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Shooting in Extremes - Tropics
By David Duchemin
My wife and I sponsor a gorgeous little girl in Haiti. A year and a half ago I was asked to travel to Haiti and shoot for a week, to help tell the story of New Missions, the group that works in the villages through whom we sponsor Centhia. Shooting in extremes is never easy, and Haiti has them all. Extreme heat, humidity, sunlight, and human conditions - all make shooting somewhere like Haiti a wonderful, sweaty challenge. Next month I head to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Malawi to shoot for World Vision - shooting in extremes is at the forefront of my planning.
Dealing with the heat and humidity is easy, in a sense, because there isn't much you can do about it. Especially in a place where the notion of air conditioning or even a fan is a distant hope. I developed a couple coping strategies that I've used since.
I wear a Domke PhoTog vest and try to cut down on wearing my backpack. I've recently started wearing a belt system and I think this combination of modular belt system and vest will work very well to haul my gear and keep me cool. Domke vest have two large pockets in the back that I find useless for anything except water bottles, which they hold very well. Keeping yourself hydrated and sane is the first step to photographing in the heat. Wear a hat. Carry and use sunscreen. If you pass out from sun-stroke or heat exhaustion the quality of your images deteriorates quickly!
I also carry a cut-up synthetic travel towel. You can buy these at almost any hiking supply store - like REI in the USA or MEC in Canada for about ten dollars. I cut mine into two-foot squares and carry one at all times. It allows me to wipe my gear clean of sweat, wipe my hands, my brow, whatever, and they dry quickly and weigh next to nothing.
I always travel with a LowePro bag and when it's sitting in the back of a pick-up truck or on a roof (I loathe these times, but they happen) I pull the light-grey all-weather cover over the bag which protects from dust and rain but in the heat reflects the sun and keeps things inside at a reasonable temperature. Carrying small silica pouches inside my bag and lens pouches also keeps things dry
Shooting in intense sunlight is even harder, and with the arc of the sun in a Caribbean summer, or any equatorial location, you're bound to shoot in some pretty harsh light sooner or later. Shooting during the so-called magic hours is sometimes a luxury you don't always have, but if you can control things at all, shooting at sunrise and in the hour following, and in the hour or two before and after sunset will get you soft light that results in gorgeous portraits and landscapes. Carry an alarm and count on working early and late. On a recent trip to Ethiopia I was up by 5am most mornings and out the door before the sun was fully up. We'd shoot for a couple hours, use the bright daylight for travel, scouting, and eating, and shoot again in the evening and have supper late. Once the sun was long down.
But when you're forced to shoot at high noon, there is still hope of shooting some nice images. The difficulty is the high sunlight and the harsh shadows and contrast. Colours become very lifeless and there is very little depth or texture in images shot in such light. Landscapes are tough to shoot - but people can be moved and sometimes just shifting to an overhang or a doorway will not only give you softer light, it will also give you a beautiful catch-light in their eyes from the bright light behind your back. The other thing you can do is carry a light disc of some kind to create some shade or diffusion. Lastly you can use fill flash, which better photographers than myself have used beautifully. I find my own efforts at fill just don't match my style and love of softer, more natural looking images.
Shooting in extremes of climate often means shooting in extremes of the human story and while I have written previously about just this topic, let me touch on it briefly. Photography is a tool and as such can be used for great good. But it is often not, and I'd like to suggest that any photograph that is taken "so other people know how poor these people are and can then do something to help" that does not in the process of capturing the image preserve their dignity, it is not worth the taking. I'm not talking here about photojournalism, though I suspect there are similar ethical discussions in those circles as well. I am simply talking about predatory photography that points a lens at anyone who is poor or different and does not allow them the dignity to say no. We do greater good sometimes by putting the camera down and first treating people with love and dignity. Only then can we create images that reflect those very things.
David Duchemin Bio
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