Multimedia | Editorial & Humanitarian Photographer, Heber Vega.

Reconstruction Stories – What I’m learning about Multimedia

Well, it’s very busy these days in Iraq. So many things to do and so few hours to accomplish them! Anyway, after a whole week of working on administrative things, meaning by that, no photography work, it was great to have had time over the weekend to finish my work on this multimedia piece. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before. This is the work I did while I was back in Chile with the victims of last 8.8 magnitude earthquake in my home country.
In this post, I’m going to tell you some of things I’ve learned throughout this experience, and how I did some of those things as well. I’m not going to be that extensive in my writing today , so if you have any questions, please leave me a comment at the bottom and I’ll answer you right away.

The Things I Learned:

1. Sometimes the most amazing stories are right in front of your nose.
While I was heading back to Chile, I was contacted by a couple of organizations who wanted some work done, most of it related to the last earthquake in Chile. The problem was that my time in Chile was not meant to be work, so I was reluctant to take these assignments. As things were moving forward though, I started to realize that some of my best friends in Chile were all involved in a project that was somehow unique, important, and more than that, a life-changing-situation for some of the victims in that little fishing town called Iloca, the epicenter of this catastrophe. So, I ended up working on this project instead of the other ones offered. Why? The story! Totally different, inspirational, and uplifting from anything else I heard at the moment.
In the end the most attractive story was right in front of me. I just needed to listen to my friends!

2. Confirmed! A multimedia piece is a ton of work.
Two weeks ago I was trying to figure out the time involved in this project and all the things I had to do in order to produce it. At project end, it took 15 – 8-hour days of my life. I traveled three times to Iloca, which is 500 Km from Santiago! In total, I spent at least 5 entire days shooting. At the end, I was still lacking images for the story (more on this later). I spent another 2 days working on my recorded sounds and interviews, including editing/selecting them, another day to put them together in a story. 2-3 days on editing and post processing all the images, including cropping them to a 16:9 ratio (more on this later). Another 2-3 days went into putting all the selected images and sound clips all together in a final unique piece. 1-2 days were involved in writing the scripts (dialogs), getting them translated, and finally “burning” them to this English version of the video. So, If you want to work on a multimedia piece, just be aware that it will involve a lot of time and hard work!

3. The dilemma of the Software!
I ended up working on a software call FotoMagico Pro, where I put together the final sound clip and all the selected images, plus video footage. The thing I learned the most is that there’s only one piece of software that’s up to a task like this, and that is Final Cut Pro. That’s why it’s the industry standard workhorse software for this type of thing. All the rest will only give you headaches at some point. I lost time and got frustrated with other softwares. So, at moment, I’m learning FCPro (lynda.com) because I don’t want to waste my time again.

4. For a project like this, thousands of images are never enough.
You realize, once you are working on the audio clip, that you are still lacking images for some of the parts of the story. That’s why it’s good to have time to go back to the place and shoot some more after you have made the final audio piece. If you know in advance that you won’t have that chance, then make sure to shoot as much as possible, and cover all the different angles every time – every single place and every single character. For example, there was one person in this story that talked about his son a lot, and I was never able to shoot his son or his wife… so I had to use other images instead, not the ideal! So, shoot details, portrait, wide angle, etc. everything that comes to your mind.

5. The Crop Factor!
Crop to a 16:9 ratio if you want to be able to show your video on a widescreen monitor, HDTV, projector, etc., or to have an HD video (1080p/720p) You have to crop all your images at this ratio. So what’s the deal with this? When you are shooting, you’ve got to be thinking about this all the time. Your portrait-oriented images are NOT going to work here, unless you want black space on the sides of your image. Even the normal 3:2 ratio images that most of the DSLR are based on, are not going to look that great sometimes. TIP: you can draw lines on your camera display and see how the image will look once they’re cropped. Or, you can leave space at the top and bottom when you are framing and use your imagination .

6. Recording Audio.
Recording good audio is the most important thing. I need to learn a lot here. Also, I need to buy some gear as well. If you are planning on doing this often, besides a sound recorder, you are going to need a good microphone. This is elemental – PERIOD! In my case, I had to make sure I was using my sound recorder really well, at a good distance and using headphones all the time to check the levels. At the same time, I used cars and rooms to isolate the sound. Doing an interview with ambient sound in the background is a nightmare. So, make sure to record your interviews without any other noise and then in post you will be able to add ambient sounds that you have grabbed separately.

7. The Story!
Writing the story line is the most difficult part. Once you have done that, the rest is a piece of cake (not quiet that, but it feels like it ) When I said the story line, I meant the idea of how your story will unfold. In my case I always prefer to have this recorded as a final audio clip and later on I just need to “fill” that with images or footage. But again, to find out the story line among all of the images, sounds recorded and footage is a HUGE deal! So here’s when you need good storytelling tips (Which you will have to find but not here . I’m still learning…

Well, I hope to have helped with this insight on multimedia, but as I said at the beginning if you have any questions that aren’t well covered here, I will be glad to answer them in the comments below. Peace!

Ah! And here’s the multimedia video: “Reconstruction Stories”, I hope you like it!

Reconstruction Stories from Heber Vega on Vimeo.

Slideshow: “The Family Center – Iraq”

As you probably know I’m back in Chile, my home country, and with my family we’ll be staying here till mid of february. At that point we’ll head back to Iraq, to keep working on our humanitarian projects and our photography work as well. It’s been a great time to have been back with our families, friends, and so many other great people over here, but it’s been also a challenge to keep working on this Blog. Hopefully I will be able to work “normally” once I’m back on the field… sorry until then . FYI, I’ve been using a lot more my Facebook on my recent updates than what I’ve used this Blog. So if you want to hear/read more from me, go ahead to that link.

My last two months have been “fruitful” on my photography. I’ve been working on a couple of multimedia projects. The last one based on a group of people that after the last a=earthquake in Chile, spontaneously decided to help/assist a small town called iLoca. This town was affected by an 8.8 earthquake and posterior tsunami, about a year ago. Right now the group is building houses for the victims of that catastrophe. I’ve been impressed by this people, their generosity, love and so on… I felt encouraged in so many ways and that’s exactly what I want to portray in this multimedia project. Hopefully I will finish it before I leave Chile again. Even at this point some of the miners, that were rescued in last november and became celebrities around the world, are part of this project, which makes it even more special. I’ll tell you more on future posts.

Today I want to show you a slideshow that I made with some of the images that I shot this past year at the Family Center in Iraq. As I said before, this is an important part of what we do as humanitarian workers in Iraq. I hope you like it!

Family Center – Iraq from Heber Vega on Vimeo.

Multimedia Work: “Remedy Mission & Deeya’s Story”

During the last weekend I finished a multimedia work about the Remedy Mission that I worked for in last August. These Remedy Missions are lifesaving campaigns done by Preemptive Love Coalition in Iraq. Their goal is to bring pediatric heart surgery teams, to perform surgeries on Iraqi children and at the same time to train Iraqi doctors and nurses.

I hope you remember the photographs I posted and what I wrote at this Blog back in those days, if you don’t, here are some links to refresh your memory 1 – 2 – 3 – 4.

Before I show you this new piece of work, let me tell you that Multimedia has become an important part of my photographic work, and I believe it will be very important for most of the photographers working in the humanitarian field. Why? because is a better way to tell stories, which is really important for non-profits in order to share their work through Internet, raise some funds and the necessary awareness to keep working.

I promise I’ll blog about multimedia in the coming weeks, as I think is a great topic to discuss. If you have questions that you want me to address about multimedia, please leave us a comment here (below), or send me an email. For example, I know some photographers are wondering these days whether or not include video in their work. And that’s only one point that we can discuss on multimedia.

Finally, let me share with you a little bit of what’s behind of this video. As you will see, is based on one of the children’s stories that we found at this first Remedy Mission in Iraq. Preemptive Love Coalition wrote the following lines about it:

“Deeya’s mom used to stay at home for fear that her daughter’s heart could give out at any moment. Her daughter was born with a life-threatening heart defect… and her daughter was born in Iraq. The combination virtually guaranteed that her daughter would never get the lifesaving heart surgery she needed inside the country; after all, the waiting list for kids needing lifesaving heart surgeries is estimated at 30,000.

In August 2010 the Preemptive Love Coalition (PLC) worked with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and local non-governmental organizations to bring a surgical team to northern Iraq to begin a robust multi-year training mission for the doctors and nurses of Iraq. In the course of training, we served 25 families and raised the hopes and expectations of medical professionals nationwide; more families than were sent outside the country by PLC in any 12 month period to date.

In the process, Deeya received her lifesaving heart surgery. She now has a healthy, happy heart thanks to the support of everyone who donated to bring the surgical team to Iraq and thanks to the cooperation of the KRG. And, in her mother’s words, the “are not afraid anymore!”

I hope you enjoy it!

The Story of Deeya Kawa and Remedy Mission from Heber Vega on Vimeo.

Approaching Storytelling in your Photography. (3 Tips!)

These photographs are from my third day at Remedy Mission, which was Friday. It was a long day, being that I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and I got back home at 11:30 p.m. During my third day I had to change my strategy towards getting the photographs for Preemptive Love. Why? Because it was time to start covering more of the stories behind these cases, rather than just documenting the whole campaign. So, that day, I knew I had to focus on people, not just events; on details of their lives, rather than moments at the hospital.

After reviewing my photographs, I think I did OK for the first day of stories, and today I want to share a couple of tips on storytelling.

First of all, If you have to document an event such as Remedy Mission, it’s enough to take pictures for one or maybe two days, but if you want to keep yourself inspired and motivated to keep on shooting, you’ve got to start focusing on stories. If you only cover the event it will get really boring after a day or two, because you are missing the most important part of every event, the story behind it.

TIP 1: Always focus on the stories behind your subjects. That will open up a lot of new opportunities. You will discover the why, what, how from the subject or event itself.

Second. The best part of each the story begins when you have spent some time with your subject; interacting, talking, observing, and basically listening. You can still shoot some photos, but you will see that your better shots will come with the climax of those stories. These are the moments where the subject reveals their soul; when you have found the CONFLICT, the DRAMA.

TIP 2: Stick around, listening and learning, until you have found the core of the story, the drama, the conflict or sometimes called the PLOT.

Learn to be generous, kind, loving with your subject. When you are genuine in those areas, your subjects will appreciate it. In difficult moments, they love to be distracted by good people. Show them that you are there not only for the shot (BTW, you really should be able to offer more than just your photographic skills). In my case, it helps me to have two little boys. Any of these kids could be one of mine. They’re the same age, so it’s easy to put myself in the shoes of the parents, per se. Once you have had shown real compassion, then it will be easy to keep shooting. Barriers are destroyed, and you are free to do your job.

TIP 3: Show real compassion, and help when you can. You will receive the blessings of their generous heart; they will like to share those moments with you. They will let you document the difficult moments because you are already part of them.

These are short tips, but trust me, they are important. Now I want to show you some of these stories with just a few frames.

-This woman in Black was really difficult to photograph. You can see in my past posts that I shot her husband and little Noor. I showed them my respect because I started with the man. In this culture photographing a woman is an issue, but you can see that they trust me now, and they share moments such as this one.

© Heber Vega | Remedy Mission - www.preemptivelove.org

-These are really simple photographs, but for me it was one of those key moments that I’ve been privileged to witness. This woman over here was really worried about her daughter. She was in surgery for hours, and the mom wasn’t getting any news from the local nurses. She kept asking, but received no answers. She was crying several times, but there was this precise moment, where, for a minute or two, she was staring at her daughter shoes. What was she was thinking? Who knows, but I promise they were fond memories. Those shoes were the only available link to her daughter.

-These, as you see, are moments where the parents are praying. In the case of Ahmed’s uncle, he even taught me how to do a Muslim prayer. After spending days beside him, he was now willing to open areas that are really private.

-Here you have some shots where I’m preparing to talk about Ahmed. This is from the day of his surgery, a 5.5 hours complex surgery. As you can see, Ricky Norris (videographer), the PLC crew, and myself have become a family during these days. In the last shot, you can see Ahmed looking for us before going to the O.R. (Operating Room).

-Finally, you have the intimacy of the O.R. Here, the opening moments belong to the doctors. I’m also working on the stories of some of them. What I wanted to convey in most of these shots are moments inside of that OR. For example, you have 3 shots were the American chief surgeon is teaching the local Kurdish surgeon. This is key, as Remedy Mission is trying to help the training of local doctors, so that in the long run the locals can perform these surgeries here. You also have important details, such as when the heart stopped beating on the monitor so that they can work on it, and the whiteboard where they write the description of this surgery.

-This is not yet a story, but it will be one in a couple of days. This is the very first moment when this family came to the hospital and they are waiting to see the decision about their little girl.

Archive

February 9, 2010 by heber vega

The Inside of a Photo Essay

"Establishing shot from "Memories of a Kurdish Fighter"

[February 9, 2010] This week I had the opportunity to attend a workshop on photo essays, given by Matt Brandon (aka the digital trekker). The experience was both unique and intense. For five days I was challenged, more than at any other time in my photographic journey. My main challenges were, first, to find a story that would captivate the viewers by being interesting in itself, and then, to shoot according to the story. I believe that there are tons of great stories out there. They aren’t difficult to find, but photographing them in a way that can express the emotion of the story, the plot if you want to call it that, is what it makes the whole deal a challenge.

After our first day of the workshop, the assignment was to find a story. We were inspired by a photo essay that Matt had done called, “The Cheese Man,” plus a series of other photo essays taken from the New York Times, called, “One in 8 Million“. These stories are so awesome, I just can’t tell you how good they are. If you aspire to do a photo essay, try to watch at least a couple of these. They’re black and white shots inspired by simple stories in NY, but the end product is just great.

After the first day I was thinking, “How in the world am I going to do this? No way… “ I know I can go and shoot photos of people, and feel comfortable doing so, but add working on recording audio, plus writing a plot, plus doing the interview (not in my mother tongue), plus thinking ahead in shots, plus editing, post processing, new software, etc. WOW! I thought I would need at least a month to do a decent job on this (I still think that way), but no matter what I thought, the goal was to make a decent photo essay in 5 days.

The first night I went out to look for my story. I thought I’d find it in one of my old Iraqi friends, but it just wasn’t there. I was feeling disappointed, but then I talked to one of my colleagues in the NGO who pointed me to the story of an old Kurdish soldier who was part of the resistance against Saddam Hussein for at least 30 years. He is what we call a revolutionary Peshmerga (someone who faces death). For more on the story, just check on the photo essay here.

So, the next day I was on my way to meet this impressive man named Abdul. Here, I discovered my first challenge. I didn’t know his story. I had never seen his house before; I didn’t know what it was going to look like for the lighting, etc. I talked to Matt and I told him that I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get a story there, but he encouraged me by saying, “There’s always a story, you just need to look for it.” As a part of my gear, I carried a Zoom H4 sound recorder because Matt told me to focus on an interview for a while before starting to shoot, so that’s exactly what I did.

I only had two hours, so I recorded an interview with Abdul, while at the same time trying to get the shots that I had in mind. It was more than difficult that way! I will never, ever shoot again while I record audio. It’s just too difficult. The best piece of advice that I can give you is to go and record the audio first, and include the interview, environmental sounds, etc. Try to make a story, a plot, out of all of that info. If you can edit the audio and have a final master file, it’s even better. Then, you can go back and shoot according to that file.
After doing this, you will know the subject better, having seen his environment already, and you will also have a clue as to his habits and emotions. You are better off shooting in another session. This way, you probably won’t need to shoot twice. Remember, I’m only talking about a simple photo essay. For a more detailed documentary type of approach, you’ll need a lot more time to cover and express the story.

I also have to tell you that if you have an assistant doing the interview for you, it’s much better. You can shoot some emotions, expressions, or details during the interview, but you’ll have another problem – editing the click of the camera from of your audio file. A solution for this would be a silent camera .
In the process of working with audio, we used a freeware called “Audacity.” It’s a good piece of software and doesn’t harm your wallet. For working on the slideshow we used “SoundSlides Plus,” probably the most used software among photographers doing photo essays.
Photo essays are something beautiful to work on. For me it helped to develop the storyteller within me, something that every photographer must have.
Finally, here’s a list of shots, that I learned from Matt, that I was trying to capture during my time with Abdul.

Hook Shot:
It is so visually compelling that the viewer will want to know more.
Has some connection with the story, but does not really tell the story.
Like in a book, it is the opening paragraph that will capture the reader.
This shot is optional if you have a good:

Establishing Shot:
Sets the general theme about what the essay is about.
Typically occurs at the beginning. May have more than one.

Medium Shot:
As part of an essay, it is a strong shot, moves the story along.

Wide Shot:
As part of an essay, it is a strong shot, moves the story along.

Detail Shot:
Reinforce an element in the story.
Fill in some detail of a story.
Make a detail personal, emotional, connected with the senses
Place the idea in the context.

Portrait Shot:
Put a face to the main character(s) in the story, usually one person at a time.
Tells viewer about this person.

Gesture Shot:
A medium shot with a gesture: in the hand, body language, eyes.
A moment in time that communicates the action, emotion, significant event.

Closure Shot:
Brings the essay to a conclusion.

I hope I have encouraged you to go out and make your own photo essay. This is a great tool for telling stories; especially stories of the people that we work with in the humanitarian field.

Archive

February 8, 2010 by heber vega

Memories of a Kurdish Fighter

Here’s the photo essay that I made during Matt Brandon’s workshop.
I hope you enjoy it.