These people were nothing but smiles yet they almost all lost their homes, jobs and and even lives of their close friends and family. Their resiliency was remarkable. After I got back from walking around a bit, it was time to shoot the concert and it started to rain!

Sorry there’s not more text in this post… I spent the last hour fussing with my blog trying to make it behave properly… ended up having to take some images down but as usual its getting late and I am tired!

]]> http://www.austinmann.com/trek/archives/332/feed 2 http://www.austinmann.com/trek/archives/317 http://www.austinmann.com/trek/archives/317#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:22:45 +0000 Austin http://www.austinmann.com/trek/?p=317 Sorry about the video in the previous post… it just now finished converting. Anyway, shortly after we arrived in Chaping I climbed up a construction site and I put a fisheye lens on my secondary camera and mounted it on top of a piece of rebar (overlooking where Steve was going to play his concert.) Then I set up a timer to make the camera shoot every couple of minutes…

Here’s the fives hours of concert prep and concert condensed into about 16 seconds… I catch something new every time I watch it! Look for the tarp going up on the stage (because it started raining)

Tons of people came out, despite the rain, and many were brought to tears. By the end of the night, people were asking for Bible’s and wanting to know more about God. It was really powerful and amazing to see.

There’s a whole bunch of images in the works but I have to run right now so keep an eye out, but  check out this portrait from this portrait… I was trying to get myself up high to shoot the concert and this super nice guy was kind enough to let me get on his balcony.

Thanks for reading!

Words and pictures really can’t explain this tragedy…many lives were destroyed and some 20,000 people were never recovered from the rubble. Steve, Caleb, Will Franklin and Geoff put together a quick little show for some of the kids that lost one or both parents duriing the quake. It was way cool and I know it really encouraged a lot of the kids — they loved it.

I have many pictures to come soon but for now am posting a video of the show in the classroom. I hope to have a bunch more content online in the next 24 hours.

During the opening ceremony, Steve played a couple of great songs, they cut the ribbon, they broke the ground and more…

We went back to MBHOH today to spend some time with the kids which gave me an opportunity to get some more images.  I climbed the construction building again and got a neat shot of the building.

We were really aiming to capture the stark contrast of this building (bright blue) and its surroundings (all grey and dull) so I climbed to the top of a 12 story construction building nearby to get some shots of it from above.

We also got truckloads of neat images of the group loving on the kids like this one of Stevey Joy …

Before we left MBHOH, we took a bunch of group shots but also walked on every floor through every room as Steve played the guitar and led worship. It was a really neat time of prayer and Scripture, asking God to bless the people and events held within the building.

Here’s a short clip from our final few minutes spent at MBHOH:

Tomorrow we fly to the earthquake site and I don’t think we’ll have any internet access whatsoever so I’ll be out of touch for a couple of days…I’ll be back with updates soon! Thanks for your prayers –

I got a ton of images today but it’s late and I’m tired but thought I would upload this one video… Steve and Caleb and Will played a little concert for a bunch of the kids and they loved it… here’s a taste!

Then we hiked around the top of the wall quite a bit…. many many many steps. Apparently the Chinese designed the steps to be very inconsistent so that if the enemy ever did overtake it, they wouldn’t be able to run or move quickly along the top of the wall because the steps were all different sizes… great defense for them… unfortunately it proved to be pretty tiring for us too!!

It wasn’t easy getting up to the top of that thing with my camera pack on but it was worth it once we (less than half of the original group)  finally got there.  The mountains are gorgeous and you can see for miles!

It’s crazy to see this wall, one of the most amazing and vast man-made structures in all history, just get swallowed up by the magnificence and magnitude of the mountains and landscape it sits in.  It took man thousands of years to build something that doesn’t even hold a candle to something God created in a split second. It’s pretty humbling to take in.

After we had spent quite awhile up there… it was time to go back down…after hiking back to where the ski lift dropped us off… we had two choices… either take the ski lift back down (yea… riiiight…) OR take the alpine slide down. It was just like the ones you see in Colorado except it was a metal track… and wow you could really get moving on these… I snapped a couple photos on the way down… (that’s Caleb in front of me, going wayyy to slow

Well…now I need to go pack up a little bit for our trip to Maria’s Big House. The grand opening is tomorrow and there is a lot to come together for it. Watch for updates with some images from the opening tomorrow!

]]> http://www.austinmann.com/trek/archives/278/feed 9 http://www.austinmann.com/trek/archives/182 http://www.austinmann.com/trek/archives/182#comments Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:27:17 +0000 Austin http://www.austinmann.com/trek/?p=182 Sorry its been so long since an update… our internet access in South India was very limited… After a week just a few kilometers from the Bay of Bengal, we flew north about 1700 miles to get to Delhi, the capital of India.

It was a fascinating place. We met with a guy named Ramesh Landge that started a a ministry there called Cooperative of India and it’s an outreach to inner city and rural folk alike. God is really using him. In northern india alone he said there is something like 600 million… and less than 1% of them are Christian.

We went to Agra for a quick day trip to see the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort, both of which were quite extraordinary… Then we came back to Delhi and flew to Nepal the next morning.

We were able to meet with a guy named Nate Sprinkle who used to be in a missionary in Nepal for about 5 years at a hotel the night before we left Delhi. Really a wonderful deal that we got to meet with him and benefit from his insight and experience. He hooked us up with a bunch a great people here in Nepal. We got here yesterday and had a guy, Pastor Surya, waiting for us at the airport. He became an orphan at age 3 years old when his dad was killed hunting in the jungle and his mom ran away. Then he began living at an orphanage where he was taught about Jesus Christ.

He is now a pastor here, running a ministry that is opening and running a number of hostels here in Kathmandu. It’s a really cool deal. Him and his wife got their education by going a Bible college in India, but neither of them spoke English and everyone made fun of them. Somehow, with the help of the Lord, he picked up English and  was nominated as the best student in the college and was asked to preach to the entire school. People weren’t making fun of him anymore…

Anyway, we are here in Nepal and just met up with a bunch of guys from Wichita which is pretty wild. Paul Lavender and his father, as well as a couple of other friends. They’ve just returned from a trekking around base camp at Everest and it amazingly worked out with both our schedules to grab lunch. Sounds like they’ve had an amazing adventure.

Anyway, I’ve got so many images I want to share and a much more thorough write-up to go along with them but no time to put everything together right now. We are headed to Pokhara now, about 5 hours drive from Kathmandu, where we plan to photograph some national parks in the Himalayas and some monasteries and such.

But I did want to share some of the images and a quick update to let everyone know we are still alive! I just don’t know if we will have internet in Pokhara… so here’s a handful of stuff from the last week… I’m really pleased with the work we came out of India with!

Thanks for all your comments, I will reply when I get the time! Dad and I love to hear from you.

A friendly face at the foot of the Taj Mahal.

We photographed the Taj Mahal from the back, a different angle the most... in fact, we were the only people on the beach shooting from there, and it was a beautiful angle with a wonderful reflection. We got out on the boat to take some shots too, but before we did so I shot a bit of our boat guide.

Loved the way the light fell on her beautiful face and eyes...

At the mosque next to the Taj...

One of the construction workers working on a church in the jungle. We watched a dog steal his shirt and run away as fast as he could. Luckily, he got it back but didn’t put it on or else the image wouldn’t be quite the same

One thing we immediately realized that struck us odd is that the time zone is not just 10 hours ahead of CST but actually 10.5 hours ahead. We really can’t make sense of it but I’m guessing it has something to with the latitude line that falls across India.

Down at the watering hole, the guys were bathing... AKA having a pool party. They were jumping off the bridge, tackling each other, doing all the thigns any guy would do in the water. I really like this shot.

The first thing that struck us about this wonderful country was the kindness of the people.They are extremely courteous, polite and helpful. They will do absolutely everything and anything they can do to accomodate you. They have huge smiles and have a contagious joy.

One of the older guys working at the fabric looms.

The food here is amazing. I usually like pretty spicy stuff so I’ve really enjoyed it. Their spices are used perfectly with just enough to add some punch but not too be over-bearing and have you crying.  I especially like custard apples, which is a fruit only available in India two weeks of the year. It’s a white, creamy fruit about the size of an apple with a thick skin that is textured a bit like a pineapple but softer. That was a bit hard to explain, bottom line: they are quite tasty!

The orphanages here are really wonderful and many of them take a different approach than what I have seen in the past. Many of them call themselves hostels and what the hostels do is basically invite kids that are living in very impoverished homes to come stay with them for 9-10 months of the year. While they are there, they are given a place to sleep, three square meals a day and they are educated in all subjects.

The power here in India is very inconsistent. This is a shot of Rachel, and 18 year old student here, studying her mathematics during a power outage.

It gives the kids a great opportunity to make friends and learn useful skills that can take them somewhere in life. They are also taught about Christ and taught how to pray and have a relationship with God. Then the two months of the year when they are at home they share these things with their parents and it has proven to be really encouraging to them.

Watching these people work on the looms was really quite extraordinary. We guessed they were about 80 feet long each, probably about 15 of them total. The people would wet the fabric and drag this device down from end to end. I don't really know anything about the process but the fabric looked beautiful

One of the guys working at the looms, he had an awesome smile, as everyone else seems to.

We have gone to a number of different hostels, some as far as 80 miles away. Tomorrow we will go about 100 miles. Now this doesn’t sound so far but it takes a very long time. There are so many people on the roads, and so much going on, that we are stopping so much its unbelievable. My dad and I decided to figure out our average speed on our trip today so I got out my GPS and we calculated our average was about 21MPH!!! Going 100 miles at 21MPH stopping and starting can be quite a different experience! And every time we stop, I’m thinking “there’s no way that goat can get out of the road before we hit it.” But alas, we have yet to hit anything.

One of the guys taking a break at the fabric factory... errr the outdoor area filled with looms

The images I have included in this post are just a quick handful from a million that I have shot but they are all I can afford to upload considering the internet speed. India is really quite an exciting place for a photographer, beautiful image to capture everywhere you look.

One of the little girls at the orphanage we visited today. They are all so beautiful and they are very shy to smile in front of a camera but when they do it's wonderful!

Alright well the internet isn’t so snappy here and this one update has taken almost 2 hours! I had probably get going. But thank you for all your comments on previous posts, I love to hear from you and know who is keeping up with us. We appreciate your prayers – God is doing a great work here in India and we can’t wait to bring it back with images and share.