fotofugitive

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Here is the wallpaper for January 2010. It was shot along the roadside in rural Laos between the capital Vientiane and popular backpacker hangout Vang Vieng. Laos was once known as the Land of a Million Elephants. Unfortunately, due to habitat loss and hunting, the wild elephant population in Laos is now estimated at less than 1200 animals, with a similar number of domesticated elephants in the country. Domesticated elephants are used for logging, land clearance (ironically), agriculture, transportation and tourism. You can find more about elephants in Laos and what is being done to remedy the situation at eleaid.com , an organisation that is involved in Asian elephant conservation in Laos.

As usual, the wallpaper is available in a few different sizes:

January Wallpaper: 1280 x 800 (or click on the image above)
January Wallpaper: 1440 x 900
January Wallpaper: 1920 x 1200

Wishing you all the best for a fantastic year ahead. I know I’m excited about this years opportunities!

More to come …

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Just a quick one today. Yesterday I received my invitation to Google Wave, and while I’m still figuring out how it works, I think it might have potential for communication between multiple parties on a particular topic. An ongoing group chat/email if you will.

It seems that when you join you are given eight invitations to give out. I have given two away already and am keeping a few in reserve for family/friends for now. I do however have two Google Wave invites that I am giving away. Contact me either via this site or my twitter account @fotofugitive and leave your email address if you are interested. I will choose two people to receive the invitations. Good luck!

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Just a quick one today folks. First up, above is the monthly wallpaper for December. It’s an image of Buddhist Monks’ Robes drying in the sun in a temple complex in Luang Prabang, Laos. There are three sizes available. Clicking on the image will take you to the 1280 x 800 version. Other sizes are below:

December Wallpaper: 1280 x 800
December Wallpaper: 1440 x 900
December Wallpaper: 1920 x 1200

In other news, I head to the airport in about four hours for a week-long trip to the Central Coast and Sydney. The reasons for my trip are twofold:

One of my best mates is graduating with his degree in Primary Education this weekend. We’re very proud of him, and I’ll take any excuse to hang out with great friends that I don’t get to see nearly enough of

I will be talking to Church leaders and promoting Metamorphic’s Water4Water events that we plan to hold in the lead up to World Water Day in 2010. We’re basically encouraging people to hold a BBQ or party with 20 of their friends. Each attendee pays $20 and gets a bottle of Water4Water branded water which will provide 4 people in developing countries with fresh water for life. We hope to get 20 Churches on board in Australia, each holding 20 parties of 20 people $20pp, and 10 Churches doing the same in the UK. If we can achieve this goal, this initiative will raise close to a quarter of a million dollars for our water projects. You can follow @Water_4_Water on twitter.

I’ll be back next Wednesday. Incidentally, if you’re so inclined, you can follow my travel plans on Dopplr.

Have a safe and happy December everyone. I’ll be in touch.

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Hi folks, sorry it’s been a bit quiet around these parts lately. The above image is my very first monthly wallpaper on this blog. It’s a shot taken in a valley full of rice fields hemmed in on all sides by mountains in Luangnamtha Province in Northern Laos. The province borders both China and Myanmar and is a beautiful part of the country. I’ve made the wallpaper available in a number of sizes to suit varying screen resolutions. Clicking on the image above will take you to the smallest which is 1024 x 768. For other sizes, click on the appropriate link below:

November Wallpaper: 1024×768
November Wallpaper: 1280×800
November Wallpaper: 1280×1024
November Wallpaper: 1440×900
November Wallpaper: 1920×1200

Ok, so now to what you’ve really been waiting for … We had just under 50 entries in the ‘VisionMongers’ giveaway. This afternoon I paid a visit to the wizards at random.org, they worked their hocus pocus and the magic number that came back was number 4, which just so happened to be:

@jkapcoe (John Kapcoe) who entered via twitter

Congratulations John! You’ve won a copy of David duChemin’s new book, ‘VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography’ due to be released in about 9 days if I’m not mistaken. Contact me via the contact page link above and I’ll put in the order with Amazon. To everyone else, thanks so much for playing and helping me spread the word about my new site. I appreciate it. I hope to have some more giveaways in the future, so stay tuned. It might be your lucky day next time.

In other news Whiskerino has started in earnest – 4 months of bearded goodness! If you so choose, you can follow my progress on my Whiskerino page. I’ll probably post a monthly mosaic of my whiskerino pics so keep an eye out for that. It’s gonna be scary, in the best possible way

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Image designed by JAM & Mackle

Hi folks, thanks for the warm welcome last week. I appreciated all the kind comments you left. Thus far I have about 50 names in the draw to win David duChemin’s next book “VisionMongers”. Keep ‘em coming. I’ll draw the winner in the next few weeks.

A few of you have asked about reading my recent essays for my Humanitarian Emergencies & Disaster Relief subject. This is part of my Masters in International and Community Development that I’m completing through Deakin University. I’ve included links to both essays for that subject below:

• Emergencies & the Media
• Gender, Disability & Child Rights Issues in Emergencies & Disasters

In other news, the countdown is on to the biennial beard-growing fest that is Whiskerino – Four months of beard-growing goodness! The event begins on November 1st and ends on February 28th next year. Participants are required to start clean-shaven and post regular pictures of their progress, with points awarded for creativity. I participated two years ago and made it to around the two-month mark. This year I hope to go the whole hog and will use it to raise funds for my pro bono projects for small local NGOs. I’m looking for people who would like to sponsor me and my beard for anywhere from $1 to $5 for every day I last in the event. It will be 120 grand days of unbridled hirsuteness! There are two ways you can help out, if you’re so inclined:

1. Email me at tim[at]fotofugitive[dot]com and make a pledge for whatever amount you can afford per day
2. Join me in participating in Whiskerino this year and ask your friends to sponsor you to raise money for fotofugitive projects (Get in quick on November 1st though, as numbers are limited and they fill fast!)

You can check out my photos from the last Whiskerino here