Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
And the story continues,
Even though I went to Ethiopia for World Vision’s magazine Childview a year ago, I am constantly amazed at how relevant the trip has been to my life on a daily basis. Everyday I think about the communities I encountered, the stories I learnt, and the girls I had a chance to get to know. To many aid workers I encountered, hope was and continues to be a lifestyle. I was awestruck to see the incredible impact World Vision had in the communities from food security to maternal health to AIDS awareness and education.
The article called Scarred by Tradition was about Female Genital Mutilation. Recently I was pleased to learn that designer Carol Moskot and I won Canadian Church Press awards. First place for Feature Layout and Design (Magazine), and Second place for Colour Photo Spread (Magazine).
Above you’ll see two photos from the spread. You can also check out the original article in Child View written by Nicolette Beharie here (pages 16-21)
World Vision Maternal Health Gallery
A few people have asked where they can see more of the photographs I shot while in Ethiopia. World Vision has put a few more of the up on their site in a gallery about Maternal Health:
Check it out here
all eyes
all eyes,
looking behind,
trying to make sense
of this wild ride.
as they move forward.
i’ll stand still.
picture after picture.
my eyes filled,
with the hope on faces,
as lives rush by.
we’ll know places.
where we met eyes.
It’s crazy how vivid my time in Thailand is in my memory. I can put myself right back on the bridge snapping people on the train as it flew by. I walked the bridge end to end even though I was petrified off the height and water below me. It’s strange how when we’re over seas we push ourselves to face our fears and really live life for all it’s beauty and wonder.
Tips for a more natural sky:
Often when we expose for a dark subject (in this case the train and the people inside of it) we are met with the difficulties of a blown out sky. It is important to shoot with a polarizing filter when outdoors because it provides detail that can often be recovered later. In the case of this photo the sky was barely existent, but in photoshop I created a brightness/contrast adjustment layer setting my brightness to -150 and my contrast to +100. Adjustment layers automatically creates a mask which you can use to select the areas that you want to be affected. Select the mask in your layers window, and using your paint tool paint absolute black on the areas that you do not want to be affected by your adjustment layer. To create a soft transition between your adjustment layer and your original photo make sure that your brush is set to a lower opacity and is at a minimal hardness.
Like Sunshine,
This is one of the first photos that i took in the Dominican Republic. i had just turned 19, and it was my first time overseas. There were a number of children displaced from their homes in Hati and were living without parents in Bateys near the border. I was there to help build a kitchen in a church where the children were being fed. I have vivid memories of playing baseball with them, of riding in the backs of trucks down steep mountain sides, of spending New Year’s Eve on the beach, of floating in cool water under the stars, of feeling helpless, of feeling hope. I ended up taking 17 rolls of film on my Canon Rebel EOS X. It was my first time truly exploring life through the lens. Every time I think back to this time, I think about how lucky I am to have discovered photography in this way.
