reidowitz Wide Open!

Get your Wrapsacks NOW and Reduce, Reuse & Recycle!

For me, if anyone reading this could do three things it would be first to recycle, next buy a refillable water bottle, and next use reusable bags! If that's all you do that's cool but thank you soooooo much for doing just that.  Please, make sure you choose to reuse the bags of your choice. It's a great step in helping the environment. Take a look at the video in our store www.goCrazyGreen.com on Wrapsacks.  These are just a cool way to pass on gifts this holiday season and keep using them throughout the year. 

via www.gocrazygreen.com

For those friends who are on Tampa Electric service in Florida go check out http://www.tampaelectric.com/saveenergy . They will help you with an energy audit, install an advanced thermostat and provide you with eight energy-saving light bulbs. Thanks TECO!

Editing some 10,000 images with the new Aperture. Wow! Great program. Check it out if you're lucky enough to be on a Mac! http://www.apple.com/aperture/ I've been moving my HD together with my stills both from Nikon's new D3s seemlessly...very cool!

Flashes of Hope

Probably one of my favorite shoots that I look forward to every time it comes up.  I had the privilege of being the first photographer in Orlando to do a Flashes of Hope (http://www.flashesofhope.org) shoot a couple of years ago at the Arnold Palmer Hospital.  Flashes of Hope brings commercial photographers together with children going through treatments for life-threatening battles.  We are also lucky to have a great team of stylists helping make the morning special too!

I remember getting the first mailer when they wanted to get started in Orlando, FL.  I received an awesome package in the mail.  I don't think I got but a few minutes into the materials, when I picked up the phone and said let me help you get this going.  

I think the main reason it appealed to me was that I lost my best friend to leukemia when we were just 8 years old.  He got diagnosed after falling while ice skating at my birthday party.  He had a bruise that never healed and that started his struggle.  I think we only really got to be together a few times after that before he passed away.  

There was one school picture of Tim that I remember everyone seeing of him from then on.  So, when I get the  opportunity to share a few moments of my time and shoot some memorable pictures with these kids somehow I think I back to sharing sometime with my best friend Tim again.  The funny thing was when I shot this shot a couple of weeks ago, I found out that everyone I shot that morning was 8 years old!  Thanks Tim!  AND thanks Markel for sharing your morning with me!

Recycling Begins for the Reid House!

I'm really blown away! We started recycling FINALLY! Trying to get plastic bins has been a huge hassle and if I get any time, I'm going to help find a way to make it easier for our county. Once on the web site I tried. Then, a couple of phone calls. Finally, my neighbor Frank, whom you'll hear a lot about, hooked me up! Thanks Frank. For those of you who think recycling might not be worth the time and effort or see the benefit of it; as a house with two adults and two small kids still going though pull-ups and diapers, I can tell you how fast the trash adds up. Back in my bachelor days, I'd probably fill one trash can up a week...mostly empties from you know what! Lately, our family has been generating 6-8 cans of garbage a week! We're lucky that they pick up on both Tuesday and Friday. Normally we'd fill 2-3 of these twice a week. Now, I'm not sure how much the rest of you generate for your local landfill, but when I first was talking with Shawna regarding Crazy Green, we were talking about composting and I asked how much garbage her family puts on the curb. She told me "about one can every two weeks"! WHAT! You gotta be kidding me! So, I'm proud to say that the rate has decreased! I'm actually not far behind Shawna when you factor in that we have a daughter still in diapers who eats like a horse! Here's 1/2 of one week, two small kitchen bags of garbage! So, I'd say at a two week rate we wouldn't fill two cans but about 1 1/2. That's a pretty huge reduction for my local landfill when we were doing 6-8 cans. That's about an 80% savings! So, start recycling today! Call whoever picks up your trash and get some bins or whatever you use in your area NOW! If you haven't checked out the video on single stream recyclingI posted, do so. It's what they use in my area and a pretty cool process. Stay tuned for more from the Reid house!

Earth Hour with the Reids

Thanks to everyone that participated in Earth Hour 2009. A pretty cool, coordinated event around the world. I was kinda surprised by how many people were unaware of Earth Hour as I talked with folks last week. Then, our phones started ringing and texts came in from various members of our network who were celebrating Earth Hour. One of my friends even told me how they had done this last year and were all geared up for it this year! Cool... I thought I'd share what my daughter McKenna asked me. She said, "Daddy why are all the lights turned out?" Excellent question. She was actually a little scared of the dark at first. My other daughter Marley, no problem there, she just went on eating dinner. I told McKenna it was like a savings account for the planet. Everyone around the world was turning off their lights in their homes and businesses for one hour between 8:30-9:30 PM this Saturday night to cast their vote for the planet. According to Earth Hour, by switching your lights off you vote for Earth or by leaving them on you vote for global warming. The goal is 1 billion people for 2009. It started in Sydeny in 2007 with 2.2 million homes and business switching off their lights for an hour. In 2008, it went global with 50 million people switching off their lights. My conversation with Mckenna continued. We talked about how here in Florida this is also an excellent reminder that hurricane season is coming. McKenna was just a month old when we were hit by Charlie and two other hurricanes in 2004 that left us without power for a few days and in the dark. Also, we talked about how resourceful you must be on an island with such limited resources. We talked about how we usually ate dinner while in the Bahamas only by candle light because they didn't like to use electricity unnecessarily. "Oh yeah Dad, I remember there being not one but a bunch of candles on the table," chimes McKenna. Cool, I think she and I are now on the same page. So, I went back to my savings account thought. You see McKenna, the earth only has what it has. There's only so much clean water and natural resources that when we use them up they're gone. So, I said what you chose to reduce and not use is like a savings account. Later in life that light bulb you turned off or even the tree you helped save or the bath you shortened, may well be something that you need then! "Yeah Daddy, it's like my Piggy Bank right?" "Yep, McKenna! I think your getting the concept of conserving and reducing," I comment to her. Now, I think it's beginning to be a contest in the house. I've been caught throwing things away! I'm also reminding others about switching lights off. We'll see how the Reid's do. So, our family voted for Earth. What a cool place to be part of. Global warming, climate change or whatever the buzz word is now, just equates back to me of how important it is to just help your friends and family be more responsible, make better choices. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We've heard it chimed to us in the news and in songs but have we actually done anything about it? The statistics say not the majority of us. So please help pass the word. Go CRAZY GREEN™! Join us now and pass the word to your family and friends.