Saturday, February 17, 2018

Photo Story: Close Up Of Dump Workers

from Facebook...
FebruaryEdited 


Close up of some of the workers on the garbage. Hard to shoot this these type of pics as you have to climb right in and get up close. through all the slimy, slippery waste. Much harder for the workers thou as they dig through it, handle it directly. I try to photograph the families at work honestly but do not want to interfere with their work, get in their way as they are digging.

Another tech problem is trying to shoot faces (hats hide the workers eyes) and the lack of light or too much light with blinding spot lights. It is a real mixed bag. I am always fooling with exposure trying to get everything as balanced as I can. Needing faster shutters in low light to freeze movement is also difficult, thankfully digital cameras allow a 10000 ASA. Sometimes I add in some light with a handheld or multiple hand held flash lights in my left hand, got to love autofocus!.

Another down part of wading right into the wet garbage is that later when I return to my room and have to clean my boots, I need to use pointed wooden sticks to dig out the garbage waste stuck in the boot treads. I bring back hairs, mud, sticks, dog feces and a variety of other stinky things on my boots after a nights shooting. All my clothes also go immediately into a wash and I usually take 2 showers, 1 on arriving home and a second after the boot cleaning. One advantage of having an apartment is that I can use the washing machine downstairs (5 floors no elevator) to wash my dump clothes every 2 days (30 baht) instead of washing them by hand in the hotel bathroom sink like I did in previous years here.


Workers on top of the garbage