Ashura: Photos In "The Big Ones"

Photo © REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (Courtesy Reuters Photo Blog)

Photographs of the Day of Ashura are carried by a number of the newspaper large picture blogs, largely because of its graphic nature, and while I initially thought it might have been because it reinforces the stereotype of Islamic fervor being violent, I've reconsidered and I'm quite certain that this is not the case. I recall seeing lovely peaceful scenes of Muslims celebrating Ramadan on The Big Picture blog.

Photo © Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images (Courtesy WSJ Photo Journal)

Be it what it may, the photographs are graphic because the acts of self mortification and flagellation carried out by the Shias are just that...extremely graphic. Flagellation is not at all exclusive to Shia Islam, but is also practiced by certain elements of the Christian faith.

Photo © REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho (Courtesy Reuters Photo Blog)

The Day of Ashura falls on the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram and for the Shias, commemorates a day of mourning for the death of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battle of Karbala.  Shias consider Hussein the third Imam and the rightful successor to Muhammad, and the grief for his death is demonstrated by the self-flagellation in parades and other venues.

Photo © Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters (Courtesy WSJ Photo Blog)

For Sunni Muslims, Ashura is observed by fasting as the Prophet Muhammad did, to commemorate the day when Moses and his followers were saved from Pharaoh by God by creating a path in the Red Sea. Surprising, huh?

The top photograph is of a girl with a green headband with the words "Hussein" as she attends the Ashura religious festival in Khorramabad, southwest of Tehran.

The second photograph is of a Shia devotee in New Delhi beating his bloodied chest as part of the ten-day mourning period marking the death of Imam Hussein. 

The third photograph is of a Lebanese Shia whose shaven head bleeds after tapping his forehead with a razor during the Ashura ceremony in Nabatiyeh.

The fourth and last photograph is a Shia walking on hot coals during a Ashura ceremony at a mosque in Yangon, Myanmar.

I ought to plan attending Ashura to photograph its ceremonies...it would be fascinating. Yes, bloody and graphic...but I'd attend it given half the chance. I came close years ago to do so when working in Bahrain, but I was advised not to attend it with a camera. Different times, I suppose.

New Website: The Travel Photographer

As announced in my Next Week In The Travel Photographer post, I've completed (well, almost) the face-lifting, liposuctioning and tightening of my website, and it's now ready to brave the outside world. It's based on a WordPress blogging theme which I deem to be just right for my style of gallery categorization.

The 18 galleries are categorized as in photo essays, and each has a thumbnail with a short description. It makes sense, it's easy to navigate and is simple and intuitive.

One caveat: The Photo Expeditions link is intentionally not working...and that's because I have yet to announce the details of my next one in October 2011...so be patient. It'll be announced in a few days.

Here's the current link.

And it's iPad-friendly as well...by the way, iPad's Mobile Safari can't manage a HTML file with more than about 6MB of images on it, so I had to take this into consideration when building this portal. The individual galleries are iPad-readable but not all images will download on Mobile Safari...this will be fixed either by using a work-around trick, or just reducing the resolution of the images.

National Geographic Photo Contest 2010

Photo © Chan Kwok Hung- Courtesy National Geographic

The National Geographic 2010 Photo Contest winners were announced. More than 16,000 photographs were submitted from around the globe, and 3 earned top honors in the people, places, and nature categories.

The winner in the People category is photographer Chan Kwok Hung of Hong Kong, who captured the photograph of an Indonesian farmer and his buffalo charging through the mud in a buffalo race called "makepung".

I also liked the photograph of a Xhosa boy crying during a circumcision ceremony by Robin Utrecht which garnered the Honorable Mention in the People category.

Samih Güven: India & More

Photo © Samih Güven-All Rights Reserved

Samih Güven is a Turkish photographer currently residing in Paris. Despite degrees in political sciences and Turkish language/Oriental civilizations, he practiced photography for over 20 years. His recent voyage to Asia is encouraging him to become a professional photographer, and to take up formal training in photojournalism.

He is also a founder member of a French collective called Phrawup.

Take a look at his India color portfolio from which the above photograph is taken, as well as those of Burma, China and Nepal to name but a few. His galleries are both in color, and black & white.

Best Indian Beach Travel

Basically you have two choices in the best of Goa and Kerala, if you're looking for the best beach vacation spot in India. It also depends entirely on what kind of person you are and what kind of environment is suitable for you.

May First, if we talk about Goa beach holidays, tourist, who really want to have fun through play and enjoy a good atmosphere, go to the beaches of Goa. On the coast of Goa, you can enjoy everything you want in a perfect getaway. You can drink different kinds of cocktails and mock tails, you can swim whenever you want and also you can celebrate with family and friends. We can say that the beaches of Goa are very similar to Miami Beach vacation and to tour the Caribbean. People who want to go somewhere quiet and can hang out on the beach at Goa's famous beaches.

If we talk about the beaches of Kerala, the coast has a higher class crowd of visitors and also less crowded. There are beautiful beaches and lots of awesome on the west coast of Kerala with white sand. Beaches in Kerala is very soothing and relaxing, you can swim there and drink the good part is not permitted on the beach. Ayurvedic massage treatments are also provided by some of the beaches in Kerala. You'll find solitude and beauty on the coast of Kerala addition, food, arts and culture can also be enjoyed.

Vincent Prévost: West Papua

Photo © Vincent Prévost-All Rights Reserved

 I occasionally receive emails from photographers such as the one from Vincent Prévost that make the work of maintaining The Travel Photographer blog feel really worthwhile.

Vincent tells me he's been a regular reader of The Travel Photographer blog for about 2 years, and that it has been a source of inspiration to him. He cites my two posts on Grenville Charles and Diego Verges, who documented tribes of West Papua,  as triggering his own photo expedition "Highlands Encounters" to this remote part of the world.

That's what this blog is all about...to inspire photographers to explore other unfamiliar areas, to try new techniques and to document endangered cultures.

He has been teaching French in South Korea since 2002 and is also a freelance editorial photographer who fuses fine art and journalism. While most of his work is in color, he also enjoys black & white photography, and travels with compact audio equipment to add a further dimension to his visual work.

West Papua is an Indonesian province that borders the independent nation of Papua New Guinea and forms the western half of the world's second largest island. The indigenous people of West Papua are of the same ethnic origin as those in the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. Ethnically and culturally, they are also related to other Melanesian peoples of the Pacific.

Tatiana Cardeal: Ancient China

Photo © Tatiana Cardeal-All Rights Reserved

Tatiana Cardeal is a photographer, a visual artist (and a dreamer). She's a Brazilian independent photographer based in Sao Paulo, who spent her early career as an art director and graphic designer for international magazines. In 2003, she shifted her focus to photography and started to document social, cultural and human right issues where she made her mark.

Her particular interest is in South American indigenous people, but she just featured really terrific photographs of China in this portfolio which she titled Ancient China. I suspect that it's brand new as some of its captions are yet incomplete.

Clients and publications of her images include work with Amnesty International, Childhood Foundation, OXFAM International, Fundación AVINA, The UN Institute for Disarmament Research, Forum Syd, World Pulse and the medias The Independent, WOZ newspaper, National Geographic Channel, Deutsche Welle, and the magazines The New Internationalist, Courrier International, Max, Plenty, Tomorrow, Oryx In-Flight, AFAR, WIENERIN, Annabelle,The Big Issue and YES!

Travel : The Beauty of Nature in Saxmundham

Saxmundham is located in Suffolk. This is a small market town in the valley of the River Fromus. The name actually comes straight from the Saxon meaning Seizmond's Home. The right to a market town in 1272 and the market is still taking place today.

This city is a great place to see the legacy layer Suffolk. All within an hour drive you can find many historical sites, heritage coast, coastal cities and regions or exceptional beauty. One of the main attractions in the area of the Sutton Hoo burial ship opened to the public in 2002. This site contains a wealth Sutton Hoo burial ship in a cemetery.

Dunwich Heath is an excellent example Sandlings Heath and is one of the most important natural area conservation in the region. You can access the nearby bird reserves, Minsmere. Dunwich Village is also worth a visit as it contains the ruins of Greyfriars House, leprosy's Chapel, a museum and the Ship Inn.

Oxford Ness National Nature Reserve contains a variety of different habitats including salt lagoon, salt marsh, grazing marsh, gravel and mud flats. It is true that the largest shingle spit of vegetation found in Europe. From 1913-1985 this area was part of a secret military site that was seeking atomic weapons.

There are many wildlife and conservation tracks that lead you through some beautiful natural areas. There are more than 70 different reserves to be explored in Suffolk alone. Reserve closest to Saxmundham Sizewell Belts, Dingle marshes, swamps Marsham, Blaxhall Heath Hazlewood Marshes and Estuary.

This site Long Shop Museum Long Shop, built in 1852. This one is one of the first line of steam production machines in the UK. Barham Museum Airport control tower in the Second World War that displays information and history about the bombing 390. It is also home to fight the Institute of British Museum.

The BBC Celebrates Sir Wilfred Thesiger

Wilfred Thesiger in Ethiopia 1934 (Courtesy The BBC)

For historical buffs and admirers of adventurers/explorers, here's a BBC feature that will please you.

Sir Wilfred Thesiger took nearly 40,000 photographs during his eight decades of travels throughout Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The BBC, in commemoration of his centenary of his birth, has featured an audio slideshow of his photographs.

Thesiger is best known for two travel books. Arabian Sands (1959) narrates his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins, while he Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. 

From an article 'Gentleman Thrillseeker 'in the Independent newspaper:

Since 1930 Thesiger had documented his journeys in photographs, diaries, and letters to his family. Many of his finest photographs were taken, after 1945, in Arabia and Iraq; he took thousands more, just as fine, in the mountains of Asia, Morocco, Kenya and Tanzania. Thesiger's photographs have long been regarded as works of art in their own right; they also preserve a unique and imperishable record of vanishing tribal societies.

Thesiger was an intriguing man...to say the least. There are plenty of articles and opinions pieces about him and his life.

The Big Picture Blog: Best of 2010

Photo © Goran Tomasevic (Reuters)

Boston Globe's The Big Picture Blog is featuring the first part of three sets of photographs, which define 2010. The first set consists of 40 photographs...with some gems from Emilio Morenatti, Finbarr O'Reilly, while this one from Reuters' Goran Tomasevic is probably my favorite so far.

It shows U.S. Marines from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, protecting an Afghan and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province on February 13, 2010.

Wonderful Scenery of Colurful Sea at Koh Lipe, Satun

Hi friends,

Today i'm gonna tell you about my latest trip to Koh Lipe in Satun province. Satun is the province in the southern region of Thailand as Satun has many fantastic island for travellers to discover including Koh Tarutal and Koh Lipe.

In order to visit Koh Lipe, you must hire for the speed boad at Pak Bara Pier in Satun but please remember that the speed boat will depart from Pak Bara Pier to Koh Lipe at 11.30 and 13.30 daily.

The distance from Satun to Ko Lipe is approximately 2 hours and then, you will arrive at “Pattaya Beach” which is deemed to be the capital of this island. At this point, you will be transfer to the long tail boat or the taxi boat which will take you to any beach in this island at the same price of 50 baht per person. For me, i booked the hotel named “Mountain Resort”situated at the sunset beach which is only 10 minutes from Pattaya Beach

When i arrived at Mountain Resort, i really love it and think that "This Place is really Great"because of its own privacy fantastic seaside together with incredible colorful sea generating wonderful scenery (as you can see from the image). At present (December 2010), the rate for VIP room is 2,200 baht per night and 1600 baht for general room which, in my opinion, is really cheap if compared to other resorts and hotels. As mentioned its name, Mountain Resort situated in the hill where you can discover dramatic scenery of colorful sea from your room, furthermore, this resort is located in the hill, so, it will be safe for the risk of disaster Tsunami Wave as well.

After checking in, i'm enjoy swimming in the emerald sea at the private beach of this hotels which make me feel really comfortable and relax.

Sam Chadwick: Cuba & More

Photo © Sam Chadwick-All Rights Reserved

Sam Chadwick is a travel photographer and a Hell's Kitchen (NYC) resident where he works on a variety of photographic projects and planning his next photographic travels.

He started photography as a main means of documenting his 5-day ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. Since then, he traveled to over 50 countries, creating a large collection of images of people, cultures and environments. In 2007, he reached the semi-finals of the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and his images have appeared on Reuters.

You can see his many galleries on his website, from Guatemala, Belize, Nepal, Costa Rica, East Africa and my favorite Cuba.

Update on the Fujifilm Finepix X100 Rangefinder

WIRED's Gadget Lab has blogged on Fujifilm's new details of its forthcoming X100, which looks like an old-style 35mm rangefinder but is really a hybrid because it sports a mix of an optical and electronic viewfinder.

For those who haven't seen my earlier blog post on this hot baby, it's a camera I want ....and it's a real shame that it's not available in retail stores until March 2011. What's the payback for having been really good all year if Santa can only deliver this in March or later???

In any event, the X100 has a 12.3MP APS-C sensor, and a non-removable 23mm (35mm equivalent) ƒ2 lens.  It has manual focus (contradicting one of my discussions with a fellow photographer a few days ago), and will cost about $1000.

WIRED seems to think that the fixed lens might be a drawback when compared to Micro Four Thirds cameras...I dont know. I have the Panasonic GF1 with the sweet 20mm f1.7mm lens, and I haven't felt the need to have another focal length when I use it.

Jeroens Toirkens: Nomads

Photo © Jeroens Toirlens-All Rights Reserved

 Jeroen Toirkens is a Dutch freelance photographer who studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. His work mainly consists documentary photography for various clients like NGO’s and governmental institutions in health care and infrastructure. but he also initiated a project called Nomadslife, in which he documents the life of nomadic peoples on the Northern Hemisphere.

His website features a number of galleries of nomads in Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Finland, Russia, Mongolia, Morocco and Greenland. These small nomadic cultures have unfamiliar names such as the Dukha,  Khalkh, Yoruk, Altai and Nenets while others such as the Inuits, Berbers, Kazakh and Sami are better known.

I liked the photographs of the Dukha, a small culture of reindeer herders living in northern Mongolia. Only 44 Dukha families remain, totaling somewhere between 200 and 400 people. They ride, breed, milk, and live off reindeer. Their way of life is endangered and they survive largely by selling their crafts to tourists and riding their domesticated reindeer.

Trances At Sufi Shrine (Denver Post's PBlog)

Photo © Manan Vatsyayana (AFP/Getty)

The Denver Post's Photo Blog of the week 12.10.2010 features an interesting photograph by Manan Vatsyayana (AFP/Getty) of an Indian devotee seemingly going into a trance to rid herself of evil spirits. This happened earlier this month at the Hazrat Shah Dana Wali Dargah in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. It's north of Lucknow and about 200 miles from Delhi. Thousand of devotees from all religions visit the 650-year old shrine of Sufi saint each Thursday to seek blessings for their family and ward off evil spirits.

This is topical as I shall soon be traveling to Gujarat to lead In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™, during which our small group will photograph at various Sufi shrines in the area, and where trances and exorcisms frequently take place.

While I've seen devotees exhibit mild trances especially during qawalli performances at the shrine of Nizzam Uddin in Delhi, I also witnessed extreme displays of religious trances in Varanasi, the quintessential Hindu religious city. I spent a couple of days photographing at the dargah of the Sufi saint Bahadur Shahid, where trances and loss of consciousness by devotees were the norm. Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims mingled and sought blessings from this Muslim saint, and some of them went into intense trances. I got the lead to the venue from a NY Times article.

To see more of these practices, here's an audio slideshow I produced and a stills gallery of my photographs at Bahadur Shahid.

Packing For a Vacation

While many of us love to travel, we hate packing. Packing for a vacation can be a nightmare! We want to take away everything that might be necessary, but there's no way we have room to stuff a lot. And the purpose of vacation is to escape from everyday life there, pack it along to accompany you!

From our almost always forget some important things we need, but that's how to walk. It's easier if we make a list of important things for us; need. Clothing of the most basic of our needs and should be chosen based on the climate where we visit. One suggestion is to pack dark clothes. Dark clothes do not show stains and wrinkles as much. Shoes can be difficult to maintain because of the size and weight, so another good tip is to wear your bulkiest pair of shoes and a lighter package.

You also have to take a trip the alarm if you do not have the functionality of the phone or watch. Depending on your goals, medications should be. Include basics such as antiseptic cream and aspirin. Instead of carrying aerosol shaving foam, you can buy a solid shaving soap. You store all toiletries in a waterproof bag in one case of bottle leakage. Always carry two credit cards in case if there are missing or blocked, make sure you store it separately.

The most important thing that must be taken in the details, insurance policy e-mail address and contact number families, jobs, medical specialist in an emergency or change of plans.

Next Week on The Travel Photographer

What's on tap for the week starting Monday, December 13? Well, let's see....

1. The work of a Spanish photographer/photojournalist with an affinity for the Silk Road.
2. The diverse portfolio of a travel photographer...large images! I planned that one for last week.
4. The documentary work of a Dutch photographer featuring nomads to include those of  Mongolia.
5. The travel portfolios of a Turkish photographer of East Asia et al.

I'm working on a face-lift to my website (but not the blog)...it's being botoxed, liposucked, pulled, implants done, plucked and waxed...and may be announced at the end of the week....in time for the Xmas parties.

Details of my forthcoming photo~expedition may also be ready at some point this week...we'll see but what I can say is that it'll be in October 2011.

Plus the usual "shooting from the hip" posts and maybe, if the mood strikes, a timely rant.