Everyone will tell you that Afghanistan is a great place to take pictures. No one will inform you it’s a very difficult place to take pictures in the peak of summer, both for cameras and photographers.
It’s my second time embedding in Afghanistan, my previous embed was in February 2010, a time of year when the air is still clear after winter and the light is soft like no other place on earth.
This time I’m embedded in Kandahar in midsummer, at the edge of the Reg desert that spreads all the way to Pakistan and heats up to 45 degrees Celsius. The sunrise is at 4:30 and by 7:00 it’s already impossible to take any pictures due to the brightness of the sun.
I’m here to cover the last days of the Canadian army’s combat role, as they prepare to depart after 10 years and 156 soldiers killed, leaving only a small non-combatant force of trainers in Kabul.
The Canadian army now has about 3000 troops on the ground and from 2006 has held the command of the Southern province of Kandahar.
