Depth of Field: Gary S. Chapman and Vivian Chapman
Gary S Chapman and wife Vivian Chapman’s goal is to help non-government organizations communicate with the public through stunning images. This is particularly important for NGOs working with disasters, or in areas of development. They are very good at it! Gary, originally a journalist for top rags like Louisville Courier Journal, brings a real photojournalist bent to [...]
Composition: Prescriptive or Descriptive?
If there is one question I get whenever I teach or discuss composition it is, “Yeah but do you shoot with all these compositional rules in mind or is it something you see afterwards?” To put it another way, are these compositional rules prescriptive or descriptive? And the answer, of course, is a little of [...]
Esther Havens: A Report from Haiti
I met Esther Havens over twitter. I heard a lot of scuttlebutt about how she was this young attractive hotshot photographer out of Austin, Texas.
Line of Sight
So much visual weight is given to the human face that it trumps just about everything else in an image.
Halabja
I have made it back home. Back to my wife and my child and my bed. I am going to take a few days to try to reconnect and get my health better. I had rough case of bronchitis the whole time I was gone. Physically this was one of the hardest I have ever [...]
Update: Kirkuk
The Old Ottoman city of Kirkuk.
Quick update. Yesterday I drove with Millennium Relief and Development Services (MRDS) to Kirkuk here in Iraq. I had not talked about it by name before for security reasons. The city is still tense and has US Army security forces though out the city. On my way out of [...]
Ya gotta love light!
(Click on the image to view it larger)
Today I am siting in a flat here in Iraq recovering. I have had a little time to review some of my images. I am always amazed how something can look so different from one day to the next. Of course we all know why, it’s not rocket [...]
Istanbul: Day two
The Ottoman architecture and art is reminiscence for Mogul architecture and art for me.
The Blue Mosque & The Ayasofya
It started snowing as our plain touched down at 8 am here in Istanbul. It has not stopped. In fact it has intensified. I had planned on going out and doing some site seeing, but with the lack of sleep and the blowing snow I only made it across the street to the The Sultan [...]
Your chance at a start in humanitarian photography
Here is your chance to get your feet wet in the muddy but exciting waters of humanitarian photography. A very cool photographic website called Photocrati (you will want to bookmark this site!) has created a funding organization called The Photocrati Fund and has announced a $5,000 grant to non-professional photographers that want to break into [...]
Lumen Dei Tibet: The Heart of Kham
Today I am excited to announce a new Lumen Dei workshop lead by yours truly. It’s the trip dreams are made of: Tibet! How cool is that!
This summer, June 18- 29th, I will be leading a tour/workshop that focuses on the Tibetan people of Kham. Kahm is the southeastern portion of the Tibetan Plateau and [...]
James Nachtwey: An Opportunist or An Opportunity
This weekend I became somewhat frustrated with the photographic community. To be more precise; I became frustrated with a small, vocal, fraction of the photographic community. Attention was drawn to a blog post by an associate of James Nachtwey. Nachtwey, if you don’t know, is one of today’s premier war photographers. He is a [...]
Multimedia: The Cheese Man of Kashmir
I have been quiet lately for several reasons. First, in the most responsible for my lack of communication is I have been working frantically at redesigning a whole new blog site. A brand-new theme that will eventually integrate with Photo Shelter. At this point, there still a few bugs, but I hope to be [...]
The Hands of Rat Island
As you know, I’ve been giving myself assignments lately for several reasons. Of course the main reason is just to push myself. But another and just as important reason is to force myself to get out into my community. I travel all over the world, and shoot every imaginable location, but the place I probably [...]
Depth of Field: David duChemin
If you are in the USA, let me be the first to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. I got an early start here in Malaysia with a wonderful breakfast from my wife and waking up to the new Depth of Field podcast posted on Peachpit.com. You can also find all the old episodes there as [...]
Playing Favorites
One of my favorites.
Recently I was interviewed and was asked which image of mine was my favorite. I stared at the question for a longtime before it realized I honestly couldn’t answer it. I felt like the question was akin to asking a father to choose a favorite child. It just was not fair. I’m [...]
Voices, So Many Voices!!
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been pushing you to push yourself. To step out of your comfort zones and try new things. The truth is, we have all kinds of voices in our heads telling us things. Some of these are intuitive voices and feelings that we should listen to, others are lies that [...]
For the photographer who has everything
Sunny 16
Maybe you’re like me and you have a bad memory. I try to remember all those little rules and those little quips that are suppose to help you. You know the ones I’m talking about, “the sunny 16 rule” or “F8 and be there”. Do you ever go to a shoot and forget a [...]
Zack and Old Dogs
A photographer most of you know and if you don’t shame on you, is Zack Arias out of Atlanta. Zack was in New York recently and gave himself an assignment to shoot 10 portraits of 10 strangers in 10 hours. For some of us this is not hard, for others this is a complete nightmare.
There [...]
Fifoto Photography: the Future of Malaysian Photography
Sunday I went to Borders bookstore in the local mall, drank some coffee browsed some books and generally relaxed. While there, I ran across in the magazine section, a small directory of Malaysian wedding photographers. I have never had the guts to shoot a wedding. I think you have to be out of your mind [...]
A Day of Texture
Hariman enjoying my 85mm 1.2
Yesterday I took a day off and went out and took some photos. I needed to get away from the computer, away from the four walls of my office and get out into the real world again. I called up a friend of mine, Hariman, and we went roaming the [...]
Inspiration with a Humanitarian Side
In my preparations for my trip to Iraq in late January of 2010, I’ve been doing a lot of research on things like humanitarian photography, photojournalism, photo essays and other related topics. I’ve come across some pretty amazing sights. I thought I’d take this moment just to share with you three links that you might [...]
I shoot for mostly NGOs and nonprofits. I photograph images of the unknown, the forgotten and the helpless. These are often the stories that most people overlook. 
