Yesterday, I received word that my aunt Elvy has passed away. I had spent the morning shooting by the coast and the afternoon at a coffee plantation and I just didn’t have mindspace to take in this sad news.

I found the tree above yesterday morning at 6:30 – below the volcanoes in the lowland area of Guatemala where sugarcane farms and straw huts dominate the landscape. I can’t think of a better way to illustrate how I feel right now than through this beautiful tree. Elvy Starrsjö, Rest in Peace.

This is amazing. I can’t remember feeling so positive about my home country as I do right now. I realize of course that Obama is an extremely gifted politician and one of the most rhetorically gifted presidents of my lifetime (as good as or better than Clinton) – so I am a little cautious with my hopes for what he can or wants to accomplish.

Nonetheless, the fact remains that America now has its first ever president of mixed racial background. This proves to me that for all the not-so-great things my country has come to represent over the last eight years, there’s an overwhelming majority of Americans willing to look beyond race and religion and elect a man they believe can provide progress and change.

The US of A is in dire need of a massive PR campaign. I can’t think of a better individual and spokesperson than the new president, Barack Obama, to lead it.