As many of you already know, a few weeks back I had the opportunity to take a small work trip to Uganda. I was working with a group from Orphan Justice Mission, an organization from Portage, Michigan. Kyle Douglass, the executive director, was a former coworker of mine. Over the years we’ve kept in touch every so often and in January I was invited to work with him on his current trip. After pulling a few strings and making last second appointments, I was able get my vaccines, medication and update my passport allowing me to go.

I had an amazing trip! It was defiantly a life changer for me. I have been overseas many times and traveled all over the world. I’ve been to first-world countries and third-world countries. But this trip was a little different. This was almost “forth-world”, but like I said before, it was defiantly a life changer. Over the next few days I will be posting pictures from my trip and showing you my experiences. If you’d like to follow you can check back here weekly or subscribe to our newsletter.

I guess I should start this off with introductions. Kyle, pictured on the left, is the Executive Director at Orphan Justice Mission (OJM). Seruwagi Paul is Kyle’s counterpart in Uganda. Paul oversees all operation in Uganda. He was kind enough to let us stay at his house during the first part of our trip. And like everyone in Uganda his hospitality was something that’s not common here in the US. Even after picking us up at the airport at 2am and only knowing him for a few short minutes, I could tell that he was a sincere fellow.

At Paul’s house I was given my own room. The first thing you’ll notice is a mosquito net. Every place we stayed had one. Malaria is quite common in Uganda and even though I was on anti-malaria meds, its always good to play it safe. Kyle had is own room, so I used the other bed as my dresser. It was nice having that there to lay things out and get organized for our trip to the villages. It was also nice to let my clothes dry off from the exploding shampoo and conditioner that ravaged my suitcase.

The next day was filled with meetings and errands. We had a quick planning meeting at a popular Muzungu coffee house, 1000 Cups. The picture of Kyle and Paul was taken there. Pictured below was from Day two of our trip. I woke up early to write in my journal and do a little exploring around Paul’s place. The sun was just starting to rise and the public taking part of their daily activities. I figured I’d grab a quick photo of the golden rays from Paul’s porch.

Paul had an indoor kitchen and an outdoor one. This is a photo of their outdoor kitchen and pantry.

Here’s a picture of their outdoor bathroom and rain catcher. These rain catchers are quite common in other countries. It’s simple science really. Fresh rain is captured in the barrel. Later with the help of gravity, the water falls down the pipes to its final destination, the sink. The building to the right of the tower is the outdoor bathroom. Paul had a few indoor bathrooms, but due to some remodeling, they were not functioning. The outdoor bathroom is a pit latrine, a simple hole in the floor.

Two girls walking to school. Many schools have uniforms helping identify students.

Paul has a small trail dividing his property from the neighbor’s. Obviously it’s used quite often.

Day three of our trip we headed out to our first village, Kabakyala. I’ll post those picture next time! Make sure to check back later this week and meet the students.

Before I went to Denver to get my snowboarding on

I download David Crowder’s newest, and unfortunately, last album… ever. On this latest release he has a song titled “Sometimes”. That song spoke to me. Like, hard core spoke to me. It was the reminder of hope that I needed. I’ll post the song below for you to listen to, but the part that hit me says, “Don’t be afraid. Just set your sail. And risk the ocean there’s only grace.” Just the way the song builds up, crescendos and rich then at the peak he throws in that line to remind you of hope… it’s just… awesome. We just have to dive in. God’s grace is always with us. Hebrews 4:16 says “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” I needed a boost of confidence. I was kind of desperate and in need. In need of something. I just didn’t know what.

It’s funny but after listening to that song,

I knew that everything was going to be ok. And sure enough, it is. This past Wednesday I received my vaccines. Despite that fact the my arm is still sore from 4 shots, I’m grateful everything worked out. (Not sure if I mentioned this before, but Walgreens DOES NOT have the yellow fever vaccine. They can’t carry it even though they have it listed on their website.) I even got notice this past week that my passport has been processed and will be here BEFORE I leave. YES!!!!!!!

So what did I learn this week?

It’s just the ocean! No big deal! Really. It’s no big deal. He is with you. Always. The best thing we can do is dive in and receive his grace. I’m so very grateful that things have worked out. And within a few weeks, I’ll be in Uganda in the middle of nowhere working with orphans and sharing my gifts with the world. Taking photographs and movies around the world has been a dream of mine for some time. More on the National Geographic side, but this will do. This will definitely do.

If you aren’t already a fan of David Crowder, you need to check out their latest CD on iTunes and buy it. It’s an AMAZING album. Well as promised, here is the song. Enjoy, God bless, and have a wonderful day.

[youtube]NFrxuAPdM0A[/youtube]

So a few days ago, Tuesday to be exact, I got a Facebook message from a former coworker of mine. I shouldn’t really say coworker. We worked at Miracle Camp, a retreat camp. I was on the summer staff and Kyle was working full time. We talked from time to time, but didn’t have a chance to work together. I was too busy cranking out weekly videos for kids and making some Youtube videos from time to time. Kyle did all of the camp’s multimedia, commercials, and promo work. That was back in 2006

A few months back, Kyle posted on Facebook about OJM (Orphan Justice Mission) and right about then a friend of mine adopted a child from Ethiopia. Jason posted things all the time about Taye and how excited they were to finally be bringing their new boy home. All those updates got me thinking about adoption, my own past, and how I wanted to contribute to adoption in some way. Nicole and I have talked about how we wanted to adopt in the future, but I wanted to do something with my gifts that would help out. A few ideas ran through my head. One of those ideas was to message Kyle and let him know that if he ever needed my assistance he should give me a ring and we could chat.

Fast forward to last Tuesday. Kyle needed someone to go with his team to help document the orphans. He of course remembered our conversation, thought of me, and gave me a buzz. I couldn’t believe my ears (Eyes. It was on Facebook, but that’s besides the point). What a great opportunity. I wouldn’t even call it an opportunity. More like a blessing. A chance to not only use my gifts and glorify God, but to also be part of something that is a part of me. A part of who I am.

So last week I was running around like crazy trying to figure out what I needed to do. What meds I needed to take. What vaccines I needed to get. What documents needed to be updated. All while trying to stay calm and letting Kyle know if any of this was even going to be possible. Then he kind of threw a curve ball at me. I had to let him know by Friday. FRIDAY! FRI….. DAY! Um…. heck yeah it’s possible, but not probable.

I worked my Brazilian tushy off and here’s where I’m at so far.

1. I have to get my passport updated. Even though I have over 6 months left on it, I won’t when I come back. Certain countries require to have a certain amount of months left on your passport on your return date. Mine will be just under 6 months, thus forcing me to renew it. No problem. I just have to get it expedited which takes 2-3 weeks. That should give me a 5 day leeway incase there are any problems.

2. I called 19 different places to get vaccines. Most places wouldn’t even give me any information unless I booked an appointment. Once clinic was going to charge me $400 just to book an appointment. I got hung up on. Was given the run around. All the while trying to keep my composure and try to stay positive, but things were not looking good. LONG story short, Walgreens ended up having what I needed. Hours of pouring over the CDC website and Walgreens has it. C.R.A.Z.Y. I just  wish the government would update their site to help people out. I have an appointment next week.

3. Going to be calling my doctor to get prescription Malaria pills. Which may or may not be a simple task. I won’t go into details though.

So for the next few weeks I hope to be able to keep you all posted on this endeavor. Please check back often and comment below if you have any advice for me. I can use all the help I can get.

THANKS!

Dave

Recently I took a trip to Mexico. Just like every vacation, I take my camera gear to capture those great shots. Actually, I don’t take all my gear. If something happened to any of it, it would turn my vacation into a nightmare. It’s nice to get a great high-res picture. Hopefully finding something nice enough to decorate our home with. The problem with a DSLR is that you have to carry a bulky bag with you everywhere. And nothing says “I’m a tourist” like a big bulky camera hanging from your shoulder.

Luckily, I have a good camera phone. My iPhone is always in my pocket. With a decent camera and some editing apps, anyone can take a cellphone picture and turn it into a memory. One of my favorite apps is Instagram. It’s like Twitter or Facebook, but a photography version. With built-in effects and accessibility to post to Twitter or Facebook, it’s a great app for anyone who likes photography and uses those social outlets.

Now these aren’t photos that I would want to print out due to grain and quality, but they’re perfect for my desktop background or cellphone background. Here are a few of my iPhone photos from our trip. Enjoy!

So I was home for the weekend…

By home I mean my hometown, Eureka IL. My parents still live there and being only a few hours away, Nicole and I find ourselves there almost every weekend. Last weekend I was home for my nephew and niece’s birthday parties. Yes I said parties. As in more than one. That’s how we roll in my family. It’s a weekend event and not just an evening. We had a good time. Wait. What am I talking about? Oh yeah!

Back to the iPhone ordeal

So a few weeks back I hooked my pops up with an iPhone. Why? 1. His old phone wasn’t in good shape. 2. I’m an Apple fanboy and there wouldn’t be any other phone I would recommend. Like all “cool people” he wanted to rock a belt clip. Not my taste, but he likes them for easy access. The only problem with his clip was that it wasn’t very clippy (If that’s even a word). He bought the Otter Box, which now I wouldn’t recommend.

And just like every farmer

he has to check his fields. While doing his regular check up he noticed his phone was gone. Oops. Mistake? You bet! $400 mistake. Not good my friends. After looking for a few hours he gave up and assumed everything was gone.

Enter David and his nerd powers!

Like every good son, I made sure that everything was synced up with my account. Not so I can spy on my parents and make sure that they’re home before curfew, but in cases like this. With a quick login to iCloud on my mom’s Macbook, I was able to track his iphone.

The map said it was about 60 ft in the field. Easy find? HECK NO! We now knew where it was near. The bad thing about being in a corn field, 1. It’s itchy. 2. My allergies were killing me. 3. It’s windy and loud. 4. It’s kind of creepy. Anyway, we roamed the area for nearly 15 minutes. We knew we were close, but couldn’t hear it ring. Why? It was on vibrate. GRRRR. I decided to send a noise signal via iCloud that would override the vibrate and ring. GRRRR again. The stupid wind wasn’t helping. I was starting to get mad. That poor iPhone was lost, afraid and alone  :(

Right about then

the pollen was giving my nose a joy ride. I bent down to grad some “fresh air” and BAM! There she was in all her glory. Jumping up at me like a lost puppy dog. I was relieved AND so my was father. I just saved him a few hundred dollars. So what did we learn…

Get an account with Find my iPhone!

It’s free. Yeah. FREE. As in F-R-E-E. You’ll only be doing yourself a favor. Hundreds of people have found their iphone after it was stolen or lost. It was even used by the Chilean government to find a lost plane that crashed over the ocean. So get it. Use it. And save yourself the headache.

P.S.

My twin nephews are funny (and a little crazy). Where they got these pick-up lines, I don’t know.

P.P.S.

If you didn’t get the joke in the title, hit up Youtube and watch search the video. (Warning: The song will get stuck in your head)

P.P.P.S.

Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks is finally out. Have you had yours yet?

P.P.P.P.S

I just wanted to write P.P.P.P.S. Bye!

Mexico

Recently my wife and I took a much needed vacation. When pricing out different places to go, we found that it was actually cheaper to leave the country for a week then was was to stay in the states for 5 days. That didn’t really make any sense but we crunched the numbers again and it was true. So, we decided on Mexico. We booked a week vacation to Puerto Vallarta. It’s on the Pacific side of the country just below Baja California. Our resort wasn’t the greatest in the area, but that was ok with us. It’s more about the experience than what the resort is like. Besides, who goes on vacation just to sit in the room all day? Not us.

Sunsets

One of the nice things about being on this side of Mexico is that you get to see some amazing sunsets. Every night Nicole and I went out to the beach and watched the sun light up the sky with some amazing shades of orange and red. Puerto Vallarta is surrounded by mountains all all sides. Ocean + Mountains + Sunsets = A*MA*ZING! You can see a few posted below.

San Sebastian

San Sebastian was a very important city during the Mexican Revolution. The town housed more than 30,000 people during the early 1900s. Now the city has just of 600 residents. We had the opportunity to visit the city, now turned village. Our personally hired guide told use that the first time he came to this village he met some very special ladies. Naturally I thought they were important political people in the town or something of that nature. When he cracked open the door to the house, I met two of the cutest ladies. Isabella (98) and Georgina (102). They are sisters and have been living together their whole life. They have a pretty amazing story. Let’s go back and talk about the Mexican Revolution. Isabella and Georgina were survivors of the war. During the war members of the town were brutally killed, including their family. Mother, father, and siblings; all gone. They ran and took shelter in the forest for several days until they were able to come back to the town. Since then, they have been taking care of each other and many other people in the village. Now, it is the other villagers that are taking care of them. It’s crazy what you can learn about people when you just ask what their story is. What if I would have never left the resort? I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet these two lovely ladies and tell you their story.

Here we are trying to open the door to the other half of the house. Check out the key. It was huge; about the length of my hand.

This is a picture of the oven that they made several years ago. It it made of clay.

Posing behind the old prison door.

Below are two photos of an estate just outside out town. It said that there is a tunnel that leads from the house 4 kilometers into another home in town. The property was closed… so we snuck in. We were greeted by a few friendly dogs.

Every old colonial Mexican town has a church. This church was over 400 years old! That’s older than the United States. The interior was gorgeous.

Inside the church.

I thought this was a joke, the driver said it was serious. I laughed because we have to watch out for ducks on my street. Here they have to watch out for panthers!

Fat, creepy angel decoration

Saving Sea Turtles

On our last day of our vacation, we sat on the beach an soaked in the last view of the ocean. Nicole was glancing through some pictures on her camera and I was flipping through some pictures on my iPhone. I just happened to look up and saw a baby sea turtle crawling on the sand and two more behind it. I quickly snatched Nicole’s camera, grabbed her hand, and went over to take some pictures. One of the local vendors grabbed a bucket and started putting the turtles in it. He said that they were supposed to hatch at night. This gives them a better chance to escape predators. He was going to release them later that evening. There were over 100 of them!

We’ve got exciting news for all our lovers of antique looks. A good friend of ours out west started a framing company. Once he told me and sent a couple pics to my iPhone, I had stock these in the studio! Just the richness of the frame really gives it a complete custom look. A few of our favorite colors are black, cream, taupe. With over 8 styles of frames, I think our clients are going to fall in love with these. In order to get these out the door and onto your walls, we’re going to offer THESE FRAMES AT 25% OFF through the end of August. Contact us to place an order, but hurry, they might end up on my office walls!

David Schertz Photography is proud to present one of our senior spokesmodels, Brittney. If we could sum her up in three words it would be fun, funny, and enthusiastic. Brittney wants to be a teacher and work with children who have prolonged stays at the hospital.

One of her favorite places to shop is Forever 21. She also likes to squeeze some time in at Abercrombie and The Buckle. That is if she isn’t working or working out.

Thanks Brittney for being a spokesmodel. If you would like to be a rep for David Schertz Photography call us at 309.264.9334 or email us at info@davidschertzphotography.com. We’re looking for 2012 seniors from the following towns: Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Fairview Heights and Collinsville. If you are not from these areas, let us know. We’ll look into adding your town to our list! We can’t wait to hear from you. Your friends will be grateful to hear from you too when you hand them a $50 off card.

So on to the good stuff. Brittney rocked this session. If you don’t believe us, believe her portraits below. Three words…A-MA-ZING!

We are still looking for senior reps for David Schertz Photography. If you are interested in being a rep you can click here to find out more.

Casting Call!

We are currently looking for seniors  (class of 2012) representatives in the Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, Fairview Heights and Collinsville area.

What does a Senior Spokesmodel do?

Being a senior spokes model means you are a spokesperson and representative  for David Schertz Photography’s senior portrait sessions. All you have to do is show off your amazing senior portraits  to your friends! You will receive rep cards and with each referral you earn fabulous bonuses!

What does a Senior Spokesmodel get?

- Free Senior Session ($100 value)

- 50 referral cards

- 5 watermarked Images to use on Facebook

- Accordion album to show off your portraits to friends!

What is required?

- Signed Model Release

- Must use one of the 5 watermarked images as your Facebook Profile until graduation

- Pass out referral cards to friends

What can a Senior Rep earn?

1 referral – $65 print credit

3 referrals -  $25 visa Gift card  + $50 print credit

5 referrals – $50 visa gift card + $100 print credit

8 referrals – $100 visa gift card + $150 print credit

15 referrals – $150 visa gift card + $250 print credit

To earn credit your friends must tell me you referred them at time of booking. Your friends will receive a $50 print credit with your referral card!

Great! How do I apply?

It’s an easy 3 step process.

1. Follow us on Facebook

2. Call us at 309.264.9334 or email us at info@davidschertzphotography.com

(If Facebook is your thing, you can get ahold of us there too)

3. We’ll contact you and get an application in your inbox.

Easy right? Talk to you soon!

Krista S. (2011 Senior Spokes Model)

Today is the big day. I want to say thank you to everyone who signed up for the newsletter and took a few minutes to check out the new site. We are so blessed to have awesome fans like yourself. Keep checking in on us from time to time see whats going on.

Speaking of going on

It’s time to announce the GRAND PRIZE winner of our New Websites giveaway

Drumroll please…..

Congratulations to Krista Shirley! She won a FREE SESSION + a FREE SESSION to give. If you are Krista’s friend I suggest you start kissing up and let her know how much you appreciate her!

Have a wonderful evening y’all!

Dave

I can’t believe that we are almost done with such an awesome 2 weeks of give aways. Today’s AMAZINGLY SWEET GIVEAWAY is a 20×30 Art Canvas. We love a good canvas portrait and today we are lucky enough to share this happiness with Dawn Curry Deeb! A BIG CONGRATS to Dawn today. Check your email to get the official letter.

Who’s ready for tomorrow? We’re giving away a FREE portrait session PLUS one to give!

Todays winner is winning an awesome proof box. Congrats to Caleb Aeschliman. Check your email for the official letter. Only two more giveaways left. Have you signed up yet to be a VIP?

And we’re back! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a wonderful Mother’s Day. Congrats to Nikke Lueddecke for winning a free set of 4×6 proofs!

Hello y’all!

I’m on the road tonight. Heading to my brother-in-law’s college graduation. Before I take the rest of the night off, here is tonight’s winner of a $75 print credit.

Congratulations Susie. Check your email for the official letter.