One Shot: Vinayak Das

Image Copyright © Vinayak Das-All Rights Reserved
Vinayak Das was born in Calcutta, and according to his biography is completely self taught as a photographer. He specializes in documentary and people photography. He particularly enjoys honing his current skills in working with natural light and subjects of social and cultural interest.

His biography also tells us that he is currently working on a project called 'Bangalore Markets'( A look at the traditional heritage market places in Bangalore). Yakshagana ( A look at Karnataka's traditional Folk Art Form ) and Reflections of Life are two of his new projects that will be ready in this year. He is a contributor to Visage, one of India's leading stock photography agencies. Vinayak has been involved closely with several TV shows in India. He also writes for The Economic Times, The Times of India, The Statesman and The Telegraph.

For this One Shot feature, I chose Vinayak's image of a Yakshagana dancer in his stunning costume and make-up. Yakshagana is a traditional theater form combining dance, music, spoken word, costume-makeup, and stage technique with a distinct style and form, performed in India's Karnataka state.

For more of his skilled imagery of the Yakshagana and other projects:

Vinayak Das

NY Times: Karachi After Bhutto

Image © Tyler Hicks/New York Times-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times brings us this slideshow of Karachi street scenes from one of my favorite photojournalists, Tyler Hicks. The title, Karachi After Bhutto is self-explanatory, and portends an major political upheaval in this critically important country.

It's been reconfirmed this morning that our mass media hasn't lost its timidity in reporting on the current political theater in Pakistan.

Here's an article in the NY Times reporting on yesterday's meeting of journalists with Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan, who rejected any suggestion that he or any members of the Pakistani military or intelligence agencies played a role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

This sets the tone of the article:

" In a televised question and answer session that lasted more than 90 minutes, Mr. Musharraf appeared relaxed and confident, telling journalists that they often got their facts wrong and that they did not understand the situation in Pakistan."

On the same event, here's the final paragraph from an article from the British newspaper, The Independent :

"Instead one was left wondering why Mr Musharraf appeared so desperate to explain himself to the world? Does he genuinely believe he is badly misunderstood? A clue, perhaps, came in his final exhortation to the media – words that were cut from the television broadcast. "Please," he said. "I am not a fraud, I am not a liar."

I know from where I'll continue to get my international news, and you can tell it's not from the New York Times.

For some levity: I've chosen the above photograph because of the white cat meandering among the stains of betel juice and the other detritus. Isn't it amazing that it manages to remain spotless?

Karachi After Bhutto

Update on Batteries

It appears that the flap on the recent pronouncement by the Department of Transportation (DOT) regarding traveling with lithium batteries was much ado about nothing.

Ken Geiger, Senior Editor for Technology at the National Geographic Society has just written a clarifying post on its blog, in which he essentially says that the checked baggage ban is directed only at large lithium batteries. According to his calculations, even high-end digital SLRs, like the Nikon D3 and Canon 1Ds MKlll, use lithium-ion batteries that are below the DOT's threshold.

He also learned that the DOT will restate the wording of the ban on Lithium batteries in checked bags, to make it clear that only larger packs are affected (much larger than typical digital SLR or notebook batteries).

Notwithstanding, I'll repeat my earlier advice: Pack your spare batteries in ziplock bags, cover the terminals with electrical tape if these have no covers and carry them in your hand luggage.

Ken Geiger's NGS Post

Olympus LS-10 PCM Audio Recorder

GIZMODO reports that Olympus announced its new LS-10 Linear PCM Audio Recording Device, a portable professional recording tool for "musicians and everyone who values high-quality recording."

It weighs 5.8 ounces and can track stereo 24-bit 96kHz linear PCM uncompressed. It can record and play back in WAV, MP3 and WMA. The LS-10 has two gigabytes of internal flash memory and also features an SD/SDHC removable media card slot to further expand its capacity. It can run 12 hours on two AA batteries. The LS-10 Digital Audio Device has an estimated street price of $399.99 and will be available in January 2008.

The GIZMODO reviewer adds this: "The only thing I'm truly wary of is the user interface—Olympus has given its recorders some supremely ugly interfaces in the past, and there's no indication that this will be any more intuitive than its predecessors."

GIZMODO's post on Olympus LS-10 PCM Audio Recorder

LaCie Rugged All-Terrain HD

LaCie just announced that it increased the capacity of its Rugged All-Terrain Hard Disk's to 320GB. It's available in USB 2.0 and a USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire800 version for speedier data transfers.

The company claims that the Rugged (and the new 2.5-inch Little Disk) now offers the largest capacity available for any single-disk portable drive. The LaCie Rugged is a tough portable hard drive, and is designed to protect data against bumps, bruises and hard knocks. Its aluminum shell and rubber bumper protect it from table-height drops for extra protection.

The LaCie Rugged in the 320GB capacity will be available late January.

LaCie Rugged All-Terrain HD

Andrew Gibson: Bolivia

Image © Andrew Gibson-All Rights Reserved
Andrew Gibson is a British photographer who works on cruise ships, which has given him ample opportunities to travel and photograph far-flung places.

He specializes in South America, in particular Argentina and the Andean regions of Boliva and Peru. He plans to move to Argentina to focus on his photography and writings.

The body of his work is slanted towards art-travel photography rather than documentary travel photography, and he often tones his photographs as his lovely image of a church in Puerto Chivica in Bolivia.

There are two reasons for featuring Andrew's work here on TTP; one is that he makes available copies of his e-books in PDF format to anyone who wants to download them. He has three books: Bolivia, Cementerio de Recoleta, and Central Park in NYC. You may want to do the same when circulating your portfolios to editors, clients or even friends...everybody has a PDF reader on their computers.

The second reason is that his blog has an interview with John Cleare, which I encourage you to read. With 45 years experience, he's an inspiration to all photographers, whether interested in mountaineering (as he is) or not. Cleare is not just a photographer, but also a mountaineer, wilderness traveler, writer, author, filmmaker and lecturer.

NY Times: Medicine Hunter

Image ©Jennifer Szymaszek/New York Times - All Rights Reserved
The New York Times seems to have recently enhanced its multimedia features available through its website. These appear to be better edited (except for some of its "fluff" travel slideshows) and are more interesting both visually and content-wise. Let's hope this continues since it provides creative opportunities and avenues to photojournalists and photographers.

A recent multimedia feature is on the efforts of an ethnobotanist who calls himself the Medicine Hunter and about his quest in Peru to study indigenous medicinal plants. His goal is for people to use safer medicine, and by that he means plant medicine.

In Peru, he is studying maca, a small root vegetable that grows in the country's central highlands. He describes it as “a turnip that packs a punch. It imparts energy, sex drive and stamina like nothing else.”

If this is true, the maca will catch like wildfire in the United States, where about 36% of all adults ingest some form of complementary and alternative medicine. The baby boomer generation will provide an enthusiastic target market for the enterprising companies that will make maca pills.

The photographs are by Jennifer Szymaszek, who also recorded the audio. Note to photographers: start learning (and start using) audio recording techniques as soon as you can, if you haven't done so already.

NY Times' Multimedia Feature: Medicine Hunter in Peru

NY Times' Article: On a Remote Path to Cures

Revamped Photo Expeditions Web Site

I've decided to ring the new year with a revamped website for my photo expeditions. I opted for the same color scheme as this blog, and used the same logo. I've simplified the interface and for visual effect, I added a Soundslides with some of my photographs.

Update: I changed the background color to white for legibility purposes. I also simplified the logo.

The Travel Photographer's Photo Expeditions

Batteries: False Alarm???

The photo-related blogosphere and photographers are buzzing with various interpretations of the recent US Department of Transportation's advising that passengers will no longer be able to pack loose lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning January 1, 2008.

According to the DOT, the new regulation will continue to allow lithium batteries in checked baggage if they are installed in electronic devices, or in carry-on baggage if stored in plastic bags.

Common consumer electronics such as travel cameras, cell phones, and most laptop computers are still allowed in carry-on and checked luggage. However, the rule limits individuals to bringing only two extended-life spare rechargeable lithium batteries , such as laptop and professional audio/video/camera equipment lithium batteries in carry-on baggage.

It appears from what I read and heard (and I stress "appears") that this will only affect audio/visual professionals. However, the TSA screeners may have a different interpretation than yours or mine. Most of them are inadequately trained, overworked (sometimes) and have no people-skills to speak of (generally). If and when they see "Lithium" printed on a battery of any shape in your hand-luggage, they'll probably ask you to dispose of it. That's a no-brainer way out for them: when in doubt, dispose.

So I'm apprehensive as many of you are. There are a couple of good suggestions on Steven Frischling's Flying With Fish blog. One is to make a copy of the DOT regulation and carry it with you, and the other is this gem:

To avoid any problems or confusion at security check points, I will be removing all the hard to decipher OEM stickers from my camera batteries (currently NP-E3 Ni-MH batteries), much like how the 3rd party Black Diamond batteries are shipped. In the place of the OEM stickers I will be placing on a printed label that simply reads this "NiMH - FAA/DOT Compliant For Air Travel." This should cut down on the problems you may face flying with batteries as of 1-January-2008."

I would also suggest that you keep your spare batteries separated in small ziplocks, and their terminals (if loose) covered with electrician tape. Then cross your fingers.

Here are the various links (thanks to David for the Flying Fish link):

New York Times' Bits Article

Schneier On Security

Flying With Fish

Year End 2007

Monastery (Bhutan)- © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
The new year promises to be a stellar one! I look forward to be leading two photographic expeditions~workshops in Kashmir (July-August) and Bhutan (October), and to participate in the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico (June). I'm also planning a couple of solo photo trips in March and early winter...and I hope to attend the Angkor Photo festival in Siem Reap whenever it's held. I also have a couple of publishing projects which will come to fruition this year.

This being the last post in 2007, I wish a happy healthy & prosperous 2008 to all The Travel Photographer blog's readers, subscribers and drop-ins. I've received many complimentary emails and messages about this blog over the course of its first year, and I'm immensely gratified that it has contributed something of value to the community of photographers and travelers.

TTP Recap of the Week

For your convenience, here's the past week's (December 23- December 30) most popular posts on TTP:

TTP Photo Of The Year
Bhutan: Photo Expedition
Benazir Bhutto's Assassination

NPPA's Best of Photojournalism 2008

The National Press Photographers Association announced the 2008 Best Of Photojournalism contest rules which have been posted to its Web site. The contest will officially open for entries on January 2, 2008 and the deadline for all divisions is Feb 1st.

This contest is designed by photojournalists for photojournalists, and is a competition in still and television photojournalism, in picture editing, and Web editing. It's in its seventh year and is claimed to be the world's leading digital photojournalism contest.

Best of Photojournalism 2008