![Joel Addams [TheBlog]](http://gravatar.com/avatar/9a71f256f5c4de9099badb96867cc0ba/?s=100&d=identicon)
Camping – Central Utah
Camping – Central Utah
Central Utah Camping
Camping Central Utah
Hot Springs – Central Utah
CENTRAL UTAH – CAMPING
This was a great weekend in central Utah with good company. Awesome trip, good exploring, good campfires, and good hot springs. Nothing better.
“Evening Fog and Pier” Golden Gate State Park, California
Alta’s Albion Basin in Summer
Naturalist Basin, High Uintas and A Little Photography
Image from the Camino de Santiago by Joel Addams/Aurora Photos/Getty Images
Image from the Camino de Santiago by Joel Addams/Aurora Photos/Getty Images
Image from the Camino de Santiago by Joel Addams/Aurora Photos/Getty Images
MERIAN MAGAZINE – GERMANY
These are a couple of the images from the Camino de Santiago that were recently published in the online version of the German travel magazine, MERIAN. Still searching for the cover where there is an additional image, but I don’t think I will be in Germany before it is off the shelves. Check out their online version here.
Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams
Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams
Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams
Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams
Pottery making in Baktapur, Nepal by Joel Addams
BAKTAPUR, NEPAL
Pottery making seems to me to be one of those fundamental projects in life that is still used out of necessity in many parts of the world and for art in others. The funny thing is that for whatever reason people do it, it still seems to be art. The craftsmanship of making something useful and artistic provides that double functionality that seems to make the sum total more than the parts. Mud + hand spinning a wheel + molding + drying = something really cool. I photographed this gentleman in the clay capital of Nepal, Baktapur. He “threw” all day, probably everyday…and for long hours. He cranked through pots that, visibly inspected, did not seem to have flaws. Maybe he hit his 10,000 hours about five years ago. I enjoyed the forms of the pots and the motion, yet again frozen in a single still image. (I’ll post the video soon)
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon 50 mm f/1.2 on the blurred backgrounds, Canon 17-40 mm L on wide shots, Canon 100 mm f/2.8 Macro
Settings: Variable, but you gotta slow the shutter speed on the spinning wheel down…
Filters: B + W UV filter
Other: Postprocessing, Black and White Conversion, some curves/levels adjustments
RELATED ARTICLES
“Photographs of Sadhus-Old and New-Kathmandu, Nepal”
“Photography in the Amazon, Peru Region”
“Out in the Morning-Trailrunning”
A sadhu or holy man of HIndu participates in rituals in Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal by Joel Addams
KATHMANDU, NEPAL
I have finished editing all of the still images from the recent trip to Nepal, mainly because I was shooting video 95% of the time. I found the favorite portrait that I took of one of the sadhus, the holy men of the Hindu temples. Working on the edge of the light has always been my favorite since it naturally isolates the subject. I love Richard Avedon’s work, but the whiteness would kill me eventually. Also, this picture represents a different placement of the subject for me, as the focus is farther away than the closest point, which destabilizes the image slightly. Overall, it’s one of my favorites.
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon 50 mm f/1.2
Settings: ISO 200, f/1.2, 1.250th of a second
Filters: B+W UV filter
Other: Handheld
RELATED ARTICLES
Nepali Man with Staff
Photography of Sadhus, Old and New, Kathmandu, Nepal
Urbanization – Slums of Kathmandu
An odd title, I agree. Yet three gentlemen make up a small history of an institution that is fascinating on so many levels. The Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology is itself quite a feat, founded by Nepali doctor Sanduk Ruit and supported to an extent by USAID, Australia’s Fred Hollows Foundation, and the Himalayan Cataract Project (US). The Nepal Eye Bank manager, Sankha Twyana and later the technician Bhola Khitri, were trained both in Nepal and in the Czech Republic, thanks to extra help by the international tissue non-profit, Tissue Banks International (Maryland, USA). These two gentleman spent years working on both an individual level and a larger social level in Nepal (accompanied by Ruit and corneal surgeons such as Dr. Reeta Gurung) to overcome the barriers of tissue donation in Nepal.
Shankha Twyana is the Nepal Eye Bank’s manager and first technician by Joel Addams
While it has been an uphill battle, many Nepalis now believe that donating one’s corneas (the thin, clear front portion of the eye) can be much more beneficial to them in the next life, an idea that was not always in vogue in Nepal. With a country that is 80% Hindu and about 20% Buddhist, many in previous generations were not interested in donating their corneas, believing that they would be blind in the next life. This has changed somewhat as corneal extractions by these eye bank technicians have moved from the hospitals to the sites where families bring their loved ones for cremation: the Buddhist Temples and the Hindu Temples. There is the intersection of medicine and religion, when families are met by these three men to discuss — in the middle of the funeral — if they would consider making the donation of their loved one’s corneas. It can be a tense and intense time, where some families are willing and understanding, others can be rude and quite angry.
Bhola Khitri was the second technician at the Nepal Eye Bank (and still loves his green tea) by Joel Addams
It doesn’t help, either, if you look too young when approaching families about such a major donation. The young Bala, the newest of the technicians, is in his mid-twenties and as most Nepalis do, he looks a bit younger. There’s no scorekeeping when it comes to successful approaches to families, but Bala and I were turned down many, many times when approaching families. The authority of the more elderly and therefore wiser (?) individual may be what is preventing a higher success rate for the technician, but he pushes ahead, knowing that he is doing a good thing. So many people are waiting for corneal transplants in Nepal and the tissue is never enough to meet the demand currently.
The Nepal Eye Bank technician Bala by Joel Addams
I’ve provided a few images of these three gentlemen. May they continue well on their way!
If you’d like to support any of these great institutions, I can think of none better who run more efficiently and effectively as they do:
TBI (Tissue Banks International, Baltimore, Maryland)
Himalayan Cataract Project (Burlington, Vermont)
RELATED ARTICLES
Nepali Man with Staff
Photography of Sadhus, Old and New, Kathmandu, Nepal
Urbanization – Slums of Kathmandu
The Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque is the kingpin mosque of the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi by Joel Addams
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
While on a layover in Abu Dhabi, my friend Josh was kind enough to drive over from Dubai, pick me up, take me to see this great mosque and crash at his pad before my next flight into Nepal. We photographed the night side of this fantastically large mosque honoring the father of the nation (if my memory serves me correctly). Immediately, I noticed the mix of warm and cool colors that were intentionally in place by the designers. The lights gave a very fascinating hue to the building, with a very pure white light mixed somewhere in the middle. Exposure can be a little tricky on these night shots, so it is important to check your LCD/histogram and see what’s happening. Depending on how much light is in the frame (as opposed to dark sky), the camera will want to do a lot of different things. I usually try to get the midtones right, and let the extremely highlights blow out a little bit, giving a bit more of a dramatic effect. In post, I usually have to add back some of the color, as it is lost trying to get the correct exposure. In this case, I fixed the blues back to where they were in the scene.
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon 17-40 mm @ 17 mm
Settings: ISO400, f/4, 1/25th of a second
Filters: None
Other: Cable Release
RELATED ARTICLES
How I Got That Shot – McWay Falls, Big Sur
How I Got That Shot – “Great Pyramids at Sunrise” Egypt
ALBION BASIN, LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, UTAH
Ah, yes. Spring moving into summer. With Mother’s Day just around the corner, it seems appropriate to feature a new image with more wildflowers than you can shake a stick at. Last year, I was able to work on a project for a Utah-based firm and took some images of the wildflowers in Alta, Utah. The mosquitos were pretty powerful, but the imagery in front of me was much more powerful. The last light on the towers above Albion Basin was a nice touch to the foreground of yellow spray. I always focus a few feet in front of me or about 1/3rd of the way back into the scene, depending on my aperture setting. Somewhere between f/11 – f/16 is pretty tasty to get most things in focus in a scene like this. The aperture f/22 certainly does work, but most people will admit (if they are excruciating about it) that it lowers the focus and contrast ever so slightly. The 24 mm TS lens by Canon is really fantastic…and sharp.
Camera: Canon 5DMarkII
Lens: Canon 24 mm Mark II Tilt-Shift Lens
Settings: ISO200, f/11, 0.6 seconds
Filters: Circular Polarizer, Singh-Ray 4-stop Reverse Graduated Neutral Density, Singh-Ray 3-stop Graduated Neutral Density
Other: Manfrotto Tripod, Cable Release
OTHER LANDSCAPE ARTICLES
“Evening Fog and Pier” Golden Gate State Park, California
Alta’s Albion Basin in Summer
Naturalist Basin, High Uintas and A Little Photography
Kids on Oahu's North Shore jump off the "30-foot Rock" by Joel Addams
NORTH SHORE, OAHU, HAWAII
We used to make runs up to the North Shore whenever we used to have time. Sometimes we would arrive late or the swells from earlier in the day would have died down. On this occasion, nothing was happening, so we wandered down to the 30-foot Rock, so-called by the locals because of its height. When timed correctly, the water is plenty deep for a safe landing. (Watch out for the low tide!) I thought these kids would make a good silhouette as the sunlight was fading, and their body language described pretty well what was going on. My friend with me described this bottom photo later on as a “tweaked out melon grab.” Admittedly, the jumper may not have been the most graceful or picturesque subject, but perhaps that is what gives it a lot of local flavor. The exposure on this image (and most silhouettes) is terribly simple. Point and shoot. Don’t worry about overexposing. If you shoot in an evaluative metering system, with no exposure compensation, your meter in the camera will read the light in the sunset and automatically darken the foreground subjects. No problem. Now if you wanted to lighten up the kids, you would need to overexposure the frame, either by increasing the exposure compensation (+/- button) or manually increasing the size of the aperture or lengthening the shutter speed.
RELATED ARTICLES
Manarola at Sunset, Manarola at Dusk
When I Love f/5.6 and All Other Apertures
Valuing Fine Art Print Photography
Screening camp by the Tilganga Eye Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal. Photograph by Joel Addams
KATHMANDU, NEPAL
Check out the trailer on YouTube
I am excited to announce that the trailer has been made for my documentary project, “From the Eyes of Buddha,” and we are launching a fundraiser campaign on Kickstarter.com (visit the YouTube link currently) to raise the funds so we can followup with recipients of cornea transplants in their own homes to see them in their productive lives of farming, tending water buffalo, and continuing their education. The campaign end April 27, 2012 at 7 p.m. You can donate as little as $1 and there are sweet rewards for $10 or more!
I was initially interested in this project when I went to the Tilganga Eye Institute in 2006 and wrote an 80-page book on developing an eye banking system in developing countries. The Nepal Eye Bank managers were fabulous to work with, and they were great again when I showed up with a couple of video cameras in July 2011 to start filming. We followed the corneas that were extracted on the funeral pyres in the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu into a special solution and then into the recipients in surgery. One recipient was a perfectly healthy girl from the Indian border who became progressively blind during her youth. This happened from a genetic problem, and her education, ability to help her family, and marriage prospects (a major part of the Nepali culture) were finished…until she made her way to Kathmandu and the Tilganga Eye Institute. We filmed her second surgery, but now we need to return to see her new productive life at home, thanks to brave donor families and innovative Eye Bank personnel and skilled Nepali surgeons.
This is a story of changing and a story of hope. Join us in the campaign by supporting for as little as $10 or simply repost the campaign on your Facebook, Twitter account, or personal blog (the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjMUy6mmAUk&feature=plcp). Any exposure will help! Thanks for your interest.
RELATED ARTICLES
Nepali Man with Staff
Photography of Sadhus, Old and New, Kathmandu, Nepal
Urbanization – Slums of Kathmandu
"Three Gossips and Courthouse Towers" Arches National Park, Utah by Joel Addams
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, UTAH
Ahh. It’s always good to be back home. Home is where the deserts meet the mountains in Utah, and a mere four hours by car from Salt Lake City will land you squarely in Moab, Utah. Only a stone’s throw from this mountain biking mecca are two National Parks, Canyonlands and Arches, both with accessible shooting opportunities. This shot was from late winter with the receding snow in the park somewhat of an anomaly at times. I’ve often been frustrated by the haze that settles in over Arches, but this sunrise was pretty reasonable. A good old Singh-Ray external graduated neutral density filter does the trick of deepening the blue in the sky. On to spring…
Camera: Canon 5DMarkII,
Lens: 17-40 mm lens at 17 mm
Settings: ISO100, f/13, 1/6 of a second
Filters: Singh-Ray 2-stop Graduated Neutral Density filter, LB warming polarizer
Other: Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripod, Cable Release
RELATED ARTICLES
How I Got That Shot – “The Great Pyramids at Sunrise”
Urbanization – Photography of Kathmandu Slums
“Half Dome in Clouds” Yosemite National Park
