MacDonald Photography Weblog

Kibera Exodus

June 3rd, 2010

It has been several weeks now since returning from our documentary shoot in Nairobi, Kenya. It was truly a powerful experience as we spent the week capturing the complex stories of poverty and those who find themselves trapped in this never ending cycle. We had a great team that went with Life In Abundance to help us with production. Early one morning we captured the “exodus” from Kibera. Every morning thousands of people stream out of one of the largest slums in Africa to find work. Many come back empty handed. Over 750,000 people live in Kibera and it is only one of the many large slums in Nairobi. One of our team members, Bob Davidson, wrote some excellent posts on his blog, Wonderlust, that really captured the sense of what it was like to be in the slums. Be sure to read it.

http://www.vimeo.com/12266445

Brian MacDonald

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Be In Charge

June 2nd, 2010

Our latest book project is being released. We teamed up again with our strategic partners to publish a new calendar called Be In Charge. It is a fun look at taking charge of your schedule and life with a lot of humor tossed in. We had everything from Mexican wrestlers to live chickens in the studio for the shoots. We even got to blow a few things up. There is a great micro site with all the fun stuff from the project. Check out BeInChargeofYou.com for the details.

http://www.vimeo.com/12248260

Brian MacDonald

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Behind The Scenes with the ACS

May 14th, 2010

Here are just some quick clips from the studio during a production for the American Cancer Society. It was moving to hear the stories of cancer survivors and how the ACS has made a huge difference in their lives. The final piece is used to help with their fund raising. We were glad that we were a part of helping to tell these powerful stories.

http://www.vimeo.com/10169155

Brian MacDonald

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Back To Africa

April 1st, 2010

Mathare Slums Our team is heading back to Kenya in the end of April to work on another documentary for Life In Abundance. We will be spending 10 days working in the slums of Mathare and Kibera. We were there two years ago shooting a book project, Urban And Rural Hope. Our short film that we shot last year in Ethiopia has been well received. We just got word that the former president of Kenya and members of their parliament watched the film at a special viewing. It received a great response. The fund raising efforts that have gone along with the film have just passed $300,000. It has blown our expectations out of the water.

Our next project will focus on some micro-loan projects happening in the slums and the way they are effecting the lives of those individuals struggling to survive day to day. We are raising funds again to make this a reality. People can donate at LIA’s website. One team member is taking an interesting approach. Check out what Kelsey Timmerman is doing at his Held Hostage by Apathy site.

Brian MacDonald

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Kelsey Timmerman: Touron At Large

March 23rd, 2010

We recently shot a video project for Wiley Publishing about one of their authors, Kelsey Timmerman. He has a great book out, Where Am I wearing? Kelsey was great to work with. He was a good sport with all the crazy things we had him do for the shoot. We had a photo session in addition to the video project. Kelsey is also traveling with us to Africa this year to work on the crew of our next documentary project in Kenya for Life In Abundance. I guess he is a glutton for punishment.

http://www.vimeo.com/9649222

Brian MacDonald

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CineSlider Tests

March 15th, 2010

We just got an exciting new piece of gear in at the studio. It is the CineSlider by Kessler Crane. It is one of the many products we are using by them. This new mini dolly allows us to achieve shots that used to take setting up track and a large dolly. We are able to easily bring this on location. It has an eighty pound capacity so we can easily use it with our full HD camera set up with depth of field adapter and accessories. It is also a great addition to our HD DSLR systems we are using now.

http://www.vimeo.com/10167711

Brian MacDonald

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Bride and Groom Ride a Tandem. Well, Sort Of.

June 19th, 2009

Bride and Groom Ride the Tandem

We had a great time yesterday shooting a magazine cover for an article on marriage. The biggest challenge of the shoot was figuring out a way to safely hold up a tandem bike with two people on it. We had to construct a 17 foot wide support from 2×4’s and use some high boy stands to hold the rig. Then came some fancy cable and clamping. We got to test out our new little Canon SD780 to shoot a short video of the whole experience. Oh yeah, and we are still working on the music for the new MacShorts graphics. Maybe next video. Check it out.

http://www.vimeo.com/5234911

Brian MacDonald

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