Sierra Leone: Where every pregnancy is uncertain.
May 6, 2010 in Also posted in Africa, Maternal health, Sierra Leone, preganancySome of the images in this video are graphic and viewers may find them disturbing. Sierra Leone has among the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In 2009, it is estimated that one in eight women died during pregnancy. To get some perspective, one in 47,600 women die in pregnancy in Ireland. The reasons are complex but in part it is due to an insufficient health care system. In the capital of Freetown, one doctor has to serve more than 100,000 people. Getting drugs and equipment ... Read More
Tools for the Freelancer
March 26, 2010 in Also posted in WebsitesThe changes in our business over the past few years are truly hard to comprehend. I am sympathetic to the difficulties for so many in our business as newspapers and magazines close, jobs are lost, and people struggle to see where the business of journalism is headed. While I read all the epithets, I still believe it is an incredibly exciting time to be a journalist. Never have we had so many tools and so much access to stories and people. Never have we all been so connected and yet, now more ... Read More
Return to Sierra Leone
March 24, 2010 in Also posted in Africa, Multimedia, Nikon, conflict, travel, warI am leaving tomorrow to Freetown, Sierra Leone filled with feelings of anxiety as well as hope. The last time I was there was just a few months after the brutal civil war ended in 2002 that claimed tens of thousands of lives and left more than a third of its population displaced. Yet it is the unspeakable atrocities that are so haunting. I remember back in 1999, Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora, a friend and extremely committed journalist, who was later killed covering the conflict, told me stories ... Read More
Flight for Survival: How it happened?
March 12, 2010 in Also posted in Africa, horns, poaching, rhinos, travel, zooThey are huge but gentle, lumbering beasts and there are only eight left on the entire planet. Scientists believe the magnificent Northern White rhinos are nearly extinct. There are rumors of some, a few at best, in Southern Sudan but none have been seen for many years now. These eight, two in the San Diego Zoo and six in the Dvur Kralove Zoo in cold, snowy Czech Republic ... Read More
Flight for Survival: Rhinos go back to Africa
March 9, 2010 in Also posted in Africa, Europe, Kenya, Multimedia, Nature, Nikon, extinction, horns, poaching, rhinos, travelView the story at msnbc.com They are huge but gentle, lumbering beasts and there are only eight left on the entire planet. Scientists believe the magnificent Northern White rhinos are nearly extinct. In a last ditch effort to save this species from extinction, the Lewa Conservancy in Kenya cut a deal to airlift the last four breeding age animals from the Czech Zoo to live "free" on the savannas of Kenya. You ... Read More
Micronesia
October 1, 2009 in Also posted in Micronesia, Nature, travelThe Pacific islands and Micronesia in particular have to deal with the constantly rising sea levels and many fear their small atolls and islands will be washed away in the near future. This image was taken under a wave for the Nature Conservancy for an exhibit titled " Design for a Living World" on show at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York until January 4, 2010. It will travel for another five years in cities around the United ... Read More
Where can I find interviews about your career?
September 29, 2009 in Also posted in Africa, F.A.Q., India, Interviews, Kashmir, Multimedia, Seminar, Websites, conflict, internet, travel, workshopsThe talented Steve Casimiro, a photographer and editor for National Geographic's Adventure magazine has created a wonderful blog called the Adventure Life. I was honored that he invited me for this interview.http://www.theadventurelife.org/2009/07/ami-vitales-beautiful-cultures-and-powerful-documentary/ Field Notes from a National Geographic story I did on the ... Read More
Lumen Dei Workshop in Ladakh, India
September 29, 2009 in Also posted in India, Ladakh, Lumen Dei, Seminar, travel, workshopsJust back from Ladakh, India where I had the privilege of working with David Duchemin, Matt Brandon and 8 extremely talented photographers. We explored the bustling back streets of Old Delhi, the Sufi shrine of Nizamuddin and then headed up to the Khardungla Pass to cross the worlds highest motorable road at 18,380 feet. The road is situated on an ancient trade route from Leh ... Read More
Frontline: Kashmir
September 13, 2009 in Also posted in India, Kashmir, MultimediaView Project at PBS online here: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/flash_point/kashmir/ Over the past 60 years, the beauty of Kashmir has been overshadowed by tension and violence. Despite the wishes of Mahatma Gandhi, regarded as the father of Indian independence, the sub-continent was divided along religious lines and two nations were born: the secular but Hindu-dominated India and the Islamic Republic of ... Read More
What gear do you carry?
September 8, 2009 in Also posted in F.A.Q., NikonI use Nikon bodies and usually just a few lenses but the choice of lenses really depends on the nature of the assignment. If I am shooting wildlife, I need very different lenses, (longer) then when I am doing portraits of a culture. Mainly I like to travel lightly and bring 2 bodies, 3 lenses and a Gitzo tripod. I'll usually buy medicines in country as they are always cheaper there. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, I like to bring gifts. It is the minimal that I can do to bring small ... Read More
