I’m sitting here in Bangkok’s Airport with my buddy Gordon on our way to some beautiful Thai beaches. Thought I would post a photo from Angkor Wat that I took two days ago. It was an amazing place to visit but hard for me to relax because I wanted so badly to make some unique photos. This place is photographed so much! I finally let go of that and just made some photos. On the third day I was able to relax and enjoy the temples. Going for a bike ride from temple to temple was lovely!

Given the reports I read, I was expecting the apocalypse. But from a few thousand feet above the ground, Port-au-Prince looks a bit like the outskirts of Lima and others cities in the developing world. It’s greyish brown. The color of unfinished cinder blocks sprinkled with dirt. Nine months after the earthquake Haiti does not feel like hell…not for some.  It’s probably not something you read about often, but in the hills above Port-au-Prince there is money. Lots of it. The money is behind 10 foot walls and iron gates guarded by men with shotguns. My first night in Port-au-Prince, I dined on Spinach Ravioli with a pomodoro sauce. You read that right. This place was too fancy for tomato sauce. The menu stated “pomodoro” in Italian. It was better than the pasta I ate the night before in Norfolk. It cost $16. I’m told that the average DAILY wage in Haiti is $2-$5.

Scene from the Sean Penn Tent City in Port-au-Prince.

I have seen the divide between rich and poor before, but for some reason I was surprised to find it here, too. I just assumed that in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, everyone would be poor. A pretty stupid assumption now that I reflect on it.

I could go on with anecdotes, but there is real reporting out there that is much more helpful. I was there to take pictures for Physicians for Peace and my mission was to show the positive effect of their work with amputees. Their core mission is to provide training to local health providers so that when they leave, skills are left behind. It’s a sustainable approach. However the need is so great in Haiti, that the Physical Therapists are doing more hands-on work than training at the moment. Below is one of my favorite photos. This woman is a double-amputee and her spirit seemed unbreakable.

A patient celebrating after a strength training exercise.

While the above photo might be inspiring on the micro level, I found a quote from a recent Mother Jones story that sums up the situation in Haiti at the macro level.

People forget that the day before the earthquake there were more NGOs operating in Haiti than any other country on the planet and it was still an unmitigated shithole and a horror. The idea that this will turn around in your lifetime is a fantasy—and a crime of gargantuan proportions.

This dark picture does not mean people should stop giving or helping. I think it means we should focus on giving to groups that are providing training or are performing a sustainable development function in Haiti. One last anecdote. On my flight, I met an electrician going to build houses with a mission group. The group spent thousands of dollars to fly labor to Haiti. One thing Haiti has plenty of is unemployed labor. Why not use that money to send down two or three very skilled organizers and teachers, and pay $5/day to a Haitian to work and get on the job training. Perhaps I am naive. Here is a Nov. 1, 2010 story about the current ineffectiveness of charity groups.

A view of the Artibonite River Valley, where the cholera epidemic is thought to have begun.

I’m posting this photo because it follows the last one nicely in terms of color and angle of view. Both are taken with a 40mm lens from a distance that allowed me to capture the trees without having to tilt my lens upward. It’s an architectural approach that prevents the convergence of vertical lines. I have never seen tent platforms like this before, and I appreciated the integration of the tents and cabins into the forest. It’s intrusive, yet playful; it reminds me of kids and tree-houses. I took this early in the morning before we went rafting on the New River….which was awesome!

This post is in sharp contrast to the last “happy” photo. This photo is from a family funeral about two weeks ago. It was for my wife’s grandparents. I questioned if this was too personal a photo to share, but I really like this photo. Though this was a sad event, it was a really nice moment for the whole family to come together. My uncle-in-law asked me to take a few photos, and I’m happy that I could make a nice one. The light was beautiful, and I worked just a little bit on the subtle color palette. The hardest part was finding a nice perspective and waiting for the flag. This is one of those times that being a photographer allows me to step away and be a part of the event without really being a part of it. Click the photo to see it a little larger.

Before an assignment two weeks ago I was roaming around the Shenadoah Mountains and came across this hotel under renovation and under much snow. I found this perspective I liked and after a few minutes this guy drove by. You have to go out of your way to go through this parking lot. It was odd but it made for a more interesting photo. The car creates a triangle for the eye. Were it absent, the viewer would be left with two static elements. Afterward, I spent a bit of time on the computer making sure the whites are neutral. And after all that, it probably looks super yellow on your computer! This image is best when seen big. Click on it for a larger view.

We received about a half foot of snow back on January 30th. In an effort to get a new portfolio picture or at the very least a stock image, I coaxed my wife into walking our dog in the snow storm. We gathered some colorful, though not completely weatherproof clothes and set out.

I woke up this morning to a thick fog. I don’t often take my camera with me while walking our beagle, but today I decided it was a good idea. We walked about half a mile up Colley Ave to a bridge that crosses over a finger of the Lafayette River and there I found a few good photo opportunities. I tied Moe up to a tree and took a few photos. I tried both a blue and sepia tone for this image, and decided on the sepia you see here.

Here is another photo from the same coastline as the previous post.

I was in Spain recently and spent a few days along the coastline known as the Costa Brava. Salvador Dali lived a few miles from where this photo was taken. The craggy coast shows up in a lot of his work. It’s hard not to be inspired by it. I’ve always been drawn to water and rough coastlines. There is an innate tension between the fluidity of water and the solidity of stone. This photo is a composite of 3 photos I made in the same cove. I did not have a tripod (trying to travel light) with me so it was a challenge keeping the camera still on my camera bag. Click the image to see it a bit larger.

Yesterday after a shoot, I walked onto the beach near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. I was testing out my old 5×7 wood field camera (read about it 2 posts down). I had one film holder which holds two sheets of film. I shot one photo of the bridge and another of a nice couple that was curious about the camera. They did this spontaneous piggy-back thing. I’ll do a few more tests before I decide to try some color film. Only Kodak still makes 5×7 color film and it costs $4.00/sheet + developing. This is Efke 100 film which costs $.70/sheet and I can develop it myself. It’s not cheap, but I like that I have to slow down and that I only get a couple shots. It’s the opposite of digital SLR which is fast and unlimited.