Awesome Travel Sites
Planning trips with my girlfriend Courtney is always an exciting experience. She typically with spend an absorbent amount of time scouring the end of the internet hunting for various deals, adventures, and travel tips. As a result, I usually end up learning quite a bit about the process and I thought I might share some of her more interesting finds with you.
1. AirBNB 
AirBNB is an incredible website that allows you to find vacation rentals, private apartments, room sharing opportunities, and more for any kind of traveler. You can find anything from expensive mansions to small bedrooms. They allow you to book the place through their website for a safe financial transaction, while only taking a fairly small fee. They also allow people who have places to offer to post photos and information. We just booked a super cool looking apartment in San Francisco complete with parking.
2. Trippy
Trippy is a great site to collect, share, and plan ideas for upcoming trips. You can add itineraries and mark locations that you want to check out. You are also able to share those places, locations, and pins with fellow travelers. It also helps showcase some of the more popular and interesting spots. Courtney used this to mark about 50 different spots during our two days in San Francisco.
I’m sure that I will have more in the future. These two have been huge in our planning process.
What a Cup of Coffee [or giving one up] Can Do.
A year ago, after having returned from Thailand and visiting the SOLD Project’s Resource Center on the outskirts of Chang Rai, I came home changed. I witnessed the impact of non-profit work first hand. I came home with a sense of hope in an organization’s strategy that inspired me to join with a group of others in providing a continuous monthly support for the group.
There is an old saying (a Chinese Proverb, from what I have found), that I’m sure everyone has heard, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
This philosophy is exemplified in the workings of the SOLD Project. The kids who benefit from the group are taught life long skills, given attention, and are provided with a necessary support for their futures. Education in Thailand is not free like it is within the public education system that we have here, in the United States. There are significant costs involved in sending one’s child to school, and this causes a burden on the families of students.
The SOLD Project focuses on these children with this philosophy about teaching one to fish, in the back of their minds. The Resource Center, just as its name suggests, provides resources to the community, specifically the children. Here, the children are taught things like computer skills and English, along with receiving help from tutors, mentors, and other special programs. These are the gifts and support that last a lifetime. These are the resources used to effect these children forever.
The SOLD Project wisely uses the funds to make a difference both at the moment and also in the future.
The cost of support for their mission is little, but the benefits and good that it will do are endless. I think of it this way, $4 per week means sacrificing one cup of coffee or a cheap meal per week. I think to myself, “today, I will go back home and make some of my own delicious coffee or cook a cheaper meal, or skip the beer or wine with dinner, and instead set aside that money to make a lasting difference in lives of children in Thailand.” Their “Stand 4 Freedom” sponsorships go directly to the overhead costs of running SOLD’s prevention programs.
SOLD’s staff in Thailand includes a wonderful group of Thai people who educate, mentor, and support the children. SOLD leaves these important day to day operations in the hands of a very trustworthy and tightly knit team.
At the end of the day, that single cup of coffee per week doesn’t taste nearly as good as knowing what the money is doing for these beautiful, talented, loving, and at-risk children.
I think you might want to give it shot too…
If you have any questions, please ask, I’ve seen the place in person, asked tons of questions about their organization while I was there, and have thoroughly thought about it all myself. Also, if you really miss that cup of coffee per week, stop by my house, I’ll brew you some delicious vanilla nut, some tea, or make you a caramel latte. 
Here is where you can sign up. Check out the variety of options to make a difference from home.
Giving what you can is perfect. I’m overjoyed to have been exposed to such a group. I work happily knowing that a portion of my income is going to change the lives of others.
If you want to learn more, check out some of my previous posts to see what I saw.
Kids with Cameras -Part 1-
Kids with Cameras -Part 2-
Kids with Cameras -Part 3-
Tour of the Village
Also, if you have minute, you can help vote for SOLD to receive a little bit of funding through a vote for them at this website.
Thanks.
Sandpiper Golf Course
This is an old photo that I found while digging through my archives for past journalism related work.
Jalama Beach
Jalama Camping
Some friends and I went for a quick camping trip up to Jalama Beach yesterday. I got some iPhone shots here, more photos from my big camera to come.
Playback Recording Studio
I went to photograph Erin Smith recording tracks for her future album.
She is an incredible musician and one of my best friends.
Hearing and watching her working with other professionals at Playback Recording Studio and accompanied by awesome drums, bass, and guitar, made me even more shocked that someone I know could write and perform such beautiful music. I will be posting some shots of her in the studio tonight. This is a little Instagram shot from the day.
Windy Day
There was some heavy wind around Santa Barbara today, and snow in the mountains as well!
Alex + Melisa [preview]
This Sunday, I had the honor of photographing Alex and Melisa in order to announce their recent engagement.
So, CONGRATULATIONS to the two of them!
I met Alex back when I was in high school and he was a teacher. I don’t remember if he was ever my teacher, but I knew him through him being a basketball coach (and clearly, I didn’t play basketball…I just photographed basketball). I photographed his team a couple of times and then got to know him better when we went to Europe after graduating. Since then, we’ve stayed in contact and seen each other at various events. I was introduced to Melisa at a birthday party that the three of us were at and immediately had a great time chatting about wedding photography (this was pre-engagement for them…but you could tell that it would happen any day). Anyhow, they are both wonderful, fun, and energetic people who have a clear love for one another. Melisa’s eyes smiled for her whenever she would look at Alex. It was great to see how good of friends the two of them are and let that translate into the images. They were playful and loving the entire time and made it easy to capture emotional images. Hopefully, my pictures will convey some of the wonderful energy between the two of them.
I don’t do a whole lot of engagement or wedding photos, so this was a lot of fun for me. This is a little preview, I will have more images coming in the future as I complete more papers for school. Editing, organizing, and posting is almost cathartic for me…so this was an enjoyable procrastination technique.
Enjoy.
some home cooked dinner
My sister and I made some delicious pasta for dinner tonight. I’m not much of a complex cook, but hey, we made something and it tasted better than usual.
The dinner was whole wheat pasta, spinach, baked chicken all tossed with with an olive oil and garlic seasoning (I guess that is okay to call it a seasoning).
Back from Vegas
I went to Las Vegas for my second time, but first time since being over 21. We went to celebrate the birthday of one of my longest friends, Devlin, who just recently returned from his first tour in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger (yes, a genuine bad ass). He turned 21 back in May, but was in training at the time, so instead, we decided to go to Vegas during his leave this week.
We had a great time, along with my parents and his. I’m not really a gambler at all, but it was fun to see all of the casinos and check out the general craziness of Vegas itself.
I can say it was fun to have been at the real Eiffel Tower and the one at the Hotel Paris within two weeks…
I brought my camera along for a tiny bit and took only a couple of shots, but here they are anyway.
