When one of Frommer’s photo editors contacted me out of the blue to see if I was interested in photographing places all over Seattle for a couple of their upcoming books, I about fell off my chair. Let me think about that for a sec uhh YES!!

It’s always been a dream of mine to photograph for a travel guide or magazine and now it’s come true! My photos in a book on Amazon (also HERE). I’m over the moon!

To celebrate and share the love, I’m giving away a copy of the book shown in the photos above (because it’s the coolest of the two books). I’ll ship it to wherever you live in the world. :)

You may enter to win in one of two ways (or do both to enter twice):

1. Leave a comment on this post answering the following question: What’s your favorite place in the world and your favorite thing to do there?
2. Go to Facebook and tag Lindsay Kennedy Photography with the following status update (it might look like there’s a typo at the end, but if you copy and paste as-is, you should get the little popup that lets you link the status to my page): I’m entering to a win a copy of Frommer’s Seattle Travel Guide from @Lindsay Kennedy Phot

I’ll close the giveaway next Tuesday, February 7th, at Midnight PST.

The Fine Print

• Two entries (one blog comment, one Facebook status) per person
• Make sure to leave a valid e-mail address along with your blog post comment, and/or make sure Facebook recognizes the @Lindsay Kennedy Photo so it links back to my page and I’ll know you posted the status as an entry
• One winner will be picked at random and notified by email or Facebook message, and I’ll announce it here on Wednesday morning.

This post has been over a year in coming, partly because it’s such a sensitive topic culturally and politically, and I wanted to make sure to do these sweet people justice in telling their story. But it’s time to tell the story, so I’ll do my best…

Sweet Iganani

Amalé is such a fun loving little guy!

I had the pleasure of spending a couple days with the mothers and children that have sought care with the staff at Atini, since they are no longer welcome in their tribes. If a mother refuses to follow the infanticide custom, she and her children are kicked out of the tribe. It seems like such a harsh custom, but before we go passing judgement, consider this: you live in the jungle striving to survive when along comes a physically or mentally challenged baby. Basic survival needs take up all your time, and suddenly here is an extremely needy child and you and your tribe don’t have the means to care for him. There are often reasons for cultural traditions and their origins. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so black and white.

It’s easy to view things from our limited perspective, living in a country that offers so much support to families that are caring for their challenged children, families that feel so blessed to have these children in their lives. Yet, it seems like there should be an alternative for the tribes in Brazil so they too may be blessed by their children. This is what Atini is about- offering women and their children a place to go when they are no longer welcome in their tribes.

Below is an exerpt from Atini’s English website (Use Google Translate see their more updated Portuguese site for more information HERE and HERE):

“In many parts of Brazil the practice of infanticide is still a reality. Every year dozens of children are buried alive, suffocated with leaves, poisoned or abandoned to die in the forest. Loving mothers are many times forced by cultural tradition to betray their instincts and give up on their child. Some of them rather commit suicide than follow the tradition. Others have to live with the pain and remorse for the rest of their life. In some cases, the mothers fight for the lives of their children while they can and are forced to live excluded by society or they need to take refuge away from their community. There are many reasons that lead to the death of hundreds of helpless children. Children that are born with some type of mental or physical handicap may be sacrificed. Twins or children born out of relationships that are undesired by the community have no guarantee of the right of life. …

Even though infanticide is a violation of human rights, it’s tolerated by the official agencies, under the politics of not interfering in the culture. Even though we have information that point to an increase of the infanticide rate in recent years, it is very hard to reach an accord of an approximate number of victims per year. Many of the deaths caused by infanticide appear covered in the official documents as death caused by malnutrition or undetermined causes. …

We are a group formed by people from different areas of society like NGO’s, indigenous associations, companies, churches, and politicians gathered around the same purpose. We respect the cultures and the differences, but above all we respect the human beings with no distinction. We fight to move and mobilize society with the purpose of seeking solutions for this ancestral problem of our nation. We fight to defend the right of life that each child has no matter what their ethnic origin is. We fight to take information to each indigenous community and to create condition for the children that are survivals of infanticide to be treated with respect and dignity.”

If you are interested in donating to Atini to support them in their cause, see their website (or HERE), or you may contact me and I’d be happy to forward the donation to them.

For the last couple Septembers, my mom, aunt, cousin, and I have met up in New York City. We aren’t going this year and so I’ve had New York on the brain lately. From subway rides to coffee in Chelsea and goofing off in Highline Park, to picnics in Central Park and pizza at Grimaldi’s, to just wandering the city to see what we discover, we always have a blast and don’t want it to end.

Last year we celebrated my aunt’s 60th birthday and gave her a Fine Art album with the images from the trip. I was just at her place paging through it, and it brought it all back. *Sigh* NYC, you’ve got my heart!

Even though I’m missing being there now, I’m SUPER excited that Jake and I will be there for New Years this year. It’s been one of my bucket list items since before people started calling them that (mine was just “Life To Do List”). We’re waffling between doing the Times Square thing or the 4-mile Central Park run that starts at midnight. We’re not sure it sounds that fun to stand in a crowd that has no place to pee for 12 hours waiting for the ball to drop, but then again Times Square is THE NYE party. The run sounds like a festive thing to do and I’ve always wanted to do a race at night.  Hmmm… So what do you think?

That it’s in wine country is a double plus! We’ll be making a bee line down on I-5 but will be taking our time on the Pacific Coast Highway on the way back with Let’s Go Roadtripping USA as our guide (I rarely leave home without a travel guide or the Yelp app for good eats away from home :) ). I’m super excited since I’ve been wanting to do this road trip for quite some time and have heard only great things about it.

See you when I get back! I’ll have limited internet access so I’ll be responding to all emails upon my return. OH, and I have TONS of blog posts to catch up on, so stay tuned…

On Sunday Jake and I race Lavaman, our first triathlon. It’s no Ironman, but we will be racing on part of the Ironman World Championship course, does that count? Here’s hoping I don’t drown at the swim start in the sea of thrashing arms and legs. Wish me luck!

I spent some time in Kona while in photography school years ago, so here are some throw-back photos to tide you over.

This the view from Waynu Picchu, the peak behind Machu Picchu. Note the winding road leading up on the left (the shuttle buses take this route). Top center is Machu Picchu as viewed from above.

While it is true that there’s more to Peru than Machu Picchu, it goes without saying that it’s a pretty sweet place. What’s not to love about crazy old Inca ruins in the middle of the Peruvian highland cloud forest?!

It’s even sweeter if you get up at 4am and hike the hundreds of stairs up to the ruins so as to beat the horde of 3000 tourists that are marched through there every day by their tour guides. It’s so calm and peaceful. I could almost imagine what it must’ve been like when the terraces were full of crops, and the place was full of life.

It’s probably even sweeter still to be one of those in the quota of 500 people that get to hike the ancient Inca trail that leads to Machu Picchu. But I have to admit we passed on that one. A “must” though it may be, hiking for five days in the middle of rainy season just doesn’t sound like a grand old time to me. As much as I want to think of myself as an outdoor person, when it gets down to it, I’m really not. I love the city, but I also love the mountains. I just love them more when viewed from a train. :)

That doesn’t mean Jake and I didn’t get our share of hiking in that day. There’s another mountain peak just behind Machu Picchu called Wayna Picchu that Jake was itching to climb (keep in mind this man climbed Mt. Rainier, while I’m happy to stay and throw snow balls at the visitor station). Add a few hundred more stairs, treacherous drop offs, and shaky knees, and you’ve got the idea. I’m glad I didn’t know beforehand, or I may not have done it. Good thing we weren’t in the US or they would have made us sign a 10 page liability form that would’ve scared me off for certain! The views were pretty great, shaky knees and all!

We finished the day off in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes with a well earned liter of real cane sugar Coke (far better than the corn syrup-laced soda we get here in the States!) and a game of checkers. Perfect ending to a very lovely and exhausting day!

Plus it’s a great way to talk about my trip to family and friends that want to see photos and hear the stories that go with them. They love it, I love it!

It took me a while after going digital to begin making printed photos for myself again, and I didn’t realize how much I missed touching and holding my photos in my hands, and not via a mouse.

Take a peek at the album design from Jake’s and my trip to Vietnam last March (click on a corner to flip the page).

I gave up a few weeks of summer this August when I traveled to Brazil where it was winter at the time (photo above taken at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba, Brazil), so I’m going to redeem those weeks by enjoying Christmas in the Peruvian summer! I’m excited for this new adventure, for some couchsurfing, trekking, and yummy Peruvian food!  Oh, and of course adding country #30 to my list, hehe.

Stay tuned for some updates from below the equator….

If you get a chance to head there yourself (and you should!), check out some of the wineries we visited: