So, the trip is coming to a close. Flying to NYC on Tuesday to do a job before flying back out here to Alaska to get set up in Fairbanks for what's going to be something of a long winter.

I'm as excited as you are to see the film from the trip. Money got tight, scanner got broke and time got short. I'll be getting the film done and scanned in while in New York, so it should be a few weeks before I can get the editing down and retouch the prints for the rewards, but they'll be out by the end of the year!

Thanks again for the support and we'll see what happens in the next coming months!

Still making progress on the trip. I hope you've been enjoying the postcards -- those of you who get to receive them -- sorry they notes aren't that inspiring, haha, writing around 50 postcards at a time. For the rest of you, I hope you're following the blog and my progress over there, I wish there was a way to get you more pictures instead of just ones from my BlackBerry, but that's all I can do at the moment. Gas money and food is more important than picking up a new scanner, besides, if I had another scanner, I'd probably spend all my time indoors scanning instead of outdoors living my life, so that wouldn't be too fun for me.

Out on the road full time now for three months. Homeless and exploring. A rubbertramp to quote a book I've read once and been asked if I've read about 4 million times in the last 4 months.

Posts to the blog are coming, I'm keeping notes but it's hard to write essay's while driving!

Expect postcards very soon!

I am still kind of in disbelief that this project is actually so close to being fully funded, and by mostly people I've never met. It's so energizing to have so many strangers offering their support of my wild ideas and crazy endeavors. Now I, pretty much, am indebted to you and have a huge responsibility to rage my way across the continent and produce some epic quality goods. I think having you guys behind me and supporting me in every way you have (honestly, no amount of donation is too small) is going to be a real good source of motivation on days where the novelty of driving into the sun and camping and showering in truckstops and eating ham sandwiches has worn off.

A friend I met while in Philadelphia recently emailed me the other day and was sad that he missed his window on the $25 spot and instead offered some gear. He works at a place called Backcountry Edge and generously donated the footprint for my tent that I've been hunting down for the last few months! They're a small company out of Pennsylvania so if you're into buying gear from real people, maybe check them out?

Very close to having the project successfully fund before the time limit and that means that I might go over my goal! Keep passing the word around and letting people know!

Wow thanks to everyone who donated the money and asked for the postcards! I had to limit the number of postcard rewards because I don't want to spend all my time writing out a bunch of postcards all the time. 25 postcards times one every week or few weeks comes out to be like 300 or so postcards! I wanted to make sure I was doing what I'm supposed to instead of something else. That's what this whole thing is about really.

Also! All the new backers! Thanks so much for the donations! We're almost there! Keep spreading the word, every little thing helps, really. $2 doesn't seem like much but in the end it could mean the difference between me making the funding or not.

Hey wow! Only need around $1200 more till this thing is fully funded and I'm out on the road making things happen!

Keep spreading the word! I really appreciate all of it!

Did I mention that the postcards offered at $25 are one of a kind? They aren't going to be "Greetings from St. Louis!", they're going to be printed one by one in my car, straight from my g10, hand written and mailed to you. Everyone will get a different one; there won't be any two alike! You get a 1/1 hand written, signed and delivered personally to you piece of art from me. MULTIPLE TIMES. $25! It's a win/win! I could send you ten of these! I could send 20! You could get one every week!

Hey everyone! It's been a crazy month over here, but I have finally got my show up at dunderdon in downtown manhattan and so now that all that stress and depression and everything that comes with displaying things so close to your heart that you're driving across the country to immerse yourself in them away from everything else (like tv, internet, phones, friends, family) for two months, you can imagine the weight that's lifted off my shoulders. I was waking up everyday with huge prints framed next to my bed and would just lie there watching the waves crash onto the beach stuck with trees next to a mountain; fjords are just absolutely gorgeous.

Went out to the Botanic Gardens in Brooklyn the other day and shot a few portraits and some flowers to pony up some skills for the road. Some good stuff came out of it and I'm excited about getting into places and subjects that are out of my comfort zone to see what kind of a spin I can put on them.

Thanks for the continued support and, seriously, keep spreading the word!

So pledging continues and I'm meeting and hopefully making some new friends through kickstarter and couldn't be happier. I thought that I would try and cobble together a little map of my basic waypoints for those of you who aren't tuned in to where exactly some of these highways are! This may be helpful to people who are considering the tricky reward of getting a personal portrait of them while I'm out on the road. Dates are still sort of iffy, because of obligations here in Brooklyn, but once things get closer to the zero hour, I'll know everywhere I'll be plus/minus a few days, and of course if funding is successful and you've pledged to something like the portrait (and all you postcard backers) I'll get your address then and we can get more solid details mapped out.

Keep spreading the word!

So I found out that donating a portion of what you guys as backers have pledged to me is against the community guidelines of kickstarter and how they operate. Nothing against them and I see now and agree with the fact of it. totally still love kickstarter and totally still want to help out people in need, nothing's changed except that i'm not going to use portions of your generous donations to donate to a charity that you may or may not believe in.

So I have to revise that. I want to reiterate that I'm definitely going to use the money to fund my trip and fulfilling your rewards, and I hope that I didn't take away any trust in you guys or the kickstarter environment.

I feel really lucky to have been given an invitation to start a kickstarter for funding my project and want to play nice and within the rules so that I don't hurt their image or their ecosystem because it's a system that I really believe in.

Carry on :-)

I've been thinking a lot about charity lately and have been trying to be cautious in what I buy and where and how I spend my money and how it could possibly benefit people who are in more need than me. I mean, hell, I'm sitting here in a warm Brooklyn apartment with access to basically anything I want at any time and can walk to some world class museums or sit in the park and watch birds fight for crumbs left in the trash by people going about their day. And on the other side of the world, and sometimes right in our own backyards, there are people who go day to day without any of those luxuries, or anything close, for that matter.

On a recent job in Cambodia I was really startled to see things I've seen on countless tv commercials and read about and seen in the news, etc. I had been struggling to understand what there was I could do, if anything, to help. So many times we feel, realistically, that we're too small to help out. Well, thankfully, there are countless charities and companies out there that are trying hard to make all of us bigger.

In my research for quality gear that will last long beyond my trip and also contribute to a better earth, I've found a few companies that are doing things that I truly believe in, I'm finding more and may compile a list in the blog, but for now I want to point out two companies that are easy to start helping out with, if you so choose:

NAU - You can read more on their website, but in short, they create sustainable clothing that performs as well or better than those from companies who don't think about where their materials come from. In addition to to all that, their distribution partner is centrally located in the US to reduce shipping emissions and is staffed by developmentally disabled people who are desperate to feel connected and work hard. If that's not enough, 2% of every order is donated to a charity through their partners for change program. You get to choose between 5 charities, or you can let NAU decide.

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Klean Kanteen - Most of the reason I've been conscious about finding great companies has stemmed from the search for having clean and safe water while on the road. Not knowing where my water will come from during some stints, I've purchased a filter and some water bottles. Some parks in the desert have strict rules about water, not surprisingly, and I want to be able to carry water in in a safe way. Klean Kanteen provides all of that. Plus, they have a special bottle printed with a design that has a great mantra about staying hydrated: "Fill. Drink. Repeat." They also realize that that's not so simple in some places and some people could care less who put the type together and then who printed it on a stainless steel bottle. They just want water, so, Klean Kanteen donates 10% of the purchase of the bottle linked above to water.org.

SO. Big stuff. Lots of things to think about. With a thing that's entirely selfish like a road trip across North America to photograph some beautiful places with financial and moral support from people like you, I've started thinking a little bit about what I can do with things that I am going to need/buy anyway and how my everyday living can benefit someone else in need.