MacDonald Photography Weblog

Kibera Exodus

Brian MacDonald — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:33:10 +0000

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.

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Be In Charge

Brian MacDonald — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:28:09 +0000

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.

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Behind The Scenes with the ACS

Brian MacDonald — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:34:22 +0000

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.

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Back To Africa

Brian MacDonald — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:18:44 +0000

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.

Kelsey Timmerman: Touron At Large

Brian MacDonald — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:21:47 +0000

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.

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CineSlider Tests

Brian MacDonald — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:32:24 +0000

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.

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

Brian MacDonald — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:04:32 +0000

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.

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Stills meet HD Video, HD Video Meet Stills…

Brian MacDonald — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:06:37 +0000

The lines between video and still photography are becoming more and more blurred all the time. I have been telling friends for a while now that eventually I will have one camera that I can shoot commercial photography with, and work on our film production at the same time; one camera for both. The quality and functionality is not there yet for video, but the Canon EOS 5D II that we shoot with is a step in that direction. Although it is just a little point and shoot, our new Canon SD780 is another example of the direction things are heading. I was looking to get a compact still camera and a Flip to throw in one of our production cases so we could do a better job getting more behind the scenes looks at our commercial shoots. I was able to find this little 12 megapixel wonder that also shoots HD video, all in something the size of a deck of cards. I think the direction that the RED cameras are heading is the perfect example of things to come. Although the current RED camera is a bit bulky I know that it was used to recently shoot video and get still images for a recent cover shoot for Esquire Magazine. It is the future, and its not far off.

Back From Ethiopia

Brian MacDonald — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:05:28 +0000

I am back from Ethiopia having spent ten days shooting a documentary for Life In Abundance International. I have actually been back for a week now and processing the experience I had there has been an interesting challenge. The culture shock has been more dramatic than previous international projects I have worked on. Last year when photographing a book, Urban & Rural Hope, in Kenya and Ethiopia, we were working in slums with the poorest of the poor. It was challenging and eye opening shooting for the book, but this year shooting the documentary was different. I think that it was the depth of extreme pain I heard in the stories of the people we interviewed that made such an impact on me. The toughest interviews for me were when we went out until 3AM in the morning two nights in a row interviewing street kids and teenage prostitutes. It was heartbreaking to talk with little kids with nothing but torn pants and a shirt to fight off the night time cold, sleeping on the streets. We wanted to give our jackets to two little boys we met shivering in the wind but were told that they would simply be beat up and robbed by older boys as soon as we left. The desperation in the voices of the young prostitutes and the how they are trapped in a life of few options was almost too painful to hear. The fact is, that despite my inconsequential uneasiness of filming these stories, we were there with a purpose to bring light to these dark images. Our team was there to give voices to the unseen. Mixed with the despair we also found stories of hope and transformation from the work that LIA is doing. I can only hope that once this documentary is finished it will make people a little uncomfortable and challenge them to find ways to make changes for these lost kids.

Update from Ethiopia

Brian MacDonald — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:34:54 +0000

The week in Ethiopia shooting the documentary has been challenging but good. Lack of internet has made it difficult to share all that has been going on. We have seen many difficult and dire circumstances. The last two nights have been the toughest. On the first night, we were out until 3 a.m. interviewing street children and needed police escorts for the slums we went into. Last night was just as difficult as we interviewed young prostitutes and heard about the hopelessness in which they find themselves. Some really sad stories.

At the same time, joy can emerge from the harshest of realities as in this photo taken on my last trip to Ethiopia. The folks at Life in Abundance are doing great work. Looking forward to being able to share all of the stories from this week as we move to edit the documentary over the next few months. Stay tuned. More when I return next week.