Previous | Next :: Boy in Smoke at time of Rwandan Genocide : Goma Rwandan Border : Rwanda | October 15, 2009, 9:18 pm

I've just got back in from the launch party for Tom Carvers new Book "Where the Hell Have You Been? Tom gave a moving speech and it was a fun evening with a load of media friends........ Tom is ex BBC himself.............. it was a bit of a Brit Media in America night (but in London)...... like a get together for all the people I knew and loved in DC.... all the Brit correspondents changed over at the end of the Bush years....... they all did the campaigns then they were shipped out to allow a new person to get familiar with the Obama's and the new administration....... The Times guy The Telegraph guy the Guardian guy the butcher the baker etc etc....... Justin Webb was there too the previous BBC American editor......... Its nice to see him looking good...... I was half expecting him to look totally done in as he now leaves his house at 4AM to introduce the flagship Today program that I listen to before Ive got up ........... I don't know about him but I am tired now.........

So...... here is an old one from Rwanda............ bit out of Left field this......... its that I have just read a piece by Steve Marshall on his Photo dialog blog...... er.....about me! :-) ............ he has written a fair bit about the old days for me as a pure photojournalist....... yeah....... Steve was down in London the other day to do a quick interview with me....... I was dashing about having a bit of a bad day......... so he kindly interviewed away as I did a ton of other bits and pieces............ Steve seems to be a fine bloke ........ sure he makes me come over as completely mad in his text ..... but hey at least one person has already said he has a pretty accurate picture of me in this ....... so I guess its all true ...... OK I admit it........ I am the tiniest bit mad.......... but hey you knew that already.......

(Sayeed......... picture above made during the Rwandan Genocide amongst the people escaping to Goma........ This is shot on film Kodak B&W 400ASA Tri-X 35mm.......... the camera is a Nikon f4 with a fixed length Nikkor 180mm f2.8 lens.......i would guess f4.5 or f5.6 at 500th .........hmmmm......... those numbers are a good enough guess actually maybe id guess it was wider open........ maybe its even wide open at f2.8 ??........ but the critical thing that makes this image work......... is to expose for the highlight...... the white smoke...... effectively treating it as 17% grey in a manual in camera reflected reading........ therefore pushing the boy into silhouette...... he appears therefore totally black............ but the thing that really makes it is to shoot at the precise moment that he is completely side on so you have the perfect profile........... this extra info is in my humble opinion wildly more important in terms of understanding how to approach making an image like this....... than the exact numbers themselves......... hehehe........ :-)) )

Just gotta sleep........ its 2AM again....... and I have to roll at 6-30AM...... at least Im not Justin....... :-))

Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

PS.......... here is the photo dialog link again.......http://www.photo-dialogue.com/home/2009/10/15/a-photo-dialogue-with-jez-coulson.html

PPS....... here again is the link to get Tom Carvers new Book "Where the Hell Have You Been?