Delhi Photo Festival: Submissions Details

Mentioned in an earlier post, Delhi Photo Festival is gearing itself up, and is now at the stage of inviting submissions. Further stages are being worked on as I write this, and include an enticing array of workshops, lectures, portfolio reviews, gallery walks and seminars.

Through Nazar Foundation, the festival is the brainchild of Prashant Panjiar and Dinesh Khanna, both well known photographers, and for mentoring young photographers and propagating photography.

I know I have many readers from India and elsewhere who will be interested in participating in such a venue, and I encourage them to review the submission requirements and send in their work.

I am excited to have been invited to the festival, and I'm scheduled to lead a 3-4 hour workshop on Multimedia For Photographers.

Aaron Joel Santos: Ha Giang (Vietnam)

Photo © Aaron Joel Santos-All Rights Reserved

Aaron Joel Santos is a freelance travel and documentary photographer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. He is represented by Wonderful Machine in the United States and by Invision Images in Europe and Japan. His clients include The Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, The Daily Telegraph and The Boston Globe. He is available for assignments across Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Most of Aaron's galleries are of projects in South East Asia, and include documentary travel, as well as commercial work such as photographs of hotels and resorts. I particularly liked his Ha Giang black & white gallery. Ha Giang is a province is in the northernmost part of the country, and it shares a long border with China's Yunnan province. It has many cultural festivals due to the presence of more than 20 ethnic minority groups.

Aaron also uses PhotoShelter to host his image archives, and you can see his collection of images of Laos, from the World Heritage town of Luang Prabang to the waters of Vang Vien and the capital of Vientiane.

The Travel Photographer Is On Tumblr!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

As I shared a few days ago, I had grabbed The Travel Photographer brand name in as many blogs and social sites that I could...and I've now decided to air some of my images which are on display on The Travel Photographer Tumblr blog.

As you'll see, I've used the theme known as Boston Polaroid, which allows the largest size of images I've seen on ready-made blog platforms. I've also uploaded on it photographs that received the Flare "treatment" which I've lauded its "fun" factor before. By the way, judging by the number of hits registered on that post, I ought to have received a Flare medal of honor.

I chose this particular Tumblr theme primarily because of its simplicity, but also because of the size of the images (1280 pixels on the longer side), which really is what I advocate all photographers to do. The larger the images posted on your website or blogs, the better received they'll be by photo editors/buyers.

When I wrote about the value(s) branding, I neglected to mention the value of having a centralized hub (is that a tautological term?) of a simple splash page that points visitors to your content from around the web. I like About.Me which is free, and acts as your business card...I add it as a signature to all my outgoing emails.

I have no direct or indirect relationship with either About.me or Flare beyond being a consumer of both products and liking them.

William Palank: Ethiopia

Photo © William Palank-All Rights Reserved

Just yesterday, I had an email conversation with Eric Beecroft on the merits of the Leica M9, and whether I viewed it as a reliable tool, despite its idiosyncrasies, for my travel photojournalism work, and if it could ever replace my Canon system. My view was that it would not replace the Canons, but it would supplement them. I used a tool analogy, and compared the Canon and Leica to pliers and pincers.

This conversation fit perfectly with the work of William Palank, and with his interesting interview on the Leica blog. As a bit of background, William Palank decided to change from a career of dentistry to that of a photographer, and started to document traditional cultures such as those of Ethiopia India and Burma.

"When using prime lenses on a digital rangefinder camera, you can’t cheat by shooting from across the street and zooming in."

Palank is complimentary of the Leica M-sytem because it allows him to get nearer to his subjects, and permits him to blend better in exotic locations. His Ethiopia images were made with a Leica M9 and a Summilux 50mm lens. More of his Ethiopia images are here.

I recommend reading the interview pretty attentively.  Palank's post-production appears to be fairly minimal. He tells us that he prefers to get the the exposure and lighting right before he clicks his shutter. In our age of Photoshop and Lightroom, this is unusual.

I have yet to test the M9 in my travels, but I am certain it will allow me to get even nearer to my subjects...and record more intimate portraits. I'm not too bashful in approaching my subjects, but the M9 will help in keeping a lower profile. Once again, the M9 will not supplant the Canon 5D2 and the Canon 7D, but will supplement them. I will share my experience and results.

Carl Valiquet: Blood & Incense

Carl Valiquet is a photographer and a movie-maker who lives in Montreal and Bali, and has produced Blood And Incense, a movie whose trailer shown here is a spectacular fusion of still photography with motion from video, and a remarkable back and forth segue from cock fighting to Balinese religious rituals.

In Bali, certain religious ceremonies require that blood be spilled to pacify the evil spirits, and cockfighting (known as Tajen) is a tradition that is mixed with such religious rituals. Cockfights are required at temple and purification ceremonies.

“In Bali, during certain ceremonies, blood must be spilt to pacify the bhutas, the evil spirits that live underground. A cockfighting arena is built next to the temple. The judge strikes a gong; the fighting starts."

Although Indonesia has legally banned cockfighting because of gambling, some temples in Bali still hold tajen or cockfighting bouts. The local police is loath to prevent such bouts since the prevailing belief is that these are protected by the deities of the temples. There are ancient texts proving that the cockfighting ritual has existed for centuries, so Balinese police can legitimately look the other way.

I have photographed a tajen, a cockfight, in Bali last August and produced Tajen, Bali Cockfights, an audio slideshow, which is also on Vimeo.

Via Steve Huff's Blog

POV: More On Shooting From The Hip

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

My recent Is Shooting From The Hip...Photography? post seems to have struck a chord with many of my regular readers, as well as with new ones. The post received one of the highest numbers of hits since The Travel Photographer blog came into existence in 2007.

In it, I was wondering if shooting from the hip was really photography. I included a photograph of a woman eating McDonald french fries in Times Square, and bemoaned the fact that I didn't use my eye to compose it, nor did I frame it in the viewfinder....it was a sort of "eyeless" photography.

I received a large number of emails, as well as some Twitter reactions, to my question. There seemed (unscientifically-speaking) to be an even split between those who enjoyed 'shooting from the hip' and those who didn't...but occasionally resorted to it in situations where bringing a camera to one's eye would be too intrusive.

One of the reactions to my airing of thoughts was from Scott Strazzante, the Chicago Tribune photojournalist whose excellent street photographs are on his Shooting From The Hip blog, who believes that "eyeless" photography is photography. I encourage you to read the post and follow Scott's blog...it's replete with lovely street candid photographs.

"Sort of like setting up a remote camera. You control the mechanics of the photography but don't really know what you are going to get." Scott Strazzante

I concede that successful 'shooting from the hip' or the "eyeless" photography as I called it, requires a bunch of fundamental ingredients. The first is that it requires the photographer who is using the technique to be singularly adept in framing the scene/action without a viewfinder...and the second is to enjoy the surprise, the experience and the low viewpoint....and the third is that doing otherwise would either spoil the "candor" of the moment or the scene.

The latter ingredient was certainly the primary motivator in the above photograph. The couple was clearly enjoying what was a private moment in the center of Times Square...he was perhaps proposing or perhaps they were professing undying love to each other...and raising my M9 to my eye would have spoiled the moment for them and for me.

This photograph was not cropped...but was straightened a little bit, as the horizontals were not...well, perfectly horizontal.

It's the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC today...and weather permitting, I'll walk to Fifth Avenue and see if shooting from the hip will be helpful.

Fotopedia & NatGeo Traveler: Dreams of Burma

Fotopedia, the publisher of popular apps for the iPhone and iPad, as well as the creator of a collaborative photographic encyclopedia, is working with National Geographic Traveler magazine to introduce a new, free app, “Dreams of Burma”, a spectacular digital exploration of the beauty of Burma.

“Dreams of Burma” is a visual journey packed with more than 1,000 stunning photographs, virtual excursions, trip-building capabilities, social tools for sharing photos, beautiful slideshows and wallpapers.

“If you have been to Burma, this app will transport you back there in an instant. And if you haven’t seen it yet, you may fall in love.” Jean Marie Hullot, CEO of Fotopedia.

I've downloaded the app, and I have started exploring it. I must say that the photography is gorgeous...work by photographers such as Bertrand Devimeux, Eric Lafforgue, Eric Daney, Jean-Marie Huliot, Giancarlo de Luca and many others grace the app that glides effortless and beautifully on the iPad screen.

I highly recommend it...it's free, it beautiful and it's informative. What's not to like?

If you seek more of images of Burma's people, drop by my own People of the Thanaka.

As a footnote: I have no relationship whatsoever with Fotopedia. It's just a gorgeous application.