Cold Spaghetti

We’ve been back in the States a week and I’m still figuring out how to write about our three weeks in Peru. Part of the issue is that my trusty notebook, with all my travel notes and thoughts, went AWOL about a day after we arrived home. Another issue is the nature of the work… I’m unsure of some of the ownership details of the photographs I took and feel that if I put them online before the Magazine has chosen which they are using that I could get in a sticky situation. The third issue is workflow, which does not exist. This issue relates to how we store photographs, how I process them, and the tools I use to do all of the above. Paul has a great storage system arranged for us… it just takes me hours to use it because my little ‘puter can’t handle much, doesn’t have much in terms of software, and has display problems. The new baby has been ordered, so that last issue should be somewhat fixed in another week or so. Until then, all I’m really doing is cropping photos and trying to organize them.

Some lessons learned about photography gigs:

— They get harder when the gig is everyday for 3 weeks. It’s hard to keep up with the volume, keep equipment ready and waiting, and stay fresh. (That said, I totally loved every minute.)

— Make sure your cameras have the same time/date set. I didn’t do this and because we used two cameras, putting the photos in a chronological order is an ongoing nightmare. Combined with how S.L.O.W. it is to do anything with the photos from my computer, it is a real time-sink… but completely necessary.

— I was up late every night emptying memory cards, checking back-ups to make sure everything was safe, trying to upload backup copies to our home network, and checking that equipment was charged and ready for the next day. These things all sound easy, but were actually very difficult when you’ve been up since 3:30am (we had many days that started before 5am)… the bottom line is that Paul was my saving grace for everything. As always. The perfect partner for all of the work of the trip.

— Anytime you find yourself asking whether you should take something, the answer is YES. Every Darn Time we asked, ‘should we take the tripod?’ or ‘should we take the flash?’ or said ‘maybe we should only take one camera’… every single time we went with the pesky thought, we regretted it. Bottom line: haul it all.

— I am ready for a battery pack. Bring on the weight.

— Although we were in many situations where pick-pockets are plentiful, crime goes unchecked, and poverty and desperation are high… I never, ever felt myself to be more at risk because of my camera(s). Yes, we watched ourselves. Yes, we were smart. Yes, we traveled in groups and always had guides who knew the community. But in the end, I actually think that having the GEAR made me/us more conspicuous. The cameras stood out so much that theft would have been obvious. Better to slink away with a pocket camera than a several pound beast with a wide angle lens attached. Plus, I typically had conversations with those I photographed and explained who I was, what I was doing, and what it was for — this opened a ton of doors for us. While there were some who requested I not photograph, more often than not, people not only were happy to be photographed but offered suggestions and help.

— If I ever do this again, I will approach it completely differently. I didn’t fully grasp how to handle both roles (teaching assistant AND photographer/photojournalist) until the end of the class. It took a few days of doing both to see what worked and what didn’t.

If I could leverage this type of photography within public heath work on a regular basis… wow. Even thinking about it is overwhelming.

Fish market pictures are up. There is a short description there, too…