Greg Cohen: Laos

Photograph © Greg Cohen-All Rights Reserved
Greg Cohen is originally from the East Coast, and is now living in Los Angeles. His biography tells us that he first picked up the camera in Tennessee in 1993, while living in the Smoky Mountain region. He has lived throughout the United States photographing along the way, and is now developing projects in central Africa and Southeast Asia.

I've chosen a photograph from Greg's portfolio of Laos to illustrate this post, but I urge you to explore the rest of his galleries...I stopped at one of his photographs in his India gallery of a young person (probably a girl because of the henna markings) with the most wonderful of expressions. It's #12 and was photographed in Cochin. In my view, an award winning candid photograph!

Greg Cohen

Dilemma: Keffiyeh or Krama?

The blogosphere (and cable news) are buzzing with the hilarious news that a bunch of ideologues forced Dunkin Donuts to pull an ad featuring a celebrity chef because she was wearing what was erroneously seen as a keffiyeh. The ideologues of course, consider the keffiyeh as a "symbol of violence and of anti-Israel sentiments".

This utter stupidity is compounded by the fact that the scarf is a traditional head gear worn by many tribal societies in the Middle East. The king of Saudi Arabia (currently our administration's best friend, our suppliers of oil and buyers of our government's Treasury Bills) wears one...the king of Jordan (another of our allies) wears one, as well as members of Jordan's elite military forces.

But setting this silliness aside...what are photographers and photojournalists to do now? Do we wear our keffiyehs (right) and risk being labeled as Arab sympathizers by xenophobes? What if we wore our krama (left) scarf instead? Would we be labeled as Khmer Rouge sympathizers? Oh my gosh, this is a "serious" dilemma, folks.

POV: Technogeek vs Luddite?

A recent email received from a photographer questioning technological advancements affecting our business made me think about how these made it so much easier for me to manage and operate my photo expeditions.

One of these tech advances is the blog, which can be harnessed, not only to tell the world of one's periodic musings, fantasies, etc, but to maintain a record of each photo expedition's experiences. This is true for me, as a photo expeditions leader, and for the expeditions' participants with their own blog journals.

For instance, while on a photo-expedition or on a solo photo assignment, I always carried a Moleskine notebook, in which I would scribble each day's events, filling it with notes, ideas, sketches and information. I still do that on occasions, but my current preferred method of maintaining a journal of my photo expeditions and assignments is in a private blog.

At the end of each day in the field, I devote an hour or so on my laptop to type up the day's main events, key points to remember, impressions and ideas, for eventual transferral to a blog. This creates a useful (and easily accessible) source of referral whenever I need it. My final verdict on each of my photo expeditions is also entered, and that allows me to refine and improve future expeditions.

I maintain yet another private blog in which I amass all sorts of useful and usable information; from affordable hotels in Delhi (difficult these days), recommended guides/fixers' names and contacts to exotic rituals and festivals. A sort of compendium that I can call on when I plan any of my photo expeditions.

Yes, it is sad that writing journals in longhand is on the wane...dusting off an old journal and reading its contents is romantic...but technological advancements are so practical and are such good time-savers that it's difficult to resist them.

Austin Hill Golf Resort, Tmn Mount Austin, Johor Bahru

We had a 2 days 1 night vacation at Austin Hill Golf Resort (N1°33.691' E103°45.967') during the 'Mother's Day' of 2008.
The room rate is reasonable at MYR110+ (Member), MYR130+ (Non-member). The room was spacious and with 2 king size bed. (Promotion till May 2008)

I took the chance to snap some photos around the Golf Resort.

My daughter and her cousins ran to swimming pool for their greatest enjoyment! The pool was not really crowded that day. But the slide at the corner was full of kids queuing up!

The path to the pool

Many families having their relax family day over here. You can enjoy the Fitness, Spa & Sauna facilities after your swim....it's located beside the reception counter.

The main entrance and the reception counter

Some others photos around the pool site......

The Lotus Pond

Tennis court at the end of the pool

Stairway to heaven?!

The antennas having their party on the roof top !! :)

And the forgotten....

Maybe it's the lucky animal of the resort, you can see it at every corner....

After the main entrance, the restaurant is on the left.

Coconut tree everywhere.....Tropical atmostphere.....

Staircase to the Pub (One bucket of Tiger - MYR40+ for 5 bottles)

On the way back to the room.....

We having our home cook dinner in the room....and I brought my daughter to the 8 lanes Bowling Alley (at the lower ground) after dinner.

I found something unusual over there......I cannot understand why some peoples playing bowling by wearing his own "Slipper"?! Don't they understand that??
And the management which takes care of the area not even bother about it. That guy react arrogance like he is the Hero over there!
That's what I mention before.....this gotta do with our education system here. Sometime is impossible or difficult to change someone mentality.

The happiest kids was playing around untill midnight and totally exhausted!

We leaving in the next morning after packed, and went home after our breakfast.

Location map of Austin Hill Golf Resort

Related post :
* Budget Hotel at Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru.
* EVOSS 25th Oct 2007
* Austin Hill Resort

MY TRIPS - Home

Mahesh Shantaram: Shanghai

Photograph © Mahesh Shantaram-All Rights Reserved
Having seen my post on Justin Guariglia's Planet Shanghai a few days ago, Mahesh Shantaram reminded me that he was very recently commissioned to work on a photographic project featuring the urban culture of Shanghai.

Mahesh tells us" In these images, there are two streams of narrative running in parallel. In the background is the infrastructure story, for which Shanghai is reputed. In the foreground is street documentary photography that plays on some of the social observations I made during my eventful stay. Together, they put a human face to infrastructure development in one of the greatest cities of the 21st century."

He's right. His photographs have two strings running through them; the urban background and the traditional street photography with blurry characters. An interesting viewpoint.

Shanghai: Model City

Mulligan's Pub, Tmn Permas Jaya, Johor Bahru

Mulligan's Pub (N1°29.756' E103°48.972') is the only Irish Pub in Johor Bahru at the moment. It's located next to Coffee Trap Pub & Bistro at Taman Permas Jaya - opposite of Jusco Permas Jaya.


The Irish decoration really attracted me. I love hang around the area mostly in the evening.

The external

I believe this area will be pack of peoples during the coming UEFA EURO Cup 2008.

Around 6pm onwards, you can see many golfers sitting at the bar counter. Yeah, this is all about Mulligan.

The internal decoration

We were having a bucket of Tuborg (5 bottles) with the cost of MYR42.00+.

You will appreciates the cozy environment if you experience yourself.






Related post :-
* Bar Banyan, Johor Bahru.

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Alessandra Meniconzi: Hidden China

I've written about Alessandra Meniconzi over a year ago, and consider her one of the best travel photographers I've come across. She's a travel photographer in a classic sense, and her work is pure travel photography with no ambivalence.

Her biography reveals that she was born in Lugano and studied graphic design. She specializes in Asian countries, and prefers the wilderness as well as documenting the daily lives of ethnic minorities. Her exploration of the peoples of the ancient trade routes required her to make several trips to Asia over a 10-year period to document the people and cultures of the "Silk Road", the 2,000-year-old trade route linking the Orient and the Occident.

Her new book "Hidden China" will be published in Fall 2008, and will be available from Amazon and other bookstores.

Alessandra's website features her superb landscapes and portraits of ethnic minorities. Here are her images of China. Her website would benefit from a facelift, but I guarantee you'll be spending a lot of time exploring her galleries.

Abbas: Soul Hunt: Magnum In Motion

Here's a multimedia slideshow featuring photographs by Abbas from the Magnum website. It's about pagan rituals, performed by the shamans of Siberia, the Voodoo in Haiti, the Dogon of Mali, the Shinto in Japan, and the Bari of the Amazon.

Having photographed the Indonesian traditional healers in Bali, I was naturally very interested in seeing this body of work. While I deem Abbas' work to be superlative, I have to say that this slideshow is disappointing. I fault its unimaginative production rather than the photographs...which appear muddy (is it the compression for the slideshow?). It is uninformative, and I had to visit the thumbnail page to read background information on the photographs, as the slideshow itself has no captions or narration. What it does have is a truly awful soundtrack. Too bad.

Abbas (he only uses his first name) is an Iranian photojournalist living in Paris, France. He has covered wars and revolutions in Biafra, Bangladesh, Northern Ireland, Vietnam, the Middle East, Chile, Cuba, and South Africa during apartheid. He photographed the revolution in Iran, to which he returned in 1997 after seventeen years of voluntary exile.

His interest in religion led him in 2002 to start a new long-term project about the clash of religions, defined as culture rather than faith, which he believes are replacing political ideologies in the strategic struggles of the contemporary world.

Abbas' Soul Hunt

Canon 5D Mark II Book?

I promised myself I wouldn't add fuel to the fire, but members of the DPreview forums have seen a 5D Mark II Field Guide listed on Amazon. The book has a release date of November 10, 2008 and a price of $20. The author and publisher are the same as the ones for the 5D Mark I field guide, which you can buy now online or in a bookstore or camera shop.

The Photokina Fair is scheduled for the third week of September 2008, and it may be a logical venue for an official release for the Canon 5D Mark II...while the release date for the book is November 10.

I've taken a partial capture of the Amazon screen (above) just in case it's taken down.

Via Imaging Insider/1001 Noisy Cameras

Cedar Point Hawker Center, Johor Bahru

N1°28.874' E103°45.759'
This food court is one of the oldest around Johor Bahru area. It's located opposite of Pelangi Plaza & and the back of the Omega School.

The place has many improvement since my last visit about 6-8 years ago. The canopy was built to have better cover during rain. I was suffer last time because without this! :) The ex-company which I'm service 9 years ago was located at the same row with Omega School.

And also equipped with big fans every corner. Environment is cooling.

Today I decided to go back there to have my favorite "Char-Koay-Teow" (fried koay-teow). It's one of the famous at JB.

Guess what? Disappointed. The standard drop very much!
Beside this, there are about 8-10 store over here selling good food easily more that ten years. Curry Fish Head is another delicious food around.

We were having some beers until the sun go down....recall all those memories which is more than 10 years ago.......:)

Location map will update later......

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Memorial Day Weekend

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
The Travel Photographer will not be posting over the long Memorial Day weekend.

My Show Off: Whirling Dervishes

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Here's another of my weekly Show-Off features with an example of my personal photography on The Travel Photographer's blog. Click on the photograph to view it larger size. I used one of Lightroom 2.0 standard presets to accentuate the photograph's colors.

It was photographed in Istanbul while Mevlevi dervishes perform a sema ceremony with a traditional orchestra at Istanbul's Galata Mevlevihanesi in Beyoglu. The sema is derived from Jalaluddin Rumi's habit of occasionally whirling in ecstatic joy in the streets of Konya. The whirling dances are just one of the physical methods used to try to reach religious ecstasy in Sufism.

HEROES of Sichuan Earthquake

I received an email from friend this morning, I know it's off topic in this blog. But I decided to share with you all.
I'm sorry if the pictures make you cry.....

DEDICATED TO THE BRAVE PEOPLES IN SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE, 2008

Tribute to all the heroes...........

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