Here's a little shot I took over the pilot's
shoulder while I was flying to
An Iraqi officer performs a vehicle search during
an exercise at
Another shot of the Iraqi basic infantry officer's
course. Here they're setting up a vehicle check point ... Of course - deadly
force is authorized. /// EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCSE
///
Iraqi Presidential Brigade -- This dude put all his
shots (except two) on target. The black target represents a person at 300 meters
away. Let's not mess with these guys, k?
Here we see a member of the Iraqi Army's
Presidential Guard with his boxed-up M-16. Before they're issued the rifle,
they have to get their picture, fingerprint, retinal scan, voice, and name
attached to the serial number on it ... Just to make sure we know who's got it.
Kurdish soldiers from the Iraqi Army's Presidential
Brigade qualify on their new M-16s. They taught me a few words in Kurdish, and
I got to realize how big of a difference there is between Kurdish and Arabic.
When the Iraqi Army soldiers upgrade their weapons
to M-16s, they turn in their AK-47s into an armory. I'm holding the fruits of
their labor. : )
Members of the Iraqi Honor Guard march away after
greeting the Turkish Army deputy chief of staff. They were really as close to
me as the picture looks. I was playing chicken with them to get this photo, and
I jumped out of the way just in time.
For those of you not in the military - When marching, it doesn't matter if
you're about to fall off a cliff or run someone over, your formation continues
to move when ordered.
Here's another shot of the Iraqi Honor Guard
commander inspecting his formation before the airrival
of the Turkish distinguished visitor.
Here's an old photograph I shot while I was flying
around
Me while I was flying on a CV-22 in
Mackenzie and Mitchel -
the two things I would give up anything and everything for.
Sitting at the helicopter pad, bored out of my mind,
I decided to take out my camera and walk over to some Army guys standing around
their Humvees. This soldier was sitting away from the
others sitting on the front of the vehicle.
Two newly commissioned Iraqi lieutenants hug after
they graduated from the year-long academy.
It was hard to find a dry Iraqi eye in the whole place after they graduated.
Overcome with emotion, most of the lieutenants starting crying - some balling.
Reminds me of when I graduated
Leading lines rock. Leading lines that lead to someone who wants to be
funny is ... well ... funny - i guess.
I saw a chance to get a decent photo here of the Iraqi flag and a bunch of
cadets. What I didn't expect was this joker to make faces at the camera when he
saw me.
Part of me wanted to start messing with him, but I had to put my serious face
on and be professional in front of everyone. I just smirked and moved on.
Still funny. When I was looking at the pictures on my
LCD screen on the way back from taking this picture, I tripped over a step -
Iraqi laughter could be heard all around me.
The head of the Iraqi Air Force is framed by academy
graduates. I had a sweet photo of somebody saluting him taken from this same
angle - but the general's eyes were out of focus and the guy's back was in
focus who was saluting him. Amazing what a difference 6 inches makes in depth
of field when you're using a 200mm lens.
The lighting absolutely sucked in here. Imagine a gym with no lighting - but it
has a huge window on one side. My ISO was set kind of high, so the picture
turned out a little grainy.
Iraqi tradition: Toss candy during events. Why do
they do it? I don't know; I haven't been here long enough to be completely free
of ignorance.
Something's wrong with my D2. I'm going to take it out back and use it for
target practice. Only my D80 shoots these nice color-rich photos for some
reason. My D2 shoots too flat.
Here's a shot of a lieutenant friend of mine
getting some cake for someone. It's a military tradition for leadership to
serve younger troops during the holidays. Even though this lieutenant is FAR
from high ranking considering the kind of brass I work with here, he still
managed to make the cut. Lighting from the case made for a neat affect, and it
was almost perfectly exposed. A pleased photographer this picture made.
I don't know what it is, but I just don't like this
picture. There's something here that I didn't do, something that I missed,
something I should've done differently - but I can't put my finger on it. A good-looking American holding an Iraqi child. Maybe I
should've shot it a little wider and cropped it down, but I actually ended up
cropping it a bit tighter than I actually had it. Who the heck knows.
Even the kids like getting their pictures taken
with crazy Americans.
Me on an Iraqi BMP in
It's no wonder that Iraqi soccer teams do so well
in the international arena. Their 5 year olds have no problem taking on our
soldiers without breaking a sweat. I tried to get a low shot of an American
while getting a whole shot of an Iraqi child. I wish I would've gotten lower
and gotten more of a combat boot, but I didn't want my D80 getting kicked back
into my face by an over-zealous soccer player.
Most Iraqis I meet love getting their picture
taken. This Iraqi airman was no exception. He refused to wear any protective
gear while working with the JP-8 aviation gas so that it wouldn't ruin his
picture. When he was asked why he wasn't wearing any by the American Airman I
was with, he responded in Arabic, "Because I'm getting my picture taken,
get the hell out of my space." Humor, it seems, crosses cultures.
Also taken in
Here, the Iraqis were learning how to aim their new
M-16 rifles. I tried a few different things here with a few different lenses
and came up with this. Personally, this is my favorite picture that I've taken
since I've been in
At the end of the graduation,
This was a high profile graduation of an Iraqi Army
brigade. Even
One more tough thing to
add to my job is that most Iraqis love to get their pictures taken. The art of
taking candid and natural shots is essential, because as soon as they notice
you have the lenses aimed near them, they start posing and yelling at you to go
over and take pictures of them and their buddies regardless of whether they
actually get the photograph. These Iraqis soldiers are in training and were
watching a senior class graduate.
They're actually shooting live rounds out of those
rifles. They handed me a "bulletproof" vest that felt like a sweater.
Knowing full-well it wasn't going to stop a round from an AK-47, I still
ventured up the catwalk to lean over the railing to snap this photograph. A
little bit of the catwalk is visible on the left side, but I think the motion
and the casings laying on the ground add enough to the
photograph. This made a great lead photograph in a layout for my magazine.
I was running around like crazy trying to find an
interesting angle to take a photograph of Iraqi soldiers running into an
improvised building. I lined up behind one of the guys and shot this one over
his shoulder to get the AK and a few of his buds. At first I was disappointed
that the focus wasn't on the weapon, but when you see the professional stare
that the guy in the middle is giving with the weapon pointed at him, it adds
emotion (or lack of) to a photo that otherwise may have been dull.
All the comments on this
page above this point were the words of Christopher Frost.
on to the blog of Chris Frost
back to the Chris Frost mission page
back to ALL MISSIONS