Week 17: April 22 is Earth Day - The 2022 Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge

I want to extend a very big THANK YOU to all who participated in the WEEK 16 Beverly Challenge and Maaike who put it all together. It was truly a celebration of life with bright vivid colors made to order to honor Beverly’s memory.

WEEK 17 lands on April 22 and that’s Earth Day for all of us around the globe. This year a special focus is made on the plastics that litter our world and especially our oceans. If you’re new to Earth Day Celebrations, here’s a link to their page : https://www.earthday.org/

This year I personally take Earth Day more seriously. From my point of view, there’s something truly wrong with society today when we just can’t invest a little effort to get our trash, especially in a nature setting, to the closest trash can. You can find all sorts of trash feet away from a trash bin, where does that carelessness come from?

The image below, a snapping turtle making her way through a barrage of plastic water bottles back in 2012, in the heart of a City of Montreal Nature Park. Yes along a river that leads to the Atlantic Ocean.

Switzerland in stark contrast with many places on earth is literally clean. However that’s slowly changing and it’s slowly catching up to the rest of the world as far as plastic litter in natural habitats is concerned. The image below was taken at the entrance of a hiking trail in Switzerland. It translates to “The School of life is the respect we give nature.” The sign illustrates through imagery, the litter left along the trail.

A post shared by Steve (Stefano) Troletti Photo (@_steve_troletti_photo_) on May 26, 2013 at 11:07am PDT

One area in particular for me is the Îles-de-Boucherville National Park. I cared for that area as President of the Friends Association. In an ironic turn of events, a new director who’s the least bit concerned about the cleanliness of this National Park, let this beautiful territory turn into a trash dump. From his arrival in September 2017, there was almost not a single piece of litter cleaned up in this National Park. This had never been seen before. The biggest effort made to resolve the situation was taken on by the director to lie about the cleanliness of the National Park, eventually he just told a park visitor he cleaned it up himself, taking credit for the work I had done. Truth be known I personally removed over 20 kilos of glass containers and nine large trash bags, mainly from the river banks. Apart from one park guard who took initiative in early December to pick up litter around the parking lot, there was ZERO action taken from the Park Director. He wouldn’t even supply me with trash bags, stating conflicts with the provincial employee union. I wasn’t the only one, for months visitors were asking for trash bags as they themselves could not believe the state of their beloved park. Naturally lying about having cleaned his park just backfired because the same trash that littered the park before the first snowfall in December 2017 is still present today, Earth Day, April 22nd.

More promises have been made to clean up the park in May 2018. I put very little hope in the efficiency of these actions as I observe the Law of Entropy in action. Everything from the front gate to the maintenance equipment has failed, been destroyed or vandalized. Engine coolant pollutes the trails as poor maintenance has led to equipment failure. When a National Park Director shows little to no respect for his park, his employees and the park visitors, that energy seems reciprocated, leaving a National Park in a disastrous state.

Yes, I’ve been rambling on, so if you’ve skipped quickly through the text, I forgive you. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with our Photo Challenge. Well, it’s really simple, I shared with you what I take at heart for earth day and as a form of respect for our natural heritage. I’ve put a great deal of energy in battling hypocrites like my Park Director to make a positive change for our planet. For me it will be focused on plastic litter, especially the plastic litter that has the potential of ending up in our oceans. I will attempt to photograph it from an editorial perspective to create awareness. I’ve already photographed hundreds of pieces of plastic litter this April as I walked along the trails. However I didn’t apply myself from a photographic stand point…

Here’s a sample of snapshots taken quickly with my mobile phone. https://photos.tempusaura.com/trash-litter-2017-2018-parc-national-des-iles-de-boucherville

We’re all different with different priorities in life, that difference is what makes us special. That said we will all have a different take on Earth Day and we will most probably capture it in a different way for this challenge.

This is NOT a litter in Nature Challenge, but an expression of what Earth Day means to us through photography. I used photography from an editorial perspective to raise awareness of both an unacceptable litter problem in a National Park that costs $8.50 per person to visit and the lies of a Park Director behind the litter problem. That’s me and I was only sharing my personal take on Earth Day.

Just like Alice’s image above, you can choose an artistic montage to communicate your personal take on Earth Day.

An infrared panorama of a wonderful place on our planet is also a great way to bring Earth to the Spotlight in a unique way.

It’s not always good news and the use of B&W can be made to accentuate those somber moments.

From Tiny Planets to 360 images and Infrared Panoramas, there’s an original way to portray your unique view of Earth Day 2018 through Photography. You’re entirely on your own to define that perspective and bring it to your fellow community members here at the Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge.

For Earth Day, Caesar the Linny helped out to create this Special Photo Challenge…

Here’s a link to some Earth Day activities – https://wehavekids.com/parenting/10-Earth-Day-Activities-for-your-Family

Happy Earth Day Everyone 🙂

The friendly community guidelines are pretty simple:

Post one original photograph (Your Image) shot each week per theme posted on this blog to our active community on our Facebook Group, Flickr Groupor 500PX group (or all three). Tag the photo: #10thanniversaryphotochallenge #2018photochallenge #photochallenge #tempusaura
The shot should be a new shot you took for the current weekly theme, not something from your back catalog or someone else’s image.
Don’t leave home without your camera. Participating in the 2018 Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge is fun and easy.