On top of that, most families are cooking inside a hut which quickly fills with smoke. We are in the middle of a cooking demonstration inside a custom built hut to share with people what it’s like during cooking… These demonstrations are happening RIGHT NOW!

Check out my Twitter for the most recent updates…

Happy 4th of July, enjoy!

Internet/communication has been COMPLETELY down/unavailable…sorry for the lack of updats!

Right now I am writing from a little PC laptop connected on a pretty crazy dial-up connection with a crazy antenna (powered by generator.)

I’ve got tons of image I can’t wait to share but internet is too slow to upload anything…

Will have to look for updates when I get back to Addis on the 11th! Tomorrow we get on the chopper to head to Taposa and a couple of other regions near the Sudanese border. Can’t wait!

Thanks for all your prayers and hope to be updating soon!

- Austin

I’ve officially left on my next TREK… This time I am headed into various regions around southwest Ethiopia near the Omo valley and along the Sudanese border. These areas are very remote and are home to some of the most interesting tribes in the world (Mursi, Bana, Hamer, Bode.)

A group called Service in Mission (SIM) is bringing me over for a couple of different missions. SIM has been working in SW Ethiopia for some time now and for the first week and a half or so I plan to be documenting some of those projects. I’ll be working very closely with Trent and Tabby Cox, both veterinaries that spend a lot of their time caring for cattle and livestock in the area. Most if not all the tribes in this area are pastoralists, meaning they live off the land and their livestock. Therefore, the well-being of the livestock is directly related to their own well being. I know Trent & Tabby have had a huge impact in this area and I can’t wait to share some of what is going on in there. You can see the current info video about Trent & Tabby’s mission here by clicking here.

The second part of this project will entail going into a few even more remote areas, regions in which few if any outsiders have ever even briefly passed through. SIM has chartered a helicopter flight to get us in here because it’s not accessible by land, boat or any other method. My mission here will be to shoot a series of images that effectively share with the viewer the needs, if any, of the people living here. I’ll be working to help Trent to provide him with rich media to powerfully convey the needs to potential donors and ultimately raise the money to address them.

Quite a few fantastic photographers have been in and around the Omo Valley and the images they have come out with are nothing short of stunning. Some of the finest portraiture I’ve seen come out of here comes from Joey Lawrence (he shot the image above,) if you haven’t seen his work yet, you should definitely check it out here. (Click Personal and then Absynnia.) Another compelling series of images comes from Phil Borges, click the link and be ready to be blown away!

In the end, it’s my understanding that SIM would like to establish long-term projects and build relationships here, with the ultimate goal of sharing the Gospel. As Trent told me via email, “Our mission is to get the Gospel into the ends of the earth, and this, is pretty much the end.”

As this trip developed, I increasingly saw a need for motion picture. Although I’m capable of doing motion work, and often do, I really prefer to focus on stills and let someone else that is passionate about the motion handle it. This is where TK McKamy comes in the picture. TK is joining us in tonight and I’m super excited about it. In the past 6 months, TK and I have done quite a bit of work together in Dallas, creating short highly-styled pieces for a Dallas-based media company. He’s a fantastic shooter, editor and all-around stellar guy and I’m super jazzed to have him helping me out. He’ll be assisting me here and there but mostly I plan for him to be leading the attack in telling this story through film.

Now I’m in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia and tonight I will be picking up TK and then heading south to meet up with Trent & Tabby. We appreciate any prayer! Please pray specifically that God will lead us to capture the stories He wants to share with the world, for safety in travel and that lives will be impacted, both ours and also those we’ll be visiting.

After spending time with Trent & Tabby I’ll be heading north near to Lake Langano where my good friend Aaron White is getting married. Aaron is a director of project development for Samaritan’s Purse in Addis and has been living here for about 4 years. He’s an awesome dude and I’m having fun catching up with him right now in Addis. After the wedding, I plan to head north to Gondar and possibly Axum where I will meet up with another friend Lane Davis, a photographer beginning a photographic journey around the world with a church based in New Zealand. His work is fantastic as well and can be seen here. I’ll spend a few days exploring with him and then plan to head back to the States around the 18th of April.

I’ll be out of internet access completely, possibly for 2 weeks but will be sending updates here if at all possible. So check back soon for updates!

Download the full-res files in a compressed .zip file by clicking here.

It’s super inspirational and fantastic practical advice. Makes me want to be shooting RIGHT NOW!  Enjoy!

This week I am working a ton on developing some tutorial videos that will teach how I do what I do. Hopefully I’ll do a bunch of these, but I plan to start with three videos:
1) The ins and outs of traveling with photography equipment (bags, cases, best travel equipment, insurance, paperwork, etc…)

2) My post production workflow (taking an image straight from the camera and polishing it to a final product)

3) Keys to using SLRs cams for professional, high quality video production (audio equipment, lighting, file management…)

I’d love to hear your ideas one what you’d like most to learn from me. I’ll be using a service that Brandon Cotter (my cousin) is developing called Monetizer. It’s a very simple and a gorgeous way to easily post videos online for paid viewing.

Also, I did a blog post over on Help-Portrait blog with some “behind the scenes” info of what it took to make our event happen. If you are looking to do a similar event or are just curious, check it out here: Help-Portrait blog.

My most frequent updates are on my Twitter. I’m constantly posting new photos and other things on there, so if you aren’t following, check it out!

2) We had a tremendously successful Help-Portrait event a couple weekends ago… so many people came out and it was such a blessing to be a part of… Watch out for the video of the event… it’ll be online very soon.

3) Enjoy time with your families over Thanksgiving and look for more posts early next week!

- Austin

Seriously, ask 10 people and 7-8 of them will respond BUSY! So if we’re busy all the time, is there ever a time we are not busy? If everyone is busy, is anyone busy? Isn’t busy an adjective used to convey there is more going on than normal? But if we’re ALWAYS busy, then busy is NORMAL, and thus no longer busy…

That was a bit confusing but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I think in America we really need to slow down and focus on things that are eternal… our friends, our families…

On a completely different note, I’ve been honored to have been given the opportunity to “guest blog” on Scott Kelby’s blog (www.scottkelby.com) this month. I’ve been tossing around a few different ideas but would love to hear from you what kind of thing you like to hear from me the most. Whether it be information about equipment, travel, working with people abroad, post-processing workflow… or maybe something else completely that I’m not covering. I’d love to hear what YOU would like to hear from me.

Thanks!
-Austin