By Heather Murphy

Afghanistan is not camera-friendly terrain.

"Everything is either made out of mud, steel or rocks," NPR photographer David Gilkey explains over the phone. Setting one's camera down thereby invites an array of problems. And even if you could make the camera out of graphene, it would eventually get destroyed by dust, he says.

Lt. Brandon Currie (David Gilkey / NPR )

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Nonetheless, he's managed to keep the camera intact enough to send us the photos above - - an update on the Marines in 1st Platoon Golf Company. Though still patrolling Helmand River valley, with cots to sleep on and a shower, they are faring better than in July. Despite many close calls, they've managed to stay casualty-free. This has fueled some superstitious practices -- their leader, for example, refuses to shave his lucky mustache.

The cornfields that fill the farms of Helmand have proved to be a dangerous hiding place for insurgents' weapons.

"The Taliban or insurgents hide the weapons in the cornstalks, run to the corn piles, pull out an AK-47 and then put it back in and act like they didn't do anything," Gilkey explains.

As Gilkey took the photo of a Marine searching through the cornstalks in the gallery above, he says he could hear gunfire; another squad caught several insurgents taking weapons out of the corn and fired back.

If you missed Gilkey's previous audio slideshow on 1st Platoon Golf Company, you can find it here.

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By Jim Wildman, producer for Morning Edition
Photographs by David Gilkey, NPR staff photographer

When we show these photographs to NPR colleagues, nearly every one of them gasps. Perhaps that's because they're not images of detonated car bombs or ink-stained fingers or any of the other images we've come to expect out of Afghanistan.

Perhaps our colleagues are gasping because these images present an arresting display of neon lights, bright enough to rival Las Vegas. Or maybe this gasping comes with the realization that Afghans party too. Hard.

Whatever the reason, the most surprising thing about David Gilkey's photographs taken on a warm July evening in Kabul -- is that they introduce us to something that has become wonderfully ordinary in Afghanistan.

Each week, thousands of people attend weddings in Afghan wedding halls. Young people. Old people. Children. They dress up. They dance. (Men and women party separately.) They feast. They laugh. These celebrations last well in to the night.

And all this is happening -- in the midst of war.

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NPR reporter Tom Bowman and photographer David Gilkey recently returned from Afghanistan. Searching through Gilkey's unpublished photos, we came across some images that seemed to merit a dispatch.

By Tom Bowman

The Combat Search and Rescue helicopters operated by the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan transport medics who are trained to treat the injured during that "golden hour," the moments that can mean the difference between life and death.

The medics listen to the radio from their wooden hut at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan, waiting for the call. They are briefed about combat operations that day, including where they may be sent. A large map pinpoints the locations.

They share lunch, heaving pieces of chicken onto paper plates, drinking sodas, chatting and waiting.

Suddenly, a voice squawks over the intercom, and they dash from the hut to their specially designed Black Hawk helicopters on the nearby tarmac.

Within minutes they are in the air. Two pararescuemen, Staff Sgt. Mark Bedell and Senior Airman Andrew Rios, sit with their feet dangling hundreds of feet above Kandahar province. Known as PJs (pararescue jumpers), they are trained to bring back downed pilots or provide emergency treatment to soldiers and civilians caught up in fighting.

The helicopter is all business. All the seats have been taken out, and supplies are neatly stocked to one side. There is only a wide and empty metal space. Senior Master Sgt. Walter Bacio mans an M4 machine gun, while the flight engineer, Senior Airman Andrew Gibson, gazes out the window.

In a blur, we pass over mud huts, grazing sheep, and then bank a bit too close to a mountainside. A sort of super seat belt is holding me to the floor, but I'm convinced I'll roll out of the helicopter like a marble into the dust below. NPR photographer David Gilkey is somehow snapping pictures without holding on for dear life.

The pilot, Maj. Tom Roberts, and his co-pilot, Capt. Hung Nguyen, then turn in a sharp angle and drop into a compound, less than 10 miles from Kandahar Airfield. The whoosh of the helicopter blades is almost deafening. Two Americans are carrying an Afghan man, who has stepped on a mine, on a stretcher. He looks bewildered.

The man has lacerations and an injured groin. Within seconds they are hustling him onboard, the stretcher fastened to the metal floor. His head lolls back and forth as the PJs work on him. An IV needle is put into his arm. As he is stabilized, a peaceful look covers his face.

The helicopter banks again and drops into a dirt field next to an Afghan military hospital. The man is carried out and placed inside an ancient ambulance. The CSAR crew rises once more into the sky, heading back to the wooden hut, waiting for still another call.

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By Claire O'Neill
Photos By David Gilkey

At first glance, there's something comical about a man chasing a runaway donkey with a country's presidential ballots on its back. But actually, that man and donkey are responsible for delivering the vote to some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan for this Thursday's election -- regions only accessible by donkey that could very easily be neglected and, until now, pretty much have been.

For this year's election, Afghanistan's second democratic election, the United Nations and the Afghan Independent Election Commission have mapped out ballot deliveries by helicopter, truck and donkey to ensure rural citizens the right to vote. NPR staff photographer David Gilkey joined election officials in the trek to deliver voting materials in the Badakhshan province in northern Afghanistan.

Despite his remote location and patchy reception, we were able to get Gilkey on the phone for a few minutes to ask him about this experience. After embedding with Marines and dodging constant fire in southern Afghanistan, and after covering the presidential campaign, Gilkey seemed grateful to see this side of the election -- a more positive side. "It gives you a whole new appreciation for our right to vote," says Gilkey. "We can't even get in the car and drive a half a mile to the elementary school to vote. But these people, don't ask me how -- they don't have phones, power or water -- will walk for two days to vote."

To learn more about the Afghanistan election, and to view more of Gilkey's photographs, check out our Afghanistan hub page.

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Video by NPR staff photographer David Gilkey

Dehydration, sleep deprivation, boots soggy with sweat, 100 pounds of gear and 15 miles in 126-degree heat. Lance Cpl. Joseph Dills says you have no idea how bad it is until you do it. Luckily, NPR's staff photographer David Gilkey was embedded with Dills' battalion in Afghanistan, which gives us a rare glimpse of what life is like for Marines in the field.

Ahead of the 2009 presidential elections in Afghanistan, U.S. Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 8th regiment trekked miles each day, facing heavy resistance, in order to secure parts of Helmand province in the south. Watch Gilkey's video to get an idea of what it was like.

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More on NPR's news blog, The Two-Way.

More from Gilkey:

• Special Series On "America's Battalion"


• The Afghan Presidential Candidates


• Afghan Candidates Hit Campaign Trail


• NPR's Photographer Reports From Afghanistan


• Report from Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan


• Training The Elite Afghan Commandos

By Claire O'Neill

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NPR staff photographer David Gilkey says that the number one rule for a photographer is: never abandon your equipment. But he decided to do just that -- leaving most of his things behind except a camera, a lens and a bulletproof vest. What was supposed to be a brief patrol with the Marines in southern Afghanistan turned into a 7-day trek through the surprisingly lush Helmand River Province.

Trekking in temperatures well over 110 degrees, the Marines abandoned almost all of their belongings except their weapons, and dodged almost constant fire with only the clothes on their backs.

Hear Gilkey talk about what it's like taking photos in a war zone.

• Gilkey also discussed his experience on All Things Considered.

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By Coburn Dukehart

NPR photographer David Gilkey is embedded with U.S Marines in Southern Afghanistan. Seven days ago, they left their camp for what was supposed to be a 24-hour patrol. They ran into heavy fighting, and it's been too dangerous for them to turn back.

These photos showing the Marines engaged in battle were taken Wednesday in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan.

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The Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment are part of Operation Khanjar, which was launched to take areas in the Southern Helmand province that Taliban fighters use as a resupply route. The goal is to clear insurgents from the volatile region before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election and to restore stability to the region.

Gilkey is traveling with platoons from Golf and Echo companies, as well as with photographers from ABC and Getty Images. He says has spent the last 10 days walking in extreme heat and "sleeping in dust," without showering or brushing his teeth. The group has been shot at repeatedly, he reports.

The trucks that were supposed to bring their gear overland have yet to make it there. The word on the ground is that they were attacked, although there are no reports of casualties, he says.

He has nothing with him except the clothes on his back - and one working camera.

"This is the hardest, most amazing thing I've ever had to go through," he said. "We go out every day and get shot at."

Gilkey transmitted images to NPR through Getty photographer Joe Raedle, who has a working satellite phone.

He says no more Marines have been killed since the first day of the battle, although many have been flown out because of heat exhaustion. Helicopters are able to get in, but no trucks.

He hopes to get his gear within the next 24 hours. "Inshallah," he says.

Gilkey, along with NPR reporter Tom Bowman and producer Graham Smith, has been following the troops known as "America's Battalion" since they left North Carolina's Camp Lejeune in May. See the NPR series here.

More NPR stories and photo galleries from Afghanistan:

• First U.S. Casualties Reported In Afghanistan Push
• Marines Train To Conquer Taliban, Their Own Fears
• In Afghan Heat, Marines Prepare For The Storm

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NPR reporter Tom Bowman and NPR photographer David Gilkey filed this post from Afghanistan.

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One of the key jobs for U.S. special forces, going back to the Vietnam War, is to train local forces. The only way to end a counterinsurgency is to create enough government forces to turn the tide. At Firebase Thomas in western Afghanistan, U.S. Army Special Forces, popularly known as Green Berets, train the 6th Kandak (Battalion) of the 207th Corps, the elite fighters of the Afghan army.

The Green Berets are training the commandos to mirror their own approach to warfare. Killing is just one part of it: They also want the commandos to reach out to the population -- providing humanitarian relief and building schools.

It's all a challenge. The illiteracy rate in the country hovers around 90 percent, so the commandos can mount simple operations with their American mentors. But Special Forces soldiers say it will take time, maybe years, before the Afghans are as competent a fighting force as the Iraqi commandos. An average Afghan soldier may shoot 200 rounds from his AK-47, but the commandos shoot up to 7,000 rounds. They practice driving their armored Humvees through an obstacle course that includes fake roadside bombs. They use metal detectors to pinpoint a bomb, then a combat knife to carefully lift it from the ground.

And they put their training into practice. One night, the Special Forces and the 207th loaded up and headed south, driving through the desert for hours and finally circling a group of houses that included a top Taliban supplier. As he raised his weapon, he was killed.

by Tom Bowman