One of Top Ten Blogs is TTP!

Tripbase Blog Awards 2009
I checked into Bob Krist's wonderfully informative and entertaining Photo Traveler blog this morning as I do everyday, and to my surprise read that The Travel Photographer was amongst the top ten in the Travel Photography Blog division of the Tripbase.com competition! Actually, The Travel Photographer came in Fourth place. Way to go, me!

Checking the Tripbase website, I read that its Travel award is only given to the blogs that are the top of their respective class and are some of the best in the field. These are selected based on how informative the blog is, the overall writing style, the actual blog appearance and how well that blog performs in its given category when compared and contrasted to other, similar blogs.

Among the top ten travel photography blogs are Chase Jarvis in First Place, My Marrakech in Third, Bob Krist's Photo Traveler, and the beautiful Stuck In Customs.

I'm gratified that The Travel Photographer blog has earned such recognition, and it encourages me to do even better in the weeks, months and years ahead...and Bob, thank you so much for the generous comments.

Gnawa Festival: What Worked/What Didn't

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
To end the recent string of post-expedition navel-gazings, here's what I think worked and didn't in terms of gear during the Gnawa Festival photo-expedition. As readers of this blog know, I opted for a minimalist equipment load, and stuffed my Domke F-3X with the following:

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II
* Canon G10
* Canon 17-40mm f4.0
* Canon 28-70mm f 2.8
* Canon 24mm f1.4
* Marantz PMD 620 Audio Recorder
* Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Mini Laptop (w/LR2 and SoundSlides)
* A 250gb G-Tech Mini G-Drive External Hard Drive

I used my 5D Mark II fitted with the Canon 28-70mm f2.8 about 70% of the time, the 70-200 f2.8 about 20% of the time and the 17-40mm f4.0 the balance. The 24mm f1.4 never left the bag this time. Wherever I went, I felt I needed the flexibility of zooms, and a prime wouldn't be useful in the situations where I photographed. I experienced initial difficulty in focusing on moving subjects, and blamed my 70-200 lens until I realized that I hadn't turned on my camera's AI Servo AF mode!

I have to say that my beloved 70-200 f2.8 is on its last legs. I guess it dropped too many times in Orissa, on Angkor Wat's stone slabs, in Bali's rice paddies and elsewhere. It now wobbles and rattles and, while it still works, it also earned a well deserved retirement...maybe as door stop.

My experience with the G10 was an unhappy one, and I left it aside after a few tries. I had high hopes that it would be a perfect street camera for the alleys of the medinas, but it frustrated me and I gave up after a while. Larry Larsen, a member of the photo-expedition, used his as a point & shoot and seemed reasonably content with its images. Perhaps he managed his expectations better than I did. I have no doubt that in the right hands and used in the appropriate conditions, it's a fine little point & shoot. However, in my case I expected something more...but I didn't have the time nor patience to work at it.

I thought the PMD 620 recorder performed quite well in the rather extreme situations I put it through. Since most of the Gnawa performances were held in small zaouias, the din of the iron querqab (castanets) used by the Gnawa caused significant distortion in the recordings. Moving around to better positions was impractical, so I had to choose a spot where to stand or sit, record and photograph...not exactly an easy thing to do. I tried using Audacity's filters, but the distortion on some of the sound tracks is still too harsh. As one expert told me when I complained, distortion happens and we have to live with it (or not) sometimes.

Both the Acer and the G-Tech Mini G-Drive performed flawlessly. No complaints there.

POV: Afghanistan's "Holy" War?

Photo © Joe Raedle/Getty Images -All Rights Reserved

The Denver Post's Captured Photo Collection has featured a bunch of photographs led by the above image of a U.S. Marine of the 2nd Marine Exhibitionary Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines holding a bible during a Protestant church service on June 28, 2009 in Delaram, Afghanistan.

The rest of the photographs are of U.S. Marines in action.

I never quite understood (and never will) why similar photographs have appeared, and continue to appear, in the media. Is there a link between Christianity and our war machinery? Is it a conscious effort by myopic news editors to paint our wars as Crusades... sanctioned and even blessed by a Christian faith?? Is it to justify the inevitable loss of life, and give those who kill for our "freedoms" some sort of religious cover? Isn't that what religious extremists do? Haven't we had enough of this neo-conservative perfidious and hypocritical jingoistic claptrap of the past 8 years?

My antipathy at this rubbish dates back to the early days of this blog, when I wrote a short post titled Crusades.

But no one addresses it better than photojournalist Asim Rafiqui in his The Spinning Head blog, and I urge everyone to read his latest post on this and other issues.

He titled it Fighting Ghosts And Selling The Good War Or Why Are The Toy Soldiers On The Front Lines!, and it's his incisive opinion on the selling of war in our main newspapers. Here's a paragraph from Asim's blog post:

"The glory of war is being sold on the front pages of our newspapers, none of which have the courage to ask what they know is in fact a fake war, aimed at a poor and defenseless people, fueled by the ‘intelligence’ and advice of a group of venal, corrupt, blood thirsty and power hungry clique of Afghani warlords, drug barons and oil hucksters!"

And a thought-provoking quote from Chris Hedges, also from Asim's post:

"The vanquished know the essence of war—death. They grasp that war is necrophilia. They see that war is a state of almost pure sin with its goals of hatred and destruction. They know how war fosters alienation, leads inevitably to nihilism, and is a turning away from the sanctity and preservation of life."

Sanctity and preservation of life. These words meant nothing to the Crusaders. They're often bandied about, but still seem to be meaningless.

Li Lu-Porter: Gnawa Photo~Expedition

Photo © Li Lu-Porter -All Rights Reserved
Photo © Li Lu-Porter -All Rights Reserved
Photo © Li Lu-Porter -All Rights Reserved
I organized the Gnawa (or Ganoua) Photo Expedition in late June, which was joined by a number of talented full-time and part time photographers, whose principal objective was to photograph the legendary Gnawa musicians during the 12th Essaouira Music Festival.

This is the second of a series of posts which showcase a sample of the participating photographers' work, and is by Li Lu-Porter, a Senior Program Manager with Microsoft in Seattle. While Li frequently travels the world on business and pleasure, including to South Africa on a learning tour for a NGO, this was her first photographic trip. As demonstrated by her photographs, she is passionately embracing photography. She uses a Canon 30D with EF 28-135 IS lens.

One of the highlights of the expedition was attending the various "lilas" (nightly performances) at the zaouia of Sidi Billal, and participate in the clapping and even dancing. During one of the performances, Li and I were told that if we continued to photograph, our cameras would be "confiscated" by an administrator since we had no press passes. Taking umbrage at the rather harsh tone, we opted to leave (after getting our money back), and headed for the concerts in Bab Marrakesh...a more than adequate consolation prize!

Sandra Chandler: Gnawa Photo Expedition

Photo © Sandra Chandler -All Rights Reserved
Photo © Sandra Chandler -All Rights Reserved
Photo © Sandra Chandler -All Rights Reserved
I organized the Gnawa (or Ganoua) Photo Expedition in late June, which was joined by a number of talented full-time and part time photographers, whose principal objective was to photograph the legendary Gnawa musicians during the 12th Essaouira Music Festival.

This is the first of a series of posts which showcase a sample of the participating photographers' work, and is by Sandra Chandler, a photographer and interior designer from San Francisco. Sandy uses a Nikon D300 usually fitted with a 24-70mm 2.8 lens.

Despite the difficulty of street photography in Morocco, I'm glad that Sandy managed to capture wonderful human expressions in one of the above photograph. She is drawn to world travel because of the the cornucopia of colors, smells and sounds, and I think these requirements were more than met in Morocco.

Sandy recently published a wonderful book ‘Carnevale, Fantasy of Venice' of her beautiful photographs of Venice and its magical Carnevale, and I sense she may well follow suit with a book on Morocco. We'll have to wait and see.

Global Post: The Desert Festival

GlobalPost's mission statment is to redefine redefine international news for the digital age and states that it is relying on the enduring values of great journalism: integrity, accuracy, independence and powerful storytelling.

Here's one of its many international articles, which features a movie on the Festival du Desert held every year in Essakane, two hours from Timbuktu in Mali.

Peter DiCampo takes us there with his filming and his article, in which he writes:

"The Desert Festival is billed as one of West Africa’s greatest cultural events, featuring the haunting chants of Tuareg music wafting across the dunes in a remote spot near Timbuktu."

Editor & Publisher Magazine: Photo Contest

Editor & Publisher Magazine, in association with Photo District News and IPNStock.com, is now accepting entries for the 10th Annual News Photos of the Year Contest.

The grand prize winner gets $1,000, and other prizes include one-year subscriptions to PhotoServe.com, an $800 value. Winning entries appear in E&P's November issue and/or a special online gallery.

The deadline for entries is Sept. 14, 2009.

Lat year's Grand Prize winner was Shiho Fukada, a personal favorite photographer of mine, for her coverage of the Juyuan Middle School that collapsed during the earthquake in Sichuan province.

As in all and every photography contests, I strongly encourage all interested photographers to make sure they carefully read the contests' terms and conditions, especially since misunderstandings between organizers and contestants over terms, prizes and other issues sometimes occur.

WSJ: Dalai Lama's Birthday

Photo © Saurabh Das/AP -All Rights Reserved
Another photograph from the must-see WSJ Photo Journal, in which performers wearing traditional ornaments waited to greet the Dalai Lama at a meeting held to celebrate his birthday in New Delhi earlier this week.

The Dalai Lama turned 74, remarking lightheartedly that the prayers being said for him by his followers might help him live at least 100 year. The photograph is by Saurabh Das.

Wendy Connett: Images of the World

I "meet" Wendy Connett daily through her interesting and entertaining Escape From New York blog which is on my Google Reader whatsit. Although she lives in New York City, her website also tells us that she considers the UK and India as her second homes....and I thought I was the only one who felt that way!

Wendy is a journalist and photographer, who travels the world to photograph its people, its places and its unique celebrations. Her photographs are licensed around the globe for commercial and editorial use, and are published in over 25 countries. Her work appears on a regular basis in magazines, newspapers, brochures, textbooks and travel guidebooks. Travel & Leisure, The Guardian, The Times, Rough Guides, Fodor's, Frommers are some of the publications where to see her work.

She has just announced a major redesign of her website Wendy Connett Travel Photography, which I urge you to visit. Her opening images of her Morocco portfolio are of Essaouira famous blue fishing boats. This a favorite spot for photographers to capture the very essence of Essaouira which, despite its recent fame as a tourist destination, is still a fishing village. In fact, for fans of grilled sardines, drop by Chez Sam, a lovely restaurant a few steps further into the harbor area.

Lens Culture: Munem Wasif

Photo © Munem Wasif -All Rights Reserved
Munem Wasif is a Bangladeshi documentary photographer, who started his photographic career as a feature photographer for the Daily Star, a leading English daily of Bangladesh. In 2007, he was selected for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in the Netherlands, and subsequently won International Award "F25" of the Fabrica and "City of Perpignan Young Reporter’s Award". His work is exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, at the International Photography Biennial of the Islamic World in Iran, at Fotofreo, the festival of photography in Australia and at Visa Pour l’Image in Perpignan. He is represented through Agency VU in Paris.

The superb Lens Culture blog brings us exclusive audio interviews with Munem, who spoke of the ecological and personal disasters in Bangladesh caused by a vast influx of shrimp farming.

Another interview with Munem appeared on TTP here.

via The Click

Gnawa Festival: Afoxé Loni

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
One of the highlights of the Gnawa Festival was to be able to photograph three of the famed Afoxé Loni dance troupe during their rehearsal at the Lalla Riad in the medina of Essaouira. Afoxé Loni is considered to be one of the most beautiful and musically sophisticated Blocos of Berlin’s “Carnival of World Cultures”, and its history is closely tied to that of the carnival’s.

Amongst the three dancers was one of Afoxé Loni's founder, Murah Soares who is considered to be one of the greatest talents of Afro-Brazilian dance in Germany. Unfortunately, I didn't get the names of the remaining two phenomenal female dancers.

What I didn't know is that in Bahia, Afoxé processions are closely tied to the Candomblé religion; their purpose is to ritually purify the streets and calm down latent violence before the actual carnival parade. Here in Essaouira, the trio rehearsed with the virtuoso Gnawa Maalem Mahmoud Guinea, and produced a fusion of frenetic Brazilian and Gnawa music.

My Work: Marrakech's Streets

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
I deem this typical street scene to be a decisive moment kind of photograph. I thought that Hassan, the Berber storekeeper, was about to get the playing children's bicycle wheel in the shins, but it missed him by a whisker. One of the very few that I met in the medina who was relatively amenable to being photographed, Hassan's dry wit and no-nonsense approach to life, along with eyes rimmed with kohl, and a couple of missing teeth, brings quite a number of buyers to his souvenir shop.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
Here's a juxtaposition of traditional and antique mirrors for sale in the medina. Larry Larsen, one of the photo~expedition's members, wearing his Panama hat is visible in the mirror on the top right.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved
Here's a street life photograph, in which the store keeper is asleep next to his wares. Not an unusal sight in the labyrinthine alleys of the medina, where stores are open till very late at night.

I recall a scene, which I haven't dared photograph, of four or five of men, who in a deferential nod to the police, were seated in a side alley smoking kif, otherwise known as cannabis or hashish frequently smoked in the Maghreb. I spent a few minutes discussing soccer with them, and while one was seriously stoned, the others were lucid, friendly and unconcerned. It seems that kif is viewed as a recreational substance among some in Moroccan society.

The bottom line is that photographing people and street scenes in Morocco is extremely difficult. One can either photograph from the hip, or surreptitiously and very quickly. The usual street photography techniques also apply. One has to be infinitely patient, try to blend in (or at least wait until people get tired of you) and have a sense of humor. Finally having a lot of dirham coins helps if caught.

I normally carry my main camera using a Black-Rapid strap which, in the Moroccan streets, hasn't work well for me. Whipping the camera up to my face is as noticeable (and possibly threatening) as Clint Eastwood flipping his poncho and revealing his .44 caliber six-shooter in The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. Dangling it tourist-like from my chest wasn't an option, so I resorted to carrying it in my right hand secured by small strap. It wasn't too comfortable but it sure beat the alternatives.

Parangtritis Yogyakarta

Kintamani Volcano Art Village Tour

First we will stop at Tohpati, the center of Balinese hand weaving and hand made Batik process. Then we will see numerous aspects of Balinese life, such as: Barong and Kris performance, the most famous & colorful dance in Bali which signifies an eternal fight between good and evil spirit at Batubulan, afterwards Gold and Silver works at Celuk, the traditional & modern oil painting at Batuan and the Temple, fine woodcarvings at Mas or Kemenuh. We shall continue directly to Kintamani, a mountain village which lies at 1400 meters above sea level. There is a breathtaking view to the still active Volcano and Lake Batur from this rim edge village and next we stop at Bali Natural Spice. On the way back, we will pass superb views of terraced rice fields in Tegal Lalang.

Kintamani Volcano Art Village Tour

First we will stop at Tohpati, the center of Balinese hand weaving and hand made Batik process. Then we will see numerous aspects of Balinese life, such as: Barong and Kris performance, the most famous & colorful dance in Bali which signifies an eternal fight between good and evil spirit at Batubulan, afterwards Gold and Silver works at Celuk, the traditional & modern oil painting at Batuan and the Temple, fine woodcarvings at Mas or Kemenuh. We shall continue directly to Kintamani, a mountain village which lies at 1400 meters above sea level. There is a breathtaking view to the still active Volcano and Lake Batur from this rim edge village and next we stop at Bali Natural Spice. On the way back, we will pass superb views of terraced rice fields in Tegal Lalang.

Carsten Bockermann: India's Ambassador

I expect that the seasoned India travelers bemoan the slow reduction of the beloved Ambassador cars on the country's roads. It's manufactured by Hindustan Motors and in production since 1957. It's based on the Morris Oxford III model first made by the Morris Motor Company in the United Kingdom from 1956 to 1959.

I recall my first road trips in India were in a pristine (and many times, in less so) white Ambassador, with its seats covered with white cotton sheets and a wheezing air-conditioning that spewed tepid breeze, if at all. The drivers were frequently dressed in starched white shirts and white trousers. These days, the vehicles that drive me about are Japanese models, bland and bearing weird model names.

No doubt Carsten Bockermann felt the same way, since he now produced an ode to the Ambassador in his Moving India; a slideshow documenting the Ambassador's assembly line at the Hindustan Motors factory at Uttarpara in the state of West Bengal.

Carsten Bockermann is a German photographer who specializes in photographing everyday life in different cultures around the world using a combination of direct reportage and visually interpretative style. His work appeared on The Travel Photographer blog here.