Word to the wise: If one of your tripod legs sinks into what initially seems to be a gopher hole, be sure to triple check BEFORE you pull the leg out...otherwise you might get a bunch of these angry guys coming out for your blood!

(Not my photo, not my finger...)

As I was on my last photo shoot, I can't tell you how powerfull a punch these guys pack. As soon as I pulled out the tripod leg about 20 of these suckers swarmed me, but luckily I only got stung once on my massive bicep. (haha)

I swear I am still itchy after 4 days of being stung. The worst part is, if I scratch where he bit me, it HURTS! So I have to endure the itchyness. Good thing I was on the last 360 degree panorama, I don't think I would have been able to effectively take photographs being in the extreme pain I was in.

Ok it wasn't THAT bad, but still.

Have you ever gone to show a property, and as soon as you unlock the front door you get a gust of wind that is comprised mostly of cat/dog urine? Well, this last shoot I did was exactly that. I regret to say that my photography was not at it's best, as I was trying to rush in and out as soon as possible. On top of that when I went to the basement to take photos, I vaguely remembered a scene from "Blair Witch Project" where there were a bunch of hand prints on the walls. Creepy! As a photographer, I can't tell you how turned off I was to this property, for the smell alone!

Now obviously I wouldn't want to link this property, nor show it's virtual tour, but I did fulfill my duty as a "marketing specialist" by telling the Realtor that something HAS to be done, otherwise you'll be looking at offers $10k or more below the asking price. The Realtor graciously accepted the opinion, and said he will convince the owners to do something. Needless to say, I think I got a 3,500 sq ft. house photographed in record time!

Lastly, I wanted to share with everybody who's subscribed to this/bookmarked this blog, that I will now be doing more of our personal family news on our family blog: www.bkfamilyblog.newtourera.com. (There's also a link in my "Links" section to the right. There I will update you on my "48 Days" mission, and my latest job offers along with other family news. We also have 3 people who will be updating it. My wife, oldest daughter, and me.

I will keep more of the real estate updates in this blog.

-Ben

So I'm on a 2-part section that takes up days 2 & 3, so I'll blog about "48 Days" either tomorrow or Thursday. I have to admit, however that this whole process has really given me a different attitude AT work (not my photography work). In the meantime, because I KNOW you're chompin at the bit to hear about days 2 and 3 (haha), I wanted to share a photo that I took of the Basilika in the Dominican Republic. A cool story, one of the team members had it printed out really big and is now in their dining room. I took this on the roof of "Hotel Don Carlos," and to keep the camera steady I had to use my ziploc bag of cuban dominican cigars. It was awesome that night, as you can clearly see:

Oh, and I know I could have photoshopped that little alien antennae, but I thought it was cool so hush!

Stay tuned for days 2&3!!!

I didn't realize how long it's been since I've last blogged. Things have been busy so I have completely neglected blogging, which is a good thing right? Maybe not... I must admit, before I started reading, and putting in entries on Active Rain, I would hardly see my Real Estate Photography company in the top 10 spots, heck, not even on the first page of Yahoo or Goole search engines. Since that point in time, I've come to find that we'll be in the top 5 almost at all times. I feel a great deal of gratitude goes out to the whole AR community, so thank you Active Rain-ers!!!

Now, here's a question for some of you photographers: Do you do RE photography in addition to other gigs? Such as weddings, special events, corporate events, etc...? I know there are many "entrepreneurs" out there who picked up a camera for the first time because you saw the craigslist ad for a "Photographer needed ~ no experience required!!!" So if that is you, and you added event photography, how are you balancing?  To the photographers who added I'm just curious as to how many photographers out there added RE photography to their existing repertoire.

~Curious

I just wanted to post a quick entry about my recovery / back to reality. I got back on saturday the 7th, went to church at North Point, and after a quick bite at one of our favorite burger joints

and on the ride home I started feeling ill. Long story short, I went to work, got sent home, went to the doctor, took blood, went to the ER, spent 9 hours and my wife took a very unflattering photo of me:

The results? Not Malaria, Not Dengue or Yellow fever, just a NASTY VIRUS. What the heck is that?!?! I get sick for a week, and mind you when I get sick, it's every OTHER year for maybe a full day or so, and all I get to say is "Oh, yeah it was a 'nasty virus'."

I know I know, I could have had one of the afformentioned illnesses, and be completely up the creek, especially with Malaria and the risk of it coming back if not taken care of properly. I am completely grateful it wasn't, but the macho side of me wishes I had a better answer other than "Oh yeah, it was a nasty virus."

So, after a week of death, I made it back to work (both jobs) and have been cranking away tours and flyers almost every day. Thank GOD for business. I guess next year in the DR I will make sure to actually go to the health clinic and get whatever shots I need to get, instead of just bringing a prescription for Cipro.

Till the next time,

~Ben

Well, it's the last day of our trip. No more "hanging" out with the COOLEST group of people in a foreign country.

We did our last minute shopping:

We breezed through the check-in, however I ALMOST had to pay an extra $92 because I was 5lbs over the weight limit...all those dang bags of coffee :-(

It was a beautiful site, getting up in the air and looking down on the city of Santo Domingo:

I will never forget this trip, never. There are so many memories that we created as a team, and as individuals. If you have never done a trip like this, I highly recommend it. Not for the fact that we are ALL called to do missionary work, at whatever level, but also for the fact that you will make lifelong friends. I can't thank everybody enough who read this blog, and helped with the creation of some of the photos. It would have been MUCH more difficult and a whole lot less fun doing it by myself. So...to everybody reading, and to everybody on the team, this is Biz signing off for the last time (until the next trip). It feels great to be home.

God Bless.

~biz

see more photos of the trip here: http://www.globalxdr.com/2008/galleries

Ok I told you I would reflect back on the last two days, so here is day 7. Today was an awesome day, good weather, we got a lot done and we celebrated another birthday. On the way to the construction site, I kept making faces at the vanload behind us, it was fun:

OH, I also got to go on a motorcycle ride, this guy spoke a little bit of english so we went to a TON of places, it was fun:

Then after a hard days of work, and after the birthday celebration we went back to "Room 216" to do our nightly devotions and testimonies. Well, I don't know if you remember but on Wednesday it rained...VERY hard. Needless to say the aroma that trespassed ones noseholes was, interesting to say the least. Let me share a couple of photos:

Notice the guys reactions, one seems to have lost his eyesight it was so bad, and the other, well it may have been a little more familiar, as he seemed to enjoy the stench:

So, being the trooper that I am, I decided to investigate this evil piece of work, and I think I found the culprit, or at least 1 of them:

Let this be a lesson, when it rains and you're not wearing socks while working...do NOT leave your shoes inside a room with no ventilation. There is never a good result.

ever.

~biz

So since it rained yesterday SOOO much, I stayed in the room most of the day and just tried to check my emails and such...however, the internet was down all day. Que Malo :-(

At night we had a "farewell" service, where the members of the church all gave us shot...I mean communion glasses with our names engraved on them. It was so awesome. Here I am with all of the guys:

Tomorrow's our final "full" day, the soreness, tiredness, and all the "ness's" you can think about that have to do with your body wearing down, is beginning to set in. I will share again with you all tomorrow. 

~biz

Well, today was a VERY busy day. I didn't get around to taking too many pictures as it was POURING outside, so I didn't want to bring out the camera. The kids were there in mass, so we read them some stories, played yoyo's with them, and even tried to throw the ball around a little bit when the rain cleared. Good thing is, I found a friend who SPOKE my language! His name was Bizolo! (go figure). He was a very nice guy who sold us bananas cheap!

Then after the work day, we got to go to the church family's house for dinner. I brought along a gift for the little girl who lived there:

They also had a very nice puppy named "Tonko." He was fun and even let me ride on his back.

The dinners with the families were so awesome. We got to swap photos, talk about their lives and how they are involved with the church. I hope I can come again next year and maybe even bring a friend or two to share in the experience.

~biz

It's 8:30am, time to get ready for another fun day in the sun!

Today was awesome, a few of the team members got together and cleared out all of the trash and nasty brush from the field next door to the church, and then started playing with some of  local kids. Then, Andrew (who is a former pro baseball player) got out his glove and ball... and soon the amount of children TRIPLED. It was so awesome, after the field was cleared, it became an instant baseball diamond, check out the photos here:

http://www.globalxdr.com/2008/galleries/June3.htm

Then around lunch time, we started to rehearse a song in Spanish because we will be performing it in front of the congregation, I'm a little nervous for Ben because He will be the one leading it in Spanish. I better tune my guitarra bien.

Once we were done, we did more playing with the kids and also getting the ground ready for the walls. I guess they make the walls THEN pour the foundation down here. Interesting. It was tough leaving the kids today, but tomorrow we'll play again:

Mmmmm...dinner. Pollo con habichuelas y arroz. We even had some Arroz con gondules, which I thought was more a Puerto Rican dish, but hey I'm not mad, it was GOOD!

For our winding down time, we just played a little game of cards, I think I did pretty well considering most of my hands looked like this:

God is doing such an amazing work down here. How easily it is to get the kids involved is amazing, I just pray that what we and the 2 other groups who are coming in the next couple of months, our work will make a big impact. I love how God shows us a little bit of the results almost instantaneously, almost as to say "Your work is not in vain, I promise." 

God bless.

 ~biz