I have this curiosity about earthquakes. It is one of a few dangerous natural occurrences that I want to experience first hand. Growing up in the midwest I’ve been around massive thunderstorms my whole life. I’ve seen tornadoes, been in blizzards, been hit with golf ball-sized hail, watched fields of grass burn from a lightning strike, hell I’ve actually seen lightning strike the top of a car on the highway.

I have never felt anything like an earthquake though, not even a tremor.

Apparently Illinois had an earthquake this morning. A 5.2 quake they say, with tremors felt nearly 450 miles away. Everybody I’ve talked to today is focused on these tremors. Everyone I’ve talked to today, felt these tremors.

“Did you feel them?” they ask me.

I have to report, over and over again that no, I did not. Do you know why I missed out on this life-changing, ground-shaking event?

I was asleep.

The Sandman decided that today David Bickley - a generally light sleeper - would not wake up when the rest of the city felt the ground move. Oh no sirs, he would stay sound asleep dreaming of being a superhero, completely oblivious to this life-altering event.

I’m tired of the lack of earthquake experience in my life.

I’m going to San Francisco, where the earthquakes flow like wine.

Adios.

No real need for a description here. Just a little avian social networking.

When I was growing up I had a series of books full of animals. “The Wildlife Fact File” was what it was called. In the next 20 years, many of those animals may be gone. We are facing a point in history where our children face a very real possibility of living in a world devoid of biodiversity.

We are not disconnected from our environment, we are not above it. We are a part of it. As humans, we are responsible for it. The sad fact is that for centuries we have obliterated our environments to make way for “progress”. Now we see the damage, and something must be done because we’re running out of time.

The number of oceanic dead-zones is on the rise. Many places on Earth have become toxic that were beautiful and full of life just 20 years prior. Commercial loggers devastate acres upon acres of vital, oxygen producing, Co2 processing rain forests.

News about global warming is everywhere, but many people either underestimate it’s impact, many more simply don’t understand it. There are even those that completely discredit the idea that we impact the planet and it’s environment. Maybe you are one of those people. I am not well versed enough to counter your arguments but, what I can say is this. Everyone can benefit from living greener, everyone can live a little freer without having to pay $3-$5-$8 per gallon for fossil fuel.

Global warming is an urgent, but solvable problem. I’ve recently joined the “We Campaign”, a powerful nonpartisan movement of concerned citizens that was founded by Nobel Prize Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. We’re already a million strong — and growing each day.

Visit this site to learn more and add your voice: http://www.wecansolveit.org/

Sign up, take a stand. This isn’t an issue we can afford to lose on. Our world is too precious, and it’s the only one we have.

The We Campaign is working to ensure that elected leaders make the climate crisis a priority. Visit: http://www.wecansolveit.org/. Here, you can learn about solutions to global warming, take action steps and even find events happening in your community. Although it’s not too late, global warming is very serious and there is no time to lose. So please don’t wait any longer to get involved – sign up today: http://www.wecansolveit.org/

Together, we can solve the climate crisis.

Thank you for reading,

David Bickley

Everything works now, as far as I can tell. Email your hearts out!

Thank you for your patience and understanding while I was working towards a solution.

-David

Well ladies and gentlemen, it came to my attention about five minutes ago (by sheer luck) that this giant server move I told you all about before…knocked out my contact form on my portfolio site. That means that  if you used it to contact me, even though it said it emailed me. It didn’t.

So, if you have emailed me in the past month, and not received a response. I am deeply sorry. I am working as fast as I can to resolve this issue.

In the mean time, if you need to reach me please use the contact form here on this blog, or use the phone number you’ll find on that page and call me.

Thank you for your understanding,

David

After a month or so of photo shoots that I can’t show you all yet, I am proud to bring you a very interesting young woman who came all the way from West Virginia to have me take her photo. Randi Ward is a wonderful poet that spent a number of years on the Faroe Islands, a small series of islands close the same distance from Norway, Iceland and the United Kingdom. She published a book in 2007 called Meditations on Salt which from what I understand, has made an enormous impact on the Faroese people.

This is my favorite photo from our session:

A little more urban now.

As I finish up these images I will be sure to add more for you all to see. Until then, check out her site at www.randiward.com. Most of it is in English, but if you happen to speak Faroese I’m sure you will enjoy it that much more.