Tony Smith: Kumbh Mela

Photo © Tony Smith-All Rights ReservedTony Smith is an adventurous Welsh photographer who, at the age of 15 joined a cargo ship to South America...and this is how his world travel started. He worked on ocean liners, and subsequently on dry land in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Johannesburg in South Africa and London before settling down in Winchester. He's been deeply involved in travel photography to the point it's developed into a second career. He tells us in his biography that nothing pleases him more than attending and photographing cultural and religious festivals: the more difficult and remote the better.Tony is an Associate member of the prestigious Royal Photographic Society. His travels have taken him to Nepal, Bhutan, India, France, China,...

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Posted in: Festivals,India,Photographers: Travel

Talking With Our Hands?

All Photos © Neal Jackson-All Rights ReservedI just stumbled on this collage of photographs made by Neal Jackson during the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (FPW) in Manali last June.It appears that some the FPW instructors are fond of using their hands whilst conducting their classes....virtually the same gestures and mannerisms!From the top left is Michael Robinson Chavez, top right is Ron Haviv, bottom right (in red) is Ami Vitale, and bottom left is Tewfic El-Sawy (The Travel Photographer). Click on it for a larger version.The 2010 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is scheduled for 20 – 26 June in Istanb...

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Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

WTF!? Waiting For The GF1...

On May 24, 2010 I ordered the Panasonic GF1 with a 20mm f/1.7 lens from Amazon for $812 (excluding NY tax), which listed it as being in stock. I chose the Super Saver shipping discount so I was charged nothing for shipping.Not a bad deal cost-wise since it saves me a little money, except for this: on receiving my order, Amazon emailed me its confirmation that the shipping date was estimated June 1, or a full 8 days after its being ordered. Why? Does it take 8 days for an Amazon employee to locate the camera? Is it hiding behind stocked books? Is there a game of hide & seek going on? Would paying expedited shipping costs make the employee look any faster? Perhaps run instead of walk? It's in stock and it's shipped from Amazon itself, so...

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Posted in: Rants

Underage Marriage in India

Photo © Prakash Hatvalne/AP Photo-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Prakash Hatvalne/AP Photo-All Rights ReservedTwo photoblogs, MSNBC's Photoblog and The Denver Post's Plog, featured images from a mass marriage ceremony held recently in the town of Rajgarh, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Both are credited to Prakash Hatvalne/AP Photo.The top photograph is of Mamta (7 years old) standing with her husband Santosh, who is 11 years old. While the lower photograph is of an under-age newly married couple who refused to be identified.While Indian law sets 18 as the minimum age for a woman to marry and 21 for a man, underage weddings occur in rural areas, where the law is seldom observed. Sociologists believe that child marriages originated 900 years...

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Posted in: India,Photojournalism

My Work: Orissa & Chhattisgarth

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedHere are two images made while traveling in Chhattisgarh and the neighboring Orissa. There were made using my first digital camera, the Canon 10D...remember that one?The first is of an Odissi dancer in Bhubaneswar. Odissi is one of the eight classical dance forms of India. It originates from the state of Orissa, in eastern India. On the basis of archaeological evidence, it's the oldest surviving dance form of India.The second is of an adivasi in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, whom I found amongst the thousands of tribal people who congregated at one of the weekly haats. It's estimated there are 300 haats in Bastar, where villagers come to buy basic necessities,...

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Posted in: India,TTP Show Off

POV: The Guardian Eyewitness iPad App

I saw this posted on various blogs, and thought I'd add my two cents. It's the newly released Guardian Eyewitness app for the Apple iPad, shown off by photographer David Levene. I can't argue with the premise that it's gorgeous...but what does it bring to the table beyond what a laptop and/or netbook already does? The Guardian photographs can be appreciated on a laptop/netbook as well, no?I have a Mac Book Pro and its display is equally gorgeous. I have a cheap Acer netbook, and its display is certainly not as great, but it's cheaper than the iPad, and it allows me to use all types of software, and fiddle with my photographs using Lightroom...infuriatingly slow perhaps, but it does, and iPad does not.I frequently visit the Apple store in the Meatpacking district to play with the iPad (by the...

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Posted in: Hard Gear,Multimedia,POV

Wenjie Yang: Nuo Opera

Photo © Wenjie Yang-All Rights ReservedWenjie Yang is a freelance photographer, who was born and raised in Shanghai. She comes to photography and photojournalism with a background in advertising production and production of movie crews for a number of years.She currently attends the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism One-Year Certificate Program at International Center of Photography, and worked on editorial assignments from various magazines, including “Travel + Leisure”, “Marie Claire”, “Elle Decoration”, "Burn Magazine" and “Chinese Photographers”. She also was awarded third prize in the 2008 National Geographic International Photography Contest (China Region).Wenjie introduces us to Nuo Opera through her photo essay here.Nuo opera...

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Posted in: China,Photographers: Photojournalists

HabbyCam DSLR Shoulder-Mount

This shoulder mount might be useful to those who use DSLRs for movie making. It's called the HabbyCam (don't ask me why) and it's reasonably priced at $250.It's essentially a brace, is made of aluminum and stainless steel, and weighs only 3 lbs. The shoulder bracket is drilled with holes that can accommodate other accessories such as sound recorders and the like.I don't have it so can't recommend it, but it certainly looks as if it could work well. I'm guess some enterprising person will eventually cobble one from hardware found cheaply at Home Depot etc.Found via WIRED's Gadget L...

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Posted in: Innovative Stuff

Asim Rafiqui: The Idea of India

"!--!--"The close relationships between the island’s Muslim and Hindu communities in fact reveal a blurring of religious and spiritual lines, reminding us of the artificiality of the labels of ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ and the ordinary human being’s ability to find accommodation and tolerance of the practices and values of his neighbors." - Gujarat’s Faded Testaments – The Parables Of Bet DwarkaAsim Rafiqui is not only an excellent photojournalist, photographer, a thoughtful blogger, writer and commentator, but also a friend and an inspiration in many ways. I've written a number of posts on his wonderful project The Idea of India, and its being supported by The Aftermath Project and Blue Earth Alliance in the past year, so it gives me great pleasure...

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

Antonin Kratochvil : Moscow Nights

Here's an audio slideshow of photographs by Antonin Kratochvil titled "Moscow Nights" that takes us to Moscow's decadent underworld, which is the latest feature on VII Magazine. The images themselves are vintage Kratochvil; some of which are tilted to impart uncomfortable tension (and also to be different). Although he's known for his black and white documentary photography, a few here are in color, and all show the dissolute circus-like atmosphere of this other dimension. The accompanying soundtrack is of a popular Russian music played on the accordion.The blurb that accompanies Moscow Nights suggests that it's hard not to feel "the raw edge and danger" that exists in that underworld.I may be mistaken, but I haven't felt that at all. All I...

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Posted in: Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

Books: The Complete Photographer

My work will appear in The Complete Photographer by Tom Ang, which is being published by Dorling Kindersley Limited. According to Amazon, the book will be released on July 19, 2010.I"ll be featured as a Master of Travel Photography, with a profile and work resume. The Complete Photographer encourages photographers to explore every discipline and experiment with different approaches, and is based around tutorials on ten different genres-Portraits, Landscape and Nature, Fashion, Wildlife, Sport, Documentary, Events, Travel, Architecture, and Fine A...

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Posted in: Books,Photographers: Travel

WTF Department: Ridiculous Bling

Here's a piece of ridiculous bling which ought to be filed in The Travel Photographer's WTF Department's compost heap, along with the Leica Hermes.Found in this week's The New York Time's T-Magazine is a Yves Saint-Laurent travel adapter, which will cost $450 whoever is silly enough to buy it. Mind you, the blurb tells us that fashion has come to the rescue of the stylish travelers who have had to use the "less-than-beautiful electrical doohickeys", especially since these come in cute fuchsia, black and violet leather bags.A suggestion for the "stylish travelers": why don't you buy this doohickey from Kensington for $29 instead, and give the difference to a worthwhile charity? It does exactly the same thing and even looks the same. I realize...

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Posted in: Rants

My Work: Vedic Gurukul

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedDuring my Theyyams of Malabar Photo~Expedition™ in early 2009, I had arranged for a photo shoot at an ancient Vedic 'gurukul' (or training/boarding school very similar to the Buddhist monasteries for novitiates, or a Muslim madrasa) in Thrissur, where we were treated to a demonstration of this way of teaching the sacred Vedic scriptures.The Vedas are the earliest literary record of the Indo-Aryan civilization, and the most sacred books of India. These are the original scriptures of Hindu teachings. The oral tradition of the Vedas consists of several rhythmic recitations and...

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Travel

The Travel Photographer's Statistics

For some reason, my earlier post on this got deleted...So here it is again:I thought a little trumpet blowing would be appropriate this Sunday morning...so here goes.The Travel Photographer blog is ranked 1st when searching using Google for "The Travel Photographer" (it's sort of obvious, but it's still cool)...Using Google, it ranks 2nd when searching for "Travel Photographer" which is really phenomenal.And it ranks 4th when searching for "Travel Photography" which is really really phenomenal.I also found out that the blog has over 1300 feed subscribe...

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Posted in: Events

SacBee's The Frame: Mr & Mrs Sadhu

Photo Courtesy The Sacramento BeeHere's an amusing photograph featured by The Frame, the photo blog of the Sacramento Bee. It's of a sadhu and a woman "returning after bathing at the Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, in Allahabad."It's uncredited on the SacBee blog, except to say it's from AP.Although I have seen female sadhus (known as sadhvis) in Varanasi, I have rarely seen a sadhu in the company of a woman, and wonder what are these two returning to. To me, this looks like a man and his wife returning home from work. He's dressed in saffron cloths, and is carrying the Shiva trident, an accoutrement of his trade, while she's carrying some stakes. I have seen and met countless of these so-called sadhus...

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Posted in: India,Photojournalism

Munem Wasif: Old Dhaka

Photo © Munem Wasif -All Rights ReservedHere's a response in many more ways than one to Howard W. French's Old Shanghai galleries which I posted about yesterday. It's by well-known Bangladeshi photographer Munem Wasif, whose trademark gritty high-contrast black & white photographs seem to be the common denominator amongst many of his equally talented compatriot photographers.Old Dhaka -as we've seen of the old neighborhoods of Shanghai- offers endless scenes of unadulterated humanity to photographers. The Western affinity for privacy doesn't exist here. Mothers bathe their children in the open, while the elderly help one another to perform basic needs and people live virtually in the open without shame or embarrassment.It's quite evident...

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Posted in: Bangladesh,Photographers: Photojournalists

Howard W. French: Old Shanghai

Photo © Howard W. French -All Rights ReservedThe NY Times featured Howard French's exquisite portfolio of black & white photographs of residents of old Shanghai's densely packed neighborhoods inside their own homes, which is titled Discovering Shanghai's Secret City. I was so taken by this type of work (and I guarantee you will too) that I looked for Howard French's other work and discovered his main photography website, and his equally wonderful Disappearing Shanghai: The Landscape Within among other galleries.Howard French lived in Shanghai from 2003-2008 as chief of The Times’s bureau, and spent many weekends exploring the lesser known areas of Shanghai or the "densely packed place of tumbledown, two-story housing and long internal alleyways"...

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Posted in: China,Photographers: Photojournalists

David Lazar: Myanmar (Burma)

Photo © David Lazar -All Rights ReservedHere's an introduction to David Lazar, a photographer and musician hailing all the way from Brisbane, Australia. With a long roster of awards under his belt, David was the Overall Winner in the 2009 Intrepid Photography Competition, won the Best Wildlife 2008 category and the Best Culture and Portrait 2007 category in the Peregrine Photography of the World Competition. He also won the Best Landscape 2007 category in the Intrepid Adventure Photo Competition, and was published in JPGMag, Intrepid Travel Magazines, Digital Camera, and Digital Photo of the UK.He recently traveled to Burma, and returned with lovely images of this wonderful country and of its people. These images are grouped under a gallery...

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Posted in: Burma,Photographers: Travel

The 602nd Google Follower

I noticed that my list of Google Followers have now grown to over 600 people! This list is distinct from my Twitter and Facebook followers and/or friends, Feed subscribers* or from my subscribers to my newsletters.To commemorate this milestone, I've chosen to feature the 602nd Google Follower whose name is Christina Saull, a photographer from Washington, DC based photographer who works on media relations for a health non-profit organization. She also authors another blog Life Through The Lens.I'll be featuring the 700th (or so) Google Follower as well...so keep following The Travel Photographer!*I've checked...I've got twice the number of feed subscribers of PDN...go figu...

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Posted in: Events

Stuart Freedman: The Idol Makers

Photo © Stuart Freedman-All Rights ReservedPhoto © Stuart Freedman-All Rights Reserved"In Western art, few sculptors -other than perhaps Donatello or Rodin- have achieved the pure essence of sensuality so spectacularly evoked by the Chola sculptors, or achieved such a sense of celebration of the divine beauty of the human body."- William Dalrymple, Nine LivesStuart Freedman is an award-winning British writer and photographer whose work was published in, amongst others, Life, Geo, Time, Der Spiegel, Newsweek and Paris Match covering stories from Albania to Afghanistan and from former Yugoslavia to Haiti. His work has been exhibited in Visa Pour L’Image at Perpignan, The Scoop Festival in Anjou, The Leica Gallery in Germany, The Association and...

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Travel

One Shot: NYT's Rina Castelnuovo

Photo © Rina Castelnuovo-All Rights ReservedThe New York Times' Lens blog features the work of Rina Castelnuovo in Palestine & Israel. Essentially a "smooch" job by the writer, but there's no denying that she deserves every word of it. After all, she's the photographer who captured the infamous photograph of the thuggish Israeli settler tossing wine at a Palestinian woman on Shuhada Street in Hebron. Amongst Ms Castelnuovo's photographs on the Lens blog, I chose the one above as my favorite. The photograph is of a group of Haredi Jews (or Haredim) during a festival in the Mea Shearim district of Jerusalem. The Haredim are Ultra-Orthodox Jews who consider their belief system and rituals to extend in an unbroken chain back to Moses. I'm intrigued...

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Posted in: One Shot,Photographers: Photojournalists,Photojournalism

Diego Vergés: West Guinea

Photo © Diego Vergés-All Rights ReservedDiego Vergés is back at it again, and has completed uploading a couple of new galleries on his website. This time, the photographs (color and B&W) were made during Diego's recent West Guinea adventure in the Baliem Valley.The Baliem Valley is also known as the Grand Valley, and is located in the highlands of Western New Guinea. It is occupied by the Dani people who are the subject of Diego's cameras and who, because of the impenetrable territory, were only discovered in 1938. They are one of the most populous tribes in the highlands, and are found spread out through the highlands. The Dani are one of the most well-known ethnic groups in Papua, due to the small numbers of tourists who visit the Baliem...

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Posted in: Indonesia,Photographers: Travel

Marc Garanger: Femmes Algériennes

Photo © Marc Garanger -All Rights ReservedAlgeria's War of Independence from France officially lasted almost a decade, but its genesis goes back to the early 40s. It was one the bloodiest struggles against a brutal colonial power with over a million Algerians killed, with thousands interned in concentration camps. To this day, the French have not accepted responsibility for these crimes. Growing up in my native Egypt and full of nationalistic fervor against colonialism, I remember quite well the admiration we had for the Algerian resistance...the names of Ben Bella, Boumedienne, Djamila Bouhired still easily roll off my tongue.So it was with much interest that I saw recent coverage from photo websites and newsmedia on Marc Garanger, who was...

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Posted in: Africa,Photojournalism

Jehad Nga's Turkana in NYC

Photo © Jehad Nga -All Rights ReservedThe beautiful work of Jehad Nga, one of my favorite photographers, is on show at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery on the Upper East Side in New York. The exhibition runs from May 13 to June 16, 2010, and is timed to coincide with the New York Photo Festival. Limited edition prints are priced from $2,800-$10,000.The UK's Daily Telegraph also featured Jehad's Turkana work. I scratch my head in puzzlement that a UK daily would feature news of a photographic event (and images), while our own newspapers have not. Perhaps I've missed it...?For background on Jehad Nga and the Turkana images, check my earlier post he...

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Posted in: Africa,Events,Photographers: Travel

The Travel Photographer's Photo-Expeditions™ 2011

Although I haven't firmed up any decisions yet, I am starting to mull over two (of the possible 3) Photo-Expeditions™ for 2011 that will be non-Arab Islam-centric. The two expeditions' underlying themes will be documenting the existing syncretism between Islam, its Sufi offshoot and another major tradition. The itineraries will include photographing certain rituals at obscure religious sites, as well as at other locations...I can't be more specific at this stage without letting the cat out of the bag. As followers of my Photo-Expeditions™ news and of this blog know, I've decided to further accentuate the travel-documentary thrust of my photo~expeditions, and reduce the maximum number of participants to only 5 (excluding myself) on each trip....

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Posted in: Photo Tours

Steven Greaves: Kashi, City of the Dead

Photo © Steven Greaves-All Rights ReservedAmerican writer Mark Twain wrote:"Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together."Varanasi (Benares) or Kashi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and probably the oldest of India, and is one of the most sacred pilgrimage places for Hindus of all denominations. More than 1,000,000 pilgrims visit the city annually. For centuries, Hindus have come to Varanasi, the holy city on the Ganges, to attain instant moksha, or "release", at the moment of death.Steven Greaves's galleries include Kashi, City of the Dead, and Kashi, City of the Living; both which I highly recommend. Steven is a freelance photographer,...

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Travel

NPR: The Grand Trunk Road

The Grand Trunk Road played an important role in India's history at every step of its way. Some 3500 years ago, with the Aryan invasion of the subcontinent, it served as a corridor starting at the Khyber Pass winding eastward between the Himalayas and the Thar Desert onto the Gangetic plain. Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism spread through it, and Muslim proselytizers traveled on it. Since 1947, Pakistan controls the 300-mile segment between Peshawar and Lahore, while the remaining 1,250 miles link six Indian states, making it lifeline of northern India.Nowadays, the road used by Alexander the Great, Ibn Battutah, Mughals invaders and other conquerors and the just curious, is ruled by truck drivers roaring through countless tiny villages.NPR...

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Posted in: India,Multimedia,Pakistan

FP: Tomas van Houtryve's Maostalgia

Photo © Tomas van Houtryve-All Rights Reserved When one thinks of Foreign Policy magazine, large photographs and photo essays don't really come to mind...but that would be incorrect. The magazine regularly features photo essays from well-known photojournalist and, contrary to many online newsy magazines, does a nice job showcasing them in a large size.This month, Foreign Policy published Maostalgia, a photo essay by Tomas van Houtryve, who traveled in the heart of China and found Mao's legacy in the most unexpected places.For instance, he photographed in the town of Nanjie, where its government provides for all its citizens' needs, supplying them with everything from cough medicine to funerals. A different take from the recent photo essays...

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Posted in: China,Photographers: Photojournalists

NPR: Sebastian Junger On 'War'

The arm-chair warriors amongst us will like this post on NPR:"Five times between June 2007 and June 2008 the writer Sebastian Junger traveled to a remote Army outpost in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Junger, a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, made the trip to embed with a company of soldiers from the Army's 173rd Airborne brigade as they fought to keep the Taliban from controlling a small, treacherous plot of land."I have yet to read all of the article and listen to the excerpts, but I can easily predict that a book such as this one, and its supporting hoopla, glorifies war.On my flight back to NYC, I tried to watch "The Hurt Locker"...5 minutes into the movie, I turned it off. Is it eyeball fatigue from all the war coverage since 2001 or is it moral disgust...or is it bo...

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Posted in: Afghanistan,Audio,Books

Kieron Nelson: Vanishing Cultures

Photo © Kieron Nelson-All Rights ReservedThe only introduction from Kieron Nelson to his work is an email with his website's address, so I assumed he was suggesting I took a look at it and, if it passed muster, add it to The Travel Photographer blog. Well, it easily passed muster and I'm delighted it did as it's a veritable trove of lovely photographs of indigenous people and of tribal cultures. He specializes in off-the-beaten-track destinations, and traveled from the jungles of New Guinea to the tribal regions of northwest Pakistan. The photograph for this post is of a Changjiao Miao woman wearing the long horns with the traditional decorative hair bun made of linen, wool and small amounts of ancestral hair. Changjiao or "Long Horns", when...

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Posted in: Photographers: Travel

POV: Imitation...Flattery or Buggery?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedThe answer? It depends.This time, I'm not referring to visual plagiarism but to the imitation of style and copying of unimaginative itineraries in the travel photography tours/workshops industry. Many travel photographers recently awoke to the fact that tours and workshops can add a little something to their bottom line (actually, big and small name photojournalists are doing it as well), and their offerings are all over the internet. Their target market is made up of working and non-working photographers, who seek to build an inventory of images, either to show friends and neighbors, enter and hopefully win competitions, or to sell as stock and to publications. All this sounds lovely but regrettably,...

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Posted in: Photo Tours,Photographers: Travel,POV

Albert Kahn: It's A Wonderful World....

Not all bankers work for "great vampire squids wrapped around the face of humanity". Well, some may enjoy doing just that, reaping millions in the process...but others may be like Albert Kahn. Certainly a product of a different age but Albert Kahn was a wealthy French banker and philanthropist, who started an visionary project to create a color photographic record of the peoples of the world. Described as an idealist and an internationalist (aren't these two words synonymous?), Kahn used a new photographic process called autochrome, to promote cross-cultural peace and understanding.Camera-shy himself, Albert Kahn used his fortune to finance the travel of intrepid photographers to more than 50 countries around the world, at a time when age-old...

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Posted in: Photographers: Travel

Chris Blade: Omo Valley Tribes

Photo © Chris Blade-All Rights ReservedYes, I know. I'm being repetitively Omo Valley-centric this week...but I recently discovered a handful of photographers who produced lovely work from this area, and decided to string Omo Valley galleries one after the other. Once again, tea leaves readers (ie followers of my photo~expeditions) should not see anything in this.Today, I feature the work of Chris Blade from Omo Valley, although his website also has galleries of the beautiful Ethiopian Simien Mountains, Lalibela and Gondar, and Axum. Christopher Blade is a graduate from the Royal College of Art in London, and has advanced degrees in glass making and design. He manages the National Glass Centre in Sunderland. He designs and makes bespoke art...

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Posted in: Ethiopia,Photographers: Travel

RESOLVE Blog: 3 FPW Instructors Talk

liveBooks recently got an update about the impressive lineup of instructors for this year’s Foundry Photojournalism Workshop happening from June 20-26 in Istanbul, Turkey.Some of them spoke to Miki Johnson of livebooks' RESOLVE blog.Ron Haviv's favorite aspect of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is "Watching the growth of the students in such a short period of time".Ami Vitale's is "Watching students grow in the short span of the workshop is incredible".And mine is "the mutual camaraderie and unfettered sharing of knowledge, information, and support between instructors and students/attendees".Read the rest on RESOL...

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Posted in: Events,Photojournalism

Marco Paoluzzo: Omo Valley

Photo © Marco Paoluzzo-All Rights ReservedYes, it does seem that I'm on an Omo Valley streak...and why not? Here's another photographer who showcases his work in Ethiopia. His work doesn't stop at the Omo Valley, but explores many of the country's corners.Marco Paoluzzo is a Swiss photographer who worked as a freelance photographer for advertising and industry, and then took up travel photography in 1996. His work appeared in the National Geographic Traveler, Geo, Altaïr, Traveller UK, Stern, Paris Match, Nikon News, Leica Fotografie International, and Die Zeit amongst others. He has also published a number of travel photography books.I was tempted to feature Marco's work of Ethiopian Christianity instead, but I'm sure you'll explore his website...

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Posted in: Ethiopia,Photographers: Travel

Lightroom 3's Ice Climbing Ad

It's only because I like Lightroom a lot and use it virtually all the time that I agreed to post this advert on The Travel Photographer's Blog. As my readers know, I don't place any ads on this blog, but I occasionally write on products that I like and use...and Lightroom makes that cut.Tyler Stableford is an adventure photographer, and was given the challenge of shooting an ice climbing expedition and perfecting his images with the help of Lightroom 3 beta...

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Posted in: Soft Gear

Sarah Elliott: Women of Omo Valley

Photo © Sarah Elliott-All Rights ReservedSarah Elliott interned for James Nachtwey and assisted Stanley Greene, and traveled extensively around the world pursuing social issues. Her work was opublished by The New York Times, The LA Times, IHT, The Guardian, Monocle, The Observer, Financial Times and the Red Cross and many more.Sarah's galleries include images and essays from Rwanda, Kenya, Somali Pirates, New Orleans, Rajasthan, The Mormons, Tibet, Tonle Sap Lake and portraits of the Women of the Omo Valley. These are 26 frontal portraits of the tribal women, ranging from the Mursi to Karo. These are simple black & white portraits, quite different from the work of other photographers like Brent Stirton, who used strobes for his environmental...

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Posted in: Ethiopia,Photographers: Travel

POV:iPad & Photography Redux

The New York Times reports that Apple announced it had sold one million units of its iPads as of Friday last week, and that demand outstrips supply. Apple also said there were now 5,000 iPad-specific apps available for the device.Macworld also published a first look review at Apple's $29 iPad Camera Connection Kit, which confirms that the device can upload and store RAW images (nef and cr2) but there isn't a way to edit these images as yet. The iPad generates JPEG versions of these files, and it's these that iPad users can email, create sideshows with, and edit with 3rd party applications.I am not convinced this device is an accessory can serve photographers in its current iteration. Some photographers (mostly studio) perhaps will use it as...

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Posted in: Hard Gear

Jonathan Maher: Venice

Photo © Jonathan Maher-All Rights ReservedIt's not often that I feature European travel photography, so I thought I'd break the mold today by featuring the work of Jonathan Maher on Venice and its Carnival.I've not been to Venice during Carnival yet, but know a number of photographers who've been and returned with splendid work. I visited Venice a few years ago, ill prepared for its acqua alta season, and still recall walking in soggy shoes. Jonathan Maher is an English travel photographer currently based in Italy. His work is principally based around travel and documentary projects and themes. His biography describes his style as being "reductive" or narrowing the frame down to the critical and essential components. Aside his work in Venice,...

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Posted in: Events,Photographers: Travel

Giulio di Sturco: Dreaming Fashion

I've been meaning to feature Giulio di Sturco's photography for a while now, and recently revisited his website, to which he added a number of galleries.One of those consists of his work during Indian Fashion Week in New Delhi, and is titled Dreaming Fashion. You may wonder what I chose to feature this gallery on what is essentially a travel photography blog. My rationale is multi-faceted: this gallery of edgy fashion and striking models underscores the enormous strides made by India in becoming an Asian economic powerhouse with a new growing middle class and modernizing cities, but also emphasizes the growing wealth disparity between its haves and have-nots.Another reason is Giulio's photographic style. His blurry photographs impart both a...

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Posted in: India,Photographers: Photojournalists

One Shot: Kate Holt

Photograph © Kate Holt-All Rights ReservedI'm severely pressed for time, so this post will unfortunately be short in prose but hopefully not in substance. I just thought to showcase this magnificent photograph by Kate Holt of an Afghan woman holding a malnourished infant at a therapeutic feeding center in Kandahar.Kate is a news and features photographer, covering events throughout Africa and Afghanistan. PS. Being tall, I'm quite fond of environmental photographs of that type, which tell a story from "above". Many photojournalists/photographers seem to prefer frontal views for obvious reasons, but in this case where faces are covered, Kate's choice of vantage point is just perfe...

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Posted in: Afghanistan,Photographers: Photojournalists

Bruno Barbey: Shanghai World Expo

Not entirely travel photography related but Magnum In Motion is featuring an audio slideshow of Bruno Barbey's photographs of the construction of Shanghai's World Expo construction site and parts of its old city.Shanghai saw the opening of the 2010 World Expo today, starting an event to herald the Chinese financial hub's return as a major world city after the spartan industrialism following the 1949 communist revolution.According to the news reports here in the UK, no expense was spared and like the 2008 Olympics, the World Expo will showcase China's immense economic and geopolitical importance; almost bragging its power and influence. I haven't been to Shanghai yet, but it's quite obvious the degree by which China has developed, and is continuing...

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Posted in: China,Multimedia,Photojournalism