F. Scott Schafer: Asia

Image Copyright © F. Scott Schaffer-All Rights Reserved
Information on F. Scott Schafer is certainly not all over the place. He was born in Key West in Florida, after spending much of his adolescence sneaking his camera into local heavy metal shows and photographing friend’s bands, a career in photography came calling.

After graduating from the Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena, with a degree in Photography, Scott has been working for editorial and advertising clients ever since. It also appears he's into surfing, snowboarding, scuba diving and trekking up Everest....activities which are somewhat contradictory to his serene Travel portfolio on his website. Unfortunately, he has chosen not to provide any captions to these magnificently toned portraits...but they're from India (Pushkar and Punjab), Bhutan or Ladakh, probably Nepal and Tibet, Myanmar, Cambodia and possibly Viet Nam. These portraits are all posed, and are ageless...similar to ancient studio portraiture style and are visually compelling.

By all accounts, Schafer's commercial photography is very successful, but it is this Travel gallery on his website that attracted my attention and admiration. To me, the above image of the monk and a novice is just perfect...the poses are both very well calibrated. The older monk's tilt of the head, and his facial expression is one of puzzlement (the "what on earth is this foreign photographer up to" kind of look), while the novice's expression is one of acceptance and wonder...and are they in a temple's alcove?

Here's F. Scott Schafer's website , where you can see his Travel gallery amongst other of his galleries.

Soundslides Plus

I'm a great fan of Soundslides, a popular and simple program which allows me to combine still images and sound in a functional multimedia package for posting on the web, or on CD/DVD for direct distribution.

I hear that Joe Weiss, the creator of Soundslides, has announced the beta version of Soundslides Plus, an entirely new version of Soundslides, possibly the "pro" version. New features have been introduced such as image movement (pan & zoom), built-in lowerthirds, thumbnail menus and the ability to create traditional (non-audio) slide shows.

Soundslides Plus will cost more than Soundslides, though the full $39.95 purchase price of Soundslides will count towards the cost of the pro version. The pricing is yet to be determined but Weiss says that he's committed to keeping it within range of individuals.

The regular Soundslides will continue to exist for people who that don't need the new features, and there's a 1.6 update coming that includes individual transition control.

I'll try the beta version first to see whether the new add-ons are worth it. Some people can't live without a Ken Burns effect in their slideshows...but I can. The trial version of Soundslides Plus in its beta form can be found here.

Update: I've downloaded the trial beta version...and I must say there are a number of interesting improvements in Soundslides Plus. For instance, there's no need for audio tracks anymore, so plain vanilla slideshows are now feasible. This addresses the main (but in my view, unfair) criticism levelled at Soundslides. I've used it on a G4 OSX 10.4.8 and it hummed quite nicely.

One Shot: Felice Willat

Having co-founded Day Runner Inc, Felice Willat is now founder and president of Tools With Heart, a company that develops products to inspire and enhance personal discovery and well being. A successful entrepreneur, and with a strong background in network television production, Felice is also an accomplished photographer, selling a selection of her photographs through Tools With Hearts' website.

Felice recently visited Vietnam, and I chose one of her beautiful photographs from Hanoi, which she titled "Hanoi Prayers". The photograph of this serene scene was taken in the very early morning hours as she walked around Hoan Kiem Lake located in the center of Hanoi. It is also called Lake of the Restored Sword derived from a legend. Felice tells me that thousands of people arrive daily at the lake for prayers, tai chi and many other beautiful movements with colorful fans and swords.

It is said that when visiting Hanoi, if the visitor does not see the Sword Lake, then they would not have actually been in Hanoi. The lake is an endless topic and inspiration for painters, poets, writers, music composers, etc, and innumerable works about the lake have been produced.

Art Wolfe's Travels On The Edge

Art Wolfe's 30 year career has spanned the globe, and allowed him to work on every continent and in hundreds of locations. His photographs of the world's wildlife, landscapes and native cultures are recognized for their mastery of color, composition and perspective.

Travels On The Edge is a television series of 13 episodes featuring Art Wolfe photographing in various corners of the world, and scheduled to be aired on PBS (schedules are available on the website). Art is accompanied by photographers Karel Bauer, Sean White and John Greengo. The series are sponsored by Canon USA, Microsoft and Conservation International.

There are a handful of 'teaser' trailers on the website. I watched the one on the Ethiopian tribes (a tad theatrical, but understandable since the trailer is meant to 'sell' the episode), but I was disappointed that the trailer on Varanasi was as yet unavailable. I also watched the snippet on the Bolivian Altiplano...incredible landscape! The trailers' video quality is crummy, a function of high compression...perhaps to make it more accessible to a wider audience? This always surprises me on the part of deep-pocketed organizations...why not use the two bandwidths option, and give us good quality video?

The main website is here and the shortcut link to the episodes is here.

Christopher Herwig: Tajikistan

Image Copyright © Christopher Herwig-All Rights Reserved
Christopher Herwig is a Canadian travel photographer/photojournalist currently based in Monrovia, Liberia, having spent 3 years in Almaty, Kazakhstan, putting together a collection of images on Central Asia. He completed photo projects for international organizations including several UN agencies, the Red Cross and the British Council , as well as commissions from magazines and newspapers in worldwide. He explored the Central Asian region and estimates that he covered over 40,000 km on foot, horseback and back-country skis, by boat, car, 4x4 and train.

Although his earlier work experience was primarily commercial, he has concentrated on travel photography. The photographs of Central Asia on his website are a mix of mainly portraits as well as landscapes, city and industry to illustrate where people live and work.

For TTP, I feature Christopher's photographic gallery of Tajikistan, the roof of Central Asia. Tajikistan means the "Land of the Tajiks", and most likely originates from "Taji," one of the family names of Arab-Muslim invaders during the conversion of Central Asia to Islam and its annexation to the caliphate. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to spread into Central Asia during the Great Game with Great Britain, and it took control of Tajikistan. Now, it remains of vital strategic importance because of Afghanistan.

The photograph above is of Buzkashi players; a traditional Central Asian team sport played on horseback, where the objective of a player is to grab the carcass of a headless goat or calf, and then get it clear of the other players and pitch it across a goal line.

An interesting, and out of the mainstream, photographer...here's Christopher Herwig's Tajikistan website. Be sure to visit his other Central Asian galleries.

American Diversity Project

Image Courtesy American Diversity Project-All Rights Reserved
The American Diversity Project's stated mission is to support documentary photography and those who produce it. This year's project was centered on Greenville, a small town in the Mississippi Delta, and features the work of 12 young documentary photographers and photography students.

I've long had the idea to photograph in the Mississippi Delta myself, focusing on the area's wealth of elderly blues musicians...visiting them at their homes and documenting their environment and their music. So it's no wonder to me that I found the multimedia section on the 86-year old blues man James "T-Model" Ford of Greenville, Miss. who offers us a glimpse of his guitar riffs and singing, just exceptional. He's well traveled to Europe and elsewhere, and regularly plays at the Blues Club in his hometown. I watched it over and over...enjoying T-Model's raw Delta blues. His multimedia section is the third from the left at the top of the multimedia browser window.

American Diversity Project's website is full of captivating photographs, sound, music, and oral history of the area, so explore and marvel. A job extremely well done by this group of emerging photographers.

Foliolink: Website Service

I recently discovered an online professional website service called FolioLink, which claims it allows contemporary artists, photographers, artisans, studios and galleries to showcase their original works of art with the most extensive feature set, ease of use and designer templates that run in both FLASH and HTML. It also claims that its service offers a large array of “power user” tools that are available to FolioLink's staff when beginner subscribers call for assistance.

Foliolink is not a downloadable software, but a true online service. The entry-level account (called turnkey account) costs $239 per annum, with a $149 one time only setup fee. There is a free 7 day trial account, which is said to be fully functional.

I'm tempted to try it out after seeing the magnificent multimedia projects of Muriel Hasbun , a photographer artist, whose website is here.

Foliolink's website is here.

I don't have the time to try it out right now, but will do so soon and will write of my impressions and experience in a future post on TTP. Foliolink claims that the trial version is fully functional...we'll see.

Leica M8 : Iraq Test

Popular Photography magazine's website has published a hands-on review of the digital Leica M8 by a war photographer. Ashley Gilbertson is a freelance photographer who has been working in Iraq since 2002, and who took two Leica M8s to Iraq.

His experience with these cameras was highly satisfactory, saying: "In my opinion, Leica has created a perfect transition to digital from its M-series film cameras. The Leica M8 is just as small, almost as durable, and as easy to use as its film predecessors, and it yields an incredible file in both size and sharpness. As someone who has hated the transition from my old Leica kit to digital, the M8 is my ideal camera to marry the elegance and robustness of the M series with cutting edge digital technology."

I'm on the lookout for a small backup for my Canon behemoth, and in this case the Leica would obviously be a replacement rather than a backup...so I'm interested in gleaning as much hands-on feedback as I can get. I know that the Leica M8 has its quirks such as having to fix an IR filter on it (supplied free by Leica), and its settings have to be carefully tweaked before using it...so hardly a camera for absent-minded photographers. However, some pros swear that its image quality is incomparable.

Here's the Popular Photography article on the Leica M8.

Tomás Munita: Afghanistan

Image Copyright © Tomas Munita-All Rights Reserved
Tomás Munita is a gifted photojournalist born in Santiago, Chile. He started photographing while traveling across South America, which allowed him to document the Bolivian town of Potosi in black and white, showing its decline after its silver mining heydays. He worked as a photojournalist for the newspaper El Metropolitano in Santiago, then as a photographer for Associated Press based in Panama until 2003. During that time, he documented what he perceived as the constant struggle over such issues as land, hunger, power and values. Munita also lived for one year in South Asia, where he spent part of his time living in Ladakh, photographing the life of Changpa nomads in the Indian Himalayas. He recently has been working for the Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan.

I chose the above photograph out of Afghanistan to showcase his excellent work on this post. He's known for his uncanny ability to photograph and use available light (isn't the above photograph proof of this?), and presents us with scenes which evoke the personal struggle of Afghans and the need for life to go on. I also like the fact that he didn't crop out (or clone out) the "whatever it is" on the bottom right hand corner of the above photo....he could have, but he didn't. A purist.

I posted about an uninspiring New York Times' slideshow of his photographs here, so to atone for the harshness of my criticism, I now bring you choices to view Tomás Munita's talented camera work.

You can visit his website , or a selection of his best photographs on the excellent Blue Eyes Magazine (recommended).

Bali: Photo Expedition

Banjar Babakan, Bali-Image Copyright © Tewfic El-Sawy
Well, it's less than two months to the start of my photo expedition Bali: Island of Gods to this wonderful Hindu island, and it's time to start the countdown. I'm leading a group of 7 highly-motivated professionals and enthusiasts, some of whom have already joined a number of my past photo expeditions.

I've picked the timing of expedition to occur at the height of the island's temple festivities and anniversaries, so we expect to be photographing non-stop during these 14 days all over the island. Our base will be in Ubud, the artistic heart of Bali. The land arrangements have all been made, flights have been booked and the pre-departure packages have gone out to the participants.

I plan my photo expeditions for photographers who share my enthusiasm for unusual cultures, uncommon locations and lesser known festivals, and announce them via my newsletters. Details of future expeditions are in my bi-monthly newsletters, and registration can be through my website.

Registration is quick and spam-free guaranteed!

Beyond The Frame: Theyyam

Theyyam Dancer - Image Copyright Tewfic El-Sawy
Traveling in the south of India, I stopped in a small village not far from Kannur, where I was told that a Theyyam performance would soon take place in a temple. The Theyyam ritual is unlike any celebration held in any part of India, and the colorful costumes and makeup used by the dancers are part of the ritual's mystique, if not its core. It is said that the ritual goes back to two thousand years, and the Theyyam deities have their origin in the Dravidian culture and indigenous customs and rituals. I joined a large group of devotees from all walks of life, and met some who had traveled from Calcutta on the other side of India to attend the ritual.

The belief is that the costumes and painted mask-like makeup is the substance of Theyyam, and that the performer is the vehicle that carries it and the dance. Once the dancers dress into the costume, they are in contact with the God, the Theyyam. I was told that it took up to 3 days to create an elaborate costume, while the make-up and other preparations can take up to 5 hours.

People go to a Theyyam in temples such as the one I visited, and inquire about family and social problems, health issues, business ventures, etc. and they are provided guidance by the main dancer. The men from Calcutta had questions about a forthcoming business transaction involving the sale of fabric, and from their facial expressions on receiving the advice, I understood that they had been satisfied. One of them spoke some English and confirmed that they routinely made the long trip to seek business counsel at a Theyyam.

The interesting aspect of the ritual is that the Theyyam dancers are frequently imbibing thimble-fulls of palm toddy, and seem none the worse for it.