PictureMate Charm Henderson Case Study

"Holding photos of loved ones in their own hands is a miracle to these indigenous people," said Henderson, an Oklahoma-based photographer and designer. Known for his travel photography and widely published photos of the Oklahoma City bombing, Henderson also teaches digital photography, leads photo safaris, and authors books. He is currently working on a photo book documenting the slave trading castles that imprisoned millions of African people before they were transported overseas as slave labor.

Somewhere in central Ghana, Henderson’s 4-wheel drive pulled off a dusty road and stopped at a small African village of mud huts. "As I unpacked my equipment, I was again amazed by the sturdiness of the PictureMate Charm," said Henderson. "That little printer bounces in the back of a 4-wheel drive for days in incredible heat, humidity and dust, and along the African coast in salt water and rain." Plus, the printer’s compact storage size

(6.7" x 9.1" x 5.7") allows it to fit easily alongside other camera gear and luggage.

As Henderson walked toward the little village, small children scattered in all directions while women in colorful kerchiefs looked up from stirring big smoky pots of shea tree nuts. A little white goat started bleating, which provoked the suspicions of a nearby rooster. Henderson asked to see the village chief and made a deal to photograph the village if he gave them prints in return.

"Although the chief seemed to agree to it, I’m not sure he really understood what I had in mind until the villagers started seeing the prints coming out of PictureMate Charm," said Henderson. Surrounded by 25 women in bright cotton dresses and wide-eyed children, he took a few photos and then inserted the flash card into the printer resting on the red-clay earth beside him. After pressing the Print button, he printed a 4×6" photo in as fast as 37 seconds.

"When they saw that first picture, the loud cheers upset the babies," he said. "I’ve never heard such noise. Suddenly everyone at once wanted their photo taken." Despite the pandemonium, he photographed each of them as they took turns standing near the shady branches of the big shea tree. He quickly previewed the photos on PictureMate Charm’s 2.5-inch LCD photo viewer, and used PC-free photo editing to crop, remove red eye or enhance the image.

"I am always surprised that such a small-format printer can produce that sort of print quality, color and detail in the middle of nowhere," said Henderson. As soon as the photos left the printer, they were dry, smudge-, scratch- and water-resistant, no matter how many hands reached out for them. The prints were also fade resistant, lasting up to four times longer than traditional photo lab prints. The PictureMate Charm can also print wirelessly from PDAs and digital camera cell phones with an optional Bluetooth adapter.

Each time Henderson pulled out a print, the women started a new round of cheers. "They were laughing with pure delight," he said. "Watching that printer may have been the most intriguing thing they’d ever seen." One woman in yellow did not cheer when Henderson gave her the picture of her holding her baby. She looked at it with great reverence, shifted the crying baby on her hip, and quietly walked away from the others. "I felt honored to have touched her so deeply," said Henderson.

As the crowd went back to the mud huts, the village chief approached Henderson as he slung his camera strap over his shoulder and started to pick up the lightweight PictureMate Charm. The chief expressed his gratitude with great ceremony, giving the photographer a sack of precious guinea fowl eggs.

After leaving the village, Henderson continued his West African trip in Ghana, Gambia and Senegal, photographing the remains of the castles and forts used during the years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade for his book project. Earlier in the year, he also traveled to Uganda to photograph an AIDS orphanage. He made another excursion to the Amazon rainforest, where he left behind a few hundred "4×6 print miracles" in remote river villages.

"When I first had the idea to travel with the PictureMate Charm, I didn’t expect to get much out of a battery-operated printer that probably wasn’t made for trips to sub-Saharan or tropical climates," he said. "But I’m always amazed at how well this little printer travels, how long the battery lasts, how beautiful the 4×6" prints are, and how I can now give back to those people in faraway places who let me take their photographs."