There are several types of smiles.  There are smiles that brighten your day, smiles that a passerby will yield out of courtesy, and as a photographer, there are often the forced smiles of a subject who doesn’t want to be in front of the lens.

My experience at Ekisa was much more than any of the above.  My experience at Ekisa was full of smiles that changed my life. Smiles that continue to direct my steps everyday and I can only imagine that as I write this, God is smiling down from heaven on this place, this place so full of joy.

Ekisa is working to transform the lives of families and children affected by disabilities throughout Uganda.  Their work is hard.  It is often life and death, but in the midst of the hard there emantes a joy that is unparalleled. For more information on what they are doing please visit: http://www.ekisa.org or stay updated on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/EkisaMinistries

Ekisa director Emily Worrell is in the states conducting a series of fundraisers over the next couple weeks. She will be in Nashville, TN this week, so if you are interested in partnering with Ekisa or just want to hear more, please don’t hesitate to send them a message: info@ekisa.org

To view the project click here or on any of the photos.

According to the UN, more than one in six people worldwide lack access to the proper amount of safe water. Curable diseases such as diarrhea and other water-borne illnesses are ravaging through the developing world.  In Uganda alone, 10-million people, nearly one third of the entire population lacks access to safe and clean water.

Safe water installations are sometimes a difficult proposition as many rural communities throughout Uganda and Africa lack basic utilities such as electricity that would be needed to pump water.  Water Missions International is on the front lines of designing and implementing safe water solutions and sanitation systems around the world.  They are combining state-of-the art solar technology with pump and filtration systems designed to operate specifically in difficult areas.  WMI partners with rural communities not only to provide safe water solutions, but also educate through intensive community development programs.

Currently, 80 percent all diseases contracted in rural African villages are water-borne; caused by lack of access to proper, safe water.  WMI is implementing safe water solutions that will hopefully bring an end to these diseases.

For more information: http://www.watermissions.org

The following images were shot for Water Missions International in Musoli, Uganda.  Musoli is one of 17 communities in Uganda that has received a safe water project in the past 12 months. Musoli has a population of over 2000 people.

According to the World Food Program, 1 in every 4 children in developing economies are underweight. As well, malnutrition and hunger-related diseases are responsible for 60-percent of deaths in children under five years of age in the developing countries.

The cycle of malnutrition is readily apparent in countries like Uganda, where lack of proper education leads even the most caring of parents down a route that is detrimental to the health of their child.  Serving His Children is doing an incredible job at not only caring and rehabilitating children who are suffering from malnutrtion, but also educating local populations in how to properly care for their children.

SHC was founded in 2008 by Renee Bach with the mission of providing care and love to the community of Masese, Uganda and has since grown to a full in-patient and out-patient malnutrition clinic and rehabilitation program, serving not only Masese, but also the surrounding areas.  SHC is on the front lines of providing life-saving malnutrition care in Uganda. Take a look at their website to find out more about what they are doing and how you can get involved.  http://www.servinghischildren.org

The following photos are from SHC’s in-patient rehabilitation clinic and several images from the out-patient clinic in the remote northwest of Uganda.

I’ve been repping our friends at Tukula pretty hard the past couple weeks and I figured I would cap it off with a blog post about them.  I was absolutely blessed by my time spent with this crew in Jinja.  They are rocking it and producing some killer stuff.  I bought a bag and some accessories for my mom as a late Christmas present.  She loved them.  Anyway Check out what they are doing at: http://www.tukula.org or check out a blog post written by their founder at One.org.

The past couple months we have been on the road throughout Africa filming a series of things, from Banana Farms to Medical Clinics. We have been shooting a series of pieces for USAID (The United States Agency for International Development) regarding the availability of credit to businesses in the developing world. Here are some of the stills from the past couple weeks of life on the road.

I’m gradually getting projects finished and as they get done, I will post them up in the work section of the website.  http://www.bobbyneptune.com/work

Best Team Ever. Brian, Stephanie, Morgana and Bobby

Interview in Ethiopia

One of the Rigs

My Backpack

We need 900 Carts for our Gear

Brian and Morgana sorting through Media while we wait for our airplane

A lot of time Spent here

..........

A hillside in Ethiopia

My desk in Uganda

Shooting a Mini-Campaign for a textile company in Uganda

Love this job.

We’ve got a new gig.  Street Portraits.  Decently lit, impromptu shots. Go check them out.  This is what happens when you combine several speedlights, some fun peops with creative minds and lots of fairly intoxicated evening goers in Chinatown.

Brownsville, Texas is strange.  It is a city that sits on a precipice, a very steep, very tall and very dangerous precipice.  It’s a hub, a transit-stop for goods, money and people—the legality of which are often in question. When you arrive in Brownsville, it is impossible to shirk the feeling that you are coming to the edge of this precipice, the end of the road.  It is this very strange, very daunting feeling that you are running out of room.  The truth is, you are running out of room.  You’re coming to the end of the American architecture and right up to the edge of a precipice that few want to jump off, even in the most prepared of scenarios.  You’re coming to the Mexican border.

Texas Highway 77 takes you right to the edge of this cliff, and if you so desire, over and across.  The last stretch of US highway, however, offers continuous petitions for remainder in the States.  There are multiple signs that read  “LAST EXIT BEFORE MEXICO” and  “EXIT NOW BEFORE MEXICO.”

We have come to Brownsville to take the leap over this great precipice.  We have come to Brownsville to go to Mexico.  The truth is we are all nervous.  The kind of nervousness you have as a kid getting ready to go off the diving board for the first time.  The kind of nervousness you get standing at the brink of any great ledge, be that the Grand Canyon, a bungee jump, a sky dive or any great height.  It is a jump into the unknown and the unknown always holds with it an element of fear.

The truth is, South Texas is just as flat as the rest of the Midwest, so practically speaking, there is no geographic, physical cliff.  But there does exist a great barrier in-between the two countries, a barrier of safety, security, commerce and for us, adventure.  This barrier feels like a great precipice, a great judgmental dividing line.  The only comparison I can make is that being in Brownsville is a bit like standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon without a rope and a harness.  There is a great respect and fear for the dangers that the precipice provides, but also a great curiosity as to what lies below.  We know that our adventure begins the moment we cross this barrier, the moment we take the leap over this cliff.

We have been planning our trip to Mexico for sometime now—a summer road trip with some good friends. Over the past months, I have become addicted to progress. The burdens of which are finally starting to catch up with me.  This trip is supposed to be a break from that progress.  We want nothing more than to shirk our responsibilities in the states for a couple of weeks absent of any progress, phone calls, or duties.  They say that every great trip has a purpose, a goal.  I don’t think ours does.  We have come to Mexico in search of absolutely nothing, and in that regard, it leaves the possibility open for us to find everything.  All we want are a couple of weeks that are dedicated to no progress whatsoever.

There is Tanner, my best friend, the phlegmatic, easy-going, adventure-seeker who has planned this trip with me for the past few months. Then there is Eric, who I don’t know well, but is a good friend of most of my friends.  He has never been to Mexico, and is mostly just along for the ride. 

We are coming from the North by car, from Arkansas.  For the past several hours, Highway 77 has been our venue, but at this point, we find it best to heed the signs’ warnings and exit before we actually do run out of space. The sun is setting to our right and we have some errands to run in Brownsville as well as get one last good night of sleep before throwing ourselves off the cliff tomorrow morning.

We check into a cheap hotel in Brownsville and the door chime in the lobby is familiar.  It is the famous Westminster Quarters—the same chime of the front doorbell in my childhood house.  For me, it is a welcome reminder that we are still home.  We fall asleep that night contemplating the mystery and adventure that lie beyond the precipice.

–more coming soon.–

My apologies for lacking to update the site. I’ve been busy doing things and taking holidays.  Here are some shots from Thanksgiving and some food that is guaranteed to make you hungry just by looking at it.

I shot this tilt shift last year in Fayetteville, but never really showed it to anybody because, well I’m not sure. But here is a simple little tilt shift of Fayetteville. No, not all the shots are tilt shift, but nonetheless its still a fun video.

I shot this video last week but haven’t had time to get it up until now. The first half of the video is just silly shots from my front yard, but the second half is decent scenics from Rwanda including a Time lapse of Muha Bura Volcano in the Northwest of the country.

Over the past few weeks I have barely even taken a single photo, but that changed today when I decided to make it priority over my remaining days here in Rwanda.  Rwanda truly is a beautiful country with beautiful people.  My backyard is a playground of tectonic forces and no matter which direction I look, I am surrounded by massive volcanic cones.  Rwanda Nziza literally means ‘Rwanda Beautiful’ and this is something that I just can’t deny.  These are a collection of images that I shot today as well as day 1 of my trip.  I’m a bit rusty with the camera, so forgive.

Waiting in Line at the Congo-Kinshasa Border.

This weekend we are leaving on a road trip to southern Mexico. It was January when the last stamp in my passport was entered and I think last week marked the longest period of time that I have been stagnant in four years.

Over the past months, I have become addicted to progress. The burdens of which are finally starting to catch up with me. My desk has a decent amount of responsibility attached to it and for somebody who is not that far removed from his adolescent years, society would probably say calm down. The truth is, I won’t. I have found that the days in which I am the happiest are the days in which I make tangible leaps of progress.

The problem is, it seems that progress is ultimately tied to responsibility. Where progress is made, responsibility is this burden that just tags along. No matter how hard I try, it just shows up; I have found no feasible circumvention. I look at it like having a pet. You want the joys associated with having Fluffy, but nobody wants to clean out the litter box, feed or bathe him. These are responsibilities that just inherently come with having a pet.

There lies another problem with a pet. When you leave, you have to find somebody to watch after Fluffy and make sure he doesn’t eat the sofa or pee on the xBox. In the same way, I have to find somebody to look after my responsibilities while I am gone. And since websites are inevitably self-destructing organisms that constantly require attention, I have to find somebody skilled enough to mend them. This is where Brian comes in. He is my faithful business partner whom I am ever so grateful for. He fills in where I leave off and I try to do the same for him. It makes leaving ever so simpler, knowing that when I return the sofa will be intact and the xbox won’t be wet.

We are leaving on a road trip to Southern Mexico. And yes, we have been there before. But I have found that each time I go, I find something new and learn something that I didn’t set off to learn. This time we will be driving and a trip that is normally a very easy flight could and probably will turn into an adventure of adventurous proportions. I’m ready. Not packed ready, but anxious ready. I’m ready to temporarily skirt my responsibilities and progress for a couple weeks that are dedicated to no progress whatsoever. I’m ready for the feeling that Fluffy’s bark and/or meow is some 1500 miles away.