{"id":1812,"date":"2015-07-29T04:00:44","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T09:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2020-12-22T13:54:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T19:54:03","slug":"my-encounter-with-the-afghan-girl-photographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/my-encounter-with-the-afghan-girl-photographer\/","title":{"rendered":"My Encounter With The &#8216;Afghan Girl&#8217; Photographer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I saw a National Public Radio\u00a0(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NPR<\/a>)\u00a0headline show up in my newsfeed earlier this week titled &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/07\/26\/425659961\/how-one-photographer-captured-a-piercing-gaze-that-shook-the-world\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Story Behind Steve McCurry&#8217;s Iconic &#8216;Afghan Girl&#8217; Photo<\/a>&#8220;. \u00a0It was part of their series &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/series\/274340198\/my-big-break\">My Big Break<\/a>&#8220;. \u00a0 The story talks about how a very short\u00a0encounter with an Afghani refugee changed his life back in 1984. \u00a0The story reminded me of the time during the summer of 2012 when \u00a0I stopped in Lubbock, TX to get something to eat while on my\u00a0way back from visiting friends in Colorado. \u00a0I noticed that the award winning and famous National Geographic photographer,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Steve_McCurry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steve McCurry<\/a>, was going to be speaking on\u00a0the Texas Tech\u00a0University campus later that month. \u00a0So, I planned a trip there to potentially meet him, get some books autographed and listen to him speak.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1822\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/my-encounter-with-the-afghan-girl-photographer\/2012-09-steve-mccurry-autographing\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012-09-Steve-McCurry-Autographing.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1500,1125\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;3.2&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon PowerShot SD780 IS&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1348254508&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;5.9&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;250&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.016666666666667&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"2012-09 &amp;#8211; Steve McCurry Autographing\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012-09-Steve-McCurry-Autographing-750x563.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012-09-Steve-McCurry-Autographing-1500x1125.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1822\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012-09-Steve-McCurry-Autographing.jpg\" alt=\"2012-09 - Steve McCurry Autographing\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012-09-Steve-McCurry-Autographing.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012-09-Steve-McCurry-Autographing-500x375.jpg 500w, https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2012-09-Steve-McCurry-Autographing-750x563.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/>When I arrived at the university for the event, I noticed a gathering of people along with some television cameras and went over there to see if that was Steve. \u00a0In fact, it was an interview with Steve. \u00a0I waited for the interview to be over and for him to finish his conversation\u00a0with some of the folks before I approached him to shake his hand. \u00a0As I reached out with my right hand to greet him (and I&#8217;m sure I said something like &#8220;I&#8217;ve always been a great fan of yours&#8230;&#8221;) he immediately shook my hand with his left hand. \u00a0I realized immediately that his right\u00a0hand was not fully functional. \u00a0Not only did I not know this but I also never thought about\u00a0all cameras being\u00a0&#8220;right-handed&#8221;. \u00a0I was even more impressed with his work after knowing this. \u00a0How did he manage to take such wonderful images in less than ideal situations as a war photographer and with limited dexterity? \u00a0So, I did some research. As it turns out, he crafted various devices which he connected\u00a0to the tripod mount on the bottom of the camera so he could hold the camera with his right hand while making adjustments and triggering the shutter with his left. \u00a0Amazing! \u00a0I was even more impressed with his abilities, attitude and approach. \u00a0I often think of him when I&#8217;m down on my results and it inspires me to persevere.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You can follow his blog by clicking <a href=\"https:\/\/stevemccurry.wordpress.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>\u00a0or view Steve&#8217;s website <a href=\"http:\/\/stevemccurry.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I saw a National Public Radio headline show up in my newsfeed earlier this week titled &#8220;The Story Behind Steve McCurry&#8217;s Iconic &#8216;Afghan Girl&#8217; Photo&#8221;.   It was part of their series &#8220;My Big Break&#8221;.   The story talks about how a very short encounter changed his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[164,166,165],"class_list":["post-1812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-news","tag-afghan-girl","tag-national-geographic","tag-steve-mccurry","post_format-post-format-image"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My Encounter With The &#039;Afghan Girl&#039; 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