Gavin Gough and I officially start our 2012 Thaipusam workshop tonight, here in Penang. So yesterday met several of the families we have arraigned for our participant to follow and photograph during the festival. We also did a pre-workshop run through with the models we have secured for our participants to photograph.

We have found three lovely models, none of them are professional, but each one is beautiful in their own right. Not only were they beautiful on the outside, each had a something special on the inside as well and were a real joy to work with. I want to thank Victoria for bringing her skills as a makeup artist to play. (But Victoria, I think you had an easy job with such lovely ladies )

The young lady in the back outfit, called a kebaya nyonya, is Cindy Ong. I think I am going to take her home and give Jessie a big sister! Cindy not quite 18 years old is full of drama and is a natural at this modeling stuff. The next Jayshri Mennon or just Jay. Jay was not only a wonderful model but a huge help this week in prepping for this event. She has recruited most of her family as subjects for our workshop participants to document as they perform these important Hindu rituals. Thank you Jay. Speaking of Jay’s family, her sister Shri is making the orange sari look so beautiful. Between Cinday, Jay, Shri and Victoria how can we help not take a good picture?

The prep work for this event did not start yesterday, but months in advance. Sometimes I think people think all you have to do to make a successful workshop happen is just show up and teach. Far from it. Gavin and I have been working with the help of people here in Penang for close to a year to make this happen. We are excite to develop a unique and exciting workshop for our participants. Maybe in 2013 you can join us?

The other day had the pleasure of chatting with Brian Hirschy and Jamin York of Plateau Photo Tours about the Tibet workshop this coming March and April.  We talked for about 45 minutes and covered almost every aspect of this tour,  from our transportation, the altitude, where we will be sleeping to the things that we will be photographing. This trip has been referred to many times as a”bucket list” trip.  If you don’t know, a bucket list is a list you make to complete before you die. In other words, this is a trip that you don’t want to miss.  I could go on talking about what we talked about but that would be silly, since we recorded it. It is best if you just listen to the interview yourself, so I’ll shut up and you can do just that. Just click on the link below.  We still have a few spaces available though it is selling out.

For more information on this trip visit this LINK.

We also would like to encourage you to visit our sponsors for this trip. My very good friends at Think Tank Photo and Black Rapid Strap.

Here are a few reminders of that trip.

Jamin York, the Tour Manager shooting the Tashilhunpo Monastery.

Lighting butter candles in Lhasa, Tibet

The old fort overlooking Shigatse.

Please take a moment and visit our sponsors for this workshop: Phottix, X-Rite ,Spider Belt Camera holster, LensBaby and f-Stop Bags

Feel like joining us? Visit the registration page for more info. Take a moment to browse some of the images from this year’s (2011) Thaipusam and you can get a taste at what you will be photographing on this workshop.

… Peter Bergmeier and  Erika Brunner who are the winners of the X-Rite give away. Erika won the compact and handy X-Rite ColorChecker Passport and Peter’s  is now set up to calibrate his monitors with his new X-Rite ColorMunki.

Gavin and I want to thank all who participated in this contest. Thank you for helping us get the word out about the Thaipusam Photo Workshop with your blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts and more.  This week Gavin and I will be meeting over Skype to talk all about the details of the workshop and we I thought it might be fun to record this little chat for you. Look for it this week as we bring you all up to speed on what the participants can expect during this week long event. So keep a close watch on this space.

In closing, thanks to all our sponsors  Phottix, Spider and X-Rite for providing the prizes.

Thaipusam Feb 4th - 11th, 2012

As you no doubt have heard by now, Gavin Gough and I are leading an amazing workshop in Penang, Malaysia, February 4th – 11th, 2012. We are fortunate to have two very generous sponsors for this event, Phottix professional photo accessories and Spider Camera Holster. As such, we want to share the love with… well…  everyone we can.

Let me first explain why this workshop is unique and a great value. We will be hosting the workshop participants at the historical Campbell House boutique-hotel. This Heritage hotel has 11 individually decorated suites and we have secured them all. Yep, we have booked the whole hotel for this workshop. During the day we will be out and about either in pairs or as a group photographing the diverse culture of Penang, Malaysia. Few other places on earth will you find Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian cultures flourishing side-by-side in such a small community. But, the bulk of our time will be spent photographing the exciting festival of Thaipusam. Penang is one of the few places where you can get actually in and among the participant of this festival. Thaipusam commemorates both the birthday of the Hindu god Murugan son of Shiva and Parvati, and the day when Parvati gave Murugan a lance so he could kill the evil demon Soorapadman. The festival runs for three days and starts with a chariot procession from downtown Georgetown. Thousands line the streets of Georgetown to see a silver plated chariot containing a statue of Murugan making its way to the Nattukkottai Chettiar Temple its temporary home. Many devotees carry pots of milk on their heads as a show of devotion and love to the god. Others carry elaborate frameworks on their shoulders called “kavadis”, which have long chains hanging down with hooks at the end which are pushed into their backs. Many of these pilgrims are pierced with two skewers (symbolic spears); one through the tongue, and one through the cheeks. For the devotees there is a sense of joy and celebration.

But it is not just the festival that make this a special workshop, we will have arranged families and individuals for our workshop participants to interact with and tell their stories.  Our goal is to help you understand how to discover and tell a story visually. What better opportunity than Thaipusam to learn this.

To top things off, we have even arranged a private photo session with a Malaysian and Chinese model, all for you!

Contest:

Strato II Multi 5-in-1 Wireless Triggers

Phottix professional photo accessories has generously given us a set of Strato II Multi 5-in-1 Wireless Triggers (whether you use a Canon, Nikon or Sony we have you covered) to give to some lucky person. But don’t fret with you are not interested in off camera lighting because Spider Camera Holster has also given us a The SpiderPro Single Camera System.

The SpiderPro Single Camera System

We believe in the power of social media. We know how powerful things like Twitter, Facebook and blogs are and quite frankly we want to take advantage of it. So we will be giving away the Strato II Multi 5-in-1 Wireless Triggers or the The SpiderPro Single Camera System to two of our Twitter, Blogger or Facebook friends. To enter, simply post the following link (tinyurl.com/digitaltrekker) on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and your other favourite social networks. Then return here and post a comment stating how many different Social Media networks you posted to. So, for example, if you post our link on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn then let us know that you posted to THREE networks and you’ll have THREE chances to win. If you’re posting to Twitter, please include the hashtag #thaipusam. And, yes, we will check. The contest runs from today till Friday Nov 18th. So start being social!

Special thanks to the Thaipusam workshop sponsor Phottix and Spider Camera Holster for providing the prizes.

Listed by date:

Thaipusam – Penang, Malaysia

February 4th – 11th, 2012

Join Gavin Gough and I as we photograph this visually startling event. Every year 800,000 Hindu Tamil and Chinese devotees of Muruga, the Hindu God of War, gather in Penang to celebrate Thaipusam. On the day of the festival, devotees will shave their heads and undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of kavadi (burdens) and participating in acts of mortification of the flesh by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with skewers. You can see some of my images from previous Thaipusam festivals here, here and here.

We will also be photographing the historic Georgetown, Penang. Georgetown is a UNESCO treasure and a sample of Colonial Asia in a time capsule.

Lhasa, Mt. Everest to Kathmandu Overland

April 22nd – May 4th, 2012

The overland route connecting Lhasa, Tibet with Kathmandu, Nepal is one of the most beautiful and and sought-out land routes in all of Asia. We had so much positive feedback from this trip in 2011 that we decided to run it again!  Tibet resident photographer Brian Hirschy and I will be co-leading this trip. Covering a distance of 600 miles, this workshop will take us from the ancient Tibetan capital of Lhasa to pristine high altitude lakes, winding ancient rivers, beautiful farming valleys, Everest Base Camp and over the Himalaya Mountain passes to the ancient Nepali city of Bhaktapur. We will be visiting the most famous monasteries and temples in all of Tibet while spending 13 days immersed in the unique Himalayan culture. Join us on the Roof of the World to get up close and personal with Himalayan culture and the adventure of a lifetime! See previous posts on this years workshop here.

Angkor Photo Workshop

July 16th – 30th, 2012

The Angkor Photo Workshop is limited to 16 participants. Don’t let the numbers fool you! With 4 instructor through out the workshop each and every participant will get plenty of face time with each instructor. This workshop is unprecedented, you will have one-on-one with four of your favorite photographers, Karl Grobl, Gavin Gough, Marco Ryan and myself as you explore and hone your photography, learn visual storytelling and learn software like Soundslides Plus, Audacity and Lightroom.

This workshop includes a multitude of activities including lectures, one on one instruction, critiques, assignments, and exploration of all things photographic. All done in one of the most visually exciting places on earth, Angkor Wat. But it doesn’t stop there, you will also visit Cambodia’s vibrant capitol city, Phnom Penh. Read previous posts on this years workshop here, here and the participants work here.

“Hannibal” Smith  in the 1980′s TV series, “The A-Team” used to say “I love it when a plan comes together”.  All I need is a cigar in the side of my mouth and I could be Hannibal Smith today because the Angkor Photo Workshop did just that, it came together – perfectly. Sunday was the culmination of many months of preparation and two weeks hard work by the leadership and instructors Karl Grobl, Gavin Gough, Marco Ryan and myself. The timing, the place and of course the people make for a perfect event and this couldn’t have been more perfect.  The idea to take four instructors and team them up with 14 students and give them both in-depth classroom instruction as well as field-based coaching was Karl Grobl’s. He chose Gavin, Marco and myself to help realize this vision.  I think I can speak for the three of us and say we are very grateful to have been a part of it.

The first part of the week we taught the students how to create a photographic essay. We explained the components of what makes up the essay as well as how to use the software that they would put it together with. This was the first time that any of them had used Soundslides Plus or Audacity. I think you will be just as impressed as we were by the results. We ran a small competition for the best essay and awarded prizes to the winning team from the workshop sponsors: F-stop Gear,  Soundslides Plus, X-Rite and Spider Holster. Below you will see the fruits of their labour. Each project was stunning and shows the talent available at this workshop.

1st Place: Lisa Brockman & Scot Sargeant
F-stop Adventure Rucksacks & a copy of Soundslides Plus each

Joint 2nd Place: Ursula Wall & Carl Johan Ragnarsson
X-Rite Color Checker Passport & Spider holster each

Joint 2nd Place: Ayn Brown & Chris Choulos
X-Rite Color Checker Passport & Spider holster each

4th Place: Catherine Wisner & Jenny Krasner
Light Modifier Softbox each

Sita, Ravana and Hanuman at Angkor Wat.

Apsara dancers are the traditional dancers of Cambodia. They are the “celestial dancers” that adorn the walls and hallways of Angkor Wat and the other temples of Siem Reap.  Apsara dancers often dance the Cambodian version or telling of the Ramayana, a Hindu story of Rama, whose wife Sita is taken captive by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana. Today, Gavin Gough and I wandered with the students from the Angkor Photo Workshop to the ruins of Bayon. Everyday, a troop of costumed apsara dancers arrive in Bayon to allow tourists to have their photos taken with Sita, Ravana, Hanuman the monkey god and others. Gavin and I bargained hard and managed to secure three dancers for models for the workshop. At 5:30pm they promptly arrived at Angkor Wat for the photo shoot. We divided the dancers between three instructors to direct and to coach the students with shooting. I was fortunate to have the terrible demon god Ravana, who in this case was portrayed by Rechana, a beautiful young Cambodian woman and was no threat to me at all. Below are some of the images from today.

The masked Ravana.

Ravana un-masked

The light coming in at this time of day was bouncing around and giving soft shadows.

The beautiful Rechana

Gavin Gough instructing some of the students at Beng Melea ruins.

I am currently in one of the most amazing places on the planet, Seim Reap, Cambodia, the home of Angkor Wat. I am staying at the wonderful FCC hotel – classic French colonial mansion restored to make a comfortable, classic and luxurious place to stay. But, as with so many of the places I travel to there is a limited amount of  high speed internet. However, I have fought the urge to wait till I return home to post images and will try to upload a few images from this amazing workshop.

The fourteen students participating in the workshop are all getting a lot of qualify time with the four Amigos instructors, Karl Grobl, Gavin Gough, Marco Ryan and myself. This is not your average run-of-the-mill photo workshop: four instructors of this quality in a location like Angkor Wat makes this an exotic treat.  The mornings and afternoons are spent out working on photo stories whilst the mid-days are in a classroom with Gavin teaching Lightroom, Marco instructing the class in blogging and social media and myself teaching Soundslides Pro. Much of the photography coaching is done either in small group critiques sessions or out shooting at places like small village schools, orphanages or at Angkor Wat itself.
Here is a sample of what I am seeing.

A young school girl caught in the sunlight of her class.

A young girl recieves coaching from her sister through the school window.

 

Two children on a bike outside Beng Melea. (Look close and you can see Gavin's instant photo in her hand.)

 

A girl waits for her friends at lunch break.

 

This monk awakes from a nap to find a room full of photographers visiting his monastery.

Download your June 2011 Wallpaper

I think you will enjoy this wallpaper this month. It is one of my favorites. This was shot in Shigatse, Tibet’s second largest city at a monastery called Tashilhunpo. These workshops are really a joy to run and I as you can see below our participants really feel they get their money’s worth.

Adventure of a lifetime…another notch in the bucket list! Matt, Brian, and Jamin were knowledgeable, approachable, and perpetually concerned about everyone’s well being. This trip was an incredible value in all parameters, I would highly recommend entrusting your hard-earned vacation dollars with this trio. ~ Jim M.

This trip was everything and more. Learning so much about photography, mechanically (in all situations of lighting and fast paced street moments) and humanly (connecting with the locals) in such an incredible landscape and culture, such as Tibet will be hard to top… A true trip of a lifetime, which will always leave me feeling warm and rewarded. Thanks is not enough! ~ Simon S.

Brian, Matt, and Jamin provided us with a such an amazing, perhaps “once-in-a-lifetime” experience that will not soon be forgotten. Bottom line: I wouldn’t go to Tibet with any other folks, folks. The expertise on the area, the choice of accommodations and food, the willingness to help when needed, and the overall friendliness of these gentlemen made the trip. Thank you again, guys, and maybe I’ll see you next year! ~ Nicole R.

But more importantly, I believe I learned and improve and I thank you both. I think that it is important to note that all of you saved no effort to make it a great trip and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I believe your approach and attitude positively affected the group in its formation and the overall friendly environment. One “small” request – can you add some greenery to the plateau’s desert? All the best and thanks again. ~ Ruti

 

These are the typical of the responses we received about this workshop. If you would like to join me on a workshop this year, you have one last chance. I will be teaching with three heavy weights Karl Grobl, Gavin Gough and Marco Ryan July 11- 25th at Angkor Wat.  Angkor is one of the most culturally and visually exciting places in the world. I love shooting there. In fact Gavin Gough is at Angkor right now and is posting some amazing images. Check out his posts HERE and HERE.

Let me introduce you to the talented instructors that I will be teaching alongside.

Karl Grobl is a humanitarian photojournalist specializing in the photographic documentation of relief efforts and development work of NGOs worldwide. His images have appeared in publications such as Newsweek, CNN, Geo, Town and Country magazine and The Chronicle of Philanthropy, but the largest majority of his photos appear in the annual reports, newsletters and communications materials of his humanitarian organization clients. Karl’s non-NGO work is represented by Zuma Press, the premier international editorial picture agency and wire service. His 2005 Haiti photo-story “City of God” was nominated for a World Press Photo Award.

Gavin Gough is an independent, freelance travel photographer. Originally from England, Gavin is currently based in Bangkok, Thailand, from where he travels extensively, working on assignment, on commission, creating stock images, writing and teaching. He has been commissioned by a variety of NGOs, humanitarian and charitable institutions and has completed commissions for organisations as varied as Sony, Vanity Fair magazine and the Vietnamese Tourist Board.

Marco Ryan is originally form the UK but moved to live and work in Cairo in 2008. He is a lecturer and author on Digital Media and how businesses need to react to the increasing disruption caused by the web and digital media. He is also a passionate photographer. He founded the popular Cairo Photo School and is the joint owner of the Cairo Photo Studio. His love and passion for travel and humanitarian photography has taken him all around the world, and he has a vast network of Professional photographers, editors and enthusiasts that he regularly keeps in touch with through social media and his blog.

The Angkor Photo Workshop is limited to 15 participants and we only have three spots left! This small enrollment provides each and every participant plenty of face time with our 4 instructors during the workshop portion of the trip and with 3 instructors during the “road trip” portion of the tour. This workshop is unprecedented, you will have one-on-one with four of your favorite photographers.  If your interested and would like more information about this workshop you can simply visit this link HERE. You will find all the information you need and email links for even more. Join me, Karl, Gavin and Marco for a great time at Angkor Wat!