Janet Jarman: Mexico

Photo ©Janet Jarman-All Rights Reserved
Janet Jarman is a freelance photographer and a multimedia storyteller currently based in Mexico. She has worked extensively in Latin America and Asia, and produces a number of documentary projects which explore immigration issues, globalization and sustainable development.

Janet's photographs and essays appeared in The New York Times, Geo, The Smithsonian Magazine, Times Asia, Fortune National Geographic Traveler and other publications, and her work received awards in POYi, PDN's Photography Annual and Best of Journalism.

I chose an image from Janet's Mexico Traditions' gallery for this post, but I also recommend you visit her multimedia projects, especially The Chichimeca Story...not only a very well produced multimedia story, but a worthwhile social project in northern Mexico.

Rant: Canon 5D Mark II & Battery

I haven't ranted for quite a while. No, correct that...I haven't ranted about a photography matter for quite a while. I've ranted about lots of stuff on this blog and even more off this blog....so it's time for a nice rant about Canon and its marketing wisdom.

If I recall correctly, the Canon let it be known that its 5D Mark II would be available at major photo retailers by the end of November 2009, in time for the holiday season. Now we know that Canon dropped the ball on that one, with the 5D Mark II still unavailable at B&H (although it's currently taking pre-orders according to 1001 Noisy Cameras), Crutchfield is out of stock, while Amazon has one for sale but at a premium.

Most of us have an innate fear of scarcity. The prospect of product being unavailable when we want (or need) it is a powerful marketing tool which spurs consumers to research where the product is available, and purchase. I believe this is what Canon is doing.

I was extremely lucky in having found one when I visited B&H and just asked the salesclerk for one. So here's what I think: Canon makes this camera available to retailers slowly and selectively. The more there's a perceived scarcity for this product, the more buzz there is (like this post)..the more buzz the more publicity. Am I hearing justified complaints that this strategy is disrespectful to its customer base? The answer is yes. Am I hearing that Canon through this strategy is, as one of my friends recently wrote me, helping non-mainstream retails stores to really soak us? The answer is also yes.

Now to top off the rant, let me mention the battery: the LP-E6 Rechargeable Lithium-Ion for the Canon 5D Mark II is also on back-order (the favored euphemism for not available) at mainstream retail stores...however may be occasionally found at other stores for a hefty premium. Another soaking.

Two days ago I ordered two spare batteries from a non mainstream online store, and I'm still waiting a confirmation of my order...

UPDATE (February 3): Having seen that the batteries were listed as back-ordered on the online store Digital Foto Club, I called to inquire as to the status of my order. Steve, the employee who took my call, told me they had received Canon shipments the day before but he would check and let me know if it included the batteries. A short time later, Steve did call to say the batteries were not expected soon and that he'd go ahead and cancel my order through Buy.com (which was confirmed).

I think that's excellent service from Digital Foto Club...honest and straight forward.

Chobi Mela V: Photo Festival

Chobi Mela V is in full swing in Dhaka, with over sixty exhibitions, thirty-five participating nations, well over a thousand images, and over fifty visiting artists from Asia alone. There are live broadcast of important events, especially the video conference between Mahasweta Devi, Noam Chomsky and Stuart Hall, as they provide their take on 'Freedom'.

According to founder Shahidul Alam, mobile exhibitions, now a trademark of the festival, 10 rickshaw vans driving through the streets of Dhaka, will move the festival away from galleries to the more public spaces of football fields and open air markets.

Chinese New Year

Photo ©REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad-All Rights Reserved
I've been remiss in acknowledging the Chinese Lunar New Year which was just heralded a few days ago, and which is being observed by ethnic Chinese and others around the world...so Gong Xi Fa Cai!

The above photograph is courtesy The Big Picture blog of The Boston Globe, and is of a Chinese man reciting prayers at a temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2009

I've posted about the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2009 before, and it continues to progress very nicely. If you're passionate about photojournalism, this workshop offers a unique opportunity to access extremely interesting classes. The workshop's costs is kept as low as possible and the instructors provide their services for free.

Some of the instructors are Michael Robinson-Chavez, Andrea Bruce, Tewfic El-Sawy, Adriana Zehbrauskas, Ben Rusnak, Ami Vitale, Poul Madsen, Henrik Kastenskov, Eros Hoagland...

My class synopsis is as follows:

Introduction to Multimedia Storytelling

"Tewfic El-Sawy will teach a multimedia class that allows its participants to concentrate on the story, rather than on the application. The purpose and aim of the class is to show photojournalists how to make quick work of slide show production, using their own images and audio generated in the field, to produce a cogent photo story under the simulation of publishing deadlines. Most of the class’s time will be spent photographing in the field, while indoors time will be devoted to weaving the material into photo stories.

This class will require will use Soundslides software, and either Audacity or GarageBand for audio. Participants will need to have Digital Audio Recorders (such as the Zoom H2).

Here’s a sample of a SoundSlides produced by Mike Hutmacher (who attended Tewfic’s class during the Mexico City Foundry Workshop) for The Wichita Eagle newspaper".

Sergio Pitamitz: Travel Photographer

Photo ©Sergio Pitamitz -All Rights Reserved
Sergio Pitamitz is an Italian travel and wildlife photographer, currently based in Varese, Italy where he works as staff photographer at Latitudes Magazine, and is represented by Corbis and Getty.

Sergio, at that time represented by SIPA Press, was the first Western photographer to gain permission from the Iranian government to photograph in Shiraz, the lost city of Bam and Persepolis. His wildlife photographs have been awarded semi-finalist recognition at the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008.

His images have been published in Le Figaro Magazine, Newsweek, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel & Leisure, Geo and various publications of the National Geographic Society.

His website is categorized in themes not in countries, but I chose this image of a couple in Buenos Aires dancing the tango as one of the most striking.

Asim Rafiqui: The Idea of India

Photo ©Asim Rafiqui -All Rights Reserved
Asim Rafiqui, a US photographer currently based in Sweden, was recently awarded a grant by the Aftermath Project for his project, "The Idea of India: Religious and Cultural Pluralism as Resistance to Sectarian Conflict," an exploration of the aftermath of religious conflict in India through documenting pluralist landscapes, shared sacred sites, shared cultural traditions and efforts at reconciliation within divided communities.

He is now authoring The Idea of India, a fascinating and certainly topical blog documenting his journey through what he calls an alternative India, describing his experiences and thoughts of what he describes as "the complex, pluralist, shared heritage of India’s peoples" through his own brand of photography and intellect. There's no doubt that this is an impressive undertaking both in size and in scope...especially since Asim seeks to also include Pakistan and Bangladesh in his quest to expose the shared heritage of the countries of the sub-continent, as it is sometimes called.

On his blog, Asim writes that this project "...is an attempt to give complete expression to a way of working I have always coveted - a union of photographic and intellectual pursuits, each inspiring the other and each being executed without concern for rules, conventions, deadlines, politics and prejudices (other than my own, of course)."

I encourage you to read Asim's blog, reflect on his thoughtful analyzes, enjoy his photographs, bookmark it or subscribe to its RSS .

I anticipate many of us wish him well on this project. I know I do.

One Shot: Eric Lafforgue: Theyyam

Photo ©Eric Lafforgue -All Rights Reserved
This striking portrait is of a Theyyam performer in the Malabar region of Kerala, and is by Eric Lafforgue, a talented travel photographer who lives in Toulouse, France.

In anticipation of my forthcoming Theyyam of Malabar photo-expedition in the same region of India, I approached Eric a few days ago to ask for tips, and it is then I discovered he not only produces striking images but is also generous with his advice.

The Travel Photographer blog has already highlighted Eric's travel photography work here.

How can I complain?

When working in the Tourism sector it is very common to receive oral and written complaints as tourists often complain about some aspects of their holidays. In order to be prepared, let´s have a look at how you can complain in English in an oral or written form and also how you are supposed to answer complaints properly.

Written and Oral Complaints

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: english complaints)

POV: The Shameful War

Photo © Tyler Hicks/NYTimes-All Rights Reserved
My point of view regarding the calamitous massacre of the Palestinian people in Gaza by the Israeli military is supported by a multimedia production by The New York Times titled "A War's Many Angles" with the photographs (and voices) of Tyler Hicks and Moises Saman.

The former documents the devastation and the ruination of Gaza and its inhabitants, while the latter shows us the results of Hamas' rockets on Sederot, and the funerals of a handful of Israeli soldiers (the majority of whom were killed by "friendly" fire).

The New York Times, clearly stung by justified accusations of its consistent bias towards Israel as evidenced by the deluge of comments (many more were censored by its editors) on its website, and by its distasteful track record of obfuscation and semantic games during the past 8 years, has tried to present the two sides of this shameful war. Any fair minded person will conclude very rapidly that the destruction wrought on Gaza was unwarranted, inhumane, a violation of international law and tantamount to ethnic cleansing.

As our newspapers have unfortunately espoused an utter lack of objectivity as to this conflict, I rely on the foreign press to tell me what I deem is close to the truth.

For instance, Dominic Waghorn, a reporter with the UK's SKY television station, writes this in The Independent:

"Gaza is entirely surrounded by a security fence; Israel was able to enforce its ban with ease. It also declared the neighbouring area a closed military zone. Military police repeatedly moved us back from the border; those who flouted the rules were detained. There were only one or two places where we were allowed to film live that had a view of Gaza. We nicknamed one the Hill of Shame, a mound a mile or two outside the northernmost tip of Gaza. On it was camped a circus of news crews more than 100 strong. On weekends, Israeli war tourists – there is no other way to describe them – joined the scene, cheering the large explosions in the distance. I wondered how Israelis would view Palestinians doing the same. And during the week, a constant parade of Israeli experts and officials was on hand to spin the way they wanted us to view the war. "

Israeli "war tourists" cheering the large explosions? I thought it was only Palestinian children who did that when we were attacked on September 11, 2001.