cameras with a conscience

quick link to share on Football

jamesmatthew — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 06:10:25 +0000

This might give you a small idea of why we bring soccer balls with us on trips to give away.

Gary S. Chapman’s “Football: Entrance to the World”

Check it out – it’ll take a minute of your time, but it is inspiring!

james

Haiti a month away

jamesmatthew — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:51:36 +0000

Haiti is less than a month away for us.

To say I am stoked is a big understatement. We are busy trying to arrange insurance for the guys (which has turned out to be quite the issue!), and working on packing lists, getting vaccines, and trying to figure out last minute details. Our trip got moved back a week – and is now Dec. 6-16th. So, in a month, we’ll be on the ground.

We’re stoked to be working on rebuilding the school in Lavaneau with some Nationals. We currently have $5,000 towards the school, which translates into 2.5 classrooms. The goal = 6 classrooms for elementary and middle school. We know we won’t complete the build on this trip, but are hoping to make it 3 classrooms. 3 is a great number, which means we are hoping for another $1,000. We’re shaking trees like none other…

Stay tuned for updates – and if you’re the praying type, please pray for our team!

-james

A late update…

jamesmatthew — Sat, 15 May 2010 01:36:07 +0000

Sorry I haven’t updated in such a long time.

If you’re wanting to track our progress, check out our facebook page – it gets updated more often…

As a quick update – check out here .

The lowdown if you don’t want to click on links is this: November. Haiti.

I’ll be going in with a team of 5 or 6 guys. We’ll be rebuilding a school in Lavaneau, which was damaged beyond repair in the recent earthquake – 2 elementary classrooms, 4 middle school classrooms. $2000 each – total = 12000.

I’ll also be photographing for Project Help Haiti, and Childcare Worldwide.

To say we’re stoked is an understatement, but we’re stoked.

stay tuned…

james

Day Four in TJ

jamesmatthew — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:53:11 +0000

We finished the house!

What a great morning of finishing touches – installing windows, the door, putting the locks in…such a good feeling to put a lock on that door and know that the windows work, and the roof is done and won’t leak…

Thank you so much for reading and supporting.

More posts coming when we get home.

cheers

james

Day 3 from Tecate

jamesmatthew — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:46:07 +0000

Typing from a net location in Tecate, which is about 50 minutes from Terrases where we are working.

It is cold here….very cold. You can see your breath in the hotel room.

It´s day 3 of our trip, and the end of our third day on the house. Tomorrow, we finish.

Lots of work, lots of play…in spite of the cold and the mud, we are working.

More to come.

‘james

TJ 2010 – what’s in the bag?

jamesmatthew — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:32:41 +0000

TJ 2010 is 3 days away…

it’s always a tough one to decide on what gear to take on the Tijuana trip. We’re on the job for a good chunk of the trip, building houses, so you need a portable kit and a bag that will do it all and take extras like water, sweater, sunscreen, and random stuff.

after much deliberation, here’s what i’m packing with me in terms of photog gear:

- the trusty canon 20d – leaving the battery grip at home (i think) to keep bulk down

- canon 17-40 4.0 L – it’s bombproof, and kicks.

- canon 50 mm 1.8 – aka the fantastic plastic

- canon 580 ex speedlight with diffuser

- radio popper jrX reveiver studio, and transmitter for off camera flash

- flash zebra adaptor and cable to link the 580 and radio poppers

- sekonic js10 handheld light meter – it’s the lightest, slickest light meter

- about 15 gigs of memory – i usually shoot jpeg in the field

- extra batteries, chargers, lens pens, lens cloths, filters, ball bungees, etc.

- iphone 3G

packing it all in the lowepro orion aw – it’s a great travel/field bag, as it has a detachable daypack. I was going to take the slingshot 200 aw, but the daypack compartment won’t even fit a book. It’s great in the field, if you have someone else carrying your extras…

ps. i’m excited that fellow photog Alyssa is coming along on this trip as one of our leaders. Will be interesting to see what she shoots.

last minute details…

jamesmatthew — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:49:33 +0000

We’re about a week away from the Tijuana 2010 trip…. Just working on the final details. This is when it can get a little hairy – farming out backpacks, soccer balls, random tools and craft supplies to our team members. Here’s some of what we’re bringing:

50 School Bags for kids – from MEC

50 mini school supply kits – my wife got some screamin’ deals on school supplies, so each bag will have some pencils, pens, erasers, a notebook, and one other small item like colored pencils

20 fairly traded soccer balls

our tools for the house build

craft supplies for kids we meet in the street – there’s nothing like an impromptu craft sess in the street.

We’ll try to keep you posted as to what’s coming down the pipes for the trip – and future trips – there’s some cool stuff in the mix!!

-james

pencils, originally uploaded by James Matthew.

Haiti UPdate

jamesmatthew — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:15:39 +0000

I just got home from speaking at a local church (Bridges Community) about Haiti. They’ve responded by committing an initial 5,000 to go through our partners Childcare Worldwide towards immediate needs (food, water, shelter, basic medical supplies), and they’re looking at working with us on a long term project if we go in to scout it out.
If you’ve read this blog, you’ll probably recognize their name, as they’ve worked with us in the past in Tijuana.

I’m stoked. With the Canadian government’s matching donations, that’s $10,000.
Stay tuned…

Haiti

jamesmatthew — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 03:26:52 +0000

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Haiti. About 15 years ago, I did relief work in what is now the epicenter of the earthquake. Please pray, please give – we recommend giving to agencies like MSF (Doctors Without Borders) who are skilled in disaster relief, and who are already working on the ground ( http://www.msf.ca ).

“Now more than ever, it is time for us to show our solidarity with the most vulnerable people in the Americas, our brothers and sisters in Haiti, whose courage is once again being so harshly tested.” – Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean –

Testing out google mapping…

jamesmatthew — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:20:56 +0000

So, inspired by some of the slick use of tech (ie the way cool folks at charity:water ) I’ve seen out there – here’s a shot at a google map – still trying to get the coordinates from our first house build, which I’ll drop a pin on asap, but here’s one that shows our March 09 housebuild location in the south, and our upcoming Mar 2010 location (the Northerly waypoint) in Tijuana.

Let us know what you think!!

Cheers, and Merry Christmas! May peace be with you! – james

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