This is a quote from website for the Center for Digital Storytelling
“Every community has a memory of itself.
Not a history, nor an archive, nor an authoritative record…
A living memory, an awareness of a collective identity woven of a thousand stories.”

I was thinking about this and it reminded me of how my grandmother used to take pictures of every family get together when I was young. It was her way of keeping up with the story of her life. It has been a long time since I have seen any of those pictures, but I know when I look at them they will bring back some memories.

What are you doing to record the activities of today that will be the memories tomorrow? Do we listen to others who are telling us the stories from yesterday, I know I struggle with this. I am usually focused on the future, but if history repeats itself shouldn’t these stories be important to me.

My refrigerator,
originally uploaded by indykyle.

I have wanted to do this for awhile. So here it finally is. The official refrigerator gallery. Why? Well this idea came to me after thinking about the name digital fridge. Our refrigerator’s tell alot about us. We put pictures of friends and families on them. Some of us keep our crazy schedules on them. Many folks with kids place their childs wonderful artwork on the front of the refrigerator. Whatever you put on your refrigerator it tells a brief story about your life. So to start the gallery email me a picture of your refrigerator and we’ll see where this goes. I will begin adding the pics to the gallery as they come in. Maybe a prize for the picture of the craziest fridge.
So click on the fridge above to see the gallery!
Have Fun!

Last Friday was the Gallery of Hope featuring the story of the children of the Ark Orphangage. The story of the children was told through some of the pictures that I took while in Ecuador at the orphanage. Some people have asked about how I ended up in Ecuador to take these pictures. So here is my attempt at explaining it all.

In Feb. of 2005 GFC had the Trustee Project where 40 members were given $100 each to use outside the walls of the church. The only requirement was that the money be spent to further God’s kingdom. Kathy Burniston was one of the recipients of $100.

Kathy goes to Ecuador each year on a medical mission trip with the Christian Medical and Dental Association. Each year the medical team visits the Ark Childrens Home in Riobamba Ecuador. Kathy has developed a passion to help the children from this orphanage. Her idea was for me to go on the trip to Ecuador with her in order to take photos and video of the children at the orphanage. I would then use the photos and video to help share the story of the children in the orphanage here in the states.

Kathy decided to use the $100 seed money and multiply it in order to cover my travel expenses to Ecuador. So in March of 2005 I was on my way to Riobamba, Ecuador. I had only been out the country 1 other time and was not real comfortable around children. I figured that I could hide behind my camera and that would help me stay somewhat in my comfort zone. I was able to take some great pictures while I was there and saw the opportunity for many more. But at some point while I was there I just realized, “Hey stupid, put the camera down and just play with these kids, that is what they really need right now.” I know that the many of us do something similiar on a daily basis. We get so caught up in our careers and daily routine that we forget what is really important even when it is crying out right in front of us.

The trip truly changed my perspective as photographer and as a person. As far as a photographer goes, no matter how great the opportunity for a picture, there are times when you should really put the camera down. Getting the best shot possible is not always the most important thing. Personally I realized that kids need to know they matter to someone else, they need individual attention, and they need participation. None of these things can be done while standing behind a camera.

On Friday Feb. 20th 2006 we hosted the “Gallery of Hope” which was a collection and silent auction of many of the pictures that I shot while in Ecuador. The event raised over $7,000.00 and an additional $385.00 in monthly support to the orphanage. In addition 3 more orphans now have sponsors.

So I say thanks to Kathy and the children of the Ark Orphanage for the opportunity. An opportunity that changed my life perspective. My hope is that I can help change the lives of the children as much as they helped to change mine.

After repeatedly receiving an Error 99 message on my Canon Digital Rebel I finally called their 1-800 Tech Support #. I first went online in hopes of finding the answer, but most comments were related to after market lenses not working with the Canon body. Both of my lenses are Canon so I decided to make the dreaded call to Tech support. They had me do a couple trouble shooting things to determine that it was indeed a problem with the internal workings of the camera. I was hoping that they would prove me wrong, make feel like an ignorant fool and get my camera working over the phone. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Indeed my camera is very messed up so today I packed it in enough bubble wrap to survive a nuclear fallout and sent it on its way to Canon Technical in NJ. So sadly, I’m without a camera for a minimum of 2 weeks. Luckily Canon has a nice tech support website that is very user friendly. What has your experience been with other camera tech support encounters?

Welcome to Digital-Fridge.net A blog to focus on telling stories in the digital world.