Greg Cohen: Laos

Photograph © Greg Cohen-All Rights Reserved Greg Cohen is originally from the East Coast, and is now living in Los Angeles. His biography tells us that he first picked up the camera in Tennessee in 1993, while living in the Smoky Mountain region. He has lived throughout the United States photographing along the way, and is now developing projects in central Africa and Southeast Asia.I've chosen a...

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Dilemma: Keffiyeh or Krama?

The blogosphere (and cable news) are buzzing with the hilarious news that a bunch of ideologues forced Dunkin Donuts to pull an ad featuring a celebrity chef because she was wearing what was erroneously seen as a keffiyeh. The ideologues of course, consider the keffiyeh as a "symbol of violence and of anti-Israel sentiments".This utter stupidity is compounded by the fact that the scarf is a traditional...

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POV: Technogeek vs Luddite?

A recent email received from a photographer questioning technological advancements affecting our business made me think about how these made it so much easier for me to manage and operate my photo expeditions. One of these tech advances is the blog, which can be harnessed, not only to tell the world of one's periodic musings, fantasies, etc, but to maintain a record of each photo expedition's experiences....

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Mahesh Shantaram: Shanghai

Photograph © Mahesh Shantaram-All Rights Reserved Having seen my post on Justin Guariglia's Planet Shanghai a few days ago, Mahesh Shantaram reminded me that he was very recently commissioned to work on a photographic project featuring the urban culture of Shanghai. Mahesh tells us" In these images, there are two streams of narrative running in parallel. In the background is the infrastructure story,...

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Alessandra Meniconzi: Hidden China

I've written about Alessandra Meniconzi over a year ago, and consider her one of the best travel photographers I've come across. She's a travel photographer in a classic sense, and her work is pure travel photography with no ambivalence.Her biography reveals that she was born in Lugano and studied graphic design. She specializes in Asian countries, and prefers the wilderness as well as documenting...

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Abbas: Soul Hunt: Magnum In Motion

Here's a multimedia slideshow featuring photographs by Abbas from the Magnum website. It's about pagan rituals, performed by the shamans of Siberia, the Voodoo in Haiti, the Dogon of Mali, the Shinto in Japan, and the Bari of the Amazon. Having photographed the Indonesian traditional healers in Bali, I was naturally very interested in seeing this body of work. While I deem Abbas' work to be superlative,...

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Canon 5D Mark II Book?

I promised myself I wouldn't add fuel to the fire, but members of the DPreview forums have seen a 5D Mark II Field Guide listed on Amazon. The book has a release date of November 10, 2008 and a price of $20. The author and publisher are the same as the ones for the 5D Mark I field guide, which you can buy now online or in a bookstore or camera shop.The Photokina Fair is scheduled for the third week...

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Memorial Day Weekend

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved The Travel Photographer will not be posting over the long Memorial Day weeke...

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My Show Off: Whirling Dervishes

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved Here's another of my weekly Show-Off features with an example of my personal photography on The Travel Photographer's blog. Click on the photograph to view it larger size. I used one of Lightroom 2.0 standard presets to accentuate the photograph's colors. It was photographed in Istanbul while Mevlevi dervishes perform a sema ceremony with a traditional...

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Justin Guariglia: Planet Shanghai

Justin Guariglia's latest book, Planet Shanghai, is his attempt to preserve the city's unique culture, traditions and its people. The ICP will be having a book signing event with Justin Guariglia on Friday, May 23 (6:00 pm - 7:30 pm) at its store on 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, NYC.Here are some samples from Planet ShanghaiFrom the New Yorker magazine:It’s amazing how much you can...

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Ben Curtis: Bakhtiari Wedding

Photograph © Ben Curtis/AP-All Rights Reserved Ben Curtis of SnapperTalk blog, brings us his work on a Bakhtiari Wedding while traveling in Iran. The audio was captured using a Zoom H2. Listening to the soundtrack, you'll hear the women's ululations, an ancient and traditional form of celebratory expressions in the Middle East and beyond. The Bakhtiaris, who are Shi'a Muslims and speak a Persian...

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National Geographic Assignment

As reported by PDN Online, the National Geographic Society launched a new photo assignments division to handle commercial representation for 27 photographers.National Geographic Assignment will represent the following photographers: William Albert Allard, Stephen Alvarez, Ira Block, John Burcham, Jimmy Chin, Jodi Cobb, Pablo Corral Vega, Bruce Dale, David Doubilet, Annie Griffiths Belt, Justin Guariglia,...

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Marie Arago: Oaxaca

Photograph © Marie Arago-All Rights Reserved Marie Arago is a Brooklyn-based photographer, who studied film at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, and photography at the ICP in New York. She spent many years photographing in Cuba, and worked for a newspaper in Costa Rica.I spent a while deciding between her Mercado in Oaxaca gallery or her Cuban gallery for posting to TTP, and opted for the former...only...

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Epson: James Nachtwey Interview

Epson has put together a new website called Focal Points which features a number of stories, both written and in video (mov format) showcasing a number of photography's leading professionals, as well as their work with Epson products. There are quite a few photographers' interviews, but I chose the James Nachtwey interview to feature he...

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B&H Digital Audio Recorders Guide

Here's a useful comparison of various digital audio recorders from B&H's Sam Mallery's newsletter. From the newsletter: "All of the recorders in this article were designed to capture professional-quality audio. Great care has gone into the design of the built-in microphones and inputs. They are used in broadcasting, professional journalism, music production, podcasting, and by hobbyists. These...

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Jim McKinniss: Venice

Jim McKinniss is a photography enthusiast, who taught university mathematics and owned a small company providing database design and programming services to large corporations and medium size businesses.He uses a Canon 1Ds Mark II and his favorite lenses for travel are the Canon EF 16-35mm L zoom, a 100mm macro prime, and a 200mm L prime. His photographic interests are wide, and his past and continuing...

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New York Photo Awards Winners

The winners of the 1st New York Photo Awards were announced Friday 16, 2008 in Brooklyn, New York. According to the PDN article, the awards ceremony had a casual feel, as attendees braved a rainy night to pack into the St. Ann's Warehouse performance space near the Dumbo waterfront. The winners in the Editorial category - single (tie) were Ibraheen Abu Mustafa and Adem Hadei. For other winners, visit...

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Travel Photographer Of The Year

I received an email from the organizers of the Travel Photographer Of The Year announcing its 2008 photo competition. As a matter of principle, I do not participate in photo competitions of this sort, however I've been told by a reader of this blog (and a past participant -and winner- in TPOTY) that the competition is professionally managed and competently judged.Nevertheless, caveat emptor or whatever...

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TTP Recap of the Week

For your convenience, here's the past week's (May 12 - May 18, 2008) most popular posts on TTP: Soundslides Full Screen: Verdict POV: Hug Your Audience Canon Reba...

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Nevada Wier: Adobe's Showcase

Nevada Wier's Far Corners of The World Revealed is being shown in an Adobe promotional web feature, which is novel and innovative. The episode featuring her imagery is episode #2 and since the web site is Flash-based, I can't give you the direct link to it, but the website's link is Adobe Creative License. You need to click on episode #2. The feature is graphic-intensive, and requires a fast connection.(Via...

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Soundslides Full Screen: Verdict

I've now downloaded the fullscreen playback Soundslides Plus which was just released in beta form, and found it to be a brilliant step forward for this product, which as you can easily guess, I'm a fan of.I spent a few minutes creating a 'super-sized' slideshow, which allows viewers to the full screen option on their monitors. The slideshow will be shortly uploaded to my website.The updated Beta version...

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Douglas Menuez: The Orphans of Uganda

Douglas Menuez began his career photographing for the Washington Post, then moved to Time, Newsweek, Life, People and Fortune Magazine and many other publications worldwide over the past twenty years. He’s covered major news stories including the famine in Ethiopia, the destruction of the Amazon, the AIDS crisis, drug wars, presidential campaigns, the Olympics, five SuperBowls and the World Series....

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Soundslides Full Screen!

The fullscreen playback Soundslides Plus has just been released in (beta). According to the release notes, the highlights of the new beta release are:- Full screen playback (Plus only)- Multiple jpeg image import now available under the Slides tab's "Add image" button- Re-importing shorter duration audio no longer resets timing points. All timings are preserved now.- Application now correctly reads...

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Thanks!

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved Thank you to the 640pixels blog for including The Travel Photographer in its 5 Websites Every Photographer Should Visit Often listing. It puts my blog in very august company.I thought the above photograph of an Indian woman at a Varanasi shrine, and offering prasad as a gesture of thanks, is appropriate for this po...

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My Show-off: Pankawallah

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved This is my second photograph for the Show-Off feature with an example of my personal photography on The Travel Photographer's blog. Click on the photograph to view it larger size. I used Lightroom 2.0 to accentuate the photograph's saturation. It was photographed with a Canon 28-70mm 2.8L at 28mm 1/60 sec at f 7.1This is Muhammed Jashem, a pankawallah...

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PDN Photo Annual 2008

Photograph © Shiho Fukada-All Rights Reserved PDN has done a gorgeous job with its Photo Annual's website. No one will agree with all of the judges' choices, but most of the awards were certainly well deserved. I'm gratified that Shiho Fukada was recognized for her work on the brothels of Bangladesh, especially since I've often posted the work of this talented New York City-based photographer on...

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World Press Photo Interviews

World Press Photo has posted 22 interviews with the 2008 (and 2007) award winning photographers, such as Tim Hetherington, Stanley Greene, Brent Stirton, Balzazs Gardi and Vanessa Winship among others.A very nicely produced feature with a small flash movie as an inset with each photographer's interview, and a loupe (a la Lightroom and Aperture) to magnify details of the photograph being discussed....

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Dispatches Magazine

Dispatches magazine which debuted on Monday, is edited by journalist and author Mort Rosenblum and photographer Gary Knight. It's a quarterly compilation of analyses of world events, with each issue grouped around a theme and featuring the work of well known journalists and authors. From its website:"Dispatches took root on an olive farm in Provence, flourished on a Kashmiri houseboat, and was toasted...

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Hidden In Plain Sight: A Benefit Event

Kloie Picot is inviting attendance to Hidden In Plain Sight: A Benefit Event for Iraqi & Palestinian Children on May 25, 2008 at the BLISS Livehouse (148 Sec 4 HsinyiRoad, Taipei, Taiwan). The event's objective is to establish a Community Learning Center in the Middle East, and providing refugees with work related skills and training workshops.The following photojournalists have donated photographs...

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Canon Rebates

Canon's 2008 spring rebate program may be late, but they seem substantial enough to offset the recent across-the-board price hikes. The rebate program--instant this time around--will be effective May 18-July 19. Since they're instant, there are no forms or coupons to clip.Rebates, which are for DSLRs and accessories, range from $300 for an EOS 5D and $200 for an EOS 40D. Maybe, just maybe...this will...

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Camera Bags Part Two

In my previous post on Camera Bags, I neglected to mention that while in the field, I've opted for the Lowepro Street & Field belt system to carry my cameras without straining my back or shoulders. Yes, it's a gunslinger look, but I've used it since I photographed the unforgettable Maha Kumbh Mela in 2001, and it proved to be a winner for me. I use the Lowepro Toploader 75 AW for either of my...

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Mali: Festival au Desert

Photograph © Kevin Moloney/NY Times-All Rights Reserved The New York Times brings us another world music-related feature with its Mali: Festival Au Desert slideshow. There's no narration in the slideshow (but some good riffs), but further information is available in the accompanying article authored by photographer Kevin Moloney.The first festival was started in January 2001, and is held every year...

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Camera Bags

WIRED has a recent post on what it describes as three of the best camera bags you can buy. One of these is the Billingham 550. As most of us know, finding the 'perfect' camera bag is tantamount to finding the holy grail...and may be even harder. I have owned the Billingham 550 for a few years now, but used it infrequently. It's a British classic, sturdily built based on a fishing bag design and, similar...

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NY Times: Gnawa Festival in Essaouira

Photograph © Ed Alcock/NY Times-All Rights Reserved The New York Times brings us a slideshow of photographs (and narrated by photographer Ed Alcok) featuring the Gnawa Festival of Music in Essaouira, which is scheduled for June. The Gnawa are the descendents of slaves originating from Africa who established brotherhoods throughout Morocco. They are made up of master musicians, metal castanet players,...

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Julian Love: Editorial Travel

Photograph © Julian Love -All Rights Reserved Julian Love is a travel and lifestyle photographer in London, who specializes in photographing boutique hotels, adventure sports and editorial travel assignments. You'll recognize his distinctive style from the various photo galleries on his websiteHis latest gallery is of Sri Lanka, and it largely consists of Julian's editorial travel photographs of...

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No Words

Photograph © Karim Kadim/AP Photo-All Rights Reserved Two-year-old Ali Hussein is pulled from the rubble of his family's home in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. The child, who later died at the hospital, was in one of four homes destroyed by U.S. missiles. Elie Wiesel once said "...to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all..." or is...

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Sean Macleod: China

Photograph © Sean Macleod -All Rights Reserved Sean Macleod is a Canadian photographer living in Geneva. He's also a self taught painter. His formation as photographer started in India and Nepal where he traveled early on in his career. He eventually returned to the sub-continent, and expanded his travels to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Southwest China and Vietnam.His photographs are sepia-toned and...

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A New York City Story

Photo: Michael Falco for The New York Times While not really an item relating to travel photography, I thought that Jill Freedman, a street photographer from New York city, meeting one of her subjects some 30 years after she photographed him, is a wonderful story.In 1979, Jill Freedman pointed her Leica M4 at a young couple in the flower district and almost 30 years later, Mario Pesa of Brooklyn...

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What The Duck: Contests

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Anthony Kurtz: India

Photograph © Anthony Kurtz:-All Rights Reserved Anthony Kurtz started to photograph in 2003, and went on from there to garner over a dozen photographic awards, and has exhibited his work in numerous galleries in the Bay Area.I've discovered his remarkable work from Px3: Prix De La Photographie in which he won 2nd Place for "India: Beautiful Struggle"in the Book Proposal category.Here's his website,...

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My Show-Off: Wat Bo Monastery

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved I'm introducing a new occasional feature to The Travel Photographer's blog, and it'll show off examples of my personal photography. Although I like Blogger as a blogging platform, I find that photographs could be better displayed in terms of quality and size. The latter can certainly be increased by adjusting the template's code...but I thought it'd...

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VII's Humankind: Hasted Hunt Gallery

The Hasted Hunt Gallery announces Humankind a photo exhibition by the members of VII on April 17- June 7, 2008 with a reception for the photographers on May 15 (6-8 pm).Works by Marcus Bleasdale, Alexandra Boulat, Lauren Greenfield, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Joachim Ladefoged, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey, Franco Pagetti and John Stanmeyer are on display.Hasted Hunt Gallery...

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Burma: Cyclone Nargis

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved The latest news is that at least 22,000 Burmese have died and up to a million people have been left homeless by the catastrophic cyclone that battered the country. The death toll from the disaster includes 10,000 people in the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta region alone. It's also reported that Rangoon has been badly hit.Regrettably, it's expected that the...

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Px3: Prix De La Photographie

The stated mission of the "Prix de la Photographie, Paris" (Px3) is to "promote the appreciation of photography, to discover emerging talent, and introduce photographers from around the world to the artistic community of Paris. Winning photographs from this competition are displayed in Paris and published in the high-quality, full-color Px3 Annual Book. The competition is juried by leading editors,...

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