Travel Online Guide

Monday, March 31, 2008

Karen Huntt: Papua New Guinea

Photograph © Karen Huntt-All Rights ReservedI'm really glad to have found Karen Huntt's website to start off this week! Karen is a freelance photographer and photo editor, who returned from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in 2005. Her experiences and photographs are being incorporated in a book, a documentary film and an exhibit about the project, Headhunt Revisited, due to launch in 2009....

For your convenience, here's the past week's (March 24-30, 2008) most popular posts on TTP: Talking To The Taliban. Nevada Wier's Blog: A ThoughtSunday Rant: The Selfish Photograp...

Dith Pran

The New York Times reports that Dith Pran, a photojournalist whose gruesome ordeal in the killing fields of Cambodia was re-created in a 1984 movie that gave him an eminence he used to press for his people’s rights, died in New Brunswick, N.J. on Sunday. One of the most poignant moments in The Killing Fields movie was when Sydney Shanberg (Sam Waterston) and Al Rockoff, a photographer (John Malkovich),...

I haven't really ranted for a while now...but yesterday's post about Katie Orlinky's work amongst the Muxes of Juchitan reminded me of an itch that needs to be scratched.Before going for a week's vacation in Oaxaca late February, I posted on the Lightstalkers photo forum asking for advice as to what and where to photograph. The suggestions I received from many working photographers (both travel and...

Katie Orlinsky: FPW Scholarship

Photograph © Katie Orlinsky-All Rights ReservedOne of the winners of the scholarships awarded by the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop for its Mexico City June 2008 workshop is Katie Orlinsky.I was interested to see that a couple of Katie's photography essays are about the "Muxes" in Juchitan, south of Oaxaca. She describes the "muxes" as follows: "In Zapoteco, the word "muxe" translates to "gay",...

Photograph © Jehad Nga-All Rights ReservedAn infrequently-covered country is in the New York Times today, along with photographs by Jehad Nga, whose work is characterized by deep shadows and sparsely illuminated subjects.To bring you up to speed on the political background: Late last year, Ethiopian troops, with the help of US intelligence, removed the Islamist administration that briefly controlled...

Yen/$ Impact on New Canon 5D??

Here's an interesting analysis from The Online Photographer as to what the price on the eventual Canon 5D "Mark II" will be, taking into consideration that the current model is around $2200 at major retailers.Price determination of any product is a function of many variables, which are all well covered in TOP's post, which is worth a read from anyone interested. Another variable is the current weakness...

Photograph © Craig Schneider-All Rights ReservedOne of the winners of the scholarships awarded by the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop for its Mexico City June 2008 workshop is Craig Schneider.Craig is a journalist and documentary photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. I chose his above photograph of the "Boxer Boys of Havana" as an example of his documentary work.a href="http://www.craigschneider.com/main.php">Craig...

Eric Beecroft of Foundry Photojournalism Workshop has just announced two additional sponsors of its inaugural workshop in Mexico this coming June.The new sponsors are VII Agency, which is generously providing two scholarships to students, and Dispatches magazine (Gary Knight's new photojournalism/essayist journal) which is also providing two scholarships for the worksh...

Photograph © Beat Presser-All Rights ReservedWhen Beat Presser was in late teens, he traveled through Southeast Asia, and met with a car accident in Thailand. Healed from a serious spine injury by monks in a Buddhist monastery, he vowed to do something in return, should he become the photographer he intended to be.Between 2000 and 2004, he returned to live in Theravada Buddhism monasteries in Thailand,...

Adobe Photoshop Express

Adobe Systems opened up Photoshop Express today, its new Web-based image editor aimed at consumers who seek a simple way to touch up, share, and store photos. Photoshop Express is available for free with 2 gigabytes of storage, and requires Flash Player 9 to run (a quick download).The bottom line from CNET is as follows: Slick, attractive interface; useful retouching tools and well-done interface...

Photograph © Charlie Mahoney-All Rights ReservedOne of the winners of the scholarships awarded by the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop for its Mexico City June 2008 workshop is Charlie Mahoney.Charlie Mahoney is a freelance photographer based in Barcelona, and is represented by WpN. He prefers stories of human interest and collaborates with non-profit organizations, and traveled extensively to include...

Globe & Mail: Talking to the Taliban

Here's a multimedia feature from the Canadian Globe & Mail, and it's a must-see to anyone who's interested in the current situation in Afghanistan, and how it evolved to where it is, and where it's probably going.After watching this remarkable feature, I can only help but think that this administration got us involved militarily against implacable foes in two of the most intractable regions in...

Photograph © Sandra C Roa-All Rights ReservedOne of the winners of the scholarships awarded by the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop for its Mexico City June 2008 workshop is Sandra C. Roa.Sandra C Roa was raised in Queens, and her parents are originally from the Colombia city of Cali. She studied art and dance, and is interested in folkloric traditions and its music. She's currently working with video...

Nevada Wier's Blog: A Thought

I've been directed to the two-months old blog authored by the celebrity travel photographer Nevada Wier. Having skimmed through its sparse posts just this morning, I stopped at her opening post in which she writes that she'll be posting personal comments, new photographs, equipment reviews, and notes from her travels.I hope she lives up to the spirit of this first post, and is able to share with us...

Photograph © Lianne Milton-All Rights ReservedOne of the winners of the scholarships awarded by the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop for its Mexico City June 2008 workshop is Lianne Milton.Lianne is a photojournalist working at the Napa Valley Register in California. Much of her work on her website is of Mexico and Guatemala, along with documentary photography of local Napa stories.I was drawn to...

Adobe Elements for Mac

Adobe announced the immediate availability of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 software for Macintosh. This version runs on Leopard, (Mac OS X v 10.5.2), as well as previous versions of Mac OS X starting with 10.4.8. The product is immediately available in the United States for an estimated street price of US$89.99. Owners of previous versions of Photoshop Elements can upgrade to Photoshop Elements 6 for...

The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop has just announced the winners (full and half tuition) of its scholarship for its Mexico City June 2008 workshop.The winners are:Charlie Mahoney, Sandra Roa, Craig Schneider and Katie Orlinsky.TTP will feature the work of each photographer starting tomorrow. Having seen their work, I guarantee that you will be astounded by the high quality photographs produced...

Philip Blenkinsop

Currently with the NOOR photo-collective, Philip Blenkinsop started his professional career at the age of 21 working for The Australian, a national broadsheet in Sydney. Realizing that being a newspaper photographer was not for him, and finding that the work shallow and repetitive, he bought a Leica with a few lenses and a one-way airline ticket to Bangkok.His name is now synonymous with forgotten conflicts, and his photographs are the product of...

For your convenience, here's the past week's (March 17-23, 2008) most read posts on TTP: Ami Vitale: Kolkata Rickshaws. Pilgrims' ProgressPhilip Jones Griffiths...

Art Wolfe: PBS: India

I watched an episode from Art Wolfe's Travels To the Edge on PBS early evening yesterday, and I was struck by his using a heavy-duty tripod during all of his photo-shoots. Art Wolfe, who's a superb photographer, was in Allahabad during a Mela, and was televised thigh-deep in the Ganges river with his Canon perched on a tripod (Bogen?) and what appeared to be a 400mm lens. This is not unusual for such...

Mikhail Baryshnikov: Dance Photography

Photograph © Mikhail Baryshnikov-All Rights ReservedMikhail Baryshnikov, one of the most famous dancers in history, has turned dance photographer. His dance photographs are exhibited at 401 Projects, and is titled “Merce My Way” in reference to Merce Cunningham. I like dance photography, particularly those of ethnic character, and I frequently include photo shoots involving dancers during my photo-expeditions....

Photograph © Francisco Leong-AFP/Getty-All Rights ReservedAs we're in the midst of the Easter Week, I thought of posting Pilgrims' Progress, an interactive feature from the National Geographic Magazine. Its an interactive map showing pilgrimage sites on and off the beaten path. On the map are the two Middle Eastern pilgrimage destinations; Jerusalem (Al Quds) and Mecca. The Indian sub-continent alone...

NG Traveler Photography Seminars

Here's an interesting (albeit too short) video teaser of National Geographic Traveler photographers Jim Richardson and Catherine Karnow sharing some of their tips. The video was taken by Traveler's Susanne Hackett at its photo seminar called "A Passion for Travel: Photos that Tell the Story".A good quote from Richardson: "Great pictures come from great travel experiences"Check out NG Traveler's Blog Intelligent Travel for schedules of the Photo Seminars,...

Semana Santa Holy Week

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedWith Good Friday and Easter upon us, I attended Semana Santa in Antigua (Guatemala) a few years ago. Antigua is a magnificent city declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. It is also famous for its Catholic celebration of Holy Week, which commemorates the Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. All of Antigua participates in the annual...

Philip Jones Griffiths

Photograph © Philip Jones Griffiths-All Rights ReservedPhilip Jones Griffiths, a photojournalist whose photographs of civilian casualties and suffering were among the defining images of the war in Vietnam, died on Wednesday at his home in London. The New York Times' Slideshow of some of his photograp...

Battlespace Exhibition

From the introduction of Battlespace:These photographs were made in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they depict neither country. They are glimpses of an alternate reality built upon them. The images do not provide a comprehensive account of these wars, or an understanding of these nations or their peoples. They are fragments, seen in off-moments behind the walls of concrete superbases—or outside them, through...

Canon 5D Firmware Update

Canon just announced the release of firmware updates for the EOS 5D (and EOS 30D). The update allows the 5D to recognize the full capacity of Compact Flash cards over 8 GB.I'm still sour at Canon that it hasn't announced a successor to its full frame 5D earlier this year, and hope that the rumors that it will appear next month will prove true. I wonder if the launch of a 5D Mark II (or whatever it'll be called) hasn't been delayed for the Canon engineers...

Photograph © Ami Vitale-All Rights Reserved"The strategy of drivers in Kolkata—drivers of private cars and taxis and buses and the enclosed three-wheel scooters used as jitneys and even pedicabs—is simple: Forge ahead while honking. There are no stop signs to speak of." And so starts Calivn Trilin's essay on Kolkata's rickshaws in the April issue of National Geographic.I thumbed through my fresh-off-the-press...

TTP Recap of the Week

Aaaaargh...I always forget tp post this weekly recap! For your convenience, here's the past week's (March 10-16, 2008) most read posts on TTP: Photo Contests: Grabbing Your Rights?. Rumors of a Canon 5D Mark II?Altars of the Zapot...

Photograph © Michael Wolf-All Rights ReservedMichael Wolf is a German photographer who studied at UC Berkley and at the University of Essen. He has been living and working as a photographer and author in China for ten years.In addition to a wide spectrum of publications for international magazines, three books by him on China have been published, and he has been deeply involved with the topic of vernacular...

Reuters, in partnership with multimedia studio MediaStorm, has published a multimedia feature to observe the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The feature is laden with photos, maps and videos, along with interviews with three Reuters journalists, including photographer Goran Tomasevic (who was featured on TTP).I wonder if this somber anniversary will be adequately observed by the mainstream...

Ami Vitale: Frontline: Kashmir

Here's a PBS/Frontline multimedia feature on Kashmir with photographs by Ami Vitale. It's not a new feature, but I thought it timely as I am traveling to this area in July.Kashmir has been described as a paradise on earth but it's a disputed area that has seen more than its share of violence and bloodshed in recent years. Indians insist Kashmir is an integral part of their country, and without Kashmir,...

Barbara Paul is welcomed by the Black Rock Art Center where her photography exhibit entitled “Voodoo, Villages, Festivals: Ghana , Benin and Togo" will be shown April 5 through June 7, 2008. An opening celebration is scheduled for April 5th from 4:00 – 7:00 pm. Gallery hours are 1:00 – 5:00 pm Mon – Fri, and upon request.From the press release: "Barbara Paul has traveled through some of the most...

Five Years Ago

Photograph © Eros Hoagland/NY Times-All Rights ReservedThe New York Times observes the fifth year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by publishing various articles, graphics and photographs. The main slideshow is entitled The Baiji Refinery in Iraq with photographs by Eros Hoagland and is on the largest oil refinery in Iraq. The US military believes that at least one-third, and possibly much more,...

A new photographers' collective was born with the formation of AEVUM (which, according to the website, means life, time, age in Latin/Greek). The photographers are Elyse Butler, Matt Eich, Yoon S. Byun, Andrew Henderson, Chris Capozziello and Matt Mallams.Check out Andrew Henderson's The Untouchables while you explore the collective's projects. It's about the horror of leprosy in India.AEVUM PH...

Pieter Hugo: Hyena Men

Photograph © Pieter Hugo-All Rights ReservedHere's an unusual subject matter through the lenses of photographer Pieter Hugo, who documented Nigerian men who stroll the streets of Lagos with hyenas and other wild animals. Nigerian newspapers usually claim that these men are bank robbers, bodyguards, drug dealers, and debt collectors. He eventually traveled to Benin City in Nigeria, and met with the...

LA Times: The House of Allah

In the prevailing climate of Islam-bashing and to counter the widespread ignorance about the religion it's certainly a tribute to the Los Angeles Times that it recently published a multimedia feature titled "The House of Allah" about a California couple, Raef and Ellen Hajjali, who joined 2.3 million Muslims on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.One of the popular misconceptions is the one that Muslims...

The Altars of the Zapotecs

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedIt is customary for most of the Zapotec homes in the Oaxaca region to have a room or corner where an altar is maintained by the women of the house. It is a measure of the Zapotecs' hospitality that I was welcomed in some of these houses, and the gallery Altars of the Zapotec is the result.The Altars of the Zapot...

Photograph © Bruno Stevens-All Rights ReservedThe second issue of Lunatic magazine has just been published. It's a bi-annual image online magazine presenting new work from talented photographers from all around the world. The target audiences of Lunatic magazine are photographers, photojournalists and picture editors and all people interested in contemporary photography. It is created by photographer...

Some photography blogs are circulating rumors that Canon will announce a new 5D in late April, with a June availability at your favorite stores. The specs are said to include a 15mp CMOS 35mm full frame sensor, dual core DIGIC III chipset, weather sealing, a new AF sensor, and a $3500 list price.If this is for real, why would Canon choose a late April announcement?! Has it no sympathy for US tax-payers...

Photo Contests: Grabbing Your Rights???

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedThe answer to this question is generally a yes.Many sponsors of photo contests and competitions are unashamedly robbing photographers of their work and stealing their creativity. Photographers submit photographs to a contest, the terms of which take away their rights to their submission; hence providing the contest's sponsor a 'free' photo which can then be...

Image © Karen Kasmauski-All Rights ReservedSince 1984, Karen Kasmauski has photographed at least 25 major stories for National Geographic Magazine. She has traveled from Malaysia's rainforests to the megacities of India to the Alaskan wilderness, covered earthquakes in Japan, been arrested in Africa and exposed to radiation in Russia. Karen has been profiled on the Charlie Rose show and the National...

Sarah Leen: NGM: POYi

Image © Jonas Bendiksen-All Rights ReservedThe 65th Annual Pictures of the Year International ("POYi") competition which is currently being judged has announced Sarah Leen/National Geographic as the first prize winner in the Magazine Picture Editing Portfolio section, with Jonas Bendiksen's photo essay on Dharavi, a slum called Mumbai's shadow city.In my view, this is a deserved recognition for the...

Kloie Picot: Hidden In Plain Sight Benefit

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: A Benefit for Iraqi and Palestinian Refugees is put together by Kloie Picot, and is a worthwhile benefit for Iraqi and Palestinian refugees, one that she hopes will raise awareness of their plight. All proceeds will go to CROSSING LINES, a non-profit Ms. Picot is establishing to provide language, job training and other skills to refugees.The important worthwhile event opens...

For your convenience, here's the past week's (March 3-9, 2008) most read posts on TTP: Celebrity Photographers' Tours. This topic is consistently popular!NGM: Annie Griffiths BeltLa Guelague...

Magnum Photos' In Motion just featured a Flipbook on China which takes a look at 60 years of transformation in this enormous country from Magnum's archives. The photographs are from legendary names such as Henri Cartier Bresson, Eve Arnold, Bruno Barbey and Paolo Pellegrin to name but a few.Magnum Photos' Flipbook: Ch...

Image © Gianni Cipriano for NY Times-All Rights ReservedCentral Brooklyn in New York City is the land of the Black Coats...specifically 55th Street in the center of Borough Park which is home to a quarter million Orthodox Jews, the largest concentration of Jews outside Israel.The slideshow is of atmospheric black & white photographs by Gianni Cipriano, and accompanies a short article in The City...

Celebrity Photographers' Tours

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedI found another example of what I deem to be an over-the-top photo tour led by a celebrity photographer to a developed country in South-East Asia, so I thought I'd share my 'back of the envelope' ruminations about the economics (or lack thereof) of joining such a photo tour. Let me say this at the outset: the photo tour is no workshop...just a tour led by...

Beyond The Frame: Stilt Fishermen

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedIt's been a while since I posted an image in a Beyond The Frame context, so here's one of the famed stilt fishermen in Sri Lanka. Stilt fishing is a strange technique of fishing where fishermen wade out to poles embedded in the seabed. The origins of this unusual technique (I don't think it's used anywhere else in the world) are unknown, but it certainly works....

Image © Matt Brandon-All Rights ReservedMatt Brandon over at the Digital Trekker just returned from an assignment in Sumatra, and has great portraits to share with us. He traveled to the small community of Sekayu in Sumatra, which is populated by a community of friendly and welcoming Muslim people called the Musi. They live up and down the Musi River that flows through their territory and down through...

La Guelaguetza: Oaxaca's Dance

Image © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedWhile in Oaxaca, I photographed a couple of lively Guelaguetza performances and uploaded some of the results on to a website. The dances are a form of celebration that dates back to pre-Columbian times and which remain a defining characteristic of Oaxacan culture. Its origins relate to the worship of corn as a mainstay staple of the Oaxacan region, and indeed...

Thomas Smallwood: Journey to the Himba

Image © Thomas Smallwood-All Rights ReservedThomas Smallwood is a creative director for some of the top advertising agencies and major retail chains throughout the country, and attended college at the Fashion Institute (F.I.T.) and the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he majored in advertising, and discovered that he liked taking pictures. His portfolio comes through Double Exposure the web...

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