Water. Clean, clear, cold.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the conveniences we have in our lives, all the things we take for granted. In this struggling economy, it’s easy to freak out about what we don’t have or what we might have to do without for a while while times are tough for our nation. But what about all the things we do have? Even that glass of water sitting next to my laptop that was so easily retrieved by pressing a filter button in my refrigerator.

Did you know that each of us in American uses about 80 gallons of water daily? That’s enough to sustain 16 African families for a day. While we go into the kitchen for a quick drink, a mother in Zimbabwe travels miles in search of water to save her baby.*

This photo was a simple still life shot taken directly under a lamp to give it that cool glow. I sharpened everything in Photoshop to make it crisp and then did a simple black and white conversion to draw your focus right to the water and not to the different colors of walls and wood.

Camera: Nikon D40X
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 800

*The facts above were provided by World Vision, a non-profit humanitarian organization that fights poverty and injustice throughout the world. You can donate to their clean water fund to help safeguard the health of mothers, children, and entire communities by minimizing waterborne illness and providing clean, drinkable water.