Kathryn Bachen Photography and Design

Pine Butte Ranch, Montana

2011-09-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Labor Day weekend we escaped the city to play in rural Montana. A friend works as a wrangler at the Nature Conservancy's Pine Butte Ranch, which sits in the foothills of the Rockies. The 12-hour drive was long, but so worth it for the beautiful landscapes and tranquility this area provided. I love the the PNW, but it's so refreshing to be able to see something else besides pine trees when hiking!
I talked the ladies into portraits as we were about to go look for wildlife at sunset. The coordination of the portraits was ridiculous as we chased the quickly setting sunlight with dragging along a cooler for me to stand on and camera equipment. Pose. click click. run. pose. click click. run. Did anyone bring the bear spray?...
Fabulous trip. Fabulous ladies.

Klipsun Articles

2010-02-24T12:18:00.000-08:00

The Klipsun Magazine Web site has finally been updated and my first article, Blacklight Blackout, that got published last quarter has been posted. The theme of the issue was games.
I don't know if the second one will be posted before the current issue is posted so I'm posting the pages here. This issue had a vices and virtue theme and my article talks about the charity beefcake calendars. (click the image to expand to readable size)

Also, I got to create a fun photo illustration for Gabrielle Nomura's article about envying her parents' coolness.

Merrueshi Village and the Maasai, Kenya pt.3

2009-11-15T18:10:00.000-08:00

After leaving Ombogo, our group traveled back to Nairobi for a night before we headed to Simba Camp , an eco-tourism camp that takes only a few groups of visitors a year. The revenue from the camp is fed directly into community development programs such as a medical clinic and schools. Upon arriving a Simba Camp we were greeted by a group of Maasai warriors, our tour guides, and the camp staff. I was quite surprised to step out of the van and see some of the staff wearing WALAX, a Washington state lacrosse organization, hats! Apparently a group of boys from the Seattle area had been the last group to stay at the camp and had given the apparel to the staff. The camp was located outside the main village and consisted of staff housing, open-air communal shelter where we ate meals, cabins, and a bathroom facility that had showers heated by a wood fire. It was the perfect place to take some time to relax after the long hours we put in at Ombogo.
The Maasai are an amazing tribe with so much of their traditions preserved. On the first day a group of women from the village came to show us how they make the extravagant beaded jewelry and decorations. Every morning we got up at 5:30 a.m. for a nature walk with the warriors where we hiked out into the bush and were shown different animal tracks, saw giraffes and other small animals.
We went on safari on the second day in Amboseli National Park. We saw zebras, monkeys, baboons, elephants, lions, hippos, wildebeest, water buffalo and gazelles. Though it was exciting to see these animals from the van, it was even more amazing when that night, after we had returned to camp and had dinner, a few of us left camp with the warriors to see if we could sneak up on the herd of zebras that usually come to the village well to drink. We hid ourselves down wind in the shadows of some concrete tanks about 15 feet from the well. We waited and slowly the herd of zebras cautiously approached the well. They are very skittish and often they would smell us and start to run, but then would slowly return. At first only a few came but those would call out and you'd hear the thundering of hooves in the distance as more came to join them. At one point about 40 zebras stood around the well, some as close as 12 feet away! It was such a beautiful and surreal experience watching them in the moonlight.
And here are some photos:

Our awesome warriors, Lorpopit, Kwenia and Moloki. They are wearing the traditional plaid wraps and beaded jewelry. For Maasai males, being a warrior is a stage of life from that starts at about 18 years old and lasts for at least 8 years. After being warriors they become junior elders. Warriors have strict rules about what they eat and what they do. From my understanding, warriors are not allowed to eat meat that a woman has seen after it has been killed and they are not allowed to be alone and must be accompanied by another warrior almost all the time. I was also told that in Nairobi Maasai are the only people legally allowed to carry weapons, as some carry wooden clubs with them.

People every where we went were fascinated with Heather's tattoos. Here, some Maasai children check out Heather's forearm tattoo of her cat "George" dressed as a viking.

A Maasai youngster leans against a hut made of mud. When greeting Maasai children, it is customary for them to bow their heads and for you to touch the top of their head.

This is Mama Kakuta, the mother of one of our tour guides, Tom, and of Kakuta, a man who we met with in the States before embarking on our trip. He spends half the year in Seattle and the other half in Merrueshi.

Kwenia and another warrior walk across the bottom of a dried basin during a nature walk.

Many of the Massai warriors wore shoes made from old car tires.

Mama Lorpopit rolls a strip of plastic on her leg in order to make it into a string to use in beading.

During our beading demonstration.

Two youths wash the floor in a room at the Maasai high school.

A tour vehicle passes by two elephants in Amboseli National Park.

An elephant having breakfast outside Amboseli National Park.

An unidentified bird in Merrueshi.

Mother and baby baboon outside the Amboseli resort.

Zebra in Amboseli National Park.

All that is left of a cow is the bones and skin.

Heading back to the camp as the sunsets after a long day of safari.

Grannies of Kochia, Kenya Pt.2

2009-10-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

While I was at Ombogo working with the girls I had the opportunity to meet Emmanuel Obech Akuongá and Silvia Anyango Ogira. The husband and wife team left their jobs as a taxi driver and nurse in Kisumu to develop a community organization, ABBA, which serves multiple groups in the community. They have a small kindergarden and preschool, an orphanage that cares for 20 children, and a program that provides maize flour once a month to elders in the community that live on their own and are too old to be able to work.
Before we left Ombogo, Emmanuel and Silvia took me to visit a number of the grandmothers. All of those we visited lived in mud huts that measured about 10 feet-by-10 feet, had no running water or plumbing, and often lacked furniture. Often these women had lost most if not all of their children and grandchildren. Some grandmothers had to support the grandchildren whose parents had died. Though it is not always certain as people are not always tested, most of the deaths were most likely complications of AIDS. This disease has devastated a crucial generation that is the main caregiver for the old and young. What happens when there is no one to take care of either group and they can't take care of each other?
Here are the portraits I made of these women.

Pirsila Agao, 87, had five children but all but one son had died. That son provides her with water as she is not physically able to haul water and carry it for miles from the lake or river. Agao's home has no furniture and she sleeps on the ground on top only a small piece of canvas.

Pirsila Agao's worn hands show the many years of labor she has preformed. When I arrived she was drying corn that someone brought and will be her main source of food.

Susan Oluoch, 80s, has very poor eyesight and struggles to walk. All four of her children have died along with her four grandchildren, leaving Oluoch dependent on the kindness of neighbors for food and water. In her hut she has a bed frame, but no mattress, only a woven grass mat.
When I visited Ms. Oluoch, she expressed (through an interpreter) that she was very happy for my visit as she was very lonely and not have many visitors. While holding my hand she told me that though she couldn't see me, she could tell I was a Muzungo. Ms. Oluoch was the third grandmother we visited but definitely the one who touched me the most, it was hard to watch her as we drove away move slowly back to her chair outside her hut back to her very isolated life.

Helen Maranda, 90s, has had all five of her children died along with their spouses. Even more shocking is her 19 grandchildren that have also passed, leaving her only one grandson, George Omondi, 26, to assist her. Omondi is a fisherman, providing fish for food but also a source of money. They also earn some money by renting a portion of their land to others for growing crops.

Doris Agutu, 79, came to care for five grandchildren, all under 6 years old, after her five children died. Agutu has a few fruit trees in her yard that provides a small income for her family. The family's house has two rooms, a living room where the grandchildren sleep, and a kitchen where there is a stove in one corner and Agutu's bed at the other side, their chickens sleep beneath her bed.

A woman who works at ABBA tends to a fire in the kitchen where meals are prepared for the children.

Kenya Part 1: Ombogo

2009-09-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to travel with a group from Western Washington University partnered with a local non-profit, Slum Doctor Programme to Kenya for three weeks in July. The purpose of the trip was to establish if Western would be able to extend it's service learning program, in which students do a project that benefits the community and in turn learn from the experience, to the international community. The main focus was on The Ombogo Girls' Academy, a secondary boarding school located in the Kochia area near the shores of Lake Victoria. Slum Doctors works with Ombogo by providing over 50 scholarships to girls so that may attend the school. A year at Ombogo cost $800, which includes tuition, room and board. The scholarship pays the school fee and provides for basic needs (soap, detergent, pencils, toilet paper, toothpaste and shoe polish) as well as a 300 shilling (about $4.00) stipend each quarter for spending money. The girls that receive the Slum Doctor scholarships come from families that are unable to afford the school fee, and in almost all cases are full or partial orphans. Without the opportunity that the scholarship provides, many of the girls will tell you, they would live a very different life, most likely married off to an older man (bride price is still a common practice) and possibly mothers.
My work on the trip was to document the stories of the girls and the interactions of our group with the people of Kenya. I interviewed 10 Slum Doctor girls about their stories. This had to be the most challenging part of the trip, and maybe of my journalism career thus far. Most of the girls watched their parents die, often due to HIV/AIDS, sometimes their siblings as well. The challenges in their lives were so much greater than anything that anyone I know has faced. The interviews were emotional, but I was floored by how articulate and poised the girls were.
Through the 10 days we spent at the school the girls never ceased to impress me with how mature, caring and strong-willed they were. They really created a family within the school.
I returned from my trip with 3,500 photos, 8 hours of video, 6 hours of audio, and countless stories. The amount I learned on this trip rivaled my college education, and the refreshed perspective I came away with is invaluable.

Alice and I on the bus ride from Kisumu airport to Ombogo, only half the road was paved so we had to wear dust masks. Dust was unavoidable (my camera sensor will testify) especially because they were currently in a drought.

Four Ombogo form two students laugh while playing link tag during P.E. class. I was amazed by the confidence and charisma of these girls.

A group of Ombogo students show Julie Lynch and Heather Handerson the vegetable garden that they produce as part of their agriculture class.

A puff adder met a gruesome fate when found at the gate of the school by a guard and then provided a intriguing dissection project for some of the aspiring doctors.

The sick bay at Ombogo Girls' Academy.

Chemistry class, testing the reactions of acids and metals.

Western professor Marie Eaton reads a book to Etaniel, the son of the director of Ombogo Girls' Academy.

Julie Lynch compares hands with Jim, a boy that lived next door to the compound we stayed at in Kochia.

Maureen and Marie talk while they walk to the shore of Lake Victoria to watch the sunset.

Kochia-area boys play and bathe in Lake Victoria before hauling buckets of water back to their homes.

Children playing marbles across the road from where we stayed. Kochia gets very few white visitors, so walking to and from the school we would have an entourage of children giggling and following us. The Swahili word for white person or foreigner is 'Muzungo'. Quite frequently we would hear "Muzungo!! How are you?" from children as we walked.

People of the Kochia area gather water and bathe in the river at sunset.

A boy stands by the river with a jug for water and a fishing net. There is a problem in this area with the fishing nets because legal nets cannot be purchased close by so people use mosquito nets which catch fish that are too small which is hurting the fish population.

Traditional Kochia dancers perform at a event attended by the President and Prime Minister of Kenya. Their headdresses are made of Ostrich feathers.

Kenyans wait to see the President and Prime Minister of Kenya during a event that marked the start of paving a important road in the Kochia area.

Visual Journalism Web site

2009-06-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Our class project was to design a Web site for the San Juan Islands Museum of Art and Sculpture Park. We took our own video, photos and audio of the park to make the multimedia pieces. I was responsible for the design of the Web site. We will be presenting our site on Monday to the board and they will be choosing one of the four that different groups in our class have made.
Check it out : San Juan Museum of Art and Sculpture Park Web site

Klipsun Spring '09

2009-06-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

This quarter I was a photographer for Klipsun Magazine . I was really lucky to have some amazing people as my subjects who I learned a lot from, a reminder as to why I love photojournalism. Here are a few of my selects. The first one is a portrait I took for an article on transgender and the second is an illustration for an article about finding religion in college.
This last week has been exciting! I was chosen for an internship with the Slum Doctors Programme , a local grassroots non-profit that works with other organizations to provide those in Africa whose lives are affected by HIV/AIDS. As part of it I will be traveling with a group of four professors and two other students to Kenya. There I will be taking audio, video and photos to document the stories of the people Slum Doctors helps as well as Western's involvement. When I return I'll be composing multimedia pieces from the material I took. I am beyond excited to go since I have never been to Africa let alone flown over the Atlantic Ocean!

Strobe fun

2009-04-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

I just bought The Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally. It's a great book that takes you step by step of how he lights different shoots with just strobes. I have very little lighting equipment, just a SB 800 and a small soft box, but I was inspired and so I dragged my girl Gabrielle, (who is not only beautiful but patient!) and did a quick mini photo shoot on Taylor Dock.

Sports Shooter Academy VI continued...

2009-04-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

Sports Shooter Academy VI

2009-04-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

I got back from the Sports Shooter Academy VI in Irvine, Calif last week. It was a awesome experience, I met some great people, had some of the best sports photogs in the country teach classes and give me one-on-one help, and shot 8 events in 3 days! The schedule was pretty exhausting- shooting from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and editing and critiques till 2 a.m. I decided not to dive into remotes and just concentrated on composition and anticipation. Though the events were fun, I really enjoyed the athlete portraits and lighting.
I have to give Nikon some love, they paid all the student tuition and fulfilled everyone's fantasy by letting us borrow any equipment we wanted (I now pine for a D3). I'm also so grateful to Bert Hanashiro for working so hard to organize the entire workshop.
Here are a few of my selects.

Final design project

2009-03-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

For our third and final design project we had to use Photoshop to create a poster that represented one of the articles of the Declaration of Human Rights .
Though I tone photos with Photoshop almost daily, trying to create a poster with text was incredibly frustrating. I struggled the most with giving the text the appearance of being slashed into the person's back. Special thanks to my roommate Brian for being my model.
It's officially finals week, so I'll be dusting off my camera in the next two weeks and shooting as much as possible to get back in the groove for Klipsun, our student published magazine, which I will be a photographer for spring quarter.

Design Postcards

2009-03-02T05:35:00.000-08:00

This was our second design project, this time using Illustrator. We started with an object that we hand drew then scanned, and traced on the computer. I chose a pair of sunglasses. We then were given a random word that we had to incorporate into a design with our object, and then do the same with an antonym of the word. My word was 'dissent' and I used 'resolution' for the antonym.

Design

2009-02-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

I'm in a design class this quarter that focuses on learning Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. Our first project was to design a poster based on a font that we were given.

Video!

2009-02-03T18:33:00.000-08:00

Here's my first video assignment from class. We were supposed to compose a 30-second video, or commercial. I was on Bainbridge Island for the day so I took footage of the Mochi Festival at IslandWood. It was a challenging experience to think with a 'video' eye rather than a 'photo' eye. Enjoy!

Portraits

2009-02-02T04:39:00.000-08:00

I've been horrible about updating this. I am not shooting for any publications this quarter, so I haven't been getting out to take photos that often (terrible excuse). I have been doing some portraits for friends and family with my new soft box. Very simple lighting, but it's a starting point.
I'm in a video production class this quarter so I'll be posting some of my movies, or at least posting a link to them.

Proposition 8 Protest

2008-11-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

These photos are from the Proposition 8 protest in Bellingham on Nov. 15. A couple hundred people gathered in front of the Federal Building with signs and megaphones. Trying to avoid 'sign' shots I focused on the details and color. Here are a few of my favorites. Check out the Western Front article and my gallery online:
http://westernfrontonline.net/2008111810487/news/students-protest-prop-8/

Welcome!

2008-11-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

I'm starting this blog as part of my future Web site that I am currently designing. My plan for this blog is to share my experiences as I try to tell stories through my camera. I want to provide samples of my projects as well as dillemas I come across which I invite discussion and commentary on. Enjoy!