Available Light Debut

Hi all, welcome to the debut posting for my blog.

The title Available Light is a gift from my friend, Phil Ginsburg, a lyrical Christian writer, actor, stand up comedian and poet.  Phil’s poet side instinctively understood my three-level mix of faith, profession and craft.   He said quietly, “Available light.  It’s all about available light.”

--As Christians we believe and proclaim that Jesus is who he said he was: “The light of the world,” quoted in John 9:12.

--We photojournalists believe that we are called to spread a little light in the darkness with our pictures. 

--And we photography craftsmen are either trying to use available light to make our pictures or we’re knocking ourselves out with supplemental lighting trying to make the pictures look available and natural.

Fourteen years ago, working as a photojournalist for the Saba Photo Agency in Los Angeles, I was getting perilously close to becoming a paparazzi, chasing celebrity story after celebrity story, meeting the demands of an increasingly celebrity-obsessed picture marketplace.   My wife and I decided the only adequate response was full out retreat from all that Los Angeles represented-- major celebrities, major stories and major stress.   We moved to the village of Colorado Springs where we hoped to restore our nascent Christian faith, heal my sense of photojournalism ethics and, just perhaps, find a little Christian ministry photojournalism work for me.

Since the move I have been richly blessed with a restored, growing and humbling faith in Christ.  I have been equally blessed with frequent ministry photo assignments, often reporting on the work and faith of brave Christians throughout our world.   

For me and my photojournalist colleagues today, work is scarce, assignments are treasured and we all post website portfolios optimized for the whims of Google search algorithms.  My site www.stevestarr.com combines folios from both my commercial and ministry work.

My favorite ministry portfolio shows 15 prayer pictures from a decade of assignments.    As I was editing the ministry pictures looking for a portfolio thread I began to see pictures of intense, passionate prayer in assignment after assignment.  I saw a common theme.  No surprise.  Wherever Christians were passionate, persecuted, threatened or destitute, they were praying and praying hard.   http://www.stevestarr.com/prayer-christian-ministry/photos-pi_99.html

For my first posts in Available Light I would like to share with you a little of the word story behind the prayer portfolio pictures, starting with the picture of the boys praying at the Precious Children Home in Kottayam, Kerala state, south India.  . http://www.stevestarr.com/prayer-christian-ministry/photos-pi_99.html

Journalistically the picture is a little bit of a soft ball, cute and, well, precious like the name of the children’s home.  Cute is not a word you would usually associate with my ministry pictures and you certainly won’t see cute again as I talk about prayer during wars, death and hurricanes.  Still, I love the picture and I love it on several levels.

First, and most importantly, the Precious Children home is an especially sacred place, pastored by “Uncle” Chacko, Dr. Kunjumon Chacko, a saint so modest you won’t even find his name on his website. www.preciouschildren.org   In a country with 100 million child laborers and aching horror stories of child trafficking, Dr. Chacko has created a refuge for a particularly neglected group of children—the sons and daughters of criminals sent to prison for lengthy terms.  With the father in prison the children would otherwise be outcast and left to either beg or sell themselves.  The children’s home is an outreach of Prison Fellowship India, www.pfi.org/national-ministries/asia/india, founded after prisoners themselves tearfully pleaded with Dr. Chacko to care for their children.

Second, I just love the intensity of the boys praying and I love the look and color pallet of the photo.  The picture was made on assignment for Biblica, www.biblica.com, and their magazine, Light, back in 1998 two years before I switched to digital.  Which means the picture was made with the ancient technology of lovely Fuji Provia transparency film.

I worked at the children’s home in the afternoon when all the kids came home from school, washed clothes, and then shared supper.  Dr. Chacko asked me if I’d like to stay for evening prayers and, of course, I said yes.  Alas, evening prayers took place in a narrow hallway with one naked low wattage bulb for light.  Boys prayed on one side and girls the other. Evening prayers were timed for tired children, over in two minutes.   I made a few frames but I knew I had not nailed the picture.  I knew I didn’t have a picture worthy of the moment.  So I asked my host, my driver and the India Biblica manger to do something that is almost never allowed.  I asked to come back the next night and photograph prayers again.  A repeat visit is almost never allowed because these assignments are always intensely scheduled 12 hour days with absolutely no wiggle room.    Nonetheless I asked to come back and I asked fairly insistently which is another protocol violation.  It must have been a God thing because everyone agreed to change the schedule and bring me back a second night.

The next night I was ready and I was prepared for the non-existent light.  The technical solution was a little bounce flash, a tiny tripod, a long exposure and a second strobe bouncing off the ceiling in the background.  The second strobe was rather in artfully placed, if you look closely you’ll see a awful band of pure white strobe in the background.

It was so dark in the hallway I never saw the bandage on the boy’s forehead at right until I saw the slide on the light table two weeks later—remember this was preThank you Lord.