Beautiful day here in Addis, about 75°-80°F with a nice breeze blowing through. I’m sitting in the Samaritan’s Purse HQ where they have a fast(er) internet and a great office space.
Today, Aaron and I visited the Women at Risk compound. Women at Risk is an organization that has been here in Addis for about 14 years and works with women in prostitution very closely. At any given time they have roughly 20 women that are in their program.
Their mission statement is as follows: To love, accept and reach out to urban commercial sex workers with a view to building community through relationships and improving their quality of life. To challenge civil society about the issues they face through effective advocacy and education programs.
It’s really neat to see how the well-trained staff interacts with the women and shows them Christ’s love. One of their directors mentioned that 87% of the women that join the program come out successful, working healthy jobs to support themselves.
I spent a couple hours with some of the young women and got to spend some time making portraits. Many of them have come to know Christ through the program and it was really amazing the joy they had, it was so contagious! I wish I had more time to upload images but for now I’ll give you share this one. I’l upload a more in-depth post later.
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!
I pride myself in having the right products for the job. The only way I can do that is by doing exhaustive research on each piece of gear I use when on a job… in fact, I may take it even a little overboard! I’ve thoroughly researched everything from travel surge protector to my underwear to my AA batteries (I’m a huge fan of Energizer E2 Lithium, but that’s another article!)
Needless to say, if a lens is in my bag, it’s been carefully chosen. I bought my 85mm right before a 9-country, 60 day journey through Asia, Africa and Europe. When I first starting looking into it, I was almost sure I would want the 85 f/1.2 but I was very wrong. The facts and tests quickly pointed me away from that lens. But, every other Canon lens I carry in my bag is L glass, so why would I buy a non-L, cheap lens at $350?
Here’s why:
1) The f/1.2 weighs 1025g, the f/1.8 weighs in at 425g. Nuff said.
2) The f/1.8 focuses has a closer focal length by about 6 inches.
3) The f/1.2 is much bigger and clunkier than the f/1.8.
4) The f/1.2 focuses slow! The huge glass elements in there take time to rotate and it’s not as snappy as the f/1.8.
5) We really don’t need f/1.2 anymore. Sensors are shooting at 102,000 ISO now, the days of REALLY needing the extra stop to f/1.2 are over.
6) Shooting at f/1.2 is nearly impossible in close distances! If you are shooting close-up portraiture work at f/1.2, you’ll quickly find that those your subjects’ eyelashes may be in focus, they’re eyeballs might be soft!
7) Often times adventure and travel photographers argue that they want the L lenses because they are weather-sealed and better fend off the elements. Not-so in this case. In fact, the 85mm f/1.2 is one of only a few lenses in the entire L line that are not weather-sealed (along with the T/S lenses.)
8 ) And last but not least, at $2200 the f/1.2 costs nearly SEVEN times that of the f/1.8.
If you want to see images samples from the 85 f/1.8, check out my portfolio at www.austinmann.com and just about any portrait you see has been shot with the 85 f/1.8. That lens is tack sharp.
You can see detailed specs on both of these lenses here:
Here’s your new desktop for March 2010. I shot this of my friend Joshua Flynt in Thailand in 2007.
03.2010 - 1280x800
03.2010 - 1920x1200
Here’s a few super hi-res textures for you to download. Feel free to use them for any media projects… can be awesome for video background, photo overlays, web interfaces etc… If you use them, the only thing I ask is that you show me how! Would love to see –
Download the full-res files in a compressed .zip file by clicking here.
The side of a rusted out, broken down military tank.
A panel of a broken down work truck that hadn't moved in years.
The 140°F heat and dry season in March left most of the ground around Nasir looking like this.
