FIRST 3 LINO'S FROM CHIANG MAI TRIP

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These are the first 3 lino's I've cut and printed based on the sketches from my trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand as part of the group Volunteer Positive. (And one linocut from my friend Phra Kritsada Prueprong) The first 2.5 weeks was spent in service which afforded me very little time to actually draw on my own, most of the prints from the full series were sketched out on my last week in Chiang Mai. The only 1 of these 3 lino's that was sketched during my actual service is the Elephant sketches print. We spent an afternoon at the BAAN CHANG ELEPHANT PARK in Chiang Mai where after a educational introduction to the Asian Elephants in residence we had lunch and a few minutes to digest our food before the 2-hour trek we were about tro partake in. Having not had much opportunity to do any prior sketch work, I had the foresight to bring along a few pieces of pre-cut lino and stole away for 20 minutes after lunch and did these sketches. Let it be known, elephants do not stand still, ever. It was a challenge to get a complete sketch, which explains why there are so many partial elephants in this print.

The print of the Monk is in fact a dear friend I made while in Chiang Mai. He is a 20 year old Monk named Phra Kritsada Prueprong originally from a village outside of Chiang Mai in Loei province. We were paired up as part of something called "Monk Chat" which is an event that creates the opportunity for local monks to practice their conversational skills with English speaking foreigners. On this particular morning, Kritsada and I took a tour of a few of the local temples and I decided that since he would share with me, I would share with him by having us both work on a lino sketch. I offered to take his drawing back to NYC with me where i would cut it out and print it for him. I had no idea that he could actually draw and was quite talented. It turned out to be an incredible opportunity for the both of us.

The print of the banners was from Wat Phrasingh in Chiang Mai. I'm not sure of the exact purpose of the banners, but if you look carefully, you will see representation of 3 Birth Year Animals. As there were many more banners there, I assume that's what they were there to represent.
SKETCH OF ELEPHANTS ON LINO


PARTIALLY CARVED LINO


INKED LINO



FINAL PRINT



PORTRAIT OF "DAVID" - BY KRITSADA PRUEPRONG


PORTRAIT OF KRITSADA - BY DAVID BERUBE


WAT PHRASINGH - CUT LINO



WAT PHRASINGH - FINAL PRINT

The Travel Photographer's Blog Gets A Facelift

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Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Yes, The Travel Photographer's Blog does seem different today.

Following a coding issue that prevented some external links in some of my posts from opening, I amended its original template to what you see here.

I hope the new font provides better legibility, and that the color combination of red, white and grey along with wider margins makes for an improved layout aesthetic. I've tested it in various browsers; Opera, Firefox, Safari and Chrome...and they all behaved well. It works particularly well on large displays, but perhaps looks a bit cramped on smaller laptop screens. It works well on the iPad and with iOS6.

Well, maybe facelift is a bit much to describe what I've done...the British have a better expression for it. Let's just say I've just tarted up the blog a bit.

I hope you like it.

The Travel Photographer's Sufi Saints Expedition-Workshop

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I know...the wait is excruciating...but it'll be worth it. It's only a matter of days and details will be announced to my newsletter subscribers and on this blog.

This, as with my previous photo expeditions-workshops, is photo-journalism and travel-documentary oriented, will largely focus on story-telling, and on how to produce audio slideshows rivaling in quality and content more elaborate multimedia productions.

In the meantime, click the image for a larger poster image. I think it's really cool.

PS. I just realized that the last 3 posts are titled 'The Travel Photographer's...'. Self-centered or building anticipation?

The Frame's Pushkar Fair

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Photo © AP / Rajesh Kumar Singh-All Rights Reserved

The Sacramento Bee's photo blog The Frame is featuring some 27 images of the Pushkar Fair, which started Wednesday, November 21 2012.

According to The Times of India, it kicked off "amid colorful celebrations and enthusiastic participation of foreign tourists"  and its first day highlight was a soccer match between local and tourists. This annual five-day camel and livestock fair is supposedly one of the world's largest camel fairs and has become an important tourist attraction.

You can see where I'm going with this. The Pushkar Fair, once a visually compelling event for photographers, has become a tourist attraction with all the negatives that such a description entails.

I've written up a post about the demise of the fair from a photographer's perspective in February 2007 (almost 6 years ago) saying this:

"It's absolute nonsense for serious photographers to time their stay in the town of Pushkar at the peak of the fair because it'll be full of tourists, the real camel trading occurs almost a week before the fair's announced schedule, hotels are more expensive at the height of the fair, and so on. If the idea of photographing a solitary dopey camel trader left with his final unsold scrawny camel (not to mention the gaggle of tourist-photographers who invariably will intrude in your viewfinder) excites you, go right ahead."
It seems it's gotten even worse. I haven't researched if there are any serious photo tours to Pushkar this year, but I suspect if there are any, they are very few.

Kiliii Fish: Native

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I stumbled on the lovely NATIVE project; sepia portraits of modern indigenous people photographed by Kiliii Fish in Alaska, Oregon and elsewhere around the North Pacific rim.

Kiliii Fish is a photographer with ancestry spanning from China to Siberia, who grew up in the United States. His work consists of still photography and cinematography for portraits and for the sports/adventure. He also works with non-profits on issues from indigenous rights to environmental justice.

Photo © Kiliii Fish-All Rights Reserved

FIRST 3 LINO'S FROM CHIANG MAI TRIP

To contact us Click HERE
These are the first 3 lino's I've cut and printed based on the sketches from my trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand as part of the group Volunteer Positive. (And one linocut from my friend Phra Kritsada Prueprong) The first 2.5 weeks was spent in service which afforded me very little time to actually draw on my own, most of the prints from the full series were sketched out on my last week in Chiang Mai. The only 1 of these 3 lino's that was sketched during my actual service is the Elephant sketches print. We spent an afternoon at the BAAN CHANG ELEPHANT PARK in Chiang Mai where after a educational introduction to the Asian Elephants in residence we had lunch and a few minutes to digest our food before the 2-hour trek we were about tro partake in. Having not had much opportunity to do any prior sketch work, I had the foresight to bring along a few pieces of pre-cut lino and stole away for 20 minutes after lunch and did these sketches. Let it be known, elephants do not stand still, ever. It was a challenge to get a complete sketch, which explains why there are so many partial elephants in this print.

The print of the Monk is in fact a dear friend I made while in Chiang Mai. He is a 20 year old Monk named Phra Kritsada Prueprong originally from a village outside of Chiang Mai in Loei province. We were paired up as part of something called "Monk Chat" which is an event that creates the opportunity for local monks to practice their conversational skills with English speaking foreigners. On this particular morning, Kritsada and I took a tour of a few of the local temples and I decided that since he would share with me, I would share with him by having us both work on a lino sketch. I offered to take his drawing back to NYC with me where i would cut it out and print it for him. I had no idea that he could actually draw and was quite talented. It turned out to be an incredible opportunity for the both of us.

The print of the banners was from Wat Phrasingh in Chiang Mai. I'm not sure of the exact purpose of the banners, but if you look carefully, you will see representation of 3 Birth Year Animals. As there were many more banners there, I assume that's what they were there to represent.
SKETCH OF ELEPHANTS ON LINO


PARTIALLY CARVED LINO


INKED LINO



FINAL PRINT



PORTRAIT OF "DAVID" - BY KRITSADA PRUEPRONG


PORTRAIT OF KRITSADA - BY DAVID BERUBE


WAT PHRASINGH - CUT LINO



WAT PHRASINGH - FINAL PRINT

The Travel Photographer's Sufi Saints Expedition-Workshop

To contact us Click HERE

I know...the wait is excruciating...but it'll be worth it. It's only a matter of days and details will be announced to my newsletter subscribers and on this blog.

This, as with my previous photo expeditions-workshops, is photo-journalism and travel-documentary oriented, will largely focus on story-telling, and on how to produce audio slideshows rivaling in quality and content more elaborate multimedia productions.

In the meantime, click the image for a larger poster image. I think it's really cool.

PS. I just realized that the last 3 posts are titled 'The Travel Photographer's...'. Self-centered or building anticipation?