WP: Rain in Angkor

Image Copyright © Stephen Brookes-All Rights Reserved
The Washington Post brings us an 'aimed at tourists' slide show feature on Angkor and Siem Reap.

Stephen Brookes went to Cambodia to see the famous temples of Angkor in July at the peak of monsoon season. Seasoned travelers warned him that going during the monsoon rains would be madness and that he would face more than 50 inches of rain, waste his time being stranded in your hotel, and swatting at mosquitoes.

He shares my contrarian idea that the monsoon is the best time to see Cambodia because there are few tourists (comparatively), and the rain rarely lasts more than an hour or two. The rain is usually refreshing, and the landscape turns lush, and colors take on richer hues. During my photo-expedition to Angkor Wat, we avoided the crush of tourists by photographing at the temples and ruins at the break of light, benefiting from cool mornings, and excellent light.

I think that Stephen's assertion that the monsoon season is the only time to go to Cambodia for photographers is somewhat of an exaggeration, however it's certainly a great time to go. I traveled to Laos in August and my experience was similar to his...excellent light, saturated colors and rain that lasted 2-3 hours at most.

The Washington Post insists in prefacing its multimedia shows with hideous advertisements...I bet many people just refuse to watch them, and either miss out on the features altogether, or go catatonic while they play until the feature starts. I just turn off the sound and look elsewhere for 30 seconds.

WP's Gallery: Pray For Rain in Angkor

WP's Article: When It Rains, You Score

NY Times: Bourbon & Bluegrass

Image Copyright © Susana Raab/NY Times-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times combines Kentucky Bourbon and the wonderful music of bluegrass to bring us a multimedia feature with photographs by Susana Raab.

The accompanying article is by Steven Kurutz who fashioned the itinerary "in the style of a bluegrass song: a defined structure but with ample room for improvisation."

The first part of the trip was spent on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, visiting seven distilleries open to the public. The final stop was at the 6th annual Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration in Rosine, the birthplace of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass.

A delightful little piece of Americana...and great live music.

Multimedia feature: Bourbon & Bluegrass

Article: Bourbon & Bluegrass

Steve Bloom: Africa

Image Copyright © Steve Bloom-All Rights Reserved
Steve Bloom is certainly among the top ranked wildlife photographers in the world...an artist who specializes in evocative images of the natural world. He was born in South Africa and moved to England in 1977, where he worked in the graphic arts industry for many years. In the early nineties, during a visit to South Africa, his interest in wildlife photography emerged, and within a short time he had swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer.

Steve usually sets his own assignments, confident that images produced from the heart will ultimately be rewarding. When not traveling the world photographing wildlife, he works in his high-tech digital studio where he sometimes spends long periods fine-tuning individual images before printing them.

His photographs are seen around the world in calendars, posters, advertising, editorial features and a multitude of other products, and his books have been published in 15 languages.

I chose to feature Steve's admirable slideshow "Africa" project, which captures the raw energy of the people and animals of Africa. Particularly interesting to me are his photographs of the tribes of Ethiopia.

Incidentally, Steve's sister, Susan Storm, is equally talented...a photographer, a published travel writer and a superb jewelery crafter. Her work can be seen on Maya Gems

Steve Bloom's Africa gallery

Praful Rao: India

Image Copyright © Praful Rao-All Rights Reserved
Praful Rao was born in Kalimpong, India, and after serving in the Indian Air Force for 23 years as an air traffic controller, he returned to his home town to run an internet café and concentrate on his photography. He is also involved in social causes like consumer movement, anti drugs and AIDS work and environmental issues.

He is a self taught photographer whose interest in photography spans almost a whole lifetime. Having been introduced to photography as a teen, he has used a variety of film cameras for his work, yet the advent of digital cameras has given new emphasis to his photography.

He specializes in no particular field, choosing to capture whatever catches his eye or creating photographs from themes in his mind. Though most of his photography is of people and nature, he has done some serious work on minimalism, still life and still enjoys doing black & white work.

Praful Rao's People Gallery

Beyond The Frame: Bhutanese Novices

Image Copyright © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
During my 2006 Bhutan Photo-Expedition, I was photographing at the Jambey Lhakhang, one of the oldest monasteries in the country, a few hours before its annual festive tshechu, and came across these two novices horsing around with toy-guns. I guess boys will be boys, but seeing two Budhhist novices possessing such toys was still a surprise....after all, Buddhism teaches non-violence, no? I took some solace in the presumption that when these toy guns were found by their teachers, they'd be confiscated.

After decades of fighting off outside technological influences like television, the King of Bhutan allowed transmissions to commence in the Kingdom for the first time in June of 1999. This has had a fundamental change over the people of Bhutan. To me, it's clear from the pose taken by the novice on the right that he's imitating something he's seen on television.

Another noticeable change in Bhutan is in women's hairstyles. Before the advent of television in 1999, the majority of Bhutanese women had their hair in pageboy style (I was told then that Bhutan was the only Asian country where this was the norm)...however, women are now influenced by Indian Bollywood stars, and wear their hair long.

You may think this is a rant...but it's not, honest. It's just an observation. I'll use my rant quota at a later date when I write about the "toxic" side effects of globalism on travel photography...such as the Balinese rice-farmers who wear NY baseball caps...or Virginia Is For Lovers T-shirts.

Kate Holt: Bangladesh

Image Copyright ©Kate Holt-All Rights Reserved
Kate Holt's first solo trip was to Romania, following the fall of Ceausescu in 1991, and may have shaped her career. News of the horrific conditions in which Romania's unwanted children were being kept were in the British headlines and she decided to see what she could do to help. Her year working in Romania's orphanages had a profound effect on her and she returned many times to help.

She turned to journalism and photojournalism, and traveled to Bosnia in the wake of the war and on to Albania to document the refugees who flooded over the border from Kosova in 1999. She also spent over a year uncovering the exploding sex slave trade - young girls trafficked from Romania, Moldova and the Ukraine who were bought and sold as commodities.

Kate works as both an investigative reporter and photographer, and returns to Africa and the Balkans frequently. She combines this with photographing for NGO's, helping to publicise their work through articles, lectures and exhibitions.

Reminscent of my own work on the widows of India, I chose to feature Kate's work in Bangladesh, which focuses on the elderly in this impoverished nation. Her website also list the various charities and NGOs she works for, as well as their websites.

Kate Holt's Bangladesh's Elderly

G M B Akash: Gordon Parks Center

Image Copyright © G M B Akash-All Rights Reserved
I was pleased to learn that G M B Akash has won first place in the 2007 Gordon Parks International Photo Competition with the above remarkable photograph of a young girl on a train in Bangladesh. Akash tells us that because of Bangladesh’s large population, inadequate number of seats on trains, and inherent poverty, many people are stowaways. This often results in terrible accidents.

I've posted about Akash's photographic talents on TTP here, where in contrast to other mindless agenda-driven blogs, I chose to adopt a less venomous approach to his photograph of a chained Muslim child in a Bangladeshi madrasa.

The Gordon Parks International Photo Competition has been conducted by Fort Scott Community College since 1990. More than 3,100 individuals from around the world have participated in this annual program that, inspired by the photography of Gordon Parks, reflects important themes in life such as social injustice, the suffering of others, and family values.

G M B Akash's Website

Gordon Parks Center's Contest Results

Michael Robinson Chavez: India

Image Copyright © Chris Ramirez -All Rights Reserved
Michael Robinson Chavez is a staff photographer at the the Los Angeles Times after many years at the Washington Post and Boston Globe. In addition to domestic stories, he covered wide-ranging international assignments in over 45 countries. He was twice named Photographer of the Year (in 2004 and 2007) by the White House News Photographers' Association, and his work has been exhibited in his native California, the Visa Pour l'Image festival in southern France, Washington DC's Corcoran Gallery, and many other galleries around the world.

I chose Michael's remarkable work on the Jain festival of Mahamasthakabhisheka. This is an important Jain festival held once every 12 years in the town of Shravanabelagola (between Mysore and Bangalore) in Karnataka state, India. The festival is held in veneration of an immense 18 meter high statue of the Bhagwan (or Saint) Gomateshwara Bahubali. The anointing last took place in February 2006 where at least 1.2 million Jains attended, and the next ceremony will occur in 2018. I visited the sacred site, however it wasn't at the time of the festival.

As the Mahamasthakabhisheka begins, consecrated water is sprinkled onto the participants by devotees carrying 1008 specially prepared vessels. The statue is then bathed and anointed with libations such as milk, sugarcane juice, and saffron paste, and sprinkled with powders of sandalwood, turmeric, and vermilion. Offerings are made of petals, gold and silver coins, and precious stones. Most recently, the ceremony's finale has included an enormous shower of flowers from a waiting helicopter.

In my view, the above photograph perfectly illustrates the devotional submission by this Jain pilgrim to the saint. Incidentally, the Jain pilgrim is a Digambar or sky-clad...who wear no clothes following the practice of the Jain saint Mahavira. The Digambar believe that this practice represents a refusal to give in to the body's demands for comfort and private property. Digambara ascetics have only two possessions: a peacock feather broom and a water gourd.

Michael Robinson Chavez's India Gallery

NYC: No Photography Permits!

Image Copyright ©Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
New York City has now given up on its ill-thought out attempt to to rein in street photographers, videographers, and independent filmmakers by dropping regulations that would have regulated capturing public images of the city. New York will now allow photographers and filmmakers to operate without a permit as long as they don't prevent use of public spaces or obstruct more than half of pedestrian walkways.

The original (ludicrous) permit plan called for a required $1 million insurance bond for photographers who planned on using a tripod in a single spot for 30 minutes, or ten minutes if filming involved five people or more.

So back to the streets...and photograph away! The weather in New York City is forecasted to be beautiful for a few days...so what are we waiting for?

Mirjam Evers: Global Beat

Image Copyright © Mirjam Evers-All Rights Reserved
Based in New York City, Mirjam Evers is a Dutch freelance photographer specializing in environmental portraits, travel, documentary and adventure photography. During the course of her career she traveled to over 50 countries capturing the diversity of people and cultures in some of the most exotic places in the world.

Her photographs were published in American Photo Magazine, Popular Photography Magazine, Hamptons Magazine, Photographer's Forum "Best of Photography Annual" and International Expeditions. Her corporate clients include Epson and Visa Card.

I chose Mirjam's Global Beat gallery on her website, but do explore her other galleries as well. Her portraits in the Global Beat gallery are luminous...her portrait photograph of an Egyptian man above is exactly that....radiant, but I think that using Lensbabies on close up portraits -as Mirjam did in some samples- is somewhat disconcerting...maybe I'm old-fashioned.

Mirjam Evers' Global Beat Gallery

Chris Ramirez: Trinidad

Image Copyright © Chris Ramirez -All Rights Reserved
Chris Ramirez is a New York-based photographer whose pictures are seen on the pages of The New York Times, most notably the Travel section where Chris has done over 15 cover stories in the past 5 years. He has traveled extensively, from the northernmost points in United States to Europe and throughout the Caribbean, which has become one of his favorite corners of the globe. He has been a faculty member at the Eddie Adams Photography Workshop since 1999, where as a team producer, he produces 10 stories annually to be photographed by students and presented at the workshops final slide show.

He recently photographed in Trinidad and, along with reporter Sam Sifton, experienced one of the great eating towns in the Caribbean, the greatest of the Lesser Antilles, and the fount of some of the finest rum in the world. This multimedia reportage is about culinary tourism: combining photography with the food and wine industry...and is a rapidly expanding genre in the travel photography industry.

NY Times' Multimedia on Tasting Trinidad

NY Times' Article on A Culinary Pilgrimage on an Island of Contrasts

Chris Ramirez's website

The Pod

The Pod is a bean bag with a bolt attachment, which is claimed to offer a platform for cameras and camcorders that is compact, strong, flexible, portable and simple. It can be taken anywhere and set up on virtually any surface. The manufacturer claims that it has the stability that small tripods lack, and that it can be used by anyone, even the non technically minded.

The pod uses the industry standard ¼" x 20 mounting bolt which comes standard on all makes and models of consumer cameras, and is customizable by removing an amount of stuffing (plastic pellets) in it, to conform with surfaces and cameras.

Having a pathological hatred for tripods, I am certainly intrigued by the pod, and wonder whether it really lives up to its claims. Nothing can replace a really sturdy tripod, but it may be do in a pinch. The website has sunny testimonials, but nothing is like testing it oneself. In the meantime, if any TTP readers has used it, drop me an email and tell us of your experience.

The Pod

One Shot: Tatiana Cardeal

Image Copyright ©Tatiana Cardeal -All Rights Reserved
Tatiana Cardeal is a Brazilian independent photographer based in Sao Paulo, who spent her early career as an art director and graphic designer for international magazines. She decided to shift her focus to photography and document social, cultural and human right issues in 2003.

Her particular interest in South American indigenous people started at an early age, when she studied indigenous traditions and cultures. She calls her photography "social photography" because of the consequences and possible social changes that evolve from it. Her photographs can be interpreted as a denunciation, a call for action or a petition to help indigenous people by respecting them, respecting their land, their economy, their needs and their culture.

Tatiana says that her projects are long term in nature...some take at least 4 years to complete...but despite the difficulties, the lack of funding and the skepticism and frequent bureaucratic obstacles, she perseveres in documenting the various South American indigenous people. With the quality of her photography and her tenacity, I hope she is successful in her noble objectives.

Tatiana Cardeal's Blog

Micro Track II Audio Recorder

M-Audio has redesigned its popular MicroTrack digital recorder, and dubbed it the MicroTrack II. The company says the redesigned version brings even more professional features to the original high-fidelity mobile digital recorder that’s used by audio and film professionals.

The new recorder has an extended input gain range, analog input limiter, 48V phantom power, faster file transfer rate, seamless recording of files beyond 2GB in size and other enhancements. It allows the recording of WAV (BWF) and MP3 files to CompactFlash or Microdrives through balanced line inputs or built-in microphone preamps—which can be dragged and dropped to computers via high-speed USB 2.0 for immediate editing or Web posting. Its MSRP is $299 and it's expected to be available in the stores in November.

I have used the older MicroTrack for about 2 years, and while I can't complain about its performance and operations, I wish it had a built-in microphone like its Samson Zoom competitor. The MicroTrack and its successor are sold with a small separate removable microphone. Sooner or later, I will lose this dinky microphone and I'll be stuck. An alternative is to get an Audio Technica ATR25 microphone to use with the recorder instead of the supplied mike.

M-Audio MicroTrack II

B&H's M-Audio MicroTrack II

Sunday Rant

Since this is my blog, and I can pretty much write about anything I like, here's a rant for this Sunday morning.

Whenever I visit London, I always try to spend a weekend there so I can read the Saturday and Sunday newspapers...or the broadsheets as they're called over there. Early morning, on both weekend days, I walk to my newsagent and buy the Times and the Independent....and quickly return home carrying an armful of newsprint and the accompanying magazines.

My next hours are spent reading and absorbing the news and editorials written by true professionals...in-depth, intensive and intelligent analysis of current events and foreign news. Every time I do this, I come to the same conclusion: our mainstream print media is superficial and naive. In London, I read the Times and the Independent from cover to cover, both politically distinct from each other... one more in keeping with my political alignment than the other...but I read each newspaper's point of view with equal relish and respect. Back in New York, I avoid reading the op-eds from the like of Brooks and Friedman because they're vacuous, predictable, repetitive and full of cliches. The only op-ed contributor I have time for is Frank Rich...and even he goes overboard on occasions. If forgot to name other columnists, it's on purpose.

But my rant this morning is not really about the superficiality of our news...but about the long disappearance of solid serious photojournalism from our printed press. Last weekend, the Sunday Times of London had a magnificent feature on the tragedy of Africa with the powerful black & white photographs of Sebastiao Salgado...in the style of LIFE magazine...12 pages of African scenes. I kept it because it's a wonderful issue on so many levels.

In comparison, this morning's New York Times' Sunday Magazine has 8 glossy pages of fashion titled The Others...showing overpriced clothes and diamond necklaces hanging on sickly-looking models made up to look like Halloween ghouls.