Recently Eddie Bauer threatened me with legal action because they felt my previous post may have implied the company was cavalier about safety, so I have re-written my thoughts into two sections: fact and opinion.

Some Facts:
During a meeting in Seattle on August 18th, 2010, Jesse Coombs and I raised concerns regarding the safety of an expedition to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In a phone meeting on September 5th, 2010, safety concerns were brought forth again by myself.
On September 11th it was officially decided that Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic would continue with Hendri Coetzee on the expedition into the DRC while Jesse and I would only be going on the first half of the Africa trip, spending our time focusing on water quality issues.

Our current (at that time) contracts with Eddie Bauer ended on September 14th, 2010. Earlier that year at Teva Mountain Games the whole team had verbally agreed to renew with new, two-year contracts. I received my signed contract on October 5th, but all Jesse received was an email on September 8th, saying they would like to finalize the terms of his contract before the time of our October 18th flight to Uganda. That did not happen.
In the first week of December, tragedy struck; Hendri Coetzee was taken by a crocodile as the team was kayaking in the DRC. Ben and Eddie Bauer went on to produce, market and tour a film about the incident: Kadoma.

Jesse was last told he was in the process of receiving a contract with increased pay on November 22nd, 2010 just two weeks before the death of Hendri Coetzee. In July 2011, Jesse was told that his contract would not be renewed. In September 2011, I too, was told that my contract would not be renewed. When I pointed out that I already had a signed two-year contract, Eddie Bauer honored my contract until September 14th, 2012.

In a final September 2012 phone call, I was told that my contract would not be renewed.

Opinion:
The crux of the dilemma presented to Jesse and I by the Eddie Bauer marketing team (either consciously or unconsciously) was: Go to the DRC and ignore the risks that lead to Hendri’s death, or not be present for the vast majority of the film’s filming and story and be marginalized for not having a large enough presence in the film.

I believe the timing of Eddie Bauer's decision to let us go was too close to when we raised concerns regarding the safety issues of the expedition. In my opinion, Jesse and I were let go because of our disagreement about the safety of the trip and abstaining from completing the expedition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My experience in these circumstances makes me question whether the successful completion of this expedition was too high of a priority for Eddie Bauer. I find irony that being right about the risks involved with the expedition put Jesse and I in the wrong.
It is nice to be free; but, I have to admit, I'll miss the security of a consistent paycheck. Will I pick up another major sponsor? Do I really want another corporate sponsor? I don't know yet. Sharing this will damage possibilities of that happening, but I believe transparency is too important. What I do know is that I want to continue exploring and experiencing new places, and will be trying my damnedest to capture the feeling of those places with photography.