So as another birthday comes my way, I’ve decided to give it to charity, but not just any charity, the one that’s been a big part of my life over the last few years, Pencils of Promise. I’m a big believer in giving back to the world which is why I’ve made it a point to do at least one charity project a year. I’ve traveled all over the world, and one of the biggest problems, and things we take for granted in our bubble is education. Even though I’ve donated much of my time in photography services and create all the brand imagery for the organization, but I still want to raise funds to help build a school for children in the developing world. I connected with Adam Braun(see his story & for purpose philosophy), the founder a couple years back when PoP was in it’s infancy and had only built one school. Fast forward 2.5 years and PoP has broken ground on over 50 schools in 4 countries and has been deemed one of the fastest growing non-profit orgs that have been started in the last 5 years.. It’s been quite amazing to be a part of such an amazing movement.

That said, help me raise $10K to help build a school. Donations can be as little as $25 and you are helping kids receive education. If you were thinking about giving me a birthday present please put that towards charity. If you weren’t (I don’t ever expect anyone to), you I hope that you would join me and help me raise the money by donating.

Donations can be made here on my Pencils of Promise fundraising page: http://nonk.it/Mz0BUK

Don’t just “like” the idea on Facebook. If you “like” it then DONATE! It’s just $25 a few drinks or lattes, and you’re helping children learn the things we all take for granted.

Here are the photo projects I’ve done with them:
Laos: http://www.nickonken.com/www/#/search/laos/
Nicaragua: http://nickonken.com/blog/2010/11/pencils-of-promise-nicaragua.html
Guatemala: http://nickonken.com/blog/2011/06/pencils-of-promise-guatemala.html

Watch this video to get a bigger understanding of the cause and organization!

I wanted to tell you guys about a recent other blog I’ve just launched called SLICE. Being that I’m into a lot of other things than just photography, I wanted a place to curate and distil the things I like since curation is the name of the game these days as we are bombarded with an over saturation of everything. Pulling the best out of the mess what we must do now a days. Tumblr is a great way to sift through content, and tumbl/reblog your favorite stuff, then have a place to go back and refer to it in the archive.

SLICE is a collection of snippets of some of my favorite photographs I’ve shot, other photographs I like, tech gizmos, music, food, great design & culture pieces.

Check it out here. http://www.nickonkenslice.com Tumbl and follow

How appropriate in seeing as we’re amidst the Thanksgiving holiday. I would say traveling the world, seeing and experiencing other cultures has been the thing that has most shape my perspective on life and realize how good we have it. It makes you really appreciate the small conveniences that we don’t even ever realize we have here in the states. Beyond that, the ability to make a living taking pictures if you break it down to what it actually is, is quite a hard to come by thing in and of itself. This doesn’t exist in the harder to reach parts of the world. The ability to do something that you love, be creative, and live is something in rare form. It definitely takes a certain type of person that can deal with the sacrifice of stability especially in the beginning years, but if you can stick through it you can do it. That combined with the opportunity of living where I live allows me to do what I love and make money, and for that I am truly thankful.

That said, I feel giving back to the world is something we all should practice, despite whatever your situation, and where ever you are. I’ve been in some of the most remote places around the world, and so many times, the most simplest people are so kind, they will give you the shirt off their back. Everyone has their own situation, own capacity, and own way they can give back and that is what is the most important. For some people it’s the gift of money, for some it’s the gift of talent, some people it’s the shirt off their back.

I’ve always felt compelled to give back with the talent of photography that I feel I’ve been gracefully given. For me, I’ve been fortunate to connect with my good friend Adam Braun a couple years ago. He founded one of the now, fastest growing charities started in the last five years: Pencils of Promise. It’s been amazing to be a part of, and to see how my photography has helped them to blow up to where they are now. When I met Adam, we connected on the philosophies of the non-profit world of running a non-profit as a business(Check out Adam’s “For Purpose” talk at the Google Zeitgeist conference). In the end, money is what facilitates the cause. You must create an engine that allows the cause to be done. That engine is largely dependent on visual communications that convey to the potential donors what that organization is doing. When I started working with Adam, Pencils of Promise was just him, and he had built one school with another on the way. Fast forward two years later and we just broke ground on our 50th school. Last week at the PoP Gala, it was so exciting to see us raise over $1M in one evening. You don’t have to always give your services for free and shouldn’t if it’s your only source of income, but that’s something I’ve chosen to do with PoP because I feel it’s my way of giving back. It’s all what you feel personally. (Some posts of work I’ve done with them. Laos: http://nonk.it/vuJ3fW Guatemala: http://nonk.it/k1H4jb Nicaragua: http://nonk.it/aiptev)

Another different give back opportunity I just had was in Tibet with the people we came across. We took people’s portrait with a Polaroid to give to them. It was amazing to see their faces light up when they received the picture. Many of the people having never seen a camera before. It was such a great opportunity to give back and hear their stories which leads me into the next part of this post.

I wanted to tell you about an opportunity to be able give back to the world in the realm of photography. It’s called Help Portrait, started by a good friend of mine, Jeremy Cowart. The project has grown to a global scale and is taking place on December 10th.

The basic premise is:
1: Find someone in need.
2: Take their portrait.
3: Print their portrait.
4: Deliver it to them.

I would encourage you all to get involved with Help Portrait this year, and if it’s not feasible or your cup of tea, find another way. Your way of giving back to the world and those in need.

For more information and how to get involved check out the Help Portrait website. http://help-portrait.com/

Neeehow! Shanghai was such a great experience, especially thanks to my friend Dan who introduced me to some pretty cool peeps in the ad agency world of Shanghai and showed me around town. We hit the ground running, dinners, house parties, and new friends. I always prefer to travel to places where I know people because you get to see a totally different side of a city. I stayed in a little botique hotel in the French Concession called Gallery Suites, and was pretty much in the mix of the coolest area with all the art galleries, shops, boutiques, etc. The FC is older colonial style buildings, and very cool. The taxi’s are cheap, starting at $2, and typically hit $4, maybe $6 if you go across town. Makes it really easy to get around town, the trick is to get someone to write your destination in Chinese and you’re usually good to go. The city itself was modern world meets chaotic developing world. I borrowed a friends bike for a spin around the French Concession, and soon realized that I felt it easier and safer to weave in and out of traffic in New York City. There are so many people on bikes, moped, cars etc, and they all come at you from every direct direction. No flow. People on mopeds will head straight down your lane right at you then veer off at the last second. Nutty experience.

My new friend Ryan, and AD at Wieden Kennedy SH introduced me to their experience Shanghai iPhone app, which helped guide me around a little. Some cool eats, shops, things to do etc, with Taxi Cards built right in so you just show the cab driver. We all hit a few parties Saturday night, but namely one at a cool surfer/skater shop called Source, where they featured this really amazing artist, Steve Gorrow who is also the creative director of Insight clothing. Here’s a little recap of the party from Source’s blog. I really loved his work. Sunday we went to a little water town an hour out of SH, which was lovely. See the pics below.

Checked out the Bund, SH’s skyline as you can see from the above photo on Monday, quite a nice view. Then saw the “light tunnel” which is overly cheesy which makes it quite amusing. Headed over to old town which is obviously overly touristy, but fun none the less. The old Chinese buildings are a great sight. Used the WKSH app to get myself to this amazing little hole in the wall Shanghai Dumpling joint; Ling Long Fang, which have to be the best I’ve ever had, along with the wanton soup, amazing. Pulled off a little fashion shoot around the small old style streets, did a bunch of agency meetings wednesday, and peaced out to Hong Kong thursday, then Taiwan Friday. It’s been non-stop.

It’s been a good trip, and one of my favorites is a few Mandrin words that sound like hip hop slang. Quite funny.
Booyao = I don’t want
jegga = this
negga = that

I just got back from a nice little week down in Nicaragua shooting for the charity that I’m involved with, Pencils of Promise. They build schools and further education for kids. The organization was founded by Adam Braun, an brilliant and passionate individual I had the pleasure of going to Laos with last December. He’s the type of guy you will talk to for 5 minutes leave the conversation fired up and wanting to change the world. When we met last year we both resonated in our life mantras of travel, helping people, and business. Most Non-Profits fail because the founder’s don’t have enough business skills to match their passion. Adam has both which really got me fired up about what he’s doing. PoP has grown insanely at least 300% in this last year, and is continuing to do so. The PoP team is killin’ it and the movement is contagious! (Mad props to ya’ll!)

Pencils Of Promise’s killer new website was done by Agency Net, who just did Jay-Z’s new Hits Collection site. Mad Props.

I rolled down with my new homie, Hoolie G, the COO of PoP. We had some great adventures visiting a couple of the current PoP schools and sites for future PoP schools. It’s exciting to be a part of a group of Do Gooders, and to photograph the children that PoP is and will be helping further their educations. We met some great locals on the ground with the partner organization, who were so kind and hospitable to us. After the 5 day shoot, Hoolie and I trekked it over to Leon, a small colonial Nicaraguan town for a little R&R, and some volcano sandboarding. (We even practiced our Ninja skills at the top of the mountain. See photo at bottom of post.)

Want to join the movement and help these kids get an education? http://www.pencilsofpromise.org/join-the-movement

A few of my fave shots in this post, but you can see the whole photo story here: http://bit.ly/PoP_Nicaragua

The girl in center of this photo is a Seeds of Learning Scholar who is attending a Pencils Of Promise school in El Blandon, Nicaragua. Her family lives on the fringe of a landfill and scavenges trash to survive. Thanks to the PoP Movement she’s in school instead…

This is Dimas, the head mason for Pencils Of Promise ’s collaboration projects with SOL in Nicaragua, in front of the Agua Fria school. In addition to teaching the community hard construction skills, he’s showing them how to plant crops – he owns his own farm with mangos, avocados, coffee, and… tilapia!!!

Some of the kids of Agua Fria walk up hill barefoot to school on the rocks.

Wheel Barrow Wars..

The view of San Ramone:

El Jefe:

The Ring Leader

Jorlgene

Crouching Onken, Hidden Hoolie

A little behind the scenes, we found a bat in my bed…

Super excited to have had DJ Cosmo Baker spin at my book release party for Photo Trekking a couple weeks ago. We collaborated on this mix tape.

Download the mix tape album in separate tracks here:
http://bit.ly/OnTheRoad_mixtape

Download it as one continuous song here:
http://bit.ly/OnTheRoad_mixtape_cont

This month I’m excited to announce the launch of my new educational travel photography book, Photo Trekking. It’s a collection of my travel photographs from around the world and the stories around them. It’s amazing how long it takes to publish a book. Here’s a little background on how the book came about.

Long story short. A couple years ago, I had some travel photo promo books I had done with Blurb. My photography consultant, Amanda Sosa Stone, had used them as examples in her seminars. Randomly enough she was at Photo Plus giving a seminar and an editor from what now is a small publisher called Random House saw the work in book form and got in touch with me about writing a book. Something I was very excited about, it still took us 6 months to write a pitch for it to even get sold in to get published. Come August of 2008, we received great news that the book was greenlit. From there, the March 2009 deadline to write the manuscript and curate the imagery was looming. Amongst the growing business of my commercial photography world, we managed to get everything turned in on time. It’s amazing that from that point of turning in the manuscript and content, it takes one year from that point till the book hits the stands. It has to go through manuscript edits, my approvals of edits, book design/layout, printing in asia, marketing and PR channels, and many other stages that I’m probably unaware of,  which brings us to where we’re at this month: The official release! (oh and forgot to mention the 5 years and 33 countries it took to shoot all the images in the book)

So THAT is why I’m proud and excited to announce the release and release party for Photo Trekking! I’m going to be throwing a release party here in New York City on March 19th. It’s an open invite, but you must RSVP to get in the door and you can do that here:

http://www.nickonken.com/phototrekkingparty/

Photo Trekking is a compilation of the work I’ve shot all around the world from my non-profit adventures, to my short stint of living in Paris. It’s mostly comprised of photos, but in addition to that, I’ve written stories around the images and have a few chapters with my shooting methods and lots of tips.

To see more on the book and/or pre-order it check out the book page: http://www.phototrekkingthebook.com

Lighting Essentials has written a nice little review of the book here.

Michael Muller is one of my favorite photographers. He did an interview like I did on studiolighting.net. Regardless, he is in my favorite photog list. He's got a gallery opening this Thursday from 6-9pm in Santa Monica. I'll be going. Should be worth checking out.

Here's his site: http://www.mullerphoto.com/

Looks like Coldplay is adopting the "concept of free" as well. This week the just announced their new single "Violet Hill" from their new album. Not only did they announce it, but they are giving it away for free. It’s a wonderful song. Definitely makes me want to buy their album.

Get it here:
http://coldplay.com/song.html

I love remixes and mashups. AmpLive received a cease & desist order to put the breaks on his In Rainbows remix project. They eventually came to an agreement that he could only distribute it if he released it to the general public for free.

Check it out and download it here for free.