Assignment for the Institute of Human Rights

Warm Light Just After Sunset

Underexposed Background by One Stop, Added Flash Through Umbrella

Warm, Low Light, Just before Sunset

Direct Sunlight

Direct Sunlight

Diffused Window Light

Flash as Main Light, Sunlight as Side Light

CAPTURING ALASKA

with Wayde Carroll

 

  “Human Right Here”

 

 
   A few weeks ago I got an e-mail through my membership in the American Society of Media Photographers  (ASMP) looking for volunteers to make photographs for the Institute of Human Rights which is out of the University of Connecticut. I’ve been looking for ways to donate my photography and give a little back to the world. I’ve been shooting some stuff for Habitat for Humanity and I’m all for human rights! I e-mailed back and said I was interested.
  It turns out that the project involved getting people to wear a shirt that says “Human Right Here” and then photograph them.
  Photographers around the country have volunteered their time to collect photos in every state and I was excited to be involved. The photos would be used as posters, postcards, web-cards etc to promote an upcoming conference on human rights issues at the university. The only parameters were shoot horizontals only, shoot color, shoot the subject with dignity, and keep the subject on the left side of the frame  (the finished poster will have text on the right side).
  I was excited to see what I could get by just approaching people and figured it would be a breeze.
  It turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. Part of it was my fault though. I actually spent one entire day specifically trying to get photos for this project and ended up with nothing! I’m not quite as inept as it sounds. I had also received a request for images from Sierra Magazine and one of the things they were looking for was people from the tiny town of Chikaloon, about an hour and a half from Anchorage on the Glen Highway.
  I thought: “Awesome! I’ll kill two birds with one stone. I’ll get out to remote Chikaloon and get some people images for both projects!” Yeah!!
   No!!! Chikaloon is so small that they only have a “gas station/ general store”- complete with the old mechanical pumps- and a small post office. Of the five people we (my photographer friend Brian Adams came out as well) were able to come across not one would be in a photo much less put a t-shirt on. I would have to say the people were downright unfriendly! One person told me that they only cared about animals and they didn’t care about human rights, the post master was only concerned that we weren’t parked in the right spot in a parking lot big enough for thirty cars but devoid of any but ours. It was a bust for both assignments! We did get some cool shots of Mendenhall Glacier though!
  Two days later I spent an entire day around Anchorage. Mt success rate was better but far from easy. Some people didn’t want to be photographed, some didn’t want to wear the t-shirt, the t-shirt was too small for one guy, a couple people were state employees and didn’t think they should endorse whatever it was I was doing, etc. etc.
  Still, I got some stuff I was happy with and IHR was happy with what they got. I’ll post the final poster when I get it.

  Photographically, I thought it was interesting that I ended up with photos taken in several different lighting situations so I labeled each photo accordingly.