"Nepali Man with Staff, Kathmandu"

"Nepali Man with Staff, Kathmandu" by Joel Addams

KATHMANDU, NEPAL

Kathmandu has become one of those few cities for me where I actually feel comfortable with dropping in and moving around.  The people are more than easy going, and the bustle of the city itself has increased dramatically over the past five years, nearly doubling its previous population.  While on assignment there in 2011 for the Himalayan Cataract Project (a phenomenal non-profit supporting the Tilganga Eye Institute), I was able to photograph the many eye camps that Nepali Opthalmic Assistants performed on their one day off.  Yes, their one day off.  Unlike Americans and some Europeans, the norm here is to only have one day off a week instead of two, and there were four workers each day off who were assigned to go out and spend another eight hours helping people.  Quite remarkable.  In a situation where a Nepali on the street would rarely let me take a portrait, their eye exams offered a perfect situation where they were distracted enough to act quite casually and normally.  The Canon 50 mm f/1.2 lens was the perfect solution to this absolutely low light problem.  With the lens opened wide and with an ISO usually at 200, I could hand hold my Canon 5D Mark II just a few feet away from those who were more worried about getting the exam right than they were about the white guy sitting on the floor.  Hours passed and one-by-one, I had the opportunity to photograph a new face every 30 seconds.  There’s no magic in this photography, no artificial lights, no crazy post-processing.  Sometimes it just all works out.

Camera: Canon 5DMarkII
Lens: Canon 50 mm f/1.2
Settings: ISO200, f/1.2, 1/200th of a second
Filters:  B + W UV filter
Other: Postprocessing, Black and White Conversion, some curves adjustments

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