find the next generation of solar cells for Harvard University. Alone, it is estimated, it would take Harvard's department of chemistry and molecular biology computers some 22 years to do the necessary calculations for the Clean Energy Project, but using our spare computer capacity, researchers hope this can be reduced to a matter of two years. Already nearly half a million users have installed the simple software and signed up (worldcommunitygrid.org) to perform calculations that their owners could never understand.

I love this next one, pure innovation, an power back in the hands of us, the public.

10. Carrotmobbing

In a nutshell: Don't boycott – procott instead.

The clever bit: "The problem is that businesses will do anything for money," says 27-year-old US environmentalist Brent Schulkin. "But what if that's also the solution?" In order to find out, Schulkin approached 23 liquor and grocery stores in his San Francisco neighbourhood and asked what percentage of a day's takings each was prepared to invest in energy-efficiency improvements in return for him organising a "mob" of shoppers to visit the store. The rather unprepossessing K&D Market won the bidding with 22%. Using the internet, Schulkin publicised the scheme, then nervously waited to see if any shoppers would turn up. They did. A huge K&D carrotmob spent about $9,000 in two hours, breathing life into the old corporate-social-responsibility adage that corporations with values can translate this into cold, hard cash. Schulkin appears to have hit on a form of activism that could have mass appeal. Ultimately he wants to create carrotmobs so big that they can negotiate with some of the globe's biggest corporations.

You can read the rest of the article here.

WINTER WONDERLAND

A wee jaunt this afternoon in the hills. Amazing!

The Wrath of Poseidon & Chocolate Cherries

I traveled to the coast of Olympic National Park recently on assignment for Wilderness Systems. I have to say I was nervous for this one, of course the area is notoriously moist - "mostly cloudy and overcast with a strong chance of rain" - but we also had storm alerts, 45mph gusting winds and a 12ft swell building...nice. We certainly got our fair share of nasty weather. And just when things couldn't have got much worse one of our team capsized and then turned green with sea-sickness. Despite the set backs and being at the complete mercy of Poseidon's wrath we persevered and for our cheery spirits were blessed with a fabulous last shoot day. During intense ups and downs on shoots like this there is one thing that keeps me and my team sane and happy:

The Chocolate Cherry!

These little things carry a huge punch of instant euphoria. A succulent semi dried cherry smothered in two layers of milk chocolate that seems to send sunbeams swirling around your gob - pure loveliness. A huge thank you to the guys and gals over at Confluence Watersports for making the shoot such a success. These images are all about team work!

Exhibition: Alaska's Red Gold

I'm currently working with the wonderful folks over at Trout Unlimited to put together an exhibition of my images from this summers assignment in Bristol Bay, Alaska. If you are in the Seattle area in November then be sure to drop by the Tashiro Kaplan Center, 312 South Washington Street.

Tell a friend or ten and lets get some more momentum to stop Pebble Mine.

Red Monsters

Ahhhhhhhh! The red monster.

From ocean silver to river red (and green) these little monsters navigate their way along an epic journey to spawn, spread their genes, propagate and then die a very noble death. But not without a fight! Hence this male has elongated his jaws so he can bite his opponents out of the way and tend to his beautiful princess monsters.

Check out those teeth! I was inches away from this beautiful fish and feared for the my little fingers. Luckily I snapped and he shuffled and our confrontation was over as quickly as it began. Bravo and Respect to the infamous sockeye salmon!

Where Paddling Takes Us

This picture is one of a series of images from Katmai National Park, Alaska. Five days of kayaking through pristine wilderness full of salmon, bears, eagles, and LOTS of biting insects! Its a majestic wonderland that reaffirms in me the need to look after our wild places.