travling photography

Photo � Chan Qu | Courtesy NEOCHA  The string puppets of Myanmar (previously known as Burma) are called Yoke Th� ( meaning "miniatures"). It originated from royal patronage and were gradually adapted for the wider populace. The puppets or marionettes are intricately made, and require considerable dexterity as they are "controlled" by 18 or 19 wires for male and female characters respectively, especially as each puppet can only be controlled by only one puppeteer. It is thought that Burmese marionettes originated around 1780 and were introduced to the courts of the time by a Minister of Royal Entertainment, U Thaw. Little has changed since the creation of the art, and puppet characters are still used today. However, the art went into decline during the colonization of Upper Burma by the British in November 1885 following the Third Anglo-Burmese War. It is said that because the puppets were mere wooden dolls, their �speech�, although voiced by humans, was allowed more...

Venice by Lidia D'Opera on Exposure After so much focus on Southeast and South Asia on the pages of The Travel Photographer blog, I think my readers and I are ready for a change of geography...and Venice and its famous carnival is probably one of the most jarring, but visually breathtaking- segue from one region of the world to another. The Carnival of Venice (known locally as Carnevale di Venezia) ends with the Christian celebration of Lent, forty days before Easter, on Mardi Gras, the day before Ash Wednesday. To make it simple, it will be held between the dates of February 11-28, 2017. It is known for its elaborate costumery and masks. While it is uncertain as to the reason for the earliest mask wearing in Venice, it is said by some that covering the face in public was a unique Venetian response to one of the most rigid class hierarchies in European history back in the 13th century. There are distinct types of masks with names such as Bauta, Colombina, The Plague Doctor, Moret...

Photo �  Shankar Subramanian - All Rights Reserved I may consider myself as an old hand in India, but I cannot justify the reason for not having been to its "seven sisters" yet. The Seven Sister States are India's contiguous states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura in northeastern India...and this is a huge blot on my record. One of Nagaland's most attractive festivals is the Hornbill Festival, named after the bird, and which is one of the largest celebrations of its indigenous warrior tribes, who live in India's far north east region. The hornbill bird is particularly revered by the Nagas and is reflected in tribal folklore, dances and songs. The festival is organized by the state government and is attended by all of Nagaland's major tribes. It features traditional arts, dances, folk songs, and games. So it's with pleasure that I feature Shankar Subramanian's Hornbill Festival photo gallery. He has photog...

The first blog post   Shakespeare  wrote   �...the   swiftest   hours,  observed  as   they   flew...�   And indeed, the ten years since I started this blog have flown swiftly, and many milestones have been reached during that decade. Over 3400 posts. Almost 4,000,000 unique views. Over 900 travel photographers were written about; some multiple times. Over 2000 followers. Over 400 posts on India, and over 130 posts on Vietnam. More than 200 Point Of Views...some acerbic, some rants, some wide-off-the-mark, some spot-on. Personal opinions on cameras and lenses (my own tools) that I use and take on my travels. According to statistics, its readership is worldwide, and stretches from the United States to Japan. I frequently receive complimentary and thank you emails (or social media comments) from readers and from featured photographers. I started the blog whilst in London in January 2007; on a whim and named it The Travel Photographer becau...

Photo � Diane Durongpisitkul - All Rights Reserved "I'm a wanderer who happens to own a pretty nice camera."  I like that quote because its simplicity and humor...and I also like the length and breadth of Diane Durongpisitkul's photographic work....and admire its variety. I feature Diane's work on the backstage world of a travelling Chinese Opera in Thailand , as this genre is also one I am interested in, and hopeful of finding enough time to start a long term project on before it evaporates from the pressures of modernity.  These performers seem caked in make-up, and carry on an art form under threat by changing cultural habits and demographics. Chinese opera -aside from China and Taiwan- is progressively getting forgotten, and soon may vanish as new generations ignore it, and are disinterested in this ancient 'imported' art form. The Chinese Opera troupes around Thailand are usually commissioned by Chinese temples, and may travel the country ext...

As readers of this blog know, I spent the better part of the past two years on a wonderful project documenting/photographing/researching the indigenous Vietnamese Mother Goddesses religion (known as �?o M?u) and its rituals (known as H?u �?ng and/or L�n d?ng) in H� N?i and in the northern regions of Vietnam. A few weeks after the birth and publication of my photo book H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam , �?o M?u was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity. This prestigious acknowledgement was received in Vietnam with enormous nationalistic pride as it honors its heritage, and I was privileged to have had the opportunity to give three talks and multiple television interviews about my book, the project and how a non-Vietnamese was able to acquire an expertise in these rituals. On returning to New York City, still reeling from the euphoric feeling of having done a meaningful project, I decided I would try to interest one of the p...

Photo � Mattia Passarini - All Rights Reserved The word tattoo is derived from the Tahitian "tatu" which means "to mark something." It is claimed that tattooing has existed since 12,000 years BC, and its purpose has varied from culture to culture and from era to era. The recent tattoo popularity in the Western world most probably has its origins in Egypt during the time of the construction of the great pyramids. When the Egyptians expanded their empire, the art of tattooing spread as well. The civilizations of Crete, Greece, Persia, and Arabia picked up and expanded the art form, and China joined in around 2000 BC.*  Inked Faces by Mattia Passarini is a gallery featuring various tribal individuals sporting intricate tattoos. I found the most extreme to be the Ramnami of Chhattisgarh who tattoo the word "Ram" on their whole bodies. Also included are the Konya, the Khonds, the Baga, the Apatani; all from the far reaches of India. The Chin of Burma, the Li a...

Photo � Ania Blazejewska -All Rights Reserved I should preface this post that some of the photographs are of tasteful nudity, and may be considered as NSFW. Ania Blazejewska's Old Bali gallery , which only appears on her Polish-language blog, is of set up scenes with models to represent life on the island as it was many years ago, before its becoming a tourist destination. Her photographs are tasteful and luminescent, and the models chosen for this particular photo shoot are all just gorgeous. Through these arranged scenes, she has recreated a traditional Balinese way of life, with roosters (for the cock fights), the religious offerings ( canang sari ), the temples, the abundant fruits, the dances, the gamelan, and markets. This may not be travel photography as such, but it's certainly "time travel' photography with reenactment of what may have been commonplace in Bali in the 1920's or earlier. One can view actual old images here to see the accuracy of th...

Photo � Viet Ha Tran-All Rights Reserved My previous blog post dealt with the question as to whether the Fujifilm X-Pro 2's capabilities mitigates my "need" for acquiring its medium format GFX 50S to seriously indulge in my interest in "fashion-lifestyle-travel" photography. I concluded the jury was still out, and that most probably the X-Pro 2 was more than capable of producing exquisite images without the weight and cost associated with its medium format cousin. As I was checking Google News for recent updates on my photo book H?u �?ng: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam  in the Vietnamese newspapers, I chanced on an article lauding the work of a Vietnamese phot ographer, whose name I was not familiar with, and who wasn't in my extensive Facebook network. Some of the work I viewed exemplified what I am interested in pursuing (to a certain extent). I chose the lovely photograph above, which is one of many in Ms Viet Ha Tran's The Soul of Vietnam gallery,...

Photo � Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved (X-Pro2 + 16-55mm) I am not an impulse buyer, not do I have the dreaded (or lauded) Gear Acquisition Syndrome but when I saw that Fujifilm announced the imminent arrival of its medium-format GFX 50S, I admit my pulse raced a little faster than usual. I own an old film Mamiya 645 along with an equally old 80mm 2.8 Mamiya lens in a drawer somewhere, crippled by an unfixable broken shutter according to the Japanese repair center that looked at it a few months ago. It has been infrequently used, so it may have been either a manufacturing defect, or a mishandling on my part. Consequently, medium format wasn't on my radar screen until the Fuji GFX 50S announcement. According to the prevailing mix of facts and rumors, the mirrorless GFX 50S will be released on February 23, 2017 at a body price of $6500. It is weather-sealed and uses the X-Processor Pro (used in X-T2/X-Pro2), and has a 51.4MP 44 x 33mm Medium Format Bayer Sen...

Photo � Souvid Datta - All Rights Reserved One easily falls head over heels for India. No question about it. It happened to me in 1998, and I've traveled to its four corners (with some exceptions) over 20 times, imbibing its people, sights, smells, cultures, music and everything in between. It's well known for its diversity, various physiognomies, languages, religions, traditions and cultures. Across the country�s 29 states, over 500 dialects are spoken, over 800 million reside in booming metropolises, and its rural enclaves are home to over 2000 tribes. However modernity and globalization exact a price on all nations; especially those with traditions and cultures as deep as those of India. And may well cause the disappearance of its tribes, cultural practices and musicians. For example, the dancing Veerghase troops of Karnataka, the formidable hunting tribes of Nagaland, the revered Kawaili singers of Rajasthan: these groups, once essential and symbolic of their regions, may n...