I’m hitting the road again today… I won’t be going as far as Palestine this time but I’ll be gone for about two weeks.

My first stop will be New Brunswick, NJ where I’ll be participating in the National Press Photographers’ Association 2010 Northern Short Course in Photojournalism. It’s a three-day workshop where photographers can attend and participate in a variety of lectures, classes, and workshops. You can read more about it here.

On Sunday, though, I’ll be traveling to New York City where I’ll be working the town and trying to get my portfolio in front of the right people from photo agencies, NGOs, publishers, and so on. In addition to wooing photo editors, I’m also going to be looking for funding and/or accreditation to do an embed with NATO forces in Afghanistan sometime within the next few months.

I’ll definitely try to keep this blog updated with any developments and, perhaps, even a few photos of one of my favorite cities.

Last week, I posted a preview of the portfolio book I was having published. I’m happy to report that all of the copies I ordered have now been delivered and I am extremely pleased with the final product.

For those of you that don’t know, I assembled and ordered the book using Apple’s Aperture 3 photo editing and management software. I won’t really go into the details of how it works, since it’s pretty self-explanatory, but I have included a screenshot of the interface below.

As you can likely see from the screenshot above, the interface is very intuitive and allows you to change the theme and size of the book, the layout of each individual page, and the placement and content of text boxes throughout the book. When finished, you simply click on “Buy Book” and the content is uploaded directly to Apple and you will be guided through a workflow for quantity and payment. All in all, the process was quite painless.

As you can see from the first photo above, I decided to order one extra-large (13″ x 10″) hardcover book and seven medium (8″ x 6″) softcover books, each 50 pages long. The hardcover book cost $95 and each softcover book cost $25.

The hardcover book will be kept with me for showing to clients and so on, while the softcover books can be left behind with a particularly important client, or potential client.

All in all, I’m very impressed with the quality and the speed with which they were published and shipped.

I’ve included a few more photos below…

Read the rest of this entry »

A fellow DC photographer and videographer, Dawn Casey of Casey Multimedia, recently sat down with me to interview me about my work, my recent trip, and my goals as a photojournalist. She has put together the following awesome video and I thought I’d share it with you:
  

Over the last few days, I’ve been working on updating and editing my portfolio. I also took the time to publish it in a large, hardcover, professionally-bound book that I plan on taking with me next month to New York City.

Feel free to browse through the preview below. Please note that there are a few blank white pages since this is the actual book preview.

You will need to have Flash enabled in your browser to view the embedded slideshow below.

In case you were wondering, I assembled this book in Aperture 3 and I am having it published through Apple.

I am also going to be printing out a few smaller, soft-copy versions that I’ll be able to give to potential clients and agencies.

As I reflect on my recent trip to Palestine, I wanted to let you know of two photographers, and friends, that helped make my trip possible. I met each of these gentleman back in 2005 during my first trip to Palestine and they’ve been great friends ever since. During my most recent trip, they were invaluable to me. From helping to navigate the West Bank to translation services to even letting me stay in their home, my trip would not have been possible without them. And, above all, they’re great friends and very talented photographers.

I’ve included some of their photos below as well as links to their Facebook pages. Click on any of the photos below to visit their Facebook fan pages.

Ahmad Al-Nimer

Jehad Fadda

The time has come for me to leave Palestine and head back to the United States. As with my past trips to Palestine, and even moreso this time, I’m always a little sad when I leave the place that has become my second home. I made a bunch of new friends, got a chance to spend a lot of time with some great old friends, and managed to experience Palestine a little more than I ever have before. While a trip like this never goes according to plan, this trip was incredible in every way. I’ll be forever grateful to the people who made this trip so special. And, if you have even the slightest interest in seeing Palestine first-hand, I wholeheartedly recommend that you do so. You’ll be forever changed.

Now what?

Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do and where to go next. For one, over the next month or two, I’ll be concentrating on building up my commercial photography business. It will be a nice change of pace compared to the last month’s adventures. I have a couple clients and shoots lined up and I look forward to sharing the results with you where possible.

Finally, I’m also planning a short trip to New York City within the next month or so to visit some organizations, photo agencies, and publishers to see where that leads me.

But for now, as I sit in a hotel lobby in Amman, Jordan, I’m just concentrating on digesting the last five weeks.

I’ll see you all stateside!

Being a freelance photographer gives me a degree of freedom that might not otherwise be possible. However, that also means that I am often forced to finance my own projects. If you enjoy my work, please consider making a donation.

I’m delighted to announce that, with the help of some friends, I am setting up a photowalk in Nablus, Palestine!

Date: Monday, February 1, 2010
Time: 10:00am
Location: Downtown Nablus, main circle, followed by a walk through the Old City to take photos!

If you’re in or around Nablus and you have a camera, you’re invited! No need to have a fancy, expensive camera! Even a point-and-shoot camera or cell phone camera will do just fine.

This will be a great opportunity to meet other photographers around you and take some interesting photos!

If you’re interested, RSVP on Facebook!

Hope to see you there!

We arrived in Hebron this afternoon after a long drive and a brief stop in Ramallah. Over the next few days, I’ll be embedded with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron and documenting their work in the area. Their primary mission here is to protect the Palestinian civilian population (particularly children) from attack by Israeli settlers and soldiers.

I’ve been to Hebron once before but only for one day. Hebron, however, is an amazing microcosm of the entire Israel/Palestine conflict. Hebron is the only place where Israeli settlers live amongst the local Palestinian population, albeit with the help of walls, barbed wire, and a large Israeli military presence. In fact, about 150 meters from my room window, one can see a large Israeli sniper tower that watches over the square below and the entrance to an Israeli settlement. As we were waiting to meet our hosts, a heavily-armed Israeli army patrol arrested and detained a Palestinian and took him behind the walls. No one was able to tell us why he was arrested. So, things in Hebron are pretty tense.

On the bright side, I had some fantastic shawarma for dinner before we stopped and smoked some shisha at a local cafe.

Below, I’ve included a photo of the street leading to the Old City where we are staying and, finally, in case you had any visions of a Western photojournalist staying in swanky hotels while out in the field, a photo of my room. In addition, earlier while I was using the single restroom, the toilet fell apart. Yes. Fell apart. We’re hoping it will be fixed in the morning.

All in all, though, I’m looking forward to doing some work over the next few days and documenting the amazing work that CPT does.

Being a freelance photographer gives me a degree of freedom that might not otherwise be possible. However, that also means that I am often forced to finance my own projects. If you enjoy my work, please consider making a donation.

I made it to the West Bank on Friday afternoon without too much trouble. I’ve spent the last two days catching up with a bunch of friends in Nablus. Tomorrow, however, I’m heading to Hebron for a few days to work with a great NGO there. I’m really looking forward to it.

The Internet situation is definitely better but it is still very difficult for me to upload more than a few photos at a time. I’m not sure where I’m staying in Hebron yet so I have no idea how much I’ll be able to upload while I’m there or if I’ll be able to upload at all.

That’s it for now. Until next update…

I’ve just learned today that, for a chance to go to Gaza, I would have to re-apply to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry as an individual or as part of a very small group. Under current regulations, the Egyptian government has 20 days to respond to the request. Others that have gone through this process before tell me that the Foreign Ministry has never replied in less than 20 days. So even if I have my application turned in tomorrow, I won’t know until the end of the month if I’ll be able to go or not.

So, that’s it. Gaza is off. For me, anyway. Technically, I could wait it out and see what happens. But, I have a few solid projects already lined up in the West Bank and delaying that long could jeopardize them. On top of that, even if I waited three weeks and was given permission to enter, I wouldn’t have the time to do the projects I want to do. So that’s it. For now.

So, yes, it’s a huge disappointment. I’ve been looking forward to doing some work in the Gaza Strip for months, if not years. That being said, this is a minor roadblock. If I have to return to Cairo some day and re-apply by myself then that’s what I will do. During this process, I’ve made some contacts in Gaza with some wonderful organizations and with some fantastic people and I will return if, for no other reason than to get the chance to meet them and work with them in person.

On the bright side, this decision has actually lifted my spirits in some ways. For the last few days, I’ve been hanging out in Cairo waiting for something to happen. That’s not easy to do in a city where you don’t know anyone or anything and you don’t really know where you’ll be sleeping the next night. All that is past now and I’ve regained control of what I’ll be doing.

In the next few days, I’ll be working on heading to Amman, Jordan and then on to the West Bank. I have a large network of incredible friends there and I have at least four solid and exciting projects lined up with some great NGOs.

So that’s it. Disappointed but optimistic. Time to move on.

Photo above taken in June 2008 on New Askar Refugee Camp outside of Nablus in the West Bank.