So from my previous blog post so keenly entitled “The Process” I went out do some more research around Hanoi on my idea as well as contacted some people who could help facilitate in my getting access to the topic I am working.

I went to the Red River to talk to some people there and ran into a really nice boat captain. Even though he didn’t really know where I could find stuff related to my topic he did his best in explaining some places he thought I might be interested in going.

I first came across him as he was sitting on his barge checking himself out in the mirror. I proceeded to go over to him and after a chat he allowed me to take his portrait. One of the great things working on a new project is all the people you meet on the way. Some good, some bad but the adventure and experiences in the process are one of the many gifts a new project brings.

I have an idea…. and that is it. So to start to understand how I am going to approach it I am beginning my process. Of course, like all creative people I want the result of my work to be great and to communicate my idea to other people. My process is to go out, experience, shoot, analyze, write down new ideas and approaches and then go out again and shoot. I will try to get access to places, meet new people and slowly let this idea mold itself into something more concrete.

I will be posting images here as I go through my exercises. For the mean time this will be filed under, “The Process”

Been busy busy busy working on a commercial for the last 2 months and it is finally finishing that up.

I had some time the other day to go do some research into a new project which right now i’m titling, “Possessed by Gods”. I still need to do some more research on other direction I want to take it, but here are some pics from yesterday. More updates soon.

So it has been awhile since a made a post and it hasn’t been for a lack of activity in life. Quite the opposite in fact.

I have been working on my previously posted project like a mad man. Making this storie is requiring quite a lot. I love doing this stuff especially because it is for all the right reasons.

It is funny people ask me how do I get paid for working on personal projects? I said I don’t at least not how they think. The payment is the awareness about the people in the project and hopefully the people who view it decide to help in one way or another. That is the only payment needed for all the hours of shooting, editing and interviewing.

Last week I was out in the countryside working the story. I stayed at the Center as it is 40 min away from the closest town. The Center is really in the boondocks of Vietnam. My room was about as simple as it gets. A metal bed with wood on top but no mattress and a pillow. I did have a ceiling fan thank god because it was hotter than the devils toes out there. So here I am in the middle of nowhere and I turn on my blackberry just to see what kind of signal I will get. Surprisingly it shows me that I have EDGE service. Laying in my metal bed I hit my gmail icon to see if it would connect. To my surprise it did. I was surfing the web, chatting and doing email in the middle of nowhere Vietnam all on my phone. This is in fact how I’m writting this post now. Technology just blows my mind sometimes.

At the end of my trip I was waiting at a Bus Station to catch a bus back to Hanoi. Since they don’t get many foreigners out in these parts. I was the show for the day. In little less than 5 mins there where grown men, women and children tugging and pulling at me and asking me all kinds of typical vietnamese questions. I had a guy talking to me on my left and he was also touching the hair on my arms with amazement. I had a woman on my right pinching my skin as if it was paint and I was really a vietnamese in disguise. It was all quite comical and I’m sure if some other foreigner was there they would have busted out laughing. None of the vietnamese ment any harm, they were all quite friendly. In their culture, touching and lack of personal space is perfectly acceptable.

Well as I’m back on the bus back to the countryside. Maybe I will catch you online with my blackberry. See you in the digital universe.

Well, I have been working like crazy to get my new websites up. I’m designing one for photography and another one for web design.

On top of that I have finished a new website for a group of talented journalists who I have joined in our quest for freelance multimedia. The website is http://www.ontheroadmedia.com

I very happy with the work I did on this website, it looks simple but is advanced in the navigation and operation.

Besides that I got some crazy skin things happening to me lately. I got smacked in the face with something while driving on the road (motorbike). Then I got some strange rash under my arm. Well things like this are kind of normal when your living in a developing country and should go away soon, I hope.

I attached a photo of my apartment. Nothing crazy or anything just so you can see that I’m not living in a hole.

I’m going to go out for more shooting next week so I will hopefully post some new stuff soon.

Last week I went to the countryside to do some more research into a personal project i’m working on. The setting for the place was beautiful as the newly planted rice was growing and was a lush green. The birds and insects clamor away as the people of this nearly sustainable community work next to them. They grow all their own vegetables, rice and meat and work together to help build houses or to work on other community projects.

I met the director for the community, a jolly, stained and crooked tooth man. He has a kind heart and has worked as a doctor/director for the community for more than half of his life.

He told me about how they had come to receive two more rejections from the outside world. A pair of 9 year old twins who were born with a horrible skin disease called Lamellar ichthyosis or fish scale disease. Their parents had kept them hidden in a dark area of a dirt floor house for most of their lives. The parents must have thought that the skin disease would later go away, but at the age of nine they found themselves abandoning their children at the front gates of this community. The twins were accepted here and treated as normal. Probably one of the few places in the world they would ever feel like that. More than likely they will live out their lives in this community.

The people in this community have lived lives of persecution. Not for something they did or that they could control, but for how they look.

As I listened to the stories and poems of their lives, it immediately breaks down my emotional barrier protecting me and keeping me objective. Their lives were full of isolation, rejection, murder and suicidal tendencies. Only recently in the last 5 years have they felt happiness or that people might care for them.

I spent two days there gathering resources, listening to stories and observing the daily lives and needs of these people. They were so kind to me, a stranger, they are all open and willing to share their life.

On the second day I met up with the poetry club. They read some poems they had written. They were not harsh poems about the hardships they had endured in their life, but poems welcoming me as a friend. After they were finished telling me their poems I was expected to address them. I almost lost it and nearly cried. After 2 days of being consumed by this place, feeling its kindness towards me and seeing the living conditions and deformities of these people, it finally caught up to me. I was emotionally drained. As I’m sure others would be if they listened and saw the same things.

I will go back every week from now until I finish the project. I hope to share more stories later with you.

Thanks for reading.