PixelatedImage Blog

A few of my Ethiopian images, Harar in Yellow, being one of them, were licensed for today’s public announcement of the Lucy’s Legacy exhibit coming to Seattle’s Pacific Science Centre this fall. The exhibit opens in Seattle on October 4, 2008 through to March 8, 2009.

See you when I get back and thaw out. Have always wanted to go to Mongolia, but doing it in February just never occurred to me!

**There’s a subliminal message embedded in this photograph. See if you can find it.

I’ve had some questions about my preparation to shoot in Mongolia. It’s a winter shoot, outside, so it comes with challenges I don’t usually face while shooting in Africa, S. America or Asia. Temps right now in Ulaanbataar are running from highs of -15C to lows of -35C (that’s 5F to -31F) and for me - a wimpy west-coaster - that’s really cold.

I’m dealing with two issues, aside from the limited daylight hours. One is how I am going to manage the cold, the other is how my gear is going to manage.

Light.
We’ll have 5 hours of daylight and 2 hours of dusky light.
To extend the shooting day I carry a Canon 580EX, 430EX and a handful of pocketwizards, along with an off-shoe cable, and various gels, diffusers, etc to throw a little more light into huts and gers, etc. Long an opponent of strobes I am growing to appreciate their versatility. When you need them, you need them.

Cameras.
The Canon 5D is rated by Canon to operate to -40C, so the real issues
in the cold are battery life and moving from cold to warm, which causes
condensation. Spare batteries will go in an inside pocket and be kept
warm with HotShots if necessary. Cameras will be put into
medium-sized kitchen garbage bags, the air sucked out, and the top
twisted shut before going back into the vehicle. I’ve got a bag of
silica packets to deal with errant moisture in the plastic bag.

Action.
I don’t do cold. There are reasons I moved from the east to the west - several of them involve the climate. Here’s what I’m packing:

2 pairs North Face long underwear - bottoms
2 pairs North Face long underwear - tops
1 pair MEC fleece tights
2 pairs Filson Rainier Pants
3 pairs liner socks
2 pairs Wigwam -40 Socks
Patagonia Retro-X Jacket
Patagonia Down Jacket
Patagonia Primo Gloves
Assorted toques and balaclavas
Salomon B29 Boots
Hot shots - pocket warmers to keep spare batts warm.

My client has a great sense of humour, so I’m pretty sure she’s kidding about all this and when I get my passports back the visas won’t say China and Mongolia, they’ll say Botswana and Swaziland and the joke will be on me, and we’ll all laugh.

Click the map to make it bigger.

Today I fly to Tunisia for two weeks of assignment work for me. When I first began this adventure I promised myself that as much as it was possible and OK with Sharon, I would do one trip annually - the only goal of which would be to work on my portfolio and stir the paint on the creative side of myself. I think it’s important to do work that is not driven by a client but by your own muse - work in which you can take chances and follow the somewhat unpredictable nature of inspiration. It’s this work you use to market yourself, submit to competitions, and sharpen your edges so you’ve always got your best to offer a client, year after year.

I think the most common mistake freelance creatives make is not allowing themselves - even forcing themselves - this time to hone their skills and re-fire their imaginations. The creative work becomes a commodity, time to do self-assignments gets seen as time without income; it doesn’t take long before the creativity stagnates, the joy of creation becomes elusive, and clients look elsewhere.

So over the next two weeks I will be travelling with an old friend - someone who is not a photographer - from Tunis to El Kef, Kairouan, Tozeur, Nefta, Tataoiune, and Sfax. We might make it to all of those, we might not. We might just fall in love with one place and stay the duration. We might go somewhere we don’t anticipate at all. What is important is that we go where the muse says we go.

Can’t tell you how excited I am about this. Tragically it means for you another two week hiatus. I’d love to post if I get a chance but I like these times when I am unplugged and the world has no tether on me. I’ll have a cell number in Tunisia and if you really, really need me you can email me. Sharon will be checking the email at the studio/office and will give my cell number out at her discretion.

I’m pleased as punch (whatever that means) to have received a pdf of the spread in the new Photoshop User magazine featuring yours truly. Of all the magazines I get this one is the one I anticipate the most and get the most bang for buck on. Seeing three pages of my images is a real kick. Can’t wait to get my hardcopies.

If you don’t already get Photoshop User it means you aren’t a member of NAPP. You should be. If you do anywork in the digital darkroom and use Photoshop or Lightroom at all, a NAPP membership pays for itself. Link to NAPP HERE

It’s been a long three weeks. I had honestly hoped I’d have some time and internet access and be able to get a post or two in before I returned, but it’s just not been possible. I’m in Frankfurt now, with another 4 hours of layover ahead of me before beginning the final leg of the journey.

I’ve had a great trip, but it’s been truly gruelling. Trips like this wear thin the romance and the glamour this profession is seen to have. I wouldn’t trade it for anything and I seem to get some kind of sick Hemingwayan pleasure out of bumping around the back paths of Africa in a Land Cruiser, but this has been three solid weeks of mostly 14-16 hour days, with a couple long travel days in between.

A few things to catch you up to date.

Travel Photographer of the Year, Finalist.
I was pleased to find that I was a finalist in the Travel Photographer of the Year competition. It’s heartbreaking to put so much work into a print-based competition and not win, but finalist is nice in such a large and prestigious competition.

Photoshop User Magazine, Featured Photographer.
Just before I left on assignment the folks at Photoshop User magazine asked if I would be their featured photographer in the Jan/Feb 2008 issue. They asked me to wait until it went to print before I said anything about it. Last week I got an email letting me know the issue had gone to print, so keep your eyes open for the Jan/Feb issue.

Upcoming Assignment, Mongolia in February?
I’m told by my favourite client that the chances of me spending a week shooting in Mongolia this February are very strong. I am very, very, very excited about that possibility. Less excited about how cold it might be. While I’ve shot in a Russian winter and lived in Winnipeg for two of them, living in Vancouver has made me soft, I tremble at the thought of a solid night of frost. Time to dig out the long underwear.

Chase Jarvis has consented to let me pick his brain and bring some of the findings to my readers and the members of this little, but loyal, community. Chase is a sought-after advertising photographer with a strong desire to give back to the photographic community and the world in general, and pretty much everything he says or writes is worth listening to. I’m excited about bringing that to you when I can.

My annual portfolio trip is coming fast. I’ve hardly given it much thought over the last three weeks but suddenly it occurs to me I will be in Tunisia in only three weeks. I’m sorry to say this means another blog hiatus during that two week period. I’ll do what I can to make up for it with some solid content both before and after. I’m looking forward to this trip – we’re travelling light and have no real itinerary except a loose idea of what we’d like to see and do.

**

More to come, including some thoughts on my new favourite lens. Thanks for sticking out this hiatus with me.

Click the map to make it bigger.

This evening I leave for El Salvador and will be there shooting for World Vision until Friday the 30th. I then fly to Malawi, shoot for a week, then fly to Uganda and shoot there for a week before coming home. Gone from November 24 to Dec.16th. Click here to see the insane flight schedule I’m on.

It’s unusual for me not to get internet access at least once every couple days, so feel free to stay in touch with me by email, or by leaving a comment - I’ll be checking in here as frequently as I can.

On the interweb these days, via The Google.

The Travel Photographer wrote: "I chanced upon the glorious travel photography website of David duChemin…"(The Travel Photographer, btw, is an excellent blog by a man who’s seen a ridiculous amount of this planet)

An article in JPG Magazine, by Eniko Lorinczi concludes, "I conclude with the reflections of a photographer whom I admire
profoundly and who roams the roads that I’d like to roam one day.

"Anyone can take a picture of poverty; it’s easy to
focus on the dirt and hurt of the poor. It’s much harder - and much
more needful - to pry under that dirt and reveal the beauty and dignity
of people that, but for their birth into a place and circumstance
different from our own, are just like ourselves. I want my images to
tell the story of those people and to move us beyond pity to justice
and mercy." (David duChemin)

Tim Goodspeed quotes me,

"Travel photography at its heart is about capturing your vision, thoughts, feelings, about the spirit of a place. Before you can tell those things to others in a truthful, compelling way, you must first take the time to feel something true and compelling about a place and you can’t do that thinking about how to force a scene into your viewfinder or comply with the rule of thirds. You have to slow down. You have to listen, hear, touch; engage all your senses. You have to get out of the car, train, rickshaw, and walk. And you have to walk the same paths every day, meet some people, drink some chai, until you come to see a place through your own eyes, feel something about it strongly enough that your photographs speak what you feel, and not what you ought to say" - David duChemin, Travel Photographer

TravelPhotoVideo.com writes, "You just have to look at the absolutely stunning photographs of India by a photographer such as David duChemin.
You will definitely be in awe. These are truly beautiful and amazing
photographs. He must have experienced the true essence of India and its
people to have captured such magic in his photos."

I’m truly flattered and humbled by these references. They’re pinpoints of light for me that tell me I’m on the right track. I’ve never been a fan of self-assessment. It’s important that I like my work, but more important that it resonates with others. So, thanks…

It’s a light blogging day here, sorry. I’ve got shoots and meetings all day

One of today’s shoots is another for redcollar.ca - I’ll post a couple tomorrow.

Over at Lightroom Killer Tips, Matt has posted a video on backing up Lightroom - worth a watch. Link HERE

While on the subject of Lightroom, it seems that’s one of the hiccups if you’re a Mac user wanting to adopt OSX Leopard early. The Lightroom Print module doesn’t seem to work. More info on the new release and its compatibility with Adobe products and others can be found at Terry White’s Tech Blog. Link HERE

**

I’m pleased to finally be able to let you all know where my next assignments are. A number of you have been waiting with baited breath for me to have details; now I do.

World Vision - El Salvador - Nov 25-30
World Vision - Malawi - Nov 30 - December 8
World Vision - Uganda - December 8-15

Portfolio Assignment - Tunisia - January 7-22

There’s talk of an assignment in Asia as well, but no details yet.

Click the map to enlarge it. Or use a big magnifying glass. The former works better.