Some last minute Fedex mishaps notwithstanding, Lyn & Jesse boarded a plane and are on their way from San Francisco. I’m waiting for a cab to take me to Aberdeen airport and on to Heathrow, where I’ll meet up with them and fly on to Nairobi and Kigali.
The journey begins! I’ll be keeping regular updates here and on the film’s website, hoperisesfilm.com.
After almost two years of anticipation, Jesse’s RED One camera (#184 off the production line) arrived via delivery truck a few minutes ago. They got the address wrong, let the ship dates slip, and bent a few promises, but we have a camera to shoot with. A last minute plea by Jesse to the RED Camera Company founder, Jim Jannard, saved the day. It couldn’t be any tighter – Jesse & Lyn leave in less than 24 hours for the long trek to Rwanda.
It’s a big risk, taking delivery of a new camera system hours before our most important trip. In the end I hope the stress and risk pay off. This camera provides us with astounding capability for our doc, the equivalent of an 11-megapixel Digital SLR, shooting in RAW mode at up to 60 frames per second. With it we’ll be able to capture the dynamic beauty of Rwanda like never before. It’s hard not to be hyperbolic – this camera has broken open a level of imagery only accessible in 35mm film stock to little films like ours. Beautiful images for a beautiful story…
We do have a backup camera in-country already. Hopefully it will sit on the shelf while the RED gets a workout. I can’t wait to see what it can do in person!
Here’s what I’ve decided: the very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I almost can’t say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed. That’s about it. Right now I’m living in that hope, running down its hallways and touching the walls on both sides. I can’t tell you how good it feels.
— Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
I’ve been digging through my photo library, cleaning and organizing for my assignments in Rwanda and Swaziland. In the process this photo appeared. It’s a bit of an enigma – though it was taken last March, I’m not sure the story, or where it was taken. Somewhere along the way I simply stopped to snap these five birds standing in the cold, still water.
I’ve created it as a wallpaper for you to enjoy. Right-click the link and save-as to download: Wallpaper – Birds in the Water.
Check out a few other wallpapers here.