Giving Back to Nature
I have been a world landscape photographer and traveling the world for many years. This has permitted me to travel to some of the most beautiful locations on earth, have amazing life experiences, and meet extraordinary people, all this while being able to fully express my creativity. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have found a passion that makes me fully experience the feeling of being alive.
One thing is for sure, we are all born to create one thing: create ourselves. Each project, assignment, and experience has paved the way to where I am today. They have led me to be who I am as a person, to become more compassionate and empathetic towards people and the world that surrounds me. The more these feelings developed, the more the little voice inside my head kept telling me I wasn’t doing enough, not giving back enough. It was becoming clear that I needed to act upon that feeling. I remember one day I heard a man say something that really struck a chord inside of me. “Always Leave a Place Better Than You Found It.”
These words led me to start thinking about my passage here on earth. If I were to leave tomorrow, would I have made this world a better place? Would I have left a legacy governed by ego or one sponsored by love? So for the past year, I have reflected greatly on who I am, who I want to be and what kind of positive, meaningful impact I would love to leave not only on the people but also on our beautiful planet. I had to find a way to combine all my passions together, combine them in a way that it would really make a difference.
It is only after I started brainstorming on various ideas I had been contemplating for a while that slowly everything became clear. I had to create a project that would make a difference, one where I could use my abilities, knowledge and my reach for a good cause while at the same time, inspire others to do the same. It is for those reasons that I have created the “Give Back To Nature” project. Its first goal will be to help plant One Million Trees in developing countries, thus help villages and communities to rebuild the natural landscapes destroyed by deforestation.
Recently, I had the chance to visit the beautiful island of Sumatra, Indonesia and witnessed, first hand, the magnitude of the problem. One, which we are greatly responsible due to all the products we consume on a daily basis. More than half of these packaged products all contribute not only to the deforestation but also contribute to climate change, and simultaneously destroys natural animal habitats all around the world. (more…)