Intent
Mission trip to Africa
Mission trip to Africa
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Dec, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in in Cateme, a small village in Mozambique, Africa. I was walking around the village taking pictures and came across these two looking strangely serious. I was able to snap a picture before they got called away by their friends playing soccer behind me.Time
This was a long day of traveling from village to village. We had finally arrived at our last village for the day. This picture was taken around 30 minutes before sunset, when everyone was quieting down for the evening.Lighting
The ambience was very warm as everything in the vicinity is yellow or a muted brown. Luckily they happened to be sitting in the shade, allowing for beautiful, even light throughout the scene.Equipment
As you can imagine, Africa is dusty, dry and this particular time of year, very hot. I didn't take my camera with me due to those reasons so every where I went, I took my iPhone 6 with me to capture moments like this.Inspiration
As adults, we are always seeing thing from above, including children. When I came across these children kneeling beside the bike, I thought "Why don't I take a different approach and take a picture from how the smaller ones see things?" The initial picture I took was eye level with the children but it didn't quite look right. To change things up, I went lower and ended up with what you see here.Editing
When we hear Africa, most would imagine either a desert or a lush jungle. This location happened to be basically a desert with not a lot of color. To enhance the picture, I added a bit of contrast and saturation to make the details pop.In my camera bag
I never leave home without my camera because I never know what I may come across. I'm a photography enthusiast, not quite professional, so I use a cropped sensor Nikon d7100 with a 50mm 1.8f lens (50mm on cropped sensor is equivalent to 75mm). This allows me to get up close and personal but with enough room between us to keep things from getting uncomfortable.Feedback
I was shooting with an iPhone. That means to get a good quality picture, your feet are your zoom. And when you have to get up close and personal with complete strangers, it's quite uncomfortable. To get past that discomfort, I invite people to just practice taking those pictures. In Africa where we didn't speak the same language, I had no way of asking their permission for me to take their picture, so I just snapped away. Back in the states, I took that same approach. Don't ask and just do it. Most of the time people won't give you a second thought. That will give you those candid, raw photographs that most strive for. For practice, go out into the city. Find some interesting looking people and just snap away.
