Istanbul : East Meets West

In 2 weeks time, I will be in spending 5 days in the great city of Istanbul, Turkey along with Andy Craggs and our workshop participants.

I visited Istanbul in 1998, on a 10 day tour which took me to the shores of Gallipoli, where many casualties were taken during WW1 when the British and French army joined by their Australian and Kiwi counterparts fought the Ottoman Turks which failed. This Campaign was made into a movie of the same name and launched the career of a very young fresh actor called Mel Gibson.

I also visited Izmir further south, Ephesus, and Pamukkale, with the amazing white terraces of calcium carbonate cliffs.

I am really looking forward to seeing and photographing Istanbul again, with a fresh eye on things. The city is the literally split up between Europe and Asia, and sits on the tip of the European continent. The busy Bosphorus river is the lifeline of Istanbul as it brought in trade by sea from places as far as China and India during the Ottoman years and also beyond that, when it was the centre of Christianity founded under Emperor Constantine. Not surprising since it was also known as The Second Rome.

Iconic London : Photography Workshop

Two weekends ago, Andy and I completed our first London workshop in Introductory Digital Photography. It had been brass-Monkey weather throughout, but thankfully, no equipment froze or malfunction, only some very chilled fingers were the result. The group met on a chilly morning at the National Cafe in Trafalgar Square, a relaxed modern restaurant and friendly East-European waiters. We discussed camera handling and equipment over a hearty breakfast, then we were off to photograph the world!

I set everyone a mini-task, working on Themes as I always do. 'Iconic London' was the theme, and the camera its author. The participants could interpret this as they liked, within the given time frame, location and route. It was certainly a learning experience for a couple of people as they had just bought their cameras, or handle a digital SLR for the first time. Nevertheless, the scene before us offered great opportunities with experimentation, with different focal lengths, shutter speeds and apertures, creating new vistas and effects. As we were in the Westminster area, architecturally grand buildings, fountains, the Thames, and tourists and street performers gave us all the visual fodder for our cameras.

See the result from the group here, I think you'll be impressed.

Digital Editing Workshop, London

UPDATE : For those joining us in the weekend Digital Editing Workshop in London, we will be using Adobe Photoshop CS, CS2 and Adobe Lightroom 2. However, Lightroom 3 BETA is available free to download until April 2010. It is a fully working version, with some processes being tested until they release the actual version in April. It is similar to Lightroom 2, with several improvements. I have just downloaded it to test it. You can, too by registering with Adobe below :

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/

FROM SHOOT TO PRINT : We are holding a weekend of Digital Photo Editing in Central London, for photographers who want to adopt a logical digital workflow. Topics covered include : RAW conversion, colour workspace, archiving, basic Adobe Photoshop editing, preparation for printing. Includes : use of A3+ Epson Photo Printer, paper, lunch and use of iMacs. We will be using Adobe Photoshop CS, CS2 and Adobe Lightroom 2.

Require : Digital camera, own laptop with necessary applications. (see above)

We start off with a walk and shoot in nearby colourful Portobello Road market on a Saturday morning. Shooting in RAW mode will enable you to have a ‘digital negative’ which you can then apply processing parameters to ‘develop’ your image without damaging the original file. Participants will be able to adopt a suitable workflow by using Lightroom or Photoshop on their selected images and prepare them for large scale printing on an Epson A3+ printer supplied for use, including photo paper. Some basic ‘photographic’ corrective or enhancement techniques will be demonstrated using Curves, Levels, Cloning, Colour Balance and Sharpening tools.

Extra date scheduled for 23/24 January (to be confirmed). More details on the explorenation.net website here.

Merry Christmas to All my readers and friends..!

Wishing you all a Peaceful and Happy Christmas and a fantastic 2010 ahead!

A passion rekindled

(Click on the photographs to enlarge)

I recently 'acquired' a vintage 1971 film camera from eBay, an 35mm Olympus 35RD rangefinder and just had it back from Camera City repairs in Fitzrovia, just off Museum Street. It had taken them, actually, him, Pany, a stocky built, possibly Greek descent-of-a guy 3 weeks to clean and service the sticky shutter blades, and now it triggers smoothly with a purposeful 'click' you can barely hear. Just perfect for street photography.


I still have several rolls of expired (read 2007) colour and black&white film stored in my fridge sharing the same compartment with my acidophilus tablets, so I promptly loaded a roll of Fuji NPH400 and went out with no expectation whatsoever, except I had 36 shots to prove the worth of this little charming camera.



It was a Saturday and possibly the worst Saturday this year. The winds blew horizontal rain pellets across your face, and any umbrella opened was rendered useless within minutes. Still, the brave must shop, and we ended up at Primark in Oxford Street (which is another story) bargain hunting for Christmas goodies, (yes, we shop cheap). Incidentally, one can buy a full tuxedo suit for £14 and 6 pairs of socks for £2, trendy 'Che' T-shirts for £3.50. I kid you not. (Hah! Petaling Street, you've got a serious rival).


The focusing on the 35RD is accomplished with a 1/4 turn, short and smooth and the rangefinder patch is still bright and clear of fungus etc. What I find great about using this machine is the size and stealth ability, that is, I can be right up against people's faces and no one really notices me. Ah, it's just a toy camera, its an old silvery thingy, its retro. Most of all, its quiet. Much more quiet than the clunky M8 but not as low pitched as the M6, which I think is still the third king of stealth of all time. (The quietest and quickest camera I have used is the Konica Hexar 35, followed by the Digilux 2)



I am presently in KL and just managed to get the roll of film developed and scanned onto a CD. for £4.00. The scan was way too over saturated by the film quality came through as expected. I was astounded by the sharpness and clarity of the 40mm F1.7 lens! Exposure seemed to be accurate as well and the selective focusing technique produced great bokeh too. The shots reproduced here were grab shots, pre-focussed and random, to capture the shoppers with their umbrellas on Oxford Street, so there are lots of movement and fluidity in the photographs. Most were shot from the hip which is a technique I often use in street photography.






Since then I have loaded another roll of film to finish off, possibly today in KL. Hmm, perhaps this little film revival of mine may just last a little longer, a passion enkindled 30 years ago by the draw of the tiny Olympus Trip 35 my late father gave me.

Waiting to exhale

Back in London, as I shake the Delhi dust off my shoes, and still fresh to my memory, I want to put finger tips to keyboard, and post some thoughts about my short 7-day trip to Delhi, visiting Jaipur and Pushkar.

Andy Craggs and myself made a brief exploratory visit to India to connect with local contacts and friends, with the plan of holding a photo-workshop in Rajasthan next year, complimenting the other 3 destinations on our 2010 program. We stayed with Poh Si, (www.pohsiteng.com) an Award winning energetic videographer and multimedia journalist, and Mayank, a Supreme Court lawyer and awesome ping pong-er.

On the way home in a taxicab from Heathrow, I contemplate my past week spent in the dry and dusty climate that surrounded Delhi and Jaipur in North India. It is eerily quiet, cruising on the M4 motorway. So different from riding the open auto rickshaw cabs that toot their hoots at every possible opportunity, their little 2 stroke engines throbbing along in earnest, whilst zigzagging in and between overloaded lorries, decrepit buses, other auto rickshaws, the odd private car, and camel carts. Camel carts?





Yes, this is India and the streets aren't paved with gold, but mounds of garbage, decaying vegetation, dirt, dogs, pigs and street people. For Delhi, with its 13 million inhabitants, you would think the draw of India's financial and administrative capital would offer the many millions that come to find solace, shelter and jobs there, its share of the pot, however infinitesimally small, it may be. But it appears that the pot is near empty. Many have nothing apart from the loin cloth they wear around their waist.




Air India has projected a loss for 2009 at USD1 Billion and is expected to cut its loss-making routes by the end of the year. The city is straining to complete its Delhi Metro subway system in readiness for the Commonwealth Games to which it plays host in 2010. Not having read up on India in detail, I cannot even begin to delve deeper into the social, environmental and financial let alone the religion and caste practices that makes up the ever-so complex fabric of Indian society.



I just observe. As a first time visitor and with my camera. A week of casual observation is insufficient to make general statements in a country that is home to 1 billion people, but first impressions and gut instincts help. Some figures are staggering.


Indian Railways apparently run 14,000 services every day, shifting over 20,000,000 passengers from north to south and east to west, and everywhere in between. Granted, many do not pay but ride the roofs of carriages precariously as we discovered on our train ride back from Jaipur the other day. Just like the Chinese, Indians are survivors.


We took a walk down some side streets in Jaipur and saw all manner of trades, from meat sellers, carpenters, metal workers, mechanics and 'chai' vendors working away. Stalls carts spring up from no where, selling samosas, chapati and lime drinks, every one it appears is selling something or know of someone that sells something.





One evening in Jaipur, we met up with some local English contacts at the Rambagh Palace Hotel, a magnificent historic palace set in acres of lush green and sprinkled lawns, with own polo field. The Maharani of Jaipur still lives there, in a separate annexe. We had G&Ts and Singapore Slings, made plans and chatted over wasabi crackers, canapes in the dimly lit air conditioned Polo Bar. In contrast, on the way there by auto rickshaw from the old city, we passed by many destitute homeless street people who had no faces, and witnessed a scrawny frame corpse being carted away in what looked like a municipal vehicle. Such is Life and Death in India. It is probably impossible to come to terms with the situation that is the Cycle.



My fondest memory of the trip was in Delhi on second evening. Poh Si brought us to dine at Connaught Place or CP as it is better known. This is 'downtown' Delhi, and is the place to hang out in the evening for food, cinemas and watering holes. We went to an Indian Restaurant called Amber and ordered tandoori chicken and briyani rice, sweet nan topped with chopped pistachios of which the name escapes me (delicious,...Poh Si..help, I want that name..) and Kingfisher beer.


After chow, we hopped on and off several auto rickshaws (another story.. video below) and made our way to India Gate, a sort of Marble Arch or Arc de Triomphe. It was a pleasant evening, and the light was good. The streets radiating from the monument were lined with ice cream vans and foodcarts, and the whole place was radiating energy.



For the first time, I saw there were more women than men outdoors, families, old and young were simply enjoying the sight, men were selling glowy, flashy twinkling toys, bubble-machines, bangles, bead necklaces, balloons, it was great! The journey home was equally enthralling. Trying to hail an auto-rickshaw at that time was near impossible, and when one did appear, trying to get the driver to 'unbreak' the broken meter always ensued with shouts of "meter-ON!, meter-ON now!, nen, nen you cheating hah! Nen!" Our tenacious and principled host Poh Si always attempts (and succeeds!) to threaten them by logging an immediate call to the Auto-Complain hotline, which she has programmed to speed dial on her mobilephone.

All this makes for great comedy for us visitors, but I can imagine the frustration setting in if it is a daily occurence, even for local Indians, as Mayank confirmed.



All is not lost however, and there are promising signs. The nation's future is in the hands of the Indian youth and we had first hand experience of this. Cliche as it may sound, this seems to be the only way out. We were lucky to come across an honest auto rickshaw driver by the name of Ram in Jaipur. He acted as our 'tour guide' whilst driving us to the Amber Fort 11 kms north of the pink city, without seeking more 'baksheesh'. Ram is 44, and have been driving rickshaws for 30 years, he tells me. On our last evening in Jaipur, he invited Andy and I to visit his humble rented home, which is situated just outside our hotel compound, on land owned by the hotel owner. Pretty basic but cosy, Ram lives there with his 3 daughters, wife and son of 20. The girls go to private school nearby instead of the local government school because English is only taught in the former. The fees are naturally higher but he values their ability to speak the language of the 'farang' or white skinned people.

Delhi is also home to many outsourced call centres, and these jobs require a good command of English.

We also made an impromptu day trip to Pushkar from Jaipur. Pushkar is a small town north or Ajmer and hosts the world famous camel fair ever year around November. Hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on this town along with thousands of camels from all over India. Trading is the keyword. Camels and horses also.


Tourists flock there to witness the sight in the surrounding desert landscape. The town also houses the (apparently) only Hindu shrine dedicated to Lord Brahma. We had missed the festival, and the Pushkar lake was dried out. It felt like a travellers town, a cowboy outpost for backpackers and hippies. Hell, I even saw a turbaned Caucasian on a Harley.. We will definitely add Pushkar to our desitination for the workshop.


Colour is the second keyword in Rajasthan. The saris are deep red, blue and yellow and most local women wear them with pride, often adorned with glittery accessories. I wonder why the menfolk have adopted simpler or Western attire. If the women we saw mending the roads and tending the fields can do it in their saris, surely the men too?







My Indian experience then, is only a glimpse, a starter course, a blink of an eye. Delhi's Red Fort, the serenity of Humayun's Tomb, Lotus Garden, the alleyways of Chandi Chowk, the blue city of Jodphur, the sand fort Jaisalmer, the magnificence of the Taj Mahal in Agra, there's plenty more. It has made me even more curious to see and photograph the rest of Rajasthan.

India, we will be back for more. The Rajasthan workshop will be an interesting one.


Rajasthan! 12-Day Photography Workshop is planned for November 2010. See www.explorenation.net
For more images and videos please visit the facebook group page. Click on photos to enlarge.

Head out onto the streets... Part 2

Point 3. Get in motion

Take a walk, and observe the passing scenery before you. Because you are now in motion, reality is quickly taking on another dimension, it becomes 3D in your mind’s eye. Your pace and your choice of lens will define a virtual bubble of space that you will encounter these ‘conjunctions’ and hence photograph them. Objects, people and scenes will flicker in and out of your space, and it will be at this moment that you begin to see photographs. I recommend a semi wide-angle lens, 35mm to 50mm is ideal, and pre-focus to 3m to get you real close to your subjects. If you have studied what the angle of view is a 35mm lens will cover at 3m, you will have these mindframes in your sight at all times.

Point 4. KISS !

Everybody asks me about equipment. So here goes. KISS! Keep-It-Simple-Stupid ! If you have just bought that brand spanking new D3X body with a super fast zoom lens that weighs 5lbs, then you will hate me. You might have arms the size of tree trunks to carry the monster but, you will surely annoy several, if not everyone you photograph because, discreet and anonymous, you are not. Stick to simple, light cameras with a short zooms, or fixed wide-angle lenses that let you concentrate less on settings, and more on the scene. Know your equipment well to avoid fumbling with Modes and settings etc. Don’t shoot and chimp. Chimping is the habitual act of looking at your LCD screen after every shot, which takes you away from your scene. Turn the auto review off! It will save on your batteries and you won’t look like a monkey! Chimp when you have finished a scene or when you are taking a rest.

Point 5. Be invisible!

Do not hang your camera like the ubiquitous tourist – round your neck. Firstly, you will stick out in the crowd. Wear it around your wrist with the strap. It would be more discreet and you will be ready to lift your camera to your eye in an instant. Walk with the flow of the crowd in a busy street but be prepared to retrace your steps if you spot something of interest. Be flexible with your shooting angles. By dropping to your knees, or crouching, you can alter the viewpoint instantly without too much effort. Blend into the scene by dressing in similar styles to the crowd.

Point 6. What to shoot?

The street throws up many layers of activities, often unseen by passers-by. Go off the main track and you will see more. Look out for anything unusual : human behaviour and stances, dress, hair styles, animals, colours, people in conversation, shopping bags, market activities, road signs, funny signs, store windows. Juxtapose the obvious with the interesting or its contrast. Watch for people at road junctions waiting to cross, at the bus stops, on the sidewalk cafes. There’s plenty of fodder for your camera. Remember to place the picture. This means that the photograph must show the environment and its subject. Its no use photographing an old coffee mug close up, better to show an elderly man drinking coffee in an old coffee shop.

Point 7. Tell a story

Link up your images to weave a storyline, however loose it might be. Once you have ‘locked on’ to a story, your images will begin to speak to you, and hopefully, your viewers. You may want to photograph specific stories like store keepers, street vendors, five foot way signs or old coffee shops in your town, or get a broader picture of urban life in the city, depicting subway users going to work, the rush of people in suits, or at a railway station.

Whatever it is, prepare your walk with your ‘point of departure’ in mind. This is a mental exercise and preparation to train how you see, without the inevitable added distractions. By fixing in your mind what are you going to photograph on your outing only, your ‘keep’ rate will increase without the burden of shooting everything that attracts you. Unlike photojournalists who have a brief to adhere to, you don’t, but you still need one.

Point 8. Editing

In all respects this is most crucial step in the whole process. After a day’s shoot, you would have gotten possibly several hundred images. How do you whittle them down? The obvious favourites will stand out and those can be picked off easily. Delete the truly awful, meaningless images that are out of focus, blurred and simply rubbish! Be brutal and honest.

You will be left with perhaps 3 categories: ‘great’, ‘maybe’, and ‘maybe maybe’. Keep them as they are and revisit them after a week or so. In each image there will be some element of the picture that you will find interesting, even in the ‘maybe maybe’ category. After all, you pointed your camera at the scene and clicked the shutter! You must have, consciously or sub-consciously recognised some gem, and took the shot.

After several gallivants in the street, you will have made a reasonably large collection of images, and you can begin to piece together a storyline or theme that links your best street photographs. Lastly, enjoy your shoot.

Go to Part 1

Paris in the Fall : The Book is now available!

PARIS IN THE FALL

World Travel Photo...

By explorenation.net

Book Preview

(Preview some sample pages by clicking the Book Preview link.)

BRAVO EVERYONE!

Recipe : Mix together group of photo enthusiasts, a few cameras, a long week in Paris, a good pair of shoes, some great food, ADD the autumnal Parisian air and VOILA! this is what you get..Paris in the Fall : a collection of images captured by the participants of the recent photography workshop by explorenation.net, who are Steven Lee and Andy Craggs.

Places visited include Palais Royal, Le Lourve, Passages Couverts, Pere Lachaise, Bastille, Tuileries and the Seine.

This is the second book featuring the best of our workshop participants' photographs, the first being Sarawak, Borneo earlier in May 2009. We were SO impressed with the visual skills our early adopters gained so quickly..ah..and Paris is as photogenic as ever!

Photo Workshop : Paris In The Fall

06/10/09 Update : Ah..Paris!


After a marathon long weekend pounding the streets of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 20th arrondissements of Paris, and many kilometres covered in the process, we are now back in our respective home cities. To our participants, thank you for joining Andy and myself in Paris, thank you Vero for the bubbly, Crystele for your company and support in getting some video of us at La Bastille.

Our itinerary on the first day included the atmospheric 'covered passages' in the 1st and 2nd arrondissements, as well as the Palais Royal and a visit to the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery where luminaries such as Chopin, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and numerous others were laid to rest. The cemetery is set to the east of the city surrounded by a high wall, on hilly land and is beautifully acacia-tree lined with with crypts and tombs on long avenues, some in desperate state of decay whilst others are brand spanking new.


The second-day we photographed at the Seine, Louvre and Tuileries gardens, Place Vendome before heading back to the Musee d'Orsay for a fabulous lunch stop. We encountered a lone sax player under a road bridge which was just the perfect picture for an urban portrait. Mind you, he was a few Euros richer after our group of photographers passed by!


On Sunday morning, we congregated at the steps of the Bastille to photograph the amazing street market on Boulevard Richard Lenoir, a short stroll away. This amazing Sunday market is one of Paris's finest, offering fresh produce, meats, fruit and veg, cheeses and cooked food.


This group photograph was taken outside the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie
at Le Marais. There were several exhibitions on-going which were well worth seeing, including Ferdinando Scianna's'Geometry and Passion' collection and Ara Güler's amazing vintage photographs of Istanbul taken in the 50'-60s.




30/09/09 : Paris, here we come!


I'm off to Paris on the 09:01 Eurostar tomorrow morning to prepare for our workshop commencing Friday to Sunday evening. Will post updates from the City of Lights.

Head out onto the streets..

7:30am Les Halles, Paris 2001

My approach to street photography : Part 1

I'll be heading out to Paris in a few weeks to accompany a group of photographers to photograph street and architecture, along with Andy Craggs. Street photography can mean different things to different people and yes, it is one of the most challenging styles of photographs to make and highly rewarding if accomplished well.

Kosovan girl with Stars and Stripes, London, 1999

I started delving into this genre in 1998/9 when I attended my 'first' public rally in Trafalgar Square, photographing the Stop The War campaign in Kosovo. Since then, the street has been my playground, and thus led to my Outside Looking In : Kuala Lumpur book in 2000.

Some ground rules first. Street photography, because of its nature, is basically a beast. It is uncontrollable, a bit haphazard, and oh, yes, there's Lady Luck involved as well. Once you are 'in the zone' so to speak, things will become clearer, as the fog of indecision lifts. Slowly but surely. You begin with a hit rate of zero, and the odds will improve. Shooting digital helps, but not always.

In our image-overkill world of flickr galleries, facebook posts and online slideshows, we seemed hooked onto the 2-dimensionality of photography of the 'instant', constantly sharing our photographs and thoughts on a daily basis. Photography, for many, has become the LCD screen we gaze at, day in day out. Street photography brings us back to reality, where real life exists, and unscripted. The street is where you will engage with people, and existence is fluid and active. The street is your camera's playground.

Let's start with the Rules of Engagement :

Point 1 : Objective

Ask yourself, how are you attracted to street photography. Ah yes, many people will cite HCB, Winogrand or even Moriyama (and dare I say... Araki) or Doisneau's famous 'Hotel De Ville kissing couple'. Elliot Erwitt's dog series? Can you see and photograph what these masters saw in their streets? Can you walk their walk? Forget about it!

Penny for the Guy, Columbia Road Market, London 1998

You shoot your own streets and alleys. Apply your own technique and approach, and you will be rewarded. The important thing to remember is - its only street photography, its not papparazzi-stalking or photojournalism. Its photographing people like yourself, walking about your streets and pavements, your neighbours, your local fishmonger, your local cafe owner etc..so don't upset them. Its about documenting a slice of reality which is completely ordinary. Nothing fancy and nothing contrived, like a wedding function. There's no pressure to deliver, or deadlines to meet. You take your own time, go out and sit in a coffee shop and just people watch.


Point 2. Observe, observe, observe

Start with a nice cup of coffee, sit quietly and just observe. See how people behave, families with their kids, mothers with the pushchairs, waiters taking orders, people that pass you by. After a while, you'll see moments or instances that humour you, make you cringe or take you aback. These are the so-called 'decisive moments' that you are subconsciously seeking as you begin to understand the human condition.

Beggar and school kids, Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur, 1999

Take a walk, and observe the passing scenery before you. Because you are now moving, reality is quickly taking on another dimension, it becomes 3D. Your pace and your choice of lens will define the bubble of space or zone that you will encounter people and hence photograph them. Objects, people and scenes will flicker in and out of your space, and it will be at this moment that you begin to see photographs. I recommend a wide angle lens 35mm to 50mm is ideal, and pre-focus to 3m to get real close to your subjects. If you have studied what a 35mm lens will cover at 3m, you will have mindframes in your sight at all times.

Go to Part 2

More later.... (got to go shoot some fashion!)