PixelatedImage Blog

I’m heading into the home stretch now – two more days out in remote locations, an overnight in a vilage, then home. Then it’s Monday and Gavin Gough arrives from Bhutan to hang out for two days before I finally head home.

It’s been an enjoyable week shooting for World Education Nepal. We’ve listened to a lot of stories, and photographed some pretty tough kids, all of them fighting the odds and getting an education. Some have been, and are, domestic workers, brick kiln workers, carpet factory workers, entertainment workers, and former Maoist child soldiers. Today I shot in carpet factories and spent an hour driving around Kathmandu with my head, torso, camera, stuck out of a bus window dodging traffic and photographing kids working in the transit sector. I’m beat, but I really love what I do, so it’s been energizing in a really exhausting kind of way.

One of the issues that came up while we were briefing this assignment was the need to photograph some of the kids while protecting their identities. Most of you know how much I love to photograph emotion, so you can guess how I excited I was to have to remove the very things I love shooting. I could have resorted to using Photoshop to blur faces, but I hate that. My solution? The Lensbaby. It gives a stylized look, brilliantly pulls faces out of focus while leaving other elements in focus. Not everything I shot is identity-sensitive, but they’re all subject to some really tight child-protection policies, so once I have approval from the client, I’ll post my favourites to my portfolio.

Sorry for the lame post, just an update to let y’all know I’m about to come up for air, but it could be another week before I am consistently posting content that isn’t just a last ditch attempt to keep you all from defecting to Matt Brandon’s blog.

For those who just can’t pry themselves away and NEED something to justify their time here, here’s a couple bits to make you think I’m adding content:

Apple has announced the new MacBook and MacBook Pro. I still wish they’d just announced a MacAir with Firewire. A guy can dream, right?

Think Tank Photo has a new bag coming out – The Shape Shifter. I’d link to it, but my blog admin page is taking so long to load, I’ll beg you to Google it instead.

Last week I did a “Why My iPod Touch is a Tool, Not a Toy” kind of post. Another great reason – upload selects and show your client while driving to the next day’s location in the Land Cruiser. Keeps them up to speed and alleviates the need to drag the notebook around.

Backed up your data recently? Calibrated your monitor? Hugged your favourite client? Made plans for the coming year’s marketing initiatives, further education, and personal projects? Have you just put the camera down and played with your kids and enjoyed life? You have all weekend without this blog getting in the way with pesky updates. That’s how much I love you.

See you Monday-ish.