Multimedia: The Pull Rickshaws of Kolkata
Last week I returned from Kolkata ( the city formerly known as Calcutta ), India. I actually didn’t go for an assignment or even to take photos. I accompanied with my wife who had business there and while in Kolkata we visited with some friends. Yet, if truth be known, a photographer never goes anywhere without [...]
Random Observations (in America)
This blog almost is as much about culture as it is about photography. As such, I felt this was a great little post to share with you – my well traveled reader. I have a good friend that lives in India who is, at the moment, back visiting friends in the United States. Yesterday he posted [...]
Howrah Bridge
Spent a few hours at the Howrah bridge yesterday. The bridge is a landmark of the area. It connects the Howrah Railway station to Kolkata. The station is the largest in India. This is a bridge that 80,000 vehicles and more than 1,000,000 pedestrians cross every day! I have never seen a bridge that is [...]
Rickshaw Pullers of Kolkata
Click on the images to view larger. I lived in India for thirteen years. In that time I only ever flew through Calcutta, or Kolkata as it is called today. This week I find myself in this amazing place. It is significantly different than Delhi and other places I have visited or lived in India. [...]
Nizamuddin, India
Click on an image to view it larger. These are photos from yesterday’s shoot in Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin is a small Sufi, Muslim community within the boundaries of New Delhi. It is always alive and bursting with energy. These next images are from Humayun’s Tomb, just across the street from Nizamuddin.
Old Delhi
Click on an image to see it full size. Most of my time in and around Old Delhi today was spent shooting video with my 5D MKII. It was a new and challenging for me. Nate seems to think I got some good footage. We will have to wait and see. For now and over [...]
The Penesak Jeweler
Tomorrow I leave for India for five days. It’s a quick trip shooting for a client and then home again. My wife decided she tag along and go shopping. So it will be a lot nicer rooming with her than with my fellow photographer Nate Watkins who I went with to Indonesia. Nate will be [...]
Wallpaper: June 2010
This month’s wallpaper is a fun image I shot in India while traveling by train from Delhi to Hardiwar. I wanted to get a shot that showed the train as well as the countryside. The train was important as it gives context and an integral part of the visual story. The countryside without people would [...]
Lumen Dei Trophies: Examples of SoundSlides by our Students
You still have till the end of the day here in Malaysia to enter the SoundSlides Plus giveaway. I will stop taking entries at midnight my time (GMT +8). It’s been fun. Honestly, I’m humbled and somewhat amazed by all the selfless and creative ideas that have been submitted. I guess with my background in humanitarian [...]
Multimedia: Wasim The Varanasi Sari Maker
One of the assignments we gave our last Lumen Dei workshop participants was to create a short, two minute multimedia photo essay on anything or anyone as long as it was in Varanasi. They were to use Soundslides, but we would provide the audio bed for them. The assignment was to be shot the two [...]
May’s Wallpaper
Here is your May Wallpaper. I am thrilled at the amount of downloads I have been receiving. Many folks have expressed how much they are liking these. So, my request you you is; share the gift and pass on the link. I love it when I get emails telling me of how people have seen [...]
Sadhu Portrait #2
Sadhu Portrait #2. Kumbh Mela, Hardiwar, India. This was shot with my favorite 85mm f1.2. I was talking the other day with someone about the 85mm f1.2 and the 50mm f1.2 (that I recently bought). We were joking why they even have a focal length over f2.8 on those lenses? If you buy a super [...]
Exposed: India in 3D
“Exposed; The Story Behind the Image” posts pull the covers back on how some of my favorite images were made. The image above is fun. It has a surreal 3D effect which, if truth be known was a combination of luck and skill. Left unexplained, you might think I used a Lensbaby on it, but [...]
Lumen Dei: Haridwar – The Kumbh Mela
The Kumbh Mela is a Hindu festival that rotates between four different regions in India every three years, thus, only returning to each region every 12 years. Haridwar sits in the foothills of the Himalaya. Many years ago we lived a few miles north of here and used to take the train through this sleepy [...]
Lumen Dei: Kumbh Mela Day 2
Today was a little harder than yesterday. The new or shall I say, renewed experience was gone and it just seemed like I was hunting for images. Don’t let anyone fool you. Getting great images everyday is next to impossible. Sure, good images can be found…most of the time; but great? Why do you think [...]
Tomorrow's Guest Blogger; David DuChemin
David DuChemin needs no introduction to my readers. In fact some folks think we are attached at the hip. Maybe not so good for David, but I’ll hitch my wagon to his any day! David was a full-time comedian for many years until he lost his funny. Then he fell in love all over again, [...]
November Wallpaper
Here is your November wallpaper. These are “mani stones” found all over Ladakh, India. This wallpaper is a bit more tricky to download. You will have to right click it in Windows and ctl (control) click it on a Mac to open it in a new window. Then just do your thing to make it [...]
ThinkTank’s
Modular
Belt System
By Matt Brandon Photos of Matt by Keith Talley I have gone through many camera bags. I have used and abused several Lowepro bags and a ThinkTank Photo bag or two. I have finally come to the conclusion there is no one perfect bag. You don’t know how hard that is to say. It has [...]
Lowepro
PhotoTrekker II
by Matt Brandon Photo Trekker AW II (As with any blog entry, if you want to see larger versions of these images, just click on them.) Just about a month back Lowepro sent me the Photo Trekker AW II. My first impressions were “Wow, its big!” It is big, about the size of what we [...]
Arches of Old Delhi.
Today I am posting a few shots of Arches around Delhi, India. I don’t post images in the blog that much and thought you might enjoy them. If I get some feed back maybe I will post some more of other images. If you click any one of the thumbnail images in the post it [...]
PhotoFlex A Super LiteDisc!
(Click image to make larger)Photoflex 5′n1 MultiDiscs at work in the field. An image from the shoot above. We were fortunate to have a new sponsor of Lumen Dei at the last minute. The fine folks at Photoflex were kind enough to give us a whole suitcase full of 5′n1 MultiDiscs and a couple of [...]
Ladakh – Mulling Things Over.
I returned to a house full of company. It has been fun, old friends from the US and my daughter’s home school from India. All very welcome friends. It has been hard to post and it has taken time to get the two new galleries up from Lumen Dei. But they are up and running. [...]
Ju-ley!
Ju-ley is the Ladakhi equivalent of “Aloha”. It means hello, goodbye, thank you and many other things. So, Ju-ley from Leh, Ladakh, 11,000 + ft and a very slow internet cafe. This has been a great trip. I have stated it once before, we have a group of very talented photographers and they are “snapping” [...]
Blasts Rip through Delhi.
“I am sorry but we might have to delay the talk a few minute. Seems there were some bomb blasts in the city and traffic is a mess.” These matter of fact word came from Maninder Kohli our host at the Indian Himalayan Club talk tonight. David and I did go on to speak and [...]
I shoot for mostly NGOs and nonprofits. I photograph images of the unknown, the forgotten and the helpless. These are often the stories that most people overlook. 
