Story telling – Page 17 – Journeys of a Hybrid

June 21, 2010June 20, 2010

Photography and Video in Foreign Destinations

I’ve traveled most of my life and I’m almost always with my camera. I’ve experienced the good and the bad and the difficulty and the ease when taking photographs on my travels. Some cultures are open to being photographed and some not. I’m not just talking about the rules and regulations concerning photographing landmarks and such, which has certainly changed since 911, but rather the receptiveness of the people in various countries.

It used to be that the people in “third world” destinations were leery of being photographed and superstitious. That has given way to more of an attitude of wanting money for every click of your shutter in their direction. But then there are some cultures that it’s a bit of a surprise how open the people are to being photographed.

Istanbul was certainly one destination where the people were quite accepting of photography. And surprisingly, Moscow is another city where I have found that photography is a lot less restrictive than I thought. Aside from some museums where cameras are not allowed, I have found that shooting on the streets of this city hasn’t been a problem at all. Quite different than I imagined and in fact a bit of a contrast to what I’ve experienced lately in my own country where I feel like I’m an intruder with my camera or worse, feeling like I’m breaking the law.

It’s a fine balance when arriving in a new destination and feeling out the situation as to what is or isn’t off limits to a camera. One needs to be observant and respectful and work into the culture gradually. When photographing people, I don’t go up and ask them if I can take their picture. It’s not because I’m trying to be sneaky, but rather I don’t want a posed moment and that’s exactly what happens if I ask permission first. However, after I’ve taken a few shots and a person has noticed me, I will then question with body language if it’s ok to take pictures. If they say no, I respect their wishes and move on.

I’m on a long extended shoot right now creating a documentary Opening Our Eyes with my daughter Erin. In our free time, we are doing a bit of sightseeing and photographing the landmarks and people of the destinations we are in. From time to time we want a picture of the two of us in a quintessential setting and we seek out just the right person to take our picture. We have discovered that picking the right person is an art in itself and quickly find out if our hunch in who we ask to take the picture proves right. We have acquired quite a collection of photos that people have taken of us from the terrible to the pretty good. It’s always funny to see other people’s eye and how they frame us in the shot.

We have another two months for our journey and it will be interesting to see the cultural differences with regards to photography. I hope that we won’t encounter the obstacles that seem to be popping up more and more in the US when it comes to taking pictures. I wonder – is the change in attitude because of security or is it because everyone has a camera these days with the ever-present cell phones and maybe people are just tired of being photographed.

June 18, 2010June 17, 2010

Don’t Go to Belarus – There’s Nothing Fun or Funny About Minsk

In planning our itinerary for Opening Our Eyes, I needed to ticket a flight from Warsaw to Moscow. There was nothing direct – most European airlines went back to their hubs and thus took more time, going out of the way. I thought about the train, but I saw warnings about going through Riga and having to pay for high transit visas so I avoided it. I opted to fly Belavia Air, the national airlines of Belarus. Every flight went through Minsk (its hub), but at least that was going in the same direction. But little did I know what was awaiting us in Minsk.

We had a scheduled layover of 2 ½ hours in Minsk, which quickly dwindled to less than a half an hour because the flight was 2 hours late taking off from Warsaw. The problem was with baggage – they couldn’t match the baggage tags with the passenger roster so everyone needed to get off the plane – identify their bag on the tarmac and then reboard.

When we got to Minsk we were in a hurry, but we needed to pass through passport control. I thought since we were in transit, it would be like most transit flights and we’d whisk right through. But when the official asked us for our Belarus visa – we knew we had a problem. We quickly went upstairs to the visa window and were encountered by a stern blonde woman who looked like she was straight out of a 1960’s Cold War novel, who asked for our passports. When she saw the US passports she told us it would be $300 – I was shocked. And then when she informed us that was for each one of us – my shock turned to outrage.

I wasn’t traveling with that much cash so I needed to go to an ATM. Of course the ATM would not accept my card so we were ushered to a small currency exchange kiosk. It was closed and wasn’t going to reopen for another 40 minutes. And that’s when I started to panic a bit, knowing that our flight to Moscow would leave with our bags – but without us. Not something you want to have happen as we were due to arrive in Moscow after midnight. After waiting over 45 minutes she opened the kiosk and people started pushing their way to the window. I finally got my “usury” money and paid the “bandit” immigration authorities after an hour and a half of stress and agony.

The only saving grace was that the airline officials held the flight for us. My daughter was wondering why they didn’t have direct flights from Warsaw to Moscow since it would have taken less than 2 hours. I know why now – the routing is designed to hold anyone with a US passport hostage until they pay these exorbitant fees. No pleading or explaining that we were only in their country for 15 minutes would do any good. I have never seen such callous and rude people in all my years of traveling and I will never return to Belarus.

But I do hope someday that I will come upon a Belarusian visiting the United States. I will go out of my way to treat them with the kindness that we never received in their country and perhaps that will filter through. I can only hope.

June 9, 2010

Back to My Beginnings

I became a visual artist , not as a photographer, not as a filmmaker, but as a storyteller using images and later video to tell the tales of other cultures, lands and people through my eyes and my journeys. My camera was my tool – it was a means to an end. The end being the story that needed to be told.

I’ve spent the last 30 some years documenting the world through my lens, whether it be for magazines like the National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian or Travel & Leisure or for major corporations. I’ve been blessed and have truly lived a charmed life. But there have been times when I’ve started to go off kilter – or stray from the essence of my being. It’s easy to do, especially in a culture that is obsessed with the drive to succeed – the definition of success being to make a lot of money and have a lot of “things”. Don’t get me wrong – I also enjoy the rewards that money brings – but for me that means having the resources that help me to live a full life.

A few years back I was shooting a documentary on the Delta Blues Musicians and I spent a memorable afternoon with blues drummer Sam Carr. As we were winding up our conversation under the shade of old tree he sat back and said “I’ve lived a rich man’s life in a poor man’s shoes”. That comment has stayed with me over time and when Sam died last year, I was told that his family was grateful for the interview that I captured that day and used his comment as his epitaph. I was humbled and honored, but mostly felt richly rewarded that my personal project had touched the lives of others.

As we wind up our first stop in Africa on our round-the-world trip, some of the fears and trepidations I had that came with taking a risk, and heading out to the unknown for 3 months, have vanished. In their place is the calming realization that this was what I needed to do at this point in my life and I was grateful I had the means to do it and the stamina to travel on a shoestring budget. Africa puts things into perspective – this vast continent is so wild, colorful, rich, poor, exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time. Africa has taken its hold on me and has sparked my true spirit.

My daughter and I decided to take some time to get out of the city and go to Murchison Falls National Park, after shooting the first part of our documentary about people making a positive difference in the world. We saw

Murchison-1772 copy — Elephants along the Nile

elephants, hippos,

giraffes,

Murchison-1311 copy — Giraffe, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

antelope, cape buffalo, baboons,

Murchison-1607 copy — Baboon, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

slept in a tent and sat by a fire in the evenings under a canopy of stars that stretched from horizon to horizon. We chatted with people from countries all over the globe – all of us different yet with a common cause – the love of the journey.

Of course I shot still photos

Murchison-1161 copy — Cape Buffalo, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

as well as some VIDEO but more importantly I absorbed this rich experience and it energized my spirit and my soul. This is the “fire” that I need every now and then. I think we all need a spark every once in awhile and to get past the science of the photographic craft and back to the essence of the art and the story. That is what ultimately leads us to create the kind of visuals that will resonate with others. That spark is different for all of us but nevertheless an essential ingredient for the creative process. It’s not the tools, nor the techniques that define the message or create the images that strike a lasting chord with those who see them. I was fortunate that I learned that years ago and now I’m reminded of those lessons as I get back to my beginnings.

We leave Africa today and continue our journey – next stop Istanbul, Turkey and then on to Poland where our next subject awaits.

May 30, 2010

Shooting Video in the Field with the Canon 5D Mark II

The first two days of our Round the World Journey, shooting the documentary Opening Our Eyes has been quite full and I’ve faced numerous situations – really putting my tools to the test.

Our first full day was spent at the offices of Wrap Up Africa, which are located in Kampala, Uganda. In addition to shooting b-roll of tailors at work, we shot several interviews. Our main interview was with Wrap Up Africa’s founder, Letha Sandison, followed by interviews of a couple of her staff members. We also did interviews of some of the cancer victims that Letha has helped. Here is where I not only needed to be attentive to my technical details but be sensitive to the situation and the people that I was interviewing. Hearing some of their stories is heartbreaking and hard for many Americans to fathom. Sure, we all watch the travesties taking place throughout the world on the nightly news, but it’s quite another experience to speak with people who have experienced horrendous tragedies in their lives that are simply unimaginable.

One woman, Evelyn who works for Letha had been abducted and held captive by the LRA, which stands for the Lord’s Resistance Army, and is not exactly a charitable group. She managed to escape after most of her family had been killed in front of her. She is now raising three orphans who had been victims as well and works with Letha, helping others.

Our set up was simple and deliberately so. I set up the Canon 5D Mark II and captured my audio separately with the H4N Zoom. I had two mics – one shotgun on a small boom stand and another lav. I will sync them later in post. We chose a room that had ample window light as we are traveling with only a small camera light and nothing else. Our biggest challenge was that the cabinet installer decided to do his work the day we were shooting – so the sounds of hammering and drilling made up our ambient background sound. But the mics were placed close to our subjects and did a pretty good job of boosting their audio above the din of the environment.

The next situation we faced was shooting b-roll in the dirty environments of a potter’s studio and a foundry. Again we used the Zoom to pick up the ambient sound of the environments. After a morning with the artists, we packed up quickly and headed to Mulago Hospital to visit the children’s cancer ward. We were not allowed to shoot video but we did shoot some still images and was happy to have the hybrid cameras that captured beautiful files – far better than frame grabs from a traditional video camera.

Then we headed to the market, which as usual is always a trying experience. For anyone who has traveled to congested third world environments, you know what I mean by “trying experience”. You must be aware of your personal belongings at all times, while shooting and I wish at times that I had eyes in the back of my head. On top of that I’m sensitive to those that don’t want to be photographed. It’s exhausting but at the same time exhilarating because of the exotic nature of the environment. My daughter wore the GoPro Hero helmet cam that is a tiny camera made for adventure sports but she had a lot of fun walking through the market recording the event with running video as we walked through the market.

I was shooting video with the Canon 5D Mark II and used a shotgun mic on top of the camera and run through a JuicedLink audio mixer. I’m embarrassed to say that somehow, even after lots of testing – I came back with no audio! Luckily the helmet cam Hero picked up very good ambient audio so I’m able to use that and layer it in post. In the chaos and confusion of the market, I probably didn’t set it up right and today I will do additional testing so as not to make that mistake in the future. But the video was captured beautifully and I will interweave those clips into the documentary with sound from the interviews and ambient sound from the Hero.

I am realizing one thing though and that there is nothing easy or streamlined when shooting video with these hybrid cameras. The results are stunning, but the shoot and workflow are much more tedious than when shooting with a video camera. Perhaps at the end of this three-month journey, I’ll be singing a different tune – I certainly hope so.

I’ll keep you posted as I get access to the Internet, which is iffy, and we’ve been off line for the last two days. But there’s something humbling about being off the grid and I’m learning to take it in stride and appreciate what I have. Today is Sunday and we are resting and storing up a bit of energy for the coming week. Please read more about our journey at Opening Our Eyes.

May 28, 2010

Arriving in Uganda Under the Full Moon

It’s early morning in Kampala, the sky is just getting bright and the animals are making their music.

Our first day in Uganda was a full but relaxing one. We had arrived the night before under a full moon after over 22 hours of flying. We had left JFK on Tuesday morning and got here Wednesday night, so somehow we lost a day but we’ll make it up after we’ve completed our circle around the world, three months from now. Security in the three airports (New York, Johannesburg and Entebbe) had been a breeze and even though my daughter and I had backpacks full of camera gear, computers and hard drives, no one even blinked an eye, let alone opened anything up.

Letha Sandison of Wrap Up Africa, our first subject of our film, picked us up at 9AM and after changing money, getting a mobile phone with a local number and getting a bite to eat, we went to the local university to meet with two artists. The artists, Bruno, a potter and Sega at metalsmith were working with Letha to make buttons for the garments that she creates for her foundation Wrap Up Africa. Letha’s foundation is two-fold and is a great example of sustainability. She trains family members who have children ill with cancer to be tailors and in turn they sell the garments that they make through her foundation so they can pay for their children’s chemotherapy and hospitalization.

Even treatable cancer can be a death sentence in Uganda if a family doesn’t have the resources for medical treatment. Letha created her foundation to help these families who are dealing with cancer but her task is not an easy one and finding funding is difficult in a country and continent where Aids is so widespread and becomes a priority.

After visiting the university we went to the offices of Wrap Up Africa and entered a room where women were busy sewing. We met her staff and made a plan for shooting there today.

So we are off to start our first day of filming. We’ll shoot some interviews, do some b-roll as well as some stills. Last night we did some testing and I gave my daughter some lessons in capturing audio. She’s a quick study and has the trained ear of a musician so I’m confident she’ll make a great audio person. At any rate after 3 months, we’ll both find our groove. So we’re off and running.

May 24, 2010

Heading Off Around the World

Gail Mooney and daughter Erin Kelly, Giza, Egypt — Gail and Erin in Egypt in 2006

It’s very early in the morning, my favorite time of day – no distractions and a whole new day ahead of me. But today’s a bit different, it’s the day before I leave on a 3-month journey around the world to take on probably the biggest personal project of my life and I have a million details running through my heads.

Just the other day I wrote about the “what if mentality” and how we sometimes fall victim of sabotaging ourselves by talking ourselves out of doing things. And today I have a whole host of “what if’s” running through my head. What if we can’t get into Bangkok or get out? There’s a State Department warning advising Americans not to travel to Thailand and we’ll be traveling with a doctor going into the northern hills – not an easy place to get in and out of in peaceful times. What if one of us gets sick? What if something gets stolen? What if one of our 27 flights get canceled or delayed? What if I don’t get the material I’m after for the documentary?

Certainly, lots of trepidations but I’m a pretty savvy traveler and I’m about as prepared as anyone can be. I try to remind myself of that and focus on the incredible journey ahead of us. I’ll be sharing this experience with my 23-year-old daughter and that in itself will be something we’ll never forget and create a special bond between us for the rest of our lives. We’ll not only be circling the globe together, we’ll be working together to create a documentary on people who are making a positive change in the world. Those connections will be life changing, and in fact one of our hopes is that our film will inspire others to do the same.

So one more day of details and then we’re off – first stop Entebbe, Uganda by way of Johannesburg, South Africa. Our last stop is Buenos Aires, Argentina via the jungles of Peru. Lots in between – lots of laughs, tears, lands and miles. I will be writing as often as I can and uploading when “connected”. And if I disappear at times – you’ll know why. You can follow our journey at Opening Our Eyes.

May 21, 2010

The “What If” Mentality

These days it seems like we as a culture spend more time questioning “what if?” and talking ourselves out of things. I suppose it’s a lot easier not to take action on something. It’s a lot easier to do nothing. The problem with that line of thinking is that as much as it seems like a safe way to live life, it’s actually quite scary because ultimately you’ve eliminated opportunities and possibilities. You’ve left your fate to others.

I too have asked the “what if” question numerous times in my life. There have been many times when I’ve questioned if I should move forward on something and take the chance. But whenever I start to talk myself out of something, I flip the “what if” question around and ask myself “what if I don’t do this?”

Some years ago I was on assignment in Ireland and I spent a memorable morning with an Irishman who was quite a character and full of life itself. At one point we were driving around the countryside doing errands, and he told me about how his son had just spent a small fortune on a racehorse. I said to him “wow, that’s risky” and he replied, “yes, life is a gamble, isn’t it?”

Life is a gamble – you never know what’s right around the corner. To me that’s the beauty in it. I love to look back through history and contemplate how things could have turned out quite differently based on the decisions people made and chances that were taken.

We all set our course with every decision we make, or lack thereof. I think we all have the same amount of luck in our lives; it’s just that some people take notice of it and some don’t. I’d much rather take the chance and fail than ask myself “what If I had….” at the end of the day.

May 16, 2010

Being Candid

I was going through some old personal photographs over the weekend. There were lots of pictures of people smiling for the camera but amongst the school portraits and posed group shots were a couple of candid snapshots that caught my eye.

brian and dad — Brian and Dad. Rochester, NY (early 1960's)

There was a photograph of my dad with my youngest brother – a candid moment, either right before or right after the “posed” moment that captured their spirits. There was a cockeyed shot of my other brother asleep in a barber chair.

jay at barber — Jay at the barber. Rochester, NY (early 1960's)

And then there was a shot of me with my sister and cousin that left you wondering. It was a picture of my sister and cousin, sitting in a wagon that had been abandoned on a sidewalk in a newly built “neighborhood”, taken in the early 1950’s. And there I was, younger and smaller than my sibling, but standing defiantly on my own, refusing to pull the wagon any further.

gail and wagon — Janice and Jeanine in wagon. Me standing defiantly. Chicago, IL (early 1950's)

When I was growing up taking pictures wasn’t like it is these days in the digital era. The cameras then were totally manual and you were quite lucky if your pictures “came out”. You didn’t really know what your results would be until weeks, months or even years later, after you finished the roll of film that was in your camera and had dropped it off at the drug store to be sent off to Kodak to get developed. Depending on how frugal you had been with snapping pictures on that roll of film, looking through your prints after they came back from Kodak was sometimes like seeing the whole year in images with each holiday neatly documented. So with the odds against you for capturing good pictures, you tended to be very cautious and shoot only the sure-fire posed situations. Those shots were hard enough to get, let alone trying to get candid moments. One of my favorite songwriter/musicians, Jackson Browne writes about the candid moments caught in an image:

Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer

I was taken by a photograph of you

There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more

But they didn’t show your spirit quite as true

These days of course taking photos is almost seemless because of automatic features on digital cameras giving us instant gratification in seeing our results immediately. Everyone is taking pictures and in a much more spontaneous way – taking more chances because what’s the harm if something doesn’t come out right – you just erase it and try again. It’s quite interesting because we are all documenting our times and our culture for future generations to see beyond the smiling face.

I love to shoot the candid moments and I’ve spent a career documenting our times and our world through the lens of my camera. I’m an observer and a visual communicator but I’m also a historian, knowing that my images will be a legacy of my time in history. It’s a powerful thought to know that someday someone may look at a photograph that I shot and wonder. Or at least I hope my images will make one wonder, beyond the smile of the faces captured.

May 13, 2010

Photographers/Filmmakers as Publishers/Producers

It’s been a busy year, trying to manage jobs and lots of road trips giving seminars for ASMP to photographers who may be contemplating video. I’ve enjoyed meeting my peers and sharing information through my presentations as well as on my blog, but I need to take some time to get back in the field and capture my own “moments” and “motion”. I need to spend some time “doing” right now and ultimately that will make what I have to share that more valuable and meaningful. So I will be embarking in a couple of weeks on a “passion project” that will take me around the world for 99 days.

It’s an exciting time to be working on a personal project because of various distribution possibilities and portals that are in everybody’s hands. Ten years ago when I got started in video, technology made it possible for me to create documentaries and films without the need of large crews and big budgets. And now with the web, fast download speeds, video host sites, mobile devices and itunes – I can – we all can be publishers and producers and get our content out globally. The pipelines have been democratized and it’s a very empowering position.

I’ve spent a career on the road and on assignment for various publications and corporations. I’ve been fortunate to have worked for magazines like National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian and Travel & Leisure shooting stories on destinations and people all over the world. I suppose you could say that I lived the life I dreamed of. I was shooting these assignments at a time when magazines were giving me ample time in the field to come back with a story – back when travel magazines ran stories as opposed to survey pieces or celebrity profiles. More importantly, I maintained the copyright of my images and was free to market them as I wished after a standard embargo period was over – usually around 90 days.

These days many publishers issue “work for hire” contracts, so essentially photographers are giving up their copyright. Photographers have always been strong advocates for copyright and I include myself in that position. But in our advocacy to keep strong copyright laws in place, we end up fighting for that right for large corporations and publishing empires who ultimately take away our copyright in lopsided contracts. And for the most part these contracts are not negotiable. You either agree and take the job or you don’t.

These days because of technology we can be our own publishers and deliver our stories and other content in a number of different ways. Sure it means taking the risk up front but that in itself brings its own rewards. It’s very liberating to be shooting and answering only to myself – not second-guessing someone else. I take more chances creatively because I’m not afraid to fail. And every time I’ve ever done that, I’ve grown and the rewards have been many – both creatively and financially.

I don’t know exactly how and where my Opening Our Eyes project will be distributed when I complete my journey. But these days – it could be a book, a multimedia exhibition, a feature film distributed through itunes or on a DVD through Amazon, various magazine articles or broadcast. I could package the journey and the back-story and give talks to universities. An endless sea of possibilities. What an amazing time we live in where we can all make our dreams come true.

May 6, 2010

Why I Do The Things I DO

Some people would look at the life I’ve lived and say, “She never grew up”. And they would probably mean that I‘ve led my life doing the things that I’ve wanted to do, but not necessarily what I was expected to do according to our culture’s norm. They would be right in that I have pursued my passions and pretty much have done what I’ve wanted to do. Not irresponsibly or selfishly at the detriment to others but actually to the benefit of others.

For example I didn’t go straight through four years of college after graduating high school. I left after my sophomore year and took off on my travels. I eventually went back to college and graduated – when I wanted to – when I was ready to get the most out of it. And when I graduated from Brooks Institute in the mid 70’s and headed to New York to pursue a career in photojournalism at a time when the publishing business was in bad economic shape – everyone told me I was crazy. I guess I was crazy if my goal was to make a lot of money,

Gail _PeaceHotel_Shanghai1983 — Gail-Peace Hotel, Shanghai,China - 1983

but as much as I didn’t want to be poor, my main motivation wasn’t money. I had a desire to document the world through my camera.

These days I go to parties where people my age are talking about their kids who for the most part have just graduated from college. I over hear people talking about getting their kids connected with the “right people” to get the “right jobs” and it’s perfectly understandable – everyone wants their kids to live a comfortable and fulfilling life. But sometimes those two things compete with one another.

I never really understood the concept of the “right people” or the “right jobs” – I just followed the path that I was drawn to – always have. But I’ve also been open to the possibilities in life and was naïve enough to pursue my dreams to the fullest extent. Some things have worked out – some haven’t And ironically, the projects that I’ve pursued with a passion that certainly didn’t look like moneymakers on paper, have turned out to yield the most financial rewards and recognition.

I’ve never had a real job with a boss except for the one-year I assisted a studio photographer when I first got out of school. I doubt that at my age that will ever happen, but you never know. I’m open to the possibilities of life. In fact I’m ready to take off again for a 99 day journey around the world working on a documentary – a passion project. Please follow my journey at Opening Our Eyes.