Happy 4th of July, enjoy!

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It was such a neat opportunity to get to go to the first World Cup on African soil… I have a dear place for Africa in my heart on many levels so I found it really special.

I’ve run out of time and want to post at least a few photos so here are three from the Spain/Swiss match in Durban…

And I leave you with this quote… I came across this last year and it made a huge impact on me, it’s from Nelson Mandela so I can’t think of a better time to share it than during my time here in South Africa. I encourage you to read it several times and ponder what he is saying… We were BORN to make manifest the glory of God. Wow.

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are

powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that

frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,

handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You

are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There

is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel

insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God

within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let

our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do

the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence

automatically liberates others. “

Nelson Mandela Presidential Inaugural Speech

That’s it for now folks, off to Senegal and then back in the States in 3 days!

It all started when a friend, and former soccer teammate Paul Lavender, messaged me telling me he had extra tickets… I had applied for tickets but was a bit aggressive and applied for two matches… the US/England game and the championship match, of course these games were the highest in demand and I didn’t get tickets.

So when Paul called and told me had tickets it got me thinkin… at first i told him I couldn’t do it, especially cause i had just returned from 6 weeks in Ethiopia and i needed time to catch up… but finally one night at like 2AM i was sitting at my desk and started realizing what a great opportunity it was… I’ve had going to the World Cup on my list of things to do before I turn 25 (I’m 24 now) so this was my last chance, and this being the first World Cup held on African soil I knew it’d be amazing.

I thought and prayed about it a bit more that night and woke up ready to go. I booked the flight a few hours later (for a pretty penny) and began making plans.

I ended up getting a two stopovers in NYC and a 2 day stop over in Senegal to help keep my flight cost down… so I immediately started making plans for my time in NYC and especially Senegal. I wasn’t connected to anyone in Senegal directly but googled and found a few orgs doing some neat work there… also sent of some emails to SIM and others working in the missions industry.

After a couple days… I ended up connected to a group called the Beersheba Project that is doing some really cool irrigation/agricultural mission stuff in Senegal. I’m going to be shooting for them for a couple days… really excited to capture what they are doing and to see Senegal.

Photos of the World Cup to follow…

Trent & Tabby Cox are veterinary missionaries in southwest Ethiopia with SIM (Serving in Mission) and CVM (Christian Veterinary Mission.)

This 6 minute piece shares about their work amongst these remote tribes over the last 9 years and also relays their vision to reach the last 3 people groups in SW Ethiopia with medical care and ultimately the Gospel.

austinmann.com
igoby.tk

sim.org
cvmusa.org

Music by Griffin Kelp.

The first one is for Josh Fulmer, creator of the Wander Project. Josh is a stellar journalist who I worked with at Nat Geo Adventure mag… since then he has gone on to work for Men’s Journal and is now a freelance writer. He’s about to kick off a round-the-world journey has launched a great site full of useful information to supplement his trip… He asked me to write and article on how to keep your expensive gear safe when traveling abroad.

Excerpt from the Wander Project:

“Keeping all the gear you left home with is a constant struggle, since there’s rarely a perfect solution to securing your stuff. Mann suggests evaluating each situation and determining the best course of action. “The most important thing is to be smart, active and aware,” he says.  “Opportunity creates thieves, and if you create an opportunity by being careless, someone will capitalize on it.”

Read the rest over on WanderProject.com by clicking here >>

——————————————
The second was an article for a blog run by Heber Vega, a stellar photographer that runs a blog featuring different humanitarian fotogs in the community… He gave me 10 questions about what it’s like working for missions groups, what the major struggles are, etc… I gave him 3500 words of response (maybe a little much!) but hopefully some useful stuff in there.

Excerpt from Heber Vega: 10.Qs:

“Most industries within the photo world require the photographers to pitch their services to clients who are aware they have a need… in the world of working with missions organizations you often don’t start by pitching your services, you must start by pitching that they have a need at all and THEN pitch your services!”

Read the rest on Heber Vega’s 10.Q blog >>

As a result, i get emails pretty often asking me questions and advice for all kinds of stuff… sometimes cameras, sometimes travel gear, all sorts of things… anyway, after responding to one of those emails tonight and I read back over it thinking, “wow, this is full of info that other people might enjoy reading!”

So I’m starting a new series of posts… as I get these emails full of questions, I’ll be writing my response just as I would regularly (quick and off the top of my head, unpolished but gets the point across)  and then taking those Q&A’s and posting them here…

In this first post, a friend of a friend asked me a few questions about using DSLRs for video in the bush, and a couple other things… hope you enjoy.

The Question:

“…I’m about to head to Tanzania for a few weeks and would appreciate any advice that you would share.

I’ve gone on a few trips and have always used a HVX200 for a couple of years now.  But this time I am considering taking a Canon DSLR instead of or in addition to the HVX200.  I’ve honestly not captured much video with the Canons but am in awe by the quality of the video and the ease of using 1 device/1 set of batteries/cheap cards etc.  I have been trying to shoot a few projects over the last week to see what it is really like.

Any chance you have had experience relying on Canon DSLR for video on a run/gun trip like this?

Any hints on recharging batteries?  We are scheduled to be in tents for 2 weeks – little to no access to power.  I have access to a sat phone solar charger and was considering purchasing another 10-15watt 12 volt solar panel.  If it ends up being a Canon, I guess I could take a case of AA batteries.

I would very much appreciate any other hints/thoughts.”

My Answer:

HVX 200 used to be the bomb but I’ve seen so many film makers set those things down in exchange for the Canon DSLRs. It just doesn’t hold a candle anymore.

I’ve just returned from a 6 week trip in Ethiopia where I shot a TON of video with 5D Mark II and 7D. We carried 8 batteries and were out in the bush for several days without need a charge (2 shooters almost all the time.)  I’ve also been on a several other trips relying on it for video.  It’s rad.

The only things you need to be careful of is… use a tripod whenever you can. It’s not ergonomically designed to be held steady for video so it can get very shaky if you aren’t careful. Audio is it’s biggest downfall… if you have updated your firmware to the latest, do that now… it will give you new audio controls. If you really want to step up your audio, use something like a H4N Zoom (external audio recorder) that allows you to monitor it (with headphones) as you are recording… something you can’t do with 5DMKII.

 

Lastly, when you’re color grading the footage out of the DSLRs (already in H.264) you’ll find the the range is a bit limited and you’ll see slightly more artifacting than the HVX… but the color out of camera, the depth-of-field and incredible low-light capability far outweigh that issue.

I would say definitely take a power inverter, just a standard one that you can plug into the cigarette lighter in a car to give you a regular AC outlet… and some gaffe tape and rubber bands to hold it in while you are driving on bumpy roads. Almost anywhere you go, you’ll have a car with a cigarette lighter.

I’ve got solar panels but despite multiple lengthy trips into the bush have NEVER used them. They can be so finicky and a pain to use. The best way to use solar is if you have an inverter hooked up to a car battery of some sort so you can charge that during the day and then charge your camera batteries from that car battery during the night.

If you have the battery grip on your 5D or 7D… you can also get the battery tray that slides in (and takes a bunch of AA batteries)… almost anywhere you go you’ll be able to find some of those nearby and you can always bring as many as you want.

This child hung on the mother the entire time we were in the hut… dependent on her, almost part of her.

Tomorrow (at 5AM) I hop on a bus for an all-day (possibly 12 hours) solo bus ride to Gondar to see Lane Davis. Lane is a stellar photographer in Gondar right now working on a project called To Tell a Story (www.totellastory.org) check it out!

I’ll be documenting this adventure up north and really don’t know what to expect! All I know is the bus was much cheaper than the flight, I’ll be crossing the Nile River in a bus and I speak zero Amharic. I can just hear my Dad… ”Son, why would you do that?”

TK McKamy, who was with me on the trip has started posted some stuff so check it out at http://www.tkmckamy.com/blog!

I don’t expect to have internet til I begin my journey home the 19th! Checking out til the 20th… hope you are all well -