Shoot The Skies

High-res frozen palouse falls. washington. I’m hosting a @shoottheskies book signing tonight at Phinney gallery in Joseph Oregon. 4-8pm. I also don’t regularly update this account so follow @tannerwendell for recent work. (at Palouse Falls River Trail)

frozen palouse falls. washington. I’m hosting a @shoottheskies book signing tonight at Phinney gallery in Joseph Oregon. 4-8pm. I also don’t regularly update this account so follow @tannerwendell for recent work. (at Palouse Falls River Trail)

High-res Shoot The Skies Supporters! I’ve spent the last 5 days, un-boxing, numbering, signing, re-boxing, taping, moving, organizing all of the books for shipment! We will be ready to ship the US copies of the Shoot The Skies book next week. My hand is very...

Shoot The Skies Supporters!

I’ve spent the last 5 days, un-boxing, numbering, signing, re-boxing, taping, moving, organizing all of the books for shipment!  We will be ready to ship the US copies of the Shoot The Skies book next week. My hand is very sore from signing my name over 2,200 times! I’ve been doing a time-lapse of the process, so I’ll send that out next week when the 2,225 books have left my garage

International books are a bit delayed, I’ll be contacting you personally about those details soon.

*For everyone in the Seattle Area. This Sunday, January 11th, I will be signing and handing out your books at The City Church. If you live in the Seattle area, I will be at the Kirkland campus at 930am, 1130am, and 4pm. I will also be at the 8pm UD campus. If you can make it out to pick up your book and have it personally signed, please do so. Less books shipped means more money donated to The A21 Campaign. Plus I have really loved meeting so many of you people who supported this project nearly a year ago! If you cannot make it, it will be shipping the US books the week of12th-16th of January. 

The City Church. Kirkland campus
9051 132nd Ave NE
Kirkland, WA 98033

The City Church. UD campus
4740 17th Avenue NE
Seattle, WA 98105

If you still need to update your address for shipping, please email shoottheskies@gmail.com before Monday with this as your subject:

Address Change ATTN.

*For everyone in the NE Oregon area. I will be hosting a book signing and awareness night at The Phinney Gallery in Joseph, Oregon from 4-8pm Thursday the 15th. If you haven’t picked up your book yet, come out and say hi!

17 south main street
Joseph, OR 97846
 
For Freedom,

Tanner Wendell Stewart
www.shoottheskies.com

ps. If you want to see some of my new photography work, follow me :)
@tannerwendell
High-res Hey all you amazing people! I have updates for you, First off, the most exciting part! I donated $50,000 dollars to The A21 campaign! It was very surreal and exciting to transfer the money, and it would not have been possible without all of your...

Hey all you amazing people!

I have updates for you,

First off, the most exciting part! I donated $50,000 dollars to The A21 campaign! It was very surreal and exciting to transfer the money, and it would not have been possible without all of your support! Because you bought my photography book, you helped to abolish human trafficking. I’ll be donating the remainder of the money when the book shipping costs are paid for.

The Shoot The Skies book has been printed, bound and is 100% complete! The books are leaving the port in China this Friday.

However here is the biggest reason for my update. My publisher has informed me about a issue with the ports here in America. This is what I received this week:

“Right now ports in the West Coast are really struggling. The phrase “crisis mode” has been used repeatedly. There is a shortage of chassis at the ports that is causing some major delays. There is also a labor dispute which has slowed things down in all ports on the West Coast. Unfortunately we are seeing delays of 12-14 days in all West Coast ports. I’m afraid there is nothing we can do to avoid this situation. We have no idea when the situation will improve.”

I want you to know what I’ve been doing since the funding process ended. The planning, dreaming, researching, organizing, writing, program learning, layout, photo re-editing, design, edit, edit again, color proofs, blueline, approval process has added up to close to 1000 hours of work for me over the last year. The book is incredible and I’m very proud of what has been created. However making a book from scratch is not an easy task, and I’ve spent many sleepless nights learning this. I created the book with a small group of volunteers while I maintained my busy year of business.

When I turned in the final draft of the book a couple months ago, the original shipping date I had expected was the middle of November (as I stated in my last email). There were some unexpected delays with corrections and finalization details, and these things changed the shipping date to the beginning of December. With the later date and the shipping delay, my printer has informed me that the books may arrive as late as the 22nd of December - assuming the port in Seattle is still in “crisis mode”. This is bad news, and I can’t tell you how hard it is to imagine the books not arriving before Christmas. 

I really want to be candid. This really stinks, & I’m sorry to say that there is a good chance you won’t receive your copy of my book before Christmas. Part of me feels as if I have let you all down, but the optimist inside of me wants to lift my head because of what this project has accomplished. Even if this delay is heart-breaking, it cannot cancel out what this project has done for my life & the lives of those trapped in slavery. I was a homeless photographer with a crazy idea and this project was a success & raised over 100,000 dollars to abolish modern day slavery. I’m honored that you have all bought my book and believed with me, that we can fight injustice with art and generosity. This book has helped me to dream bigger & inspired me to continue this journey for my entire life.

I do need to address the ones of you who may want a refund because of the delay. Contact shoottheskies@gmail.com I am sorry about the inconvenience, & I pray you would give me grace in this situation knowing that I have done my best  to get them to you. Also if your address is changing around Christmas, email me.

I will be ready to ship them immediately to your door the second they arrive. If you are wondering, I am signing and distributing every book from Enterprise, Oregon.

Love you all,

Tanner Wendell Stewart

www.shoottheskies.com

High-res Hey Everyone! It’s been a while, but I have updates and good news to share! First. The Shoot The Skies project has officially raised $100,000 dollars! I passed that milestone a few days ago! Over 2200 books sold. It’s a very surreal and humbling...

Hey Everyone! It’s been a while, but I have updates and good news to share! 

First. The Shoot The Skies project has officially raised $100,000 dollars! I passed that milestone a few days ago! Over 2200 books sold. It’s a very surreal and humbling thing to say!  

Thank you to everyone who bought this book when it was just a dream and now, my book is going to be in 30 countries!

Secondly. The book design is 100% done and has officially started the production phase of printing and manufacturing. I’m moving along with this process as fast as possible, and I’m still expecting an early November delivery to me and a mid November delivery for you all! (Crossed fingers for no delays)

Thanks again!!

Tanner Wendell Stewart.

ps. If you tried to contact me on social media about address changes or questions, and I haven’t responded, please email me so I can make sure I didn’t miss your question or change of address!
shoottheskies@gmail.com

pss. A German photography website published my story recently. If you read German or want to use Google translate, go check it out :) 

http://kwerfeldein.de/2014/09/18/nach-dem-horizont-greifen/

Here is a photo I shot a few days ago at Diablo lake in the Northern Cascades while I was trying to photograph the Northern Lights. 

High-res Over the last 5 months, I have been absolutely humbled and overwhelmed by the sales of the Shoot The Skies book. It is a dream come true to use my photography to abolish human trafficking and to send my book to 30 countries around the world. I hope...

Over the last 5 months, I have been absolutely humbled and overwhelmed by the sales of the Shoot The Skies book. It is a dream come true to use my photography to abolish human trafficking and to send my book to 30 countries around the world. 

I hope this encourages you, because I’m just a small town boy trying to make a difference and because of your support, I can be an example of dreaming big, being an abolitionist and being generous with the things that I have. It truly brings tears to my eyes. THANK YOU!

After the Huffington post and Upworthy press, the project received so many views I had to open up the sales again. Now the Shoot The Skies book has sold over 2,150 copies, and raised nearly $97,000. I still remember when I thought $45,000 was nearly impossible…

I had originally planned on shipping the book in July/August but because I extended sales until now, the book will be delivered to you by late October/early November. The additional $23,000 dollars in sales will allow me to give close to 65,000 dollars to the A21 Campaign! The delay wasn’t expected but it means a lot more money will be donated to abolish modern day slavery.

Lastly, I will have the book for sale for a limited time if you want to buy. http://shoottheskies.com/buybook

ps. Ireland is an amazing country. I spent two weeks there, one week for a wedding, the other traveling around the country. This photo of Slea Head, near the Ring of Kerry was one of my favorite places. 

High-res After the Huffington Post article, Upworthy picked up the story! The article was shared over 6,000 times, has over 14,000 likes and the video received 800,000 loads and was getting 1000 views a minute! I opened up sales on the shoottheskies website...
After the Huffington Post article, Upworthy picked up the story! The article was shared over 6,000 times, has over 14,000 likes and the video received 800,000 loads and was getting 1000 views a minute! I opened up sales on the shoottheskies website again and I have sold $11,000 dollars worth of books!
 
That means that the Shoot The Skies project has now doubled my original funding goal! Over $90,000 dollars has been raised to publish the book! That’s over 2000 books sold! I am so stoked right now! 
 
Here is the book link if you want to buy :)
 
 

A few weeks back my church in Seattle featured the Shoot The Skies project at a conference called Nights of Generosity! I did a short interview with them and they used some of my footage. Watch it, share it, whatever you want because I was extremely humbled and honored to be featured! The craziest part is that I got a standing ovation from a few thousand people after they played it and I may have teared up just a bit… :)

https://vimeo.com/95034908