By Jon Warren, World Vision US Photographer

When people learn that I do photography for World Vision, a humanitarian agency, one of the most frequent questions I hear is, "How can you face all that suffering all the time?"

The first time I was asked this I was taken back a bit. Of course I’m confronted with awful circumstances some of the time and see some terrible things. But more often than not, there is beauty and uniqueness in the people I meet, and I’m struck by the sense of common humanity under God. That’s what I’m trying to say with my photography.

In the middle of hot day in Dara village in Niger, I wandered into the shade of a woven roof to get out of the sun. A sleeping baby, Abida, was in a cradle suspended from the roof joists by long ropes. Each time someone walked past, they gave the cradle a shove. Abida was blissfully content in the middle of brightly colored cloth, swinging back and forth.

I raised my camera to take a picture and her mother, trying to be helpful, stopped the baby’s rocking. I chose the widest setting on my 17-35mm lens because the cradle was set quite high and I wanted to include some of the setting. The picture was OK but rather boring.

When the baby started to stir, the mom gave the cradle a good push. I love motion pictures where the main subject is sharp while the rest of the scene has interesting blurs - but it’s always hit-and-miss to make it work. I started by setting a really slow shutter speed, probably a quarter of a second, and then swayed in rhythm with the cradle, trying to keep my camera moving at exactly the speed of the baby’s face.

I love digital because I can see right away if what I’m doing is working. A quarter of a second was too slow - I couldn’t get anything sharp. I kept experimenting until I settled on 1/20th. And then I clicked and clicked and clicked. The baby wasn’t going anywhere, and it was too hot to go back out into the sun. Finally there was one picture where Abida’s sweet face was nice and sharp and the rest of the frame brushstrokes of colour and light.

Abida’s family lived on about USD1.25 a day, and her life on the edge of the Sahara desert would be challenging. But with each gentle push on the cradle, the love and support of her community was confirmed.