“[Martha's] smile is so infectious and she seems to make for a great subject… she just brings this lightness and overall fun to the photos.”

“Thank you so much for sharing these with me!! All of them were great…you could really feel the friendship and the happiness. ”

It’s easy when you have subjects like this, and it’s hard not to love photography when every aspect, from shooting, modeling, candids, editing to sharing, brings joy. I just hope my family and friends that I share my photography with get as much joy and happiness as I do.

As a final note, congratulations to my sister and her friends on a great 4 years of high school, which includes being my main subjects for 1000′s of photos.

it’s that moment. the moment right before you press that anxious but always steady index finger so gently down to hear that click and pursuing flash of a shutter speed. where it seems like that little moment in life will be captured for eternity. not just on film, but in your mind and in your heart. it’s that moment where you stop breathing and a million memories flow through your mind of what you want life to be and all those flashes of thought come down to a single moment in time. you hold your breathe as if you think this will be the moment you will always remember. the moment that will be burned into your brain as the lasting image of life. the moment that will change your life forever. the moment that shows your first love’s true smile as if it were the single greatest memory in life. or that moment where a soul is lost. or that moment that shows happiness truly has overcome fear. or the moment where no words can or even want to be spoken because the ensuing photo will exude life’s unexplainable occurrences. it’s that moment that keeps building every second like every moment you click up to the top of a roller coaster waiting for that moment where everything is out of your control and you feel that sudden but everlasting jump of a heartbeat. that moment in which you feel a sudden rush of fear and sadness and happiness, joy, love and heartbreak all at the same time. it’s that moment, that feeling and emotion that keeps you going before you attempt to capture life’s eccentricities into a single shot. it’s that moment where you forget all your worries and fears because that sudden emotion that runs through every part of your blood stream as it injects into your heart for a final push to overcome what you fear might come out of that moment, something short of what you’ve imagined. that single moment that seems to bring out every emotion you’ve ever felt from the deepest of days to those shinning moments you’ll never forget, as if comparing the two moments side by side couldn’t possibly be achieved except for in that moment. that single moment of eternal forgiveness and thoughtlessness that is undeniably persistent to the point of no return. that moment where you’ve reached the end, the final moment of happiness where you know that this coming shot isn’t just a photograph, but a journal, a diary of life’s ranging emotions all built into one moment. that one moment that seems to have a soundtrack of life playing along. it’s that moment, that only moment where you know how to express your true feelings that have been locked up since forever. that moment where the overflowing emotion has nothing left to do but flow out of your heart, not as a seeping volcano, but that of a flash flood, one that cannot and will not be stopped as it pours unto it’s canvas. it’s that moment, that only moment in life right before you feel a sighing relief of content because you know, like they say, that everything truly will be alright. that moment where you can’t resist the temptations of a moment too early…or too late. that moment that after it’s over, it can’t be undone. that moment right before you feel an accomplishment in life so great it seems to rival any other moment in life so as to exude the power of love. it’s that moment, that single moment right before you press that anxious but always steady index finger so gently down to hear that click and pursuing flash of a shutter speed. it’s that moment.

If there’s one idea that keeps circling back to me through my various activities over the past year, it’s that the key to success for any growth or change from the status-quo is not only bottom-up, but bottom-up with the structure coming from the top. Let me elaborate using three examples: work, Obama and America.

I’ve had numerous discussions with a few people (more senior than I) over the past 6-9 months regarding change and growth in our company. We’ve noticed (or I’ve been taught by them), that when pursuing change/growth opportunities it has to come from the bottom of the pyramid. For example, if you want your organization to me more adept at understanding certain topics (e.g. technology), they have to want to learn it. They can’t be told by their boss, otherwise it won’t have the lasting, intended effect (of growth through education). But how do you get them to want to learn it? Well, that brings me to my next point: It’s those at the top’s job to set up an environment where change/growth is not only encouraged, but incentivized. Not only should “the top” create an indirect atmosphere of risk-taking, acceptance of failure and exploring (some may call this “wishy washy” or costly, I strongly disagree. Case-n-point: Google/GE), but they should directly set up a structure with tangible incentives, such as monetary rewards, and direct disincentives, such as penalties against certain actions, to lay the ground for “bottom-up” growth. In short, the top should lay the groundwork for the masses to execute. One more time, the “top” should plant the seed while the bottom does the growing (with a little watering, fertilizer and encouragement from the top every now and then).

Obama…as if enough hasn’t been said about him. I’ll stray away from him and more directly speak to Blue State Digital, the firm that helped Obama raise $6.5 million dollars from the ordinary citizens of America. What happened? Well, Blue State Digital set up an undefined structure for you and I to take that platform and leverage it for growth. More specifically, Blue State Digital gave me the power of social networking tools, and I took them and spread it to my 100 friends, which in turn spread it to their 100 friends. This is the same exact example of bottom-up growth being fostered from the top. Blue State Digital laid the groundwork, aka the platform, and the bottom played within the structure, according to it’s predetermined advantages and disadvantages, to spread change and growth in a way that they, the bottom, wanted.

Finally, and this one has yet to come to fruition, is America’s groundwork for the future. I’m not sure this is going to happen, but through my readings of Thomas Friedman in Hot, Flat and Crowded, he speaks to “bottom-up” growth in domestic economic policy as well as environmental preservation. I will focus on the former. He devotes multiple chapters to this subject throughout the book.

“If you take only one thing away from this book, please take this: We are not going to regulate our way out of the problems of the Energy-Climate Era. We can only innovate our way out, and the only way to do that is to mobilize the most effective and prolific system for transformational innovation and commercialization of new products ever created on the face of the earth – the U.S. marketplace. There is only one thing bigger than Mother Nature and that is Father Profit, and we have not even begun to enlist him in this struggle.” – Tom Friedman, Hot, Flat and Crowded (page 243)

Let me break this down. “We are not going to regulate our way out of the problems of the Energy-Climate Era”. This, in the simplest terms, says that the “top” cannot force change to happen. Second, “We can only innovate our way out, and the only way to do that is to mobilize the most effective and prolific system for transformational innovation and commercialization of new products ever created on the face of the earth – the U.S. marketplace.” Furthermore, we need to mobilize the the U.S. marketplace (aka “the masses”) to create change. How do we mobilize you ask? By enlisting “Father Profit”, an incentivized structure that gets everyone from Topeka to NYC to California playing the game. So by utilizing a pre-existing system, with a few tweaks in its current incentives, the “top” (the U.S. government) can create growth and change for, and by, it’s people.

Too many leaders think they have the power to change their environment. They don’t. They never have. And they never will. Obama didn’t and never will create any change, he’s simply a representation of what America currently desires (although I should point out that he did in fact lay the groundwork for the “bottom” to believe in this change.). Now we’ll just have to wait and see if the U.S. government can further lay the groundwork for the future of America to move that growth forward. Too many companies, like too many politicians, like too many governments think they can force change and growth. All they can do is simply set up an environment for growth, much like the founding fathers did 250 years ago, and watch it flourish.

“race is not an issue this country can afford to ignore right now” for while we are many decades past the civil rights movement, there still rests an underlying bias towards not only blacks, but Hispanics, Asians, gays and women, while not all race-related, but still part of the segregation of most Americans underlying psyche. Ive never really understood why we have affirmative action, and while i still do not agree with it, i see the light as to why some people do agree with it. it seems like we ended the civil rights movement with published legal rights, but this only justified equal rights on the surface, not deep down in many Americans hearts and minds. it seems like we stopped and said, “okay, its in the books, that’s enough. we’ve done are duty to provide an equal nation”. but it doesn’t seem to be enough. this racial equality has yet to permeate the nation of our parents generation and because of this, is trickling down to my generation. While many from my generation see no racial separation, there are still those influenced by my parents generation. my sister goes to a private catholic school, an institution still seated in the past, and at dinner one night she told this story:

“we were talking about politics one day in class and a girl stood up and said this,

“in the bible it says the world will end when a black man is elected president,”

and this statement was directed at a black girl seated in her class. the black child stood up and exclaimed, “where in the bible does it say that? show me where it says that?!”

i have a hard time believing this young girl thought of this notion on her own, but instead was most likely rooted from one of her parents or teachers.
after obama’s win, this young black girl has worn an Obama pin everyday. i know most people would probably shake their head at this action and think it’s too “loud”. if i was attacked in class for my race, or any other personal trait, by a white girl telling me i can’t, i would promote obamas win with a pin, which is simply saying, Yes, I can!

In another related story of when i was only 17 years of age, i was speaking to a man in a business setting. he had a meeting that day at 1pm, it was already 1:15 and the meeting was at least 20 mins away. I said, “shouldn’t you leave, you’re already late for your meeting and it takes 20 mins to get there.” the older gentleman responded with,
“its okay, he’s black…they’re always late.”

For ”these people are part of [Obama], and they are part of America”

It seems like for the past few decades after the civil right movement we reached a racial stalemate, in which those who only saw the color of ones skin were locked in a lose-lose battle in which both sides took stories to the extreme, ignored any view from across the aisle, all of which built up an extreme resentment leading to this racial stalemate. What has further exacerbated this resentment among the white community is their (rightful) views that they “haven’t been particularly privileged by their race…and as far as they’re concerned, no one handed them anything.” As Obama points out, “they’ve worked hard all their lives to see their jobs shipped over seas or the pensions dumped.” so why should African Americans get any kind of privilege when they didn’t? Why should someone get an advantage because of their color? this is especially difficult considering today’s global competition is seen as a zero-sum game, meaning your gain comes at my loss. We need to look past this issue as black and white (pun intended) because it is an issue with much grey area, where both sides are right and both sides are wrong. For we can no longer afford to ignore and misunderstand this issue because ”to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.” We need to look into our past to create a solution for the future. We need to embrace “the burden of our past without becoming victims of our past.” We need to take the disadvantages of the black community, the under-privelages of the white community, we need to look at all of our divisions…black racism, the lack of females breaking the glass ceiling, the white mans layoffs, a gays limitation to marriage, a latino’s secondary citizenship as illegitimate…and bring them into one cohesive problem for a solution that breaks our country of these historic issues. Let’s move beyond the division to a common problem, a problem of division. This divisive nature has come at a time when we need unity as we are faced with global issues that need America’s help, because ”your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams,” and instead our dreams should be shared as we solve these issues together. We can no longer afford to play segregation, especially racial segregation, as a spectator sport. we need to participate to set aside this age-old distraction so we can move beyond it, to achieve these bigger goals that face us, not as a black man or white man, not as gay or straight man, not as an Asian or Latino, not as male or female, not as your community or my community, not as your blue state or my red state, but as one nation and one global community.
As the election has shown…i have hope for generations to come, which is a shared hope by our many people of this country that we can move past those issues that are preventing us from solving the real issues of today.
So why not move past this division? Let’s move forward without hatred and squabbling. Yes, we want competitive discussions, but in a time when we need as ONE nation to defeat global warming, global military conflict, global economic competition and global inhumanity…lets fight together. for 4 years, approximately 5% of the average persons life, why not take a step back and say for once, ill back the American dream of a better, more complete world, not with unwavering support, not without a healthy discussion for disagreement, but a support for the American dream that when the time comes, after the discussions have been made we are ready, as ONE nation, to pursue these goals to overcome these problems, whether you disagree with them or not, to front these problems head-on with unwavering support for the end goal (a solution for a better world), unwavering support for the motives of every American (a solution for a better world), even if the means to achieve these goals differ from your supposed opponent. why not try to achieve these goals through the methods of your supposed enemy, even if you disagree, why not strive for this solution through methodology that you did not create, or even support initially, because you want, like every American, to achieve these solutions for a better world.

I voted for Barack Hussein Obama. And I’ve never felt so proud when speaking about the American political system.

“The world (and many Americans) complain about overstepping our boundaries (and at tmies it’s true), but a majority of the time the world not only looks for us, but requires our assistance in finding the solution”…solution being the keyword. a solution in cooperation with the rest of the world, not a single opinon with enforced American policies.

As far as more current and specific affairs go – the Iraq war – Obama seemed to posses a capability of coming to a well-thought out conclusion. I’m not saying he’ll have THE solution (I don’t think there is a good solution), but he will have the understanding to make a solid decision. In today’s global military affairs, you can’t fully understand the nature of it all without understanding religion and secularism, for those both play a part in nearly every country in the world, especially countries in the Middle East. Obama seems to overcome this, as the Atlantic points out, by virtue of his generation. As they further state, Obama holds a modern, intellectual Christianity that is capable of understanding in and outside of religion.
“I didn’t have an epiphany,” he explained to me. “What I really did was to take a set of values and ideals that were first instilled in me from my mother, who was, as I have called her in my book, the last of the secular humanists—you know, belief in kindness and empathy and discipline, responsibility—those kinds of values. And I found in the Church a vessel or a repository for those values and a way to connect those values to a larger community and a belief in God and a belief in redemption and mercy and justice … I guess the point is, it continues to be both a spiritual, but also intellectual, journey for me, this issue of faith.”

Obama is able to connect the intangible with the tangible. He’s also able to connect to a large variety of Americans and global citizens, a very complex task, because of his complex background which took place in varying countries, religions, races and environments.
The bottom line is this: America needs a new approach in playing and winning in the new world order. The old system of political naivety and military might will not work. It’s going to take real collaboration on the non-military front to succeed. Americans, including most of our politicians, fail to realize this. As Obama simply states, “foreign policy has been used as a political wedge issue to divide us – not as a cause to bring America together.” This has to change, and will, beginning in 2009.
The second and most important reason why I voted for Barack Obama is inspiration. As Mark Cuban so simply states regarding Obama’s inspiration, “As any successful CEO will tell you, leadership, vision and motivation has far more impact on results than any tax cut or increase.” Barack Obama has done more to inspire this nation during 6 months of campaigning than most Presidents have done in two terms. Although, I’m in the belief that it’s rarely, if ever, a President’s policies that change a country for the better, but the American people that change their country for the better. So why is a President so vitally important if it’s the people, from ground up, that commit the change? Because it’s a leader’s intangible abilities to motivate, lead and inspire his team to greatness. Well, we are Obama’s team and he has inspired without even taking a step into the White House. And he may be just enough to calm America and restore it to it’s rightful place, also known as the American dream, and inspire it to grow past the limits we constrain on ourselves.
“Having an elected black President will do more to energize this country than any economic or social policy ever could. In a single day of voting, our amazing country once again reinvigorated the dream that any child in this country, no matter what circumstances they are born into, can grow up to be anything they want, including President of the United States. That dream, staying viable, being reinvigorated, will do more for this country than any economic policy or any legislation that could ever be passed.”

“The power of the American Spirit is what separates our country from every other.”

I’m sick of waiting for the world to change.

In case you’re not listening…It’s not about you, your money or the war in Iraq, it’s about the “war within America that has prevailed since Vietnam and that shows dangerous signs of intensifying, a nonviolent civil war that has crippled America at the very time the world needs it most. It is a war about war—and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama—and Obama alone—offers the possibility of a truce.” Most of my generation wonders why this war in Iraq has blown to the proportions that it has. Why have we let this ‘great divide’ happen? Why has there been such a growing divide (politically, economically, socially) over the past 40 years in general? “The answer lies mainly with the biggest and most influential generation in America: the Baby Boomers. The divide is still—amazingly—between those who fought in Vietnam and those who didn’t, and between those who fought and dissented and those who fought but never dissented at all. By defining the contours of the Boomer generation, it lasted decades. And with time came a strange intensity.”
And this isn’t just about Vietnam or Iraq. It seems like every issue today, Iraq, the environment, healthcare, social security, has been brought on by this mindset of disagreement and the innate decision to reject the other sides motives ingrained in the baby boomers. Normally a division like this is healthy. any healthy disagreement through conversation should be welcomed. but we are not in a healthy world. we have extremist all over the world uniting to fight two things – freedom and democracy. My generation needs to rid ourselves of this division and hatred that the baby boomer generation has bestowed upon us.
“if you sense, as I do, that greater danger lies ahead, and that our divisions and recent history have combined to make the American polity and constitutional order increasingly vulnerable, then the calculus of risk changes. Sometimes, when the world is changing rapidly, the greater risk is caution. Close-up in this election campaign, Obama is unlikely. From a distance, he is necessary. At a time when America’s estrangement from the world risks tipping into dangerous imbalance, when a country at war with lethal enemies is also increasingly at war with itself, when humankind’s spiritual yearnings veer between an excess of certainty and an inability to believe anything at all, and when sectarian and racial divides seem as intractable as ever, a man who is a bridge between these worlds may be indispensable.”

“It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.” – the Atlantic

These rather accidental and inherent qualities, simultaneously coupled with his charismatic open-mindedness and inspirational ways has led me to cast my ballot for Barack Obama. I’ll leave you with this…

I may be idealistic to think that we can change, but isn’t that what the world needs? The world doesn’t need any more cynics, any more people jaded by life’s depressions, any more “realistic” adults who stopped caring just because of a few years of high taxes, bureaucratic government regulation and lying politicians. The world, especially America, has grown and thrived on dreamers. Am I too idealistic to think that I can make a difference? I refuse to believe that. I see too much good, too many bright people and inspired opportunities to give into the suppressed thoughts of negativity. So I may be immature, inexperienced, naive and idealistic…but I know that’s what the world needs right now. The world needs dreamers like me to push the potential of the human race, just like JFK, MLK Jr., Malcolm X, Mandela, Benjamin Franklin, Gandhi and yes, Barack Hussein Obama.

Don’t tell me we can’t, because…

YES, WE CAN.