PixelatedImage Blog

A few things recently that I thought I would mention here.

1. LightRoomKillerTips – Another fine effort from Matt Kloskowski, excellent tutorials on what promises to be an exceptional program when it is finally released by Adobe. No words yet. I play with Lightroom alot but have yet to integrate it into my workflow. These tutorials and tips will get you up to speed. Matt is an excellent teacher.

2. Lexar Digital Photography – If you’re not already reading the excellent articles here, you should be. Lexar is miles ahead when it comes to serving the needs of the digital photography community.

3. PhotoWorkshop.Com – Another excellent resource site with much great content.

4. FredMiranda.Com – This is an excellent site. I am linking here to the software page which contains some excellent plug-ins for Photoshop. I use the BW Workflow Pro all the time – makes some gorgeous monochrome, duotones, and tritones. Well worth the $30 download price.

5. Lastly, a Canadian alternative to Pelican cases – PLASTICASE – with the way things are going in the air travel industry cases like this might become an issue of necessity not of preference.

Time zones are easy to forget. Especially when you’re east of here and get into the office and things get rolling. As a result I often wake up to calls at 6am. I once had a call from Iceland at 4am. Probably should have let that one go to the answering service – he spoke a heavily accented language resembling english, I spoke a heavily sedated language also similar to english – it was a bizarre conversation. I digress…

My first call this morning was an inquiry/offer from a major publisher to write a book about photographing children. While the timing on this is tight and may mean I can’t meet the deadline there is a possibility of it turning into a book on travel photography in the same series later next year. Will keep you posted on details and happily sign copies for you so long as you buy your heavily marked-up copies from me.

I took the Jim Nachtwey documentary War Photographer to New Hampshire this weekend and had a chance to watch it on the flight. Jay Kerr has been hounding me relentlessly to watch it and I finally caved in. My friend at Leo’s said he liked it but found it a little cold and dispassionate and I’d agree with him on that – but overall I loved this film. It was innovatively shot and takes us right along side Jim as he shoots in Kosovo, the West Bank, and Indonesia. The film’s chief contribution is giving us insight into why James Natchwey shoots what he does – why he has made a career shooting the darkest stuff humanity has to offer – and it’s hopefull and free from the prevailing cynicism.

If you have a chance to rent War Photographer by filmmaker Christian Frei you owe it to yourself to do so.

Thanks to Jay for the recommendation.

This is the credo of James Nachtwey, this generations most reknowned
war photographer. He says some poignant things about why and how he
does what he does. I think for the most part the word "war" here could
be replaced with the word "poverty". I pulled this from the website for
the documentary, also entitled The War Photographer

"There has always been war. War is raging throughout the world at
the present moment. And there is little reason to believe that war will
cease to exist in the future. As man has become increasingly civilized,
his means of destroying his fellow man have become ever more efficient,
cruel and devastating.

Is it possible to put an end to a form of
human behavior which has existed throughout history by means of
photography? The proportions of that notion seem ridiculously out of
balance. Yet, that very idea has motivated me.

For me, the
strength of photography lies in its ability to evoke a sense of
humanity. If war is an attempt to negate humanity, then photography can
be perceived as the opposite of war and if it is used well it can be a
powerful ingredient in the antidote to war.

In a way, if an
individual assumes the risk of placing himself in the middle of a war
in order to communicate to the rest of the world what is happening, he
is trying to negotiate for peace. Perhaps that is the reason why those
in charge of perpetuating a war do not like to have photographers
around.

It has occurred to me that if everyone could be there
just once to see for themselves what white phosphorous does to the face
of a child or what unspeakable pain is caused by the impact of a single
bullet or how a jagged piece of shrapnel can rip someone’s leg off – if
everyone could be there to see for themselves the fear and the grief,
just one time, then they would understand that nothing is worth letting
things get to the point where that happens to even one person, let
alone thousands.

But everyone cannot be there, and that is why
photographers go there – to show them, to reach out and grab them and
make them stop what they are doing and pay attention to what is going
on – to create pictures powerful enough to overcome the diluting
effects of the mass media and shake people out of their indifference -
to protest and by the strength of that protest to make others protest.

The
worst thing is to feel that as a photographer I am benefiting from
someone else’s tragedy. This idea haunts me. It is something I have to
reckon with every day because I know that if I ever allow genuine
compassion to be overtaken by personal ambition I will have sold my
soul. The stakes are simply too high for me to believe otherwise.

I
attempt to become as totally responsible to the subject as I possibly
can. The act of being an outsider aiming a camera can be a violation of
humanity. The only way I can justify my role is to have respect for the
other person’s predicament. The extend to which I do that is the extent
to which I become accepted by the other, and to that extent I can
accept myself."

I have now posted 13 of the 4000+ images I shot recently on assignment for World Vision in Malawi and Democratic Republic of Congo. You can see them here on my portfolio pages. Can I take this moment and say what a privilege it was to work for and with World Vision. I am inspired and grateful to be kicking at the darkness with them. I hope my images communicate something of how deeply in love I fell with the people, particularily the children, of Africa.

I’m pleased to announced that CANADA PLACE has chosen me to shoot an upcoming assignment for them. It’s a commercial location shoot, and what pleases me most, aside from a great working relationship with a fabulous client, is that the thrust of these images involve children and families, an area I am rapidly settling happily into.

I got home on Thursday and have been settling in to the grey damp of Vancouver after two weeks of glorious sunshine in central Africa. The gear is cleaned, the files are uploaded and backed-up, and the hard-drive with 70gb of RAW images is ready to be FedExed to my client.

This assignment was very exciting. Shooting in some wonderful places, making images of some beautiful children. But it was different in that it was more a product shoot than reportage photography. It gave me lots of opportunity to play with light, to shoot until I felt I had it, and that style of shooting gave me a real satisfaction – mostly because it gave me extended contact with the people I was photographing.

We’d pull  into a village, choose some kids, catch a rooster or pig, and then pose them together. There was alot of laughter and by the end the shoot more resembled a circus than anything photography-related.

A short debrief:

1. Best Piece of Gear on Shoot:
5 in 1 Lightdisc- large. I used it all and without it my images would not be the same. It allowed me to keep all my other lighting in the duffle. It was fast, can’t break, and easy to carry. Never leaving on assignment without it again.

2. Worst Piece of Gear on Shoot:
Epson p4000. Slow. Unreliable. Won’t consistently download my Lexar 8gb card. Selling it. Though probably not to anyone who reads this blog.

3. Lens Always on Camera:
Canon 135/2.0 L – This is an astonishing lens. Sharp. Gorgeous. I used my Sigma 24-70/2.8 EX often, but was always happy when I could put the 135 back on. Best lens I have ever purchased or used. Bar none.

4. This Trip Made Me Want to Buy:
The new Leica point and shoot DigiLux-3. I need a high-res, excellent point and shoot I can carry and access when the 5D is just too bulky or conspicuos.

5. This Trip Made Me Want to Buy, Part 2:
The Canon 50/1.2 L – I used my 50/1.8 a couple times in low light and was glad I had it – it produces gorgeous images. But the reviews of the new 1.2 L lens tell me this is the ne plus ultra of wider lenses for environmental portraiture.

6. I Should Have Left It At Home:
my flash, umbrella, and wireless setup. I also never used my monopod or my tripod.

7. I Should Have Brought It:
packets of instant oatmeal for breakfast. I can eat almost anything reasonable for lunch or dinner, but dodgy breakfasts are not cool.

8. Best Discovery for Staying in Touch With Home:
I bought a $50 Motorola in Malawi. Africa is addicted to cell phones. When you arrive in a new country you buy a SIM card, some air time, and call home with the new phone number and country code. Instant "my wife can call me every morning" bliss.

9. My New Camera Bag Rocks Award:
LowePro Specialist 85AW – went everywhere. On the way there I managed to cram 2 pro bodies, 3 lenses, and two hardrives into it, along with misc. stuff. While shooting it carried one body with lens and hood on, two lenses in waiting, and misc. stuff. All easily carried and accessed. Much easier than the Computrekker I used to use. Thanks to LowePro for sending this bag to me in time for the trip.

10. Best New "It Costs Nothing" Accessory:
Clear shower cap from hotel. Fits over a camera body perfectly, allows you to keep shooting and still see histograms when the skies open up in the Congo mid-shoot.

11: Best Thing About All Expenses Paid:
Hotel Laundry. 

12: Lesson Learned:
You can never have enough harddrive space. Never. Ever. I brought one 80gb external FW drive, one 80gb Hyperdrive, and the 80gb Epson. The Epson was crap but I can use it as a USB external drive in a pinch. The Hyperdrive was good but I’m not confident in it yet. Next time: two 80gb FW drives and a 120gb drive put into the Hyperdrive case. My primary concern is reliablity, ease of use, and redundant back ups. My clients pay alot for me to bring these images back in one piece.