Pokot Elder
An elder of the Pokot tribe in Kenya sits in her hut.
An elder of the Pokot tribe in Kenya sits in her hut.
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Mar, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken on a trip to Kenya, Africa. After two animal safaris and a solar eclipse adventure that was interupted by a sandstorm, I embarked on a cultural safari to meet the indigenous peoples. My guide took me to a remote area of the country near Lake Baringo where I was introduced to the Pokot tribe. These people live simple subsistence lives in thatched mud/dung huts. They live by fishing and some simple farming. This woman is an elder of the tribe and shows her hut and simple living accommodations.Time
This was taken at nearly mid-day, but since this was inside the hut the harshness of the light was filtered out.Lighting
Once the light got into the hut it was bounced naturally off the mud walls and dirt floor, providing a soft diffuse light.Equipment
Hand held Olympus E-3 with a 12-60mm f/2.8 shot at 12mm. The Olympus E-3 is a 4/3 system which means that this is equivalent to a full-frame 24mm lens. I shot it at 1/8 sec at f/5.6 @ ISO 1600 I steadied the camera by sitting on the floor and bracing my arms on my knees.Inspiration
I took lots of colorful images of dancing and singing outside. The tribes are use to tourism and photographers and are often dressed in traditional beads and finery to put on a show. I felt I needed to capture more of the home life. This woman is very proud of her simple home and was thrilled to let me take her photo. When I entered the hut and saw the quality of the light, I just had to capture it. The low level lighting was a tough challenge, but I cranked up the ISO hoping to eliminate the noise in post.Editing
I use LightRoom for my post-processing. Exposure, contrast and white balance are right out of the camera. I toned tone the highlights(-29), bumped up the shadows slightly(+33), and crushed the blacks slightly(-33). I increased clarity and vibrance and adjusted the Tone Curve to hold down the highlights some more. I reduced the in-camera sharpening. Finally, I judiciously applied Noise Reduction to recover from the high ISO.In my camera bag
Up to and including this trip I was shooting the Olympus E-3, the 12-60mm is my go to lens. I carry a 75-300 for the high end, a 50mm macro, and a 8mm fish-eye. An Olympus dedicated flash rounds out the bag. After the trip, I decided I really needed to shoot full-frame and now my kit is a Nikon D-800, 24-120mm f/4, a 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor for macros. I don't have a wide end, but I recently rented the 14-24mm and realized it is a very specialized super-wide requiring a lot of skill to coax out award winning images from it. I'll rent it as needed, I will not be adding it to my bag.Feedback
Well, its all about the light, right? Don't let low light scare you away. See the light. Meter it correctly, kick up the ISO. I would rather get a noisy shot than none at all. I had a willing subject to sit very still, after all that what she does for a living.
