Heartbreak For Haiti

As of this post, the whole world knows of the tragedy in earthquake stricken Haiti. This poorest of nations was already in dire straits before this calamity. Now all the more so.

These occurrences have an added significance for those of our church family at Wright Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Among our membership is Chuck Martindale, pictured above. Chuck is a walking miracle. After having been delivered from 26 years of alcohol addiction and having his wife and sons restored to him, Chuck answered a call from God to take up mission work in Haiti.

Chuck has formed his own ministry, Truth Evangelistic Ministries, through which he makes multiple trips each year to some of the most remote and impoverished areas of that country, bringing food, medicine, construction support to build orphanages and churches, and the Gospel.

Even before the earthquake struck, Chuck was already planning a return trip to Haiti this month. With normal travel cut off, he has worked through multiple international contacts to establish an overland route into Haiti from the Dominican Republic and will be returning to the island in a few days to continue his work.

I had already been talking to Chuck about doing a photo shoot with him and these events created an even greater sense of urgency to push forward with the project before he made his next trip.



While we were shooting, Chuck was continuing to take phone calls and emails, receiving word from his friends and colleagues in country, and answering questions from people who wanted to know how they could get involved in the relief effort. We just went right on shooting and a friend who was assisting me said this was the most natural look for Chuck because this is what he does pretty much all day.

The background for the shot is a projected image file on a movie screen that is about 10 feet behind Chuck, being shot from a ceiling mounted LCD projector high above my head at the camera position. I used both of my new pieces of gear here.

In the first shot, the Honl Speed Grid is mounted high and to the right, providing the main light falling on Chuck's face, and the Apollo 28 softbox is just immediately to camera left providing fill. A third speedlight with a snoot is high and to the rear left for the accent light on Chuck's head and shoulder.

For the second shot, we went back to a little more traditional, softer setup with the softbox providing the key at camera right, a flash in a shoot through umbrella for fill on camera left, and the grid on the accent light to the left rear.