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Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 1:12 pm
by Sober
So, friends. I live about 1200 meters away from a genuine cesspool. An open-air lake of human feces. They pump the refuse of 30,000 people into a reservoir, and let it evaporate. This is the best solution the mightiest military on the planet could come up with. Also, you'd think they would put it far on the outskirts of the base, maybe downwind? NOPE. Middle of the fucking base. You catch a nice whiff any time the winds change.

I probably took a few years off my life getting this picture. I'm like Marie Curie. At any rate, I give you: The Poo Pond.

Image

Huge version.

For any photo geeks out there, this was shot on my new Canon 5D MKII with 24mm TS-e 3.5L. ISO 160, 1 sec, f11. Two shots, one shifted up, one down, stitched in photoshop.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 1:40 pm
by drë
Shit, shit never looked so pretty.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 2:16 pm
by Sober
T-shirt wrapped around my face, still nearly puked a couple times.

Fun fact: The base just got rocketed twice. That's five today. Three months to go!

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 3:03 pm
by fluffy
The Marie Curie of poo.

Still, it looks oddly beautiful, if you don't think about what the picture is of.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 10:04 am
by HeuristicsInc
nice shot. i have the old 20d that i got in 2005 and i still love it.
-bill

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:53 pm
by Caravan Ray
That is pretty disgraceful that not even the most basic of sewage treatment is carried out. It isn't rocket science. I would offer my services as a consultant - but I have no intention of doing any site visits.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:47 am
by Sober
Are you a poo-man, Ray? Rumor is, they're actually set to start building a proper treatment plant in October.

Here's my latest video story, with doggies!



Filmed on the 7D. Can't wait to start shooting with the 5D.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:15 am
by Caravan Ray
Sober wrote:Are you a poo-man, Ray? Rumor is, they're actually set to start building a proper treatment plant in October.
.
Yes - I am a professional poo man.

Why didn't these fuckknuckes build a fucking STP when they invaded the fucking place 10 years ago?!?!?



Don't be in awe of idiots.

Get a proper job.

You are working for a band of fucking imbeciles.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 9:52 am
by Sober
My contract is up in one year and nine days. No, I am not reenlisting. I will live in a box on the street before I reenlist (historically more likely than one might think!).

I have a few months left dodging rockets in Afghanistan. It'll be good to be back in Japan.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 8:18 am
by Sober
For all those wondering what Sober looks like these days, here I am after a nice eight hours of filming in Indian country. I'm on day five without a shower.

Image

And I thought I'd share this shot from a couple days ago.

Image

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 2:24 am
by Sober
I'm nearing the end of my time here, thought I'd share a few more images and a video.

This shot was taken from the left-rear gunner position of a Striker, between two bases out in the boonies. Half the journey was dirt trails, half was on new pavement. It was a very dusty, bumpy ride.

Image

Next, a photo taken via helicopter. I'm lucky to be one of the few people out here with access to these charter helicopter flights, basically a chauffeur. They're civilians, meaning they get to ignore a lot of the military flight regs and fly like absolute fucking maniacs. Terrifying, but also quite fun. Anyway, this is one of the many mountains sticking up out of the desert.

Image

Here's one of my last videos, featuring lots of kaboom:


Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 6:56 pm
by roymond
The videos are always awesome, Jim, but your photographs are amazing!

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 2:54 pm
by RangerDenni
that mountain photo is just beautiful :)

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 10:05 pm
by Sober
Thanks! I've definitely grown a lot as a photographer out here. Dropping $4k on camera gear didn't hurt, either.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 12:37 am
by Caravan Ray
Yeah - gotta ditto the photo comments.
Impressive stuff

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:24 am
by HeuristicsInc
very good shots.
-bill

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 7:10 am
by Sober
FFFFRRREEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOMMMM

Image

Late flight. Taking off from a combat zone at night means no exterior lights. Red light travels less distance than other colors, thus the interior light:

Image

Just turned in my six-month chip here in Kyrgyzstan, feeling good. Thanks to everyone for the comments, I'm glad I was able to get a couple of songs submitted. I'll post the best photos and video I've got when I get home.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:01 am
by Sober
So, I uploaded this video a couple of days ago, and it's blowing up pretty quickly. I'm gonna be youtube famous like Samwell.


Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:36 am
by chocolatechips
Sober wrote:Image
that's a remarkably beautiful shot, so remarkable that I'm remarking on it now. hadn't seen this thread yet.

~~~

the "poo pond" video/song is great too.

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 7:02 am
by roymond
Sober wrote:So, I uploaded this video a couple of days ago, and it's blowing up pretty quickly. I'm gonna be youtube famous like Samwell.

If this isn't on your set then I quit. Also, can I play slide?

Also, also, have you seen these?

Re: Afghanistan bound

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 7:43 pm
by Sober
Yeah, this will be in the set, along with a couple other Afghanistan tunes. Slide could work.