skeletons in his closet

Got a skeleton in your closet? John Hawks does. His physical anthropology lab at the University of Wisconsin contains cupboards full of skulls and bones. These skeletal remains and reproductions used for teaching range in age from decades to millennia old.

Hawks, an associate professor of anthropology, has published genome research revealing that the rate of human evolution has increased over the last 10,000 years.

I shot this photo for Science Illustrated last time I was in Madison, but it didn't get used (they ran a portrait I shot instead).

Anyway, I just wanted to say

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Out in the mountains

A group of backpackers, including Katie Peeso and Carolyn Rein, sing spiritual songs beside their campfire at Crane Mountain Pond, elevation 2620 feet, in Adirondack Park near Johnsburg, NY. The hikers are college students participating in the LIFT program, a semester-long discipleship and leadership training program operated by Camp-of-the-Woods, a Christian family resort and conference center in Speculator, NY.

This week I spent time up in the Adirondacks shooting the beautiful fall foliage. One night I ran into this group of Christian college students camping and singing up on Crane Mountain.

I have to thank Strobist for changing what I carry in my bag. In the past, I would not have hauled flashes and pocket wizards up such a seriously steep mountain, just in case. Today I do, and this photo is why.

Tech geek details:
Lens (mm): 20
ISO: 1250
Aperture: 4
Shutter: 1/60
White Bal.: Flash

1 Nikon SB-26 flash on a rock at right, with orange (1/2 CTO) gel, about 1/8 power, just skimming the smoke and background boulder.

What color temperature is a campfire, anyway? I shot some frames on Tungsten and the fire still looked orange but the fill flash light looked too neutral to match it.

Up the Delaware

Basket Creek flows into the Upper Delaware River near Long Eddy, NY. The Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, part of the National Park Service’s Wild and Scenic Rivers System, stretches 73.4 miles along the New York – Pennsylvania border.

I spent time in northern Pennsylvania this week shooting a magazine story about fracking. (What is fracking?)

The upper Delaware River is a really beautiful place. Amazing how pristine it is considering how close it is to NYC and Philadelphia. I can understand why local residents are worried about plans for 35,000 natural gas wells along the river. (As of 2009 there were already over 77,000 gas wells in Pennsylvania, but none yet in the protected Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River area.)

Researchers have identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, methane and xylene found in contaminated drinking water near drilling sites. Other environmental concerns include surface water contamination, air pollution, forest fragmentation, and human health problems. The 2005 Energy Policy Act exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act (plus some regulations of the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act), and exempts companies from disclosing the chemicals used during fracking.

On the other hand, gas companies and property owners stand to earn up to one trillion dollars in profits from drilling in the Marcellus Shale. And it's clear that these small towns need income, with nothing else but tourism to hold up the economy.

The article will be out in October and I'll post my full photo essay then.

Can you light your water on fire?

Bill Ely of Dimock, Pennsylvania can.

Bill and Sheila Ely are among 14 families near Carter Road in Dimock, PA, whose drinking water wells became contaminated with methane and other chemicals after gas drilling on their properties. Cabot Oil and Gas, the company held responsible by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, has had at least 21 spills in Dimock township in less than two years.

The Elys’ well has so much methane that the water appears carbonated and Bill regularly lights his water on fire to show visitors.

How does he do it? Bill takes a five gallon jug and fills it from his hose via a hole on the side. Extra water pours out overflow holes while the methane bubbles up to the top, up the tube, where he lights it like a giant lantern.

Here, the Elys' neighbor Craig Sautner tries to burn his water.

The Sautners have less methane in their water than the Elys, so Craig feels safe holding a lighter directly to his hose.

Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is new method of drilling for natural gas: millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are pumped down a well under high pressure. The pressure fractures the shale, opening fissures so that natural gas can flow more freely. In August 2010, fracking is being widely used in the Marcellus Shale formation under Pennsylvania while New York is considering a temporary moratorium on the practice until the environmental effects can be reviewed.

Photos in Arena on Friday

You are all invited to this shindig on Friday. (By the way, this is not a fancy fundraiser, just come and see the show. Though donations to FOCCUS are welcome, they do great work!) Don't worry about RSVPing, just say I sent you.

summer camp

On the last night of Timberlake camp's July session, Jarod Wunneburger watches campers leave a candlelit closing ceremony. Timberlake, a summer camp for boys, is one of six of the Farm & Wilderness camps based on the Quaker values of simplicity, honesty, self-reliance, and respect for all life.

I have just returned from two weeks at a summer camp in Vermont. I've been photographing at the Farm & Wilderness camps in Plymouth, VT. My life is far from perfect, I admit, but I feel very fortunate to get to go to such great places.

It's amazing how quickly a group of boys and young men, living in the woods together, can form a real, intimate and supportive community. Coming home to my hectic daily life, I realize how much I long for such a strong community around me.

In case you're curious: Lit by candle. 1/60, F2.5 at 3200.

a picture from the exhibition

Photo: SLPS

Here is a photo from the show in Woodstock on Saturday. If you have not been to a Slideluck Potshow, I strongly encourage you to get off your hiney and find one: www.slideluckpotshow.com

Screening in Woodstock, NY on July 17

Photos from my After Chernobyl project will be screened this week in Woodstock:

July 17, 2010, 7 pm potluck, 9 pm show
Center for Photography at Woodstock
Street: 59 Tinker Street, Woodstock NY

More details here: http://network.slideluckpotshow.com/events/slps-woodstock

Screening in Barcelona July 1

Photos from my After Chernobyl project will be screened this week in Barcelona:

SLIDELUCK POTSHOW BARCELONA IV
DONDE: Mau Mau Underground. Fontrodona, 35
CUANDO: Dijous, 1 de julio a les 20.30h.
El encuentro gastronómico empezará a las 20.30h y las proyecciones se podrán ver a partir de las 21.30h y terminarán alrededor de las 23h.

More details here: http://network.slideluckpotshow.com/events/slps-barcelona-iv

Photo District News

Sorry to brag again. Just wanted to share that I have a collection of Chernobyl photos featured on the PDN website today: www.pdnphotooftheday.com

Those of you who are not photographers may not be familiar with Photo District News. It's a monthly magazine for professional photographers, focused on contemporary photography and useful business info.

Ahem. Since I seem to have your attention for the moment, I'd like everyone to know: I’m pregnant. No, excuse me, I meant: I'm looking for a publisher for my Chernobyl book. Anyone, anyone?

Upper Catskills exhibit

A Ukrainian teenager passes a closed storefront covered with signs, including many offering jobs. High unemployment is a problem in many Ukrainian communities; the problem is especially acute in radiation-affected areas, which new businesses have avoided due to the stigma of Chernobyl.

My work is part of a new exhibit of Central New York artists at UCCCA, the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts. (Note "Central NY": what New Yorkers refer to as "upstate").

The exhibit runs until July 25. More details here.

Update:
At the exhibit opening they announced that my above photo won the first place award for photography. Very kind of them, since there is a lot of excellent work in the show.

another photo a day

I am flattered to have another photo of mine chosen for A Photo A Day. (Reading this later? Find the photo here, under June 14.)

APAD is a fabulous daily sampling of the best of contemporary photojournalism, direct from the photographers themselves. Since APAD does not include captions, here is more about the photo above:

Late on a long winter's night, Nina Dubrovskaya and her friend Lena Priyenko walk home to their village Sukachi, Ukraine, from the nearby town of Ivankiv, 2 miles away. The two women, both divorcees, went out to the bars in Ivankiv in search of company, but found all 4 bars they visited nearly empty. "When the money gets short, people just get drunk at home," says Dubrovskaya.

thinking of kyrgyzstan

Osh, Kyrgystan. A soldier at Osh City Military Base practices using his gun during an evening drill. There are long-standing political and ethnic differences between the northern and southern halves of this mountainous country, and the southern borders with neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have repeatedly been the scene of violent local conflicts since independence.

Once I've lived someplace I find I am always listening for news from there. Over the course of several assignments I spent 8 months in Jalal Abad and Osh, Kyrgyzstan. The news, unfortunately, is worse than I ever imagined.

For large part, Uzbeks and Kyrgyz have lived peacefully together. But as happened in the former Yugoslavia, it seems those with a political agenda have been inciting violence between neighbors. A Red Cross official today estimated 700 dead in Osh; if true that would make it worse than the 1990 riot in nearby Kara Suu that killed 300.

Even though it's hopeless, I feel a need to quote Rodney King here:

"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?... It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice....Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out."

This footage of mob victims arriving at the hospital in carload after carload is very hard to watch.

(Note: the above video is emotionally disturbing but not graphic. More footage here, some of which is graphic: www.citizentube.com/2010/06/kyrgyz-mobs-burn-slaughter-during.html )

a photo a day

If you love photojournalism, you should check out APAD (a photo a day) and not just because they are featuring my photo today. (Reading this later? Find the photo here, under May 31.)

APAD is a fabulous daily sampling of the best of contemporary photojournalism, direct from the photographers themselves. Often the posted photos are ones that newspaper photogs shot for themselves, or ones that didn't make the paper.

If you really really love photojournalism (and are a photographer yourself) you can join the APAD listserv. Of course, I've hit nearly 30,000 messages now in my APAD email folder; it's hard to keep up with so prolific a crowd.

Since APAD does not include captions, here is more about the photo above:

A wall of dials in the Chernobyl First Block control room once marked the depth of each fuel rod in the reactor core. Just down the hall is the burnt-out Fourth Block control room, where a combination of design flaws and human error triggered the accident during a late-night safety test. Most estimates say ninety-five percent of the radioactive materials remained on the grounds of the power plant or spread to the adjacent forest. Both were decontaminated, using the labor of about 850,000 liquidators from across the Soviet Union.

getting my mo jo

This month Mother Jones magazine is featuring a nice photo essay on my Chernobyl project.

It is interesting to see what different photo editors pick as a lead image for the story. I like this photo as an introduction, the way it shows something out of the ordinary. What you can't tell from this shot is that the Semikhody checkpoint has a row of about 8 radiation detection gates. As workers come out to board one of the trains home, over 1,000 workers pass through these checkpoints in a short period of time.