Travel Photographer

Friday, March 11, 2011

BJP Does The FujiFilm X100

The British Journal of Photography has just featured a hands-on review (not an in-depth one yet) of the FujiFilm X100.

It appears that the FujiFilm X100 is extremely well designed, handles well (although a bit on the lightweight side according to the photographer using it), with good image performance, and very easy to use.

On the negative side, there's a shutter lag which may or may not spoil the "decisive moment" street photographers lust for, and while it may be part of a pro photographer's kit...it would not be his/her main camera.

It's really expensive in Britain, and moderately expensive in the US....and as I wrote in my earlier posts, I don't think the price is justified at all. I've looked at the initial image samples (via BJP's website) and I'm not too impressed. As I said before, I believe the Panasonic GF1 (which I have and use) beats it hands down in terms of image quality, price and lens interchangeability.

Magdalena Sole: Burma

Magdalena Sole is a Spanish photographer based in New York City, with a MFA from Columbia University and a 20-year background in visual arts. Her work spans graphic design, film and photography, and a client base ranging from Fortune 500 corporates to private collectors.

Her biography tells us she prefers to work with a Leica, and works in color because it expresses culture best.

Her travel portfolio has galleries from Brazil, Kamagasaki, Japan, Mexico and Vencie, however I chose to feature her photographs from Burma. Her photographs are mostly street and urban scenes...tableaux as I prefer to call them.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Teerayut Chaisarn : The Sufis of Gujarat

Teerayut Chaisarn is a young emerging photojournalist/photographer and Photoshop artist from Chiang Mai in Thailand. He was one of the 6 participants in my In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™ a few weeks ago, and featured a number of galleries on his personal website. Some of the photographs in his The Religion of Islamic Sufis In Gujarat gallery are toned, while others are not. The photographs are also less portrait-biased than those in his first gallery, which he titled Faces of India.

You'll find some brilliant images in Teerayut's galleries...I haven't put it in this post, but the one of the elderly man in a mosque with the sun filtering through the intricately-worked jalis is a beauty...so look it up. I'm sure you'll agree.

Teerayut started photographing about 4 years ago, and is largely self-taught. He started work as a photographer on the magazine staff of his hometown, but preferred to become a freelance photographer. He also applied his Photoshop post processing expertise to assist various Thai professional photographers, and processes their portfolios. He worked on various occasions with Steve McCurry in Thailand.

Most of his galleries in his portfolio are post-processed, and while some may find these over-worked, it's a style which finds favor amongst many in Asia.

NYT: Paolo Pellegrin's The Exodus From Libya

Photo © Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum-Courtesy The New York Times

The New York Times just featured a photo essay titled Scenes From The Libyan Exodus of Paolo Pellegrin's splendid black & white photographs made in Ras Ajdir of immigrant workers fleeing the erupting violence in Libya, and streaming into Tunisia. This is one the best photo essays I've seen out of Libya.

It reports that some 75,000 migrant workers, mostly male Egyptians, were trying to pass through the checkpoints that separate Libya and Tunisia, overwhelming the latter country's meager infrastructure.

I chose Pellegrin's above photograph to feature along this post because, in my view, it's the most powerful of the lot. Perhaps it's the sight of the Egyptian passport in the hand of the migrant that influenced me. After all, I had one just like that years ago.

Pellegrin's is quoted as saying that while Ras Ajdir is desperate, it “isn’t a panic in the terms of what we saw in Kosovo or the scenes of Congo, with women and children. These are all able men.”

Thankfully for these men, that's entirely true, but let's not lose sight that each of these migrants supports an extended family in Egypt where the current situation is difficult...and returning home to a long period of non-existent employment will cause significant difficulties for them and for their country.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Eric Beecroft: Sufis & Saints

Eric Beecroft is the visionary co-founder of the hugely successful Foundry Photojournalism Workshop which is entering its fourth year, after being held in Mexico City, Manali (India), Istanbul and which will be held in Buenos Aires this coming July.

Eric teaches photography, photojournalism/documentary photography, history, geo-politics and anthropology at the Walden School, a public charter school in Utah. He spends a few months a year traveling and leading photo expeditions of high school students and adults. His photography is mostly documentary work, photojournalism, and adventure/outdoors photography.

He recently updated his website with photographs of Delhi's Nizzam Uddin Dargah in Delhi; an area which we share an interest in, and of Rishikesh in the Indian Himalayas.

The top photograph is of a Muslim woman in the throes of "hajri" or trance at the shrine of the Sufi saint, while the lower photograph is from Eric's Ganga Ma: Rishikesh, and which I particularly like.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Frances Schwabenland: "The Photographer of Jaipur"

Frances Schwabenland is a photographer and a videographer whose work was featured on The Travel Channel, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and in Popular Photography Magazine. She's a multifaceted professional involved in travel, architectural, documentary, landscape and portrait photography.

Currently in the process of updating her website, Frances nevertheless featured a lovely video story of her special encounter with Mr Chand, a street photographer in Jaipur, who uses an ancient wooden camera weighing no less than 50 lbs to make photographs of passer-bys. She tells us in her blog that "he recreated for me that magic that drew me in years ago when I first started with a darkroom in my basement."

The tripod-mounted wooden box camera may well be a 1860 Carl Zeiss, which I've also seen in use in Pushkar and Havana. Photographers who still use these cameras are in a sense choreographers...perhaps even magicians, since they have to expose the negative by uncovering the lens cap for a fraction of a second with a deft flip of the wrist, then develop the sensitive paper to produce the negative...then the process is repeated to photograph the negative to produce the final positive image!

A far cry from all the digital hoopla we are now accustomed to!

FujiFilm FinePix X100: New Promotional Clip

As many of us may already know, Fujifilm has started shipping the FinePix X100 in Japan, and it should begin arriving elsewhere soon. The X100 is a large-sensor compact camera aimed at most photographers, whether professionals or otherwise.

Its sensor is based on a 12Mp APS-C CMOS sensor, Fuji EXR processor and 23mm F2 Fujinon lens, and the body features traditional analogue controls for shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation. The buzz is around its new 'hybrid' viewfinder system which allows the user to switch between an optical and electronic viewfinder.

Its price point in the US is $1,199, and is available for pre-order from Adorama, as an example. B&H Photo doesn't seem to do pre-orders, and will only list it when it's in stock.

It's certainly a beautiful camera, but I've lost interest in the FujiFilm FinePix X100 for a bunch of reasons; the first is that I am very satisfied with the capability of my Panasonic GF1 and its 20mm f1.7 lens, the second is that I am not impressed by the X100's price which I think is too high, the third is that it's a fixed lens camera (in contrast to the GF1), and the fourth (intentionally cryptic) is because of a dot.