A Journey of a Thousand Miles

In my preparations for the upcoming Nepal trip I have stumbled across a Bangkok based photographer, Gavin Gough,  who is currently working in Nepal. The photos he is producing are amazing and I am a bit jealous because while I will be in Kathmandu in three more days, I only have the opportunity to stay there for two days total before flying to Lulka and then trekking the Everest base camp circuit. While I know this will yield some spectacular pictures, there is a part of me that wishes I was able to spend time in the vibrant cities, shooting daily life that comprises the routines of Nepali life.
It is however nice to see the images captured by Gavin Gough as they will not only give me ideas of the types of images to look for in Nepal, an incredible godsend in a country that I have yet had the privalidge to vist, and are acting as an inpiration and spuring me to greater levels of excitement.

I am not a huge fan of flickr. It is simply to easy to post photos there and it makes it so you have to sort through a huge amount of crap to find anything good. However, when you come across something like the Japan Set that Derek Winchester has shot recently it makes it seem worth while. The set is visually stunning and the colours have so much impact that they seem to be telling a story of their own. It is the kind of set you would expect someone who has been living in Japan full time for years to have up but Derek is based out of Japan. I have had the luck to meet him and go shooting with him a couple of times with the Seoul Photo Club and I have been watching his work for quite some time. The Japan is just one more set of fantastic photos by a great photographer and one who warrents a careful watch.

I have a photo essay in this months issue of City Life magazine. It is a magazine that has been around Chiang Mai for as long as I remember and has improved greatly since I first got here. The magazine really is first rate and I am proud that they have featured an photo essay written by yours truly. If you are in Chiang Mai, make sure you pick up a paper copy of the magazine, if you don’t do this automatically at the beginning of each month already. If not you can find an electronic copy of the magazine here.

Art Wolfe has a redone site up that is a pleasure to browse through. The site is well done and very intuitive. The images are very large, however they are quite low in resolution, which means they are not quite as nice to browse through as they could be as they always look pixelated on screen. This of course is a necessary measure to protect copyright.

Photoburst is a relatively new photo contest one the scene still, I have no idea how it has managed to elude me for so long. The concept is simple; photographers submit travel photos, and the panel of three judges pick the best ones to make the site. Each photo that is submitted will be in the valid judging for sixty days. Each day a new photo is selected to grace the site, each week a weekly winner is selected as the best of the week and each month a monthly winner is given a prize of $100 gift voucher to B&H Photo.
The quality of the photos is simply amazing, and some very big names have been submitting to the site. Unlike many photo contests Photo Burst does not make a rights grab for the photos. It is very clear in their copyright page that the copyright for each photo is maintained by individual photographers.
My favourite feature of the site though is the small map in the bottom right corner. Each photo is given a location on the map and you can explore the photos either by date or by location. It is a very good way to get an idea of the types of photos that one can expect from potential travel destinations. As Geo tagging becomes more and more popular, I am sure this is a feature that will become more and more popular on many major photo sharing sites.
My hat is off to the guys at Photo Burst. It is the best site I have come across in a long time.

Mark Fisher has a very nice collection of skiing and climbing photographs that are well worth a browse. His Black and white skiing images are particularly good, bringing life to the shadows that fall in the deep white of the mountian snow.  It brings a new life to a subject that many have previously shot.

Brent Lewin has a wonderful photo essay about the elephants of Bangkok. Elephants that were once used for logging have fallen into plying the streets of Bangkok, and other major tourist centers, working long hours in poor conditions for tourist dollars. And now as the economic slump begins to hit Thailand, it is becoming ever harder for the elephants to earn enough to eat. The elephants are also forced to live in the streets and slums of Bangkok. Vibrations from the constant traffic are picked up through the elephants highly sensitive feet and this can be very disorienting to the animals. When you see these elephants in the city, they sway too and fro, an indicator of high levels of stress.

Boston Globe’s, The Big Picture has a stunning series of satalite photography posted. I have been a long time fan of aerial photography and the effect here is very similar just on a much more grand scale. It is kind of like looking at the best of Google Earth, without having to fuss around finding things. With the budget these guys have for space exploration I can only imagine what kind of camera gear they are using. The first of the series says it was taken with a  “Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer” and I have to admit, I am fully in the dark when it comes to exactly what that means. Though I am sure it puts my lifetime gear buget to shame.

Chris Johns, the Editor in Chief of Natonal Geographic magazine has posted a short video of some of his favorite photos from this year. It is well worth a watch and the links beside it are a great starting point for further exploration of the photos that have been presented.

Here…

George Steinmetz has an amazing portfolio of aerial photography from around the world. His China portfolio, recently featured in National Geographic is of particular interest. It is amazing to see a place that has been photographed so many times from such a completely unique angle. He uses the air to tell a story and to see a side of his subjects that is seldom seen and seldom thought about.