Nicky Loh: Tattoo Girls of Taiwan

Photo © Nicky Loh-All Rights ReservedNicky Loh is a photographer with Reuters working in Taiwan, whose specialty is news, sports and feature photography, who's interested in documenting traditional art forms such as Chinese opera. On his employer's blog, he writes of having had an assignment to cover the 2010 Taiwan International Tattoo Convention in Taipei which, while not...

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Global Post: Turkish Brothels

Photo © Nicholas Dynan-All Rights ReservedOne of my favorite online news provider is Global Post, not only for its cutting edge news reporting and analysis, but also for its frequent "off-the-beaten-path" features such as the one of Turkish transsexual brothels by Nicholas Dynan.It also periodically publishes Full Frame which features photo essays and conversations with photographers...

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My Work: The Salt Maker of Kusamba

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedA few days before the start of the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™ , I drove to the eastern shores of the island to photograph the traditional salt making in Kusamba. I spent a couple of hours with...

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NYT: Pakistan Floods By Tyler Hicks

Photo © Tyler Hicks/NY Times-All Rights ReservedThe catastrophic flooding of the Indus is considered as Pakistan's worst natural calamity, which has ruined almost every infrastructural aspect that connects the country together — roads, bridges, schools, health clinics, electricity and communications. The destruction is also estimated to set Pakistan back decades, will weaken...

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Jon Vidar: The Tiziano Project

The Tiziano Project presents the journalistic efforts and personal accounts of Iraqi citizens living in the Kurdish north, along with stories produced by their professional multimedia journalism mentors.An extremely well-made multimedia project, it includes stories such as those on the Yazidis, nomadic mountain-dwelling Kurds, a pigeon keeper, a muezzin, a klash maker, and...

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Rose Schierl: Bali Island of Odalan

Photo © Rose Schierl-All Rights ReservedHere's the work of Rose Schierl; the second participant of the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™ to send images to post on this blog. Rose has been photographing since 2005, and only gone digital two years ago. She hasn't gone through any formal photographic education per se, but attended various short workshops, and those set...

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New Canon D60

It's all over the blogosphere...Canon announced the EOS 60D, a sort of “replacement” for the 50D. According to the reviews, the 60D body is plastic, and uses SD cards instead of the CF.It's certainly built for video. It has a pop-out, tilt-and-swivel rear screen which, even if it's Canon’s first on an SLR, would just drive me insane. Video can be shot at different sizes and...

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Matt Allard Captures Geishas

Matt Allard is a Team Leader- Cameras for Aljazeera International based out of Kuala Lumpur covering Asia/Pacific and the sub continent, and has produced a movie documenting the changing culture of geishas. Due to the world financial crisis, even well-entrenched traditions have had to adapt in Japan, as elsewhere, and geishas in Kyoto have had to follow suit.Matt used a Canon 7D, 5Dmk2 and 7 lenses to shoot this assignment. The lenses used were a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II, 50mm f1.2, 135mm f2, 24-70mm f2.8, 100mm Macro f2.8, 16-35mm f2.8 and a...

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My Work: Bali Cockfights

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedWe were fortunate to encounter a number of cockfights during the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™.I say fortunate because, while cockfights are gruesome and certainly bloody, they offer glimpses into a tradition practiced on the island (and elsewhere in the world) for ages. All animal rights activists and many other lay people...

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VII's Seamus Murphy: Phoenix Afghanistan

“Photography is part history, part magic.” -Seamus MurphyHere's a multimedia piece published by VII The Magazine with stills and audio by Seamus Murphy titled Phoenix Afghanistan.Seamus began photographing in Afghanistan in 1994, and for two decades, he has worked extensively in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America and most...

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Kim McClellan: Bali Island of Odalan

Photo © Kim McClellan -All Rights ReservedKim McClellan is a third-time repeat participant in my photo~expeditions, having joined Bhutan: Land of Druk Yul Photo~Expedition ™ in October 2009, and the The Tribes of Rajasthan & Gujarat Photo~Expedition ™ in January 2010 before returning with a trove of images from the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™ last week.Photo...

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My Work: Balinese Elder With Dog

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedWhat people may or may not tell you is that some of the best photographs out of the many one makes during a photo trip are serendipitous, and the opportunities to make them occur when one least expects them.Here's one of my favorites so far (and I've only looked at two of my image folders...a mere fraction of the over 10,000 photographs...

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Ian Winstanley: Pashupathi Sadhus

Photo © Ian Winstanley-All Rights ReservedHere's a collection of sadhus' portraits by Ian Winstanley, a commercial photographer based in the UK. Exclusively involved in the advertising and design industries, Ian later also specialized in fine art based work.Photographing in Nepal for a book, Ian spent time on the banks of the Bagmati river in Kathmandu's holy site known as...

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New Handheld Recorder Zoom H1 In Stores

I've previously posted about the ultra-portable and cheap Zoom H1 from Samson Tech, which is a handy portable stereo recorder at an unheard-of $99 price. The manufacturer claims that it will give you 10 hours of battery life on a single AA cell, and can accommodate up to 32GB of removable microSDHC storage. Its microphones are configured in an X/Y pattern for optimum stereo...

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Canon G12

According to WIRED's Gadget Lab, CNET Asia leaked the new Canon G12 pro-compact.It appears that the G12 brings back high-definition video to the table. It will shoot 720p, just like the new Canon S95, which launched yesterday. Some of the specifications are a 10 mp high sensitivity CCD sensor, a 2.8" titlt-swivel LCD and manual exposure function.The lens is a 28-140mm with...

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Ciara Leeming: Not Gypsies...Roma

Photo © Ciara Leeming-All Rights ReservedFrance's current expulsion of illegal Roma with generational roots in Romania and Bulgaria has been labeled by human rights groups as xenophobic, and criticized by President Sarkozy's (whose poll numbers are abysmal) political opponents.So to feature Ciara Leeming's work on the Roma in Istanbul during the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop...

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Diego Vergés: Bali Wedding Ceremony

Photo © Diego Vergés-All Rights ReservedI was glad that Diego Vergés has just sent me some of his work in Indonesia, which includes photographs from a typical Balinese wedding ceremony in his distinctive style. It's opportune as I just returned from Bali myself and also photographed a wedding.According to Diego's diary, he was driving in Randang, not far from Ubud in the east...

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Ramadan: The Month Of Fasting

Photo © Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images-All Rights ReservedThe Islamic month of Ramadan started while I was in Bali, and while the majority of the island's inhabitants follow Hindu traditions, there were indications that its Muslim communities were observing it, especially in areas such as Semarapura.Many of the newspapers' photo-blogs such as the Boston Globe's The Big Picture,...

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TIME: Soldiers' Tattoos In Afghanistan

Photo © Mauricio Lima /AFP/Getty Images-All Rights ReservedIt's really time to leave Afghanistan when magazines start publishing inconsequential and silly photo essays as the one just featured by TIME's website. It's titled Soldiers' Tattoos in Marjah, and is by Mauricio Lima. The photo essay shows about 10 images of US soldiers showing off tattoos of various illustrations,...

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Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition™ 2010: The Verdict

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedSpending more than 16 hours in flights from Denpasar to London, with a 4 hours stop-over through Bangkok, provided more than enough time to draft the verdict on the Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition™ which took place from August 1 to August 15. But first, on the the subject of airports, I can't emphasize enough the enormous disparity...

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Book: The Complete Photographer

I've been advised that The Complete Photographer which is just published by Dorling Kindersley Publishers, and authored by Tom Ang, is now available in bookstores. I mention this, not only because it seems to be very interesting with tutorials on 10 different genres, covering both technical and creative aspects of photography, and helps to master 10 genres of photography,...

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Bali: Fifth Post: Pura Tirta Empul

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedThe Bali Photo-Expedition has officially ended yesterday evening (actually it's Sunday midday as I write this), and I am waiting for my transportation to Denpasar airport to fly to Bangkok and onwards to London.As I sit in the hotel's open-air veranda, I thought of Tirta Empul Temple (Tampak Siring Temple) which is the holiest spring...

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Bali: Fourth Post: Arja Dance

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedYesterday was an exhausting day, with close to 8 hours non-stop photography. We had been invited to a large cremation ceremony which involved 6 individuals, and where we spent the whole morning into the early afternoon. Subsequently, some of us attended a Barong and an Arja dance at the communal temple of Pitra, which extended well...

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Bali: Third Post

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedYesterday morning we photographed virtually non-stop the bustling activities, including animal sacrifice, at the Pura Desa Sapah in Kegalalang. This temple has been holding its odalan festivities for a few days, which culminated in yesterday's main event. The combination of the frenetic activities, the photography and the heat/humidity...

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Bali: Second Post

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedWe attended a large cockfight in the Blahbatuh area, where about 200-300 men (all men) were gesticulating and yelling their bets at the competitors. In essence, cockfighting is illegal in Bali, except in very limited circumstances which I suppose this was one. However, it's my understanding that for this particular event, the police...

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