Update 2: Delhi

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights ReservedNotwithstanding everyone's assurances in Delhi that the thick fog which currently envelops it is not unusual, I have never seen it as dense...and it's colder than I expected. Having said that, it's always a joy to be in Delhi at the cusp of another photo~expedition.Two of the photo~expedition members are already in Delhi; Terri Gold and...

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Update 1: On The Road: London

As much as I love London, I must say that it's quite dreary at this time of year, so I'm glad it's only a short stop over this time. I flew Virgin Atlantic's morning flight from Newark to London, and had two small carry-ons with me. My small Domke and a canvas laptop shoulder bag. I "linked" both with carabiners, and had them stuffed with all my photo gear as well as my Acer netbook....

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Quinn Ryan Mattingly: Puja

Puja from Quinn Ryan Mattingly on Vimeo.Quinn attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Manali last summer, and photographed (and videographed) one of the rituals occuring right at the heart of this northern Indian town. Rajasthani families descend on Manali during the summer season looking for work and to escape the torrid heat of their state. Naturally, they bring their own rituals, which include daily prayers when some the devotees enter...

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NGS: India's Nomads

The National Geographic has just published an online feature on India's Lost Nomads. I consider this to be a highly auspicious coincidence as I am about to embark on the Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™, whose objectives is to document some of these tribes in a similar geographic area of India.The informative article is by John Lancaster, who was East Asia...

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The EVIL Cameras

WIRED's Gadget Lab blog has a fresh article titled 5 Reasons To Ditch Your DSLR, which essentially reaffirms my prediction as in my earlier post POV: Travel Photography Adjustment.To paraphrase the WIRED article, the 5 reasons are smaller size, great quality of images, interchangeable lenses, speed of operation, low-profile, but are expensive. By the way, EVIL stands for Electronic...

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On The Road: Rajasthan & Gujarat

I'm completing my packing today, cramming the last few items in my bags as best I can, hoping that my checked in luggage won't burst at the seams with all the cables, chargers, and photo paraphernalia that just won't fit my carry-on. Tomorrow, I'll be on my way to meet up with the rest of the Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ group in Delhi (after stopping...

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POV: No To Walking Billboards?

Here's a lighthearted tongue-in-cheek post.In the midst of packing my stuff for about 3 weeks on the road in Rajasthan and Gujarat, and at the risk of being tarred and feathered by the various manufacturers of photographic soft accessories such as Think Tank, Domke, Lowepro etc, I thought my readers would be interested in my alternative choice to the high priced pouches that are...

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WSJ Photo Journal: Magh Mela

Photo © Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press-All Rights ReservedThe preponderance of religious bathing festivals in India is really confusing. The Wall Street Journal Photo Journal featured the above photograph of a Hindu holy man drying his clothes after a ritualistic bath in the River Ganges during the annual Magh Mela in Allahabad. However, the Ardh Kumbh is also being held in...

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Dialects at the ICP

Mansi Midha's photography work, along with that of 26 other talented photographers and photojournalists will be seen at the International Center of Photography in an exhibit running from January 15 to March 28, 2010.The venue is held at the ICP's Education Gallery on 1114 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street with an opening reception on January 15 from 6:00–8:00 pmDialects presents...

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Haiti's Tragedy: f/8 And Be There

Photo © Tequila Minsky /NYTimes-All Rights ReservedThe old adage (sometimes attributed to Arthur Fellig aka Weegee) of "f/8 and be there", meaning that being on the scene is more important than anything else, was borne out with the story in The New York Times that Tequila Minsky, a freelance New York City photographer, was in her hotel in Port-au-Prince when the horrific earthquake...

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Kevin German: Mount Everest

Not many people have their 30th birthday at a base camp of Mount Everest, but Kevin German is one of them, and Luceo Images showcases his photo essay here.Kevin German studied photography and journalism at Washington State University, and worked for newspapers from California to Florida. In 2008, he moved to Vietnam to focus on humanitarian documentaries, where co-founded the collective...

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POV: Travel Photography Adjustment?

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm using the final few days to organize my photo gear before flying to Delhi to lead my Tribes of South Rajasthan & Kutch Photo~Expedition™ which starts January 23. Since the attempted airline incident on Christmas day, I've been fiddling with various options in order to maximize the amount of indispensable gear I can carry in one small...

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Massimo Berutti: Afghan Vaccination

Photo © Massimo Berutti-All Rights ReservedThe Wall Street Photo Journal has featured a photojournalistic gem on its Photo Journal titled Vaccination Diplomacy of black & white photographs by Massimo Berutti.In my view, it's a singular gem because it's not an Afghanistan reportage of foaming-at-the-mouth wild-eyed hirsute mujahideen aka jihadists aka Taliban (or whatever the...

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POV: To Pay or Not To Pay?

I've read a post on the Lightstalkers forum that a popular photo blog featuring documentary photographers will start charging photographers a review/publishing fee. The $50 fee is said to help cover the editing and administrative time involved.The photo blog features an emerging documentary photographer every 2-3 days, and claims that as a result, a number of photographers have...

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Noor & Nikon Workshop

Here's news I find uplifting, and which proves that altruism is not dead in the photo industry.. NOOR photo agency and Nikon have agreed to support documentary photographers from emerging markets all of over the world through the organization of annual motivational masterclasses. The next program will take place in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, at the Foundation of informational and...

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Greg Constantine: Ardh Kumbh Mela

The Ardh Kumbh is being held in Haridwar from January 14 to April 28, 2010, and knowing that a number of photographers are making their way to attend it, I thought it opportune to post Greg Constantine's Ardh Kumbh Mela audio slideshow which was held in Prayag in 2007.The main objective in attending the Kumbh Mela is to bathe in the Ganges. It is said that bathing in sacred rivers...

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National Geographic Does Big

© Harikrishna Katragadda/Courtesy National Geographic-All Rights ReservedThe National Geographic Society's website been completely rejigged to present what its SVP Rob Covey describes as having a new, super-clean look with high-tech underpinnings.Using well chozen buzzwords, the website is described as having "high impact visuals with uncluttered typography to provide a new standard...

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NYTimes: 31 Places To Go In 2010

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights ReservedThe New York Times published a feature on the 31 places to go in 2010, as well as an interactive world map listing its readers' (and its own) top recommendations. I suppose the results, which so far list Istanbul as the readers' first choice, will provide the editors with assignment ideas for its photographers and writers to work on this...

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Recent Kudos To The Travel Photographer

I think the British are great...read on and you'll know why I say this.Adam Westbrook is a freelance multimedia journalist, blogger & lecturer with several years experience in television, radio and online. His blog is one the best multimedia-biased on the internet, and if you haven't bookmarked yet, you should.He recently published a free e-book titled 6×6, wich is a series...

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Book Event: 100 New York Photographers

The 100 New York Photographer book, in which my biography and four of my travel photographs of Ethiopia, Bhutan, and Burma are prominently featured, will be the subject of a book signing event at Rizzoli Bookstore at 57th Street in New York City on January 22, 2010.The book's author Cynthia Maris Dantzic and special guests (presumably some of the photographers in the book) will...

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Peter Turnley: A Life In Photography

Photo © Peter Turnley -All Rights ReservedPeter Turnley just penned an introspective published on The Online Photographer, which he describes as one of the few times he so exhaustively expresses his connection to the passion of seeing and photographing. Here's one of the most insightful excerpts: "People often ask me how I keep my spirit from becoming cynical, jaded, and pessimistic...

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Stephen Alvarez: Maya Underworld

Photo © Stephen Alvarez -All Rights ReservedAs readers of this blog know, I'm a proselytizer of large photographs for websites portfolios, and have made this preference very obvious through various postings and with my own photographic galleries. I cannot understand photographers who still exhibit dinky small photographs on their websites...in my view, they're not taking proper...

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Gulf Photo Plus Responds

Mohamed Somji of Dubai's Gulf Photo Plus (GPP) has responded to my criticisms which I raised in my earlier post. Here's his response:Hi Tewfic,Thanks for your blog post about our annual event. We had a quick email exchange last year and believe me, I would like nothing more than to have more local/regional Arab and Asian photographers but please understand a couple of things:(i)...

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Asian Geo: Photo Contest 2009 Results

This is a belated post on the results of the Asian Geo magazine Photo Contest 2009 results. Some exceptional photographs have been compiled by the magazine in a flash-based flip viewer which is mildly irritating to use, but the quality of the photographs more than compensate for this. Sometimes simplicity is best, but the desire for innovative presentation techniques trumps reason.Graham...

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New Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II

Canon has quietly released the new EF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS II USM. It claims that while its physically similar to it's predecessor, the new lens features a revised optical design, incorporating a fluorite element and no fewer than 5 UD elements for the correction of chromatic aberrations. According to Canon's press release, photographers can now stand nearly 8 inches closer to their...

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POV: Gulf Photo Plus (Dubai)

If anyone thought Dubai's financial difficulties would diminish its appetite for hosting international cultural hooplas, they ought to think again. Dates for the annual Gulf Photo Plus (GPP) event have been confirmed as the 1st to the 6th March 2010. This is trumpeted as the region’s only hands-on dedicated photography event. It will be a week long event packed with over 50 workshops,...

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NYT/Adam Ferguson: The Hazaras

Photo © Adam Ferguson /NYTimes-All Rights ReservedToday's The New York Times features a photo essay of Adam Ferguson's photographs titled The Resurgence of the Hazaras. Those who have seen the movie The Kite Runner (and/or read the book) will remember that the Hazara (Shi'a) minority of Afghanistan were historically dominated and discriminated against by the Pashtun (Sunni) majority....

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POV: Flying For Photographers (Part 2)

Politico and other news outlets reported that the TSA (effective January 4, 2010) has tightened its rules for all travelers flying into the United States from foreign countries. This means tightened random screening, and all passengers from terrorism-prone countries will be patted down and have their carry-ons searched.So far there's no clarification as to limits on personal carry-on...

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Eric Beecroft: Delhi Nights

Photo © Eric Beecroft -All Rights ReservedReaders of this blog are familiar with Eric Beecroft as he's been mentioned on its pages quite a number of times; most often in connection with Foundry Photojournalism Workshop of which he is its energetic co-founder.Eric teaches photography, photojournalism/documentary photography, history, geo-politics and anthropology for the Walden...

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My Work: Godown Worker (Kochi)

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy |Traders of Kochi-All Rights ReservedAmongst my undeclared 2010 resolutions is to experiment with black & white photography...well, sort of. I'm revisiting some of my favorite photographs of last year, and seeing how they turn out if converted to black & white via Lightroom presets. Having limited patience and not being a pixel-pusher, LR presets...

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POV: Flying For Photographers

The recent increase in security procedures and passenger/luggage screening is/will driving/drive photographers (and others) bonkers, as it’s most probably going to get tougher to get camera gear on board a commercial plane, whether flying from the US, flying to the US or flying between countries that have nothing to do with the US. Many of these new restrictions are nonsensical,...

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