Final Countdown!

There are just 17 more days left until I set foot back on American soil.
I've been super busy but I wanted to update you all on the craziness that has been going on as
the deadline approaches.

First:

In two days I'll finish my Cambridge CELTA (Certification of English Language Teaching for Adults)!  I've been taking this intensive course for 3 months now and it feels great that to finally be finishing tomorrow.

My TO DO list today:

1. Write up last Teaching Practice about Dreams and 2nd Conditional grammar
2. Finish all of my DF's for remaining 14 Units (this may take all day)
3. Do last online observation with write-up.

If I'm able to finish all of this before my friend Tatlihan's birthday party tonight then I'll work on editing some photos for my portfolio from the Seoul Fashion Week 2010 show. I had so many shots and video from that show that I never really got to editing them all.

Second

Featured Photographer: Tyler Hicks

Feature Photographer: Tyler Hicks

 

 Tyler Hicks has quite a resume of accomplishments under his belt. He's a staff photographer for the New York Times which is where I first discovered his work. He's been working his butt off starting in 1999 as a contract photographer in Kenya. Over the years he's worked his way up the ranks and has documented conflicts in Kosovo, Chechnya, Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The article that brought my attention to his work is this one . It tells about how Tyler has found himself in and out of Afghanistan for the past 10 years documenting the conflict and having lived through many things few can imagine. He does it, he says, so that people can know a more personal level to the conflicts and not just see the wars for their politics. He was embedded with many units and found himself under fire countless times and in several near death experiences but he chose to stand his ground and continue his job.

That really inspires me as there have been many times I've felt like throwing my camera down, selling it, and moving on to something different. AKA, giving up. I really love reading stories and seeing the works of inspiring people like this guy.

What's even better, he is currently residing here in Istanbul. So if you see this Tyler, I'd love to buy you lunch!

Here are some photos of his taken from the article written by C. J. Chivers.

 Here is the link to his profile page on the New York Times with more of his work.

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/h/tyler_hicks/index.html

Hope you have enjoyed this small tribute. If you like it and would like me to share more photographers let me know in the comments section.

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Now I'll look to see if I can contact Tyler himself since he's in my neighborhood. How exciting!