Helping Reach The Children Charity

I have teamed up with Reach the Children to help bring much-needed health and other humanitarian services to needy people in Africa.  The charity’s current programs include education (general skills, AIDS prevention, and health), micro-enterprise, orphan care, water & agriculture, and community empowerment initiatives to help people help themselves (http://reachthechildren.org/).  Through the end of the year, all of the proceeds from on-line Amazon sales of my book I Love Rochester New York book will go directly to the charity.  And a full 100% of donations to this Rochester-based charity go straight to the organization’s programs in 13 African countries.  Making a donation will never be sweeter.  Get some books for holiday gifts and help make life better for others.

To order the book go to: http://www.amazon.com/I-Love-Rochester-New-York/dp/0615505139/ref=?ie=UTF8&m=A2FVSQDGQBEV04.

Stony Brook State Park

Fall in New York is a delightful time as trees take on their often-brilliant red and yellow hues.  This year my wife and I returned to Stony Brook State Park, one of our favorite Fall destinations in New York State.  Again, we were not disappointed.

Stars and Stripes

I have taken note of how many products are either designed with a stars and stripes motif or are packaged with such a patriotic theme.  So I have begged, borrowed, and scrounged a variety of such products for a composite picture of some such items.  In the process I’ve learned that just because a product projects itself as an American product doesn’t mean that it is.  While I didn’t check the origin of every product in this picture, I can say that at least one was made in China and one came from Sweden.  Can you guess which ones these are?

Wedding Book

After seeing the book I created on Rochester, the bride whose wedding I recently photographed decided that she would like a book made of her wedding photos.  Using a different approach, I made one for her using one of the many on-line book publishing resources.  After considering both cost and quality, I settled on Shutterfly.com as a reasonably-priced alternative with very good quality.  By modifying pre-developed templates, I was able to build a very nice book with a variety of pages and embellishments.  I used a nice photo of the couple riding together in a carriage for the front of the hard cover. 

Wedding

On the banks of the Genesee River behind Staybridge Suites, Michael and Yaneek exchanged vows on Aug. 4.  A horse-drawn carriage added to the festivities.  I photographed their happy day.

Fourth of July

My wife and I had a very enjoyable Fourth of July vacation in the Wash. DC area.  We toured the White House, the U.S. Capitol Building, and watched fireworks from near the Iwo Jima monument.  Attached is a picture of the fireworks.

DanceWorks Photos

Just over a week ago, I took the annual photographs for the DanceWorks studio.  I took approximately 500 photographs of over 50 students.  Some students were in more than one class and therefore had multiple costumes.  From the resulting pictures I made up different packages according to each family’s order.  A sampling of photos from the photo shoot are attached below.  

More Book Publicity

Recently, I Love Rochester New York has received publicity in several venues.  The Greece Post published an article, which was also picked up by some of the other community newspapers. 

Lani Packard wrote a nice piece for examiner.com.  You can see her article at:  http://www.examiner.com/books-in-rochester/rulon-simmons-tells-the-story-of-rochester-ny.

The Democrat and Chronicle also ran an article about the book last Sunday under the section Spotlight on Authors.