This post brought to you by the unstoppable force of jet lag.
I am more happy with the images I created while in Ethiopia than from any in the past year. That stands to reason as it’s really only been the last 18 months that I have been back behind the camera after a hiatus of several years. I worried I might not get my eye back. I worried I might keep making images that reflected my past shooting stlye and the photographer I once was and not the person I am now. For me, these Ethiopia images signal a beginning - that I feel I finally have my eye back.
A few random thoughts that should perhaps have been pretty obvious, but stood out to me this trip.
1. Light is everything. Get up at 5 and be out the door before the sun rises. Shoot in the magic hours after sunrise and before sunset. Everything else gets scheduled around that. The lighting at those times of day simply can’t be faked in the middle of the day. My Haiti pics are good, but they suffered from very harsh, directional lighting.
2. Speed is important. The more I know my gear the faster i can get over it and just be in the moment to shoot. if you’re fumbling with ISO settings, Exposure compensation or focus issues, you aren’t making the image at the decisive moment. Making images is not just knowing what to capture but when.
3. Rules of composition are just guidelines. I found I prefered bending these rules at times because doing so allowed me to say more than I could by allowing myself to be confined by them.
4. Canon’s 17-40 L lens stayed on my main body most of the time. While not the look I like for adult portraiture most of the time, this wide angle zoom allows me to get a playful image of children that also includes some of their context. My only complaint is the maximum aperture of f4 - I don’t necessarily want a faster lens, but would like one with the kind of depth of field and bokeh that my 50mm 1.8 or my 85/1.8 gives.
5. In keeping with the thoughts expressed in the post about “Indecent Exposures” I find the images I took with permission, the ones where there were some kind of encounter or relationship, or at minimum permission, these are my better images. There are some exceptions, some nice candids, but primarily I feel better about images I created as a “partnership” with the subject.
6. The digital camera and it’s ability to preview remains a brilliant icebreaker and often sharing these pictures and the laughter that follows (remember, many people in the third world never see themselves on camera or film) is a great way to get better images and make a connection with the people. My other secret weapon when making images of children is a couple magic tricks. Make connections - it is so infinitely rewarding.
7. I love my camera vest.
8. Shooting images that conceal faces does an interesting thing. It makes a photograph whose subject is not a particular human being but a representation. So instead of it being a photograph of a woman with a particular name and history, etc., it becomes a photograph of a woman, or more generally - any person. It could be me, or you. I think this allows the viewer of the image to more easily place themselves within the context and generates, often, a more powerful image that is more easily experience by the viewer. It becomes iconic. I think this is increasingly important to my shooting style. I wouldn’t want all my photos to be like this, but for some of them it is more appropriate. Like this one:
More Ethiopia images can be seen in galleries here: Pixelated Image - Ethiopia Galleries
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