An exhausted migrant cradles her two year old son while sitting on the deck of an Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) patrol boat after berthing at the AFM Maritime Squadron base at Haywharf in Valletta’s Marsamxett Harbour early May 31, 2012. Sixty-five migrants, most of who claim to be from Eritrea, were rescued by the AFM 74 nautical miles south of Malta when their rubber dinghy started taking on water while on its way to reach European soil from Africa, authorities said.
I was allowed to board the AFM’s patrol boat when it arrived at its base carrying sixty-five rescued migrants. One of the advantages of covering arrivals in the middle of the night was that very few journalists would be present so we’d have a lot more freedom to move around than is the norm.
Though it was pretty dark, the reflective space blankets (sometimes referred to as thermal blankets) draped around the migrants were bouncing enough light around to enable me to just work with available light. I stuck to using my prime 50mm lens because it’s the one in my arsenal with the widest aperture.
Canon EOS 5D MkII
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens
Focal length 50mm
Aperture Priority
Shutter 1/30 sec
Aperture f/2.5
ISO 1000
Islelanders 