Words to describe: Loud, bright, loud, overwhelming, very loud. Did I mention loud?

It’s a literal war zone and an impressive one at that. The Chinese don’t have any elite or exotic fireworks — ironic given this country originally invented them — but what they lack in creativity they more than makeup for in relentlessness.

Every city block has between 3-5 peasant groups firing them off creating a literal firewall sweeping across the skyline.

When I asked a friend why this was allowed by the government, he laughed and stated all the buildings were made of concrete and not to worry. And technically speaking they don’t allow it; they just can’t be bothered to enforce those specific laws.

Oh those lovable commies.

They know how to have fun, for one day a year at least.

On a quiet morning in March, I journeyed deeper into the templates near Siem Reap and intentionally avoided the more grandiose structures that attract throngs of Japanese and Korean tourists — whom I despise.

In traveling Cambodia, there was worse than the anguished feeling of finding a moment of solitude at an extraordinary location only to hear the rumbling of a pack of 20-30 deranged 1st world Asians who seemingly can’t do anything alone.

That’s what made this morning trip so wonderful — by visiting the smaller, more remote sites first in the morning, I successfully bypassed the majority of the the Japanese/Korean hordes.

The hallway ruins of this temple complex framed the Cambodian jungle elegantly I thought, despite the background being slightly washed out due to weather conditions.

Photo specifications are:

Canon EOS 30 D
17-40mm f/4.5 L-Series
ISO: Digital 100
Date: March 2007
Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia

More Cambodian temple photos to follow!

One of the definitive photos taken during my wanderings in Siem Reap on my fourth day. Discontent from being caught up in the tourist district, I set out on foot along the waterfront and came to a little park area with nice benches. It was there I met this man of whom I know nothing save his smile.

And I wonder; how can you know only a smile and a warm gaze and still feel like you know someone more intimately than possible?

Here is the remainder of the information that you might be interested to know about the capture of this photograph:

Canon EOS 30D
Canon 70-200mm 2.8/f L-Series
ISO: Digital 100
Date: March 2007
Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia

Soon the actual photos of Ankor Wat will be developed.

There are tents offering an assortment of foods and services plastered all along the roads that take tourists around the complexes at Angkor Wat. There are not a lot of supply trucks that make runs to these “Mom and Pop’s” establishments.

Most of the time, the mechanized transport of choice is in fact the moped.

My Tuk Tuk had abandoned me to go attend a wedding celebration on the outskirts of Angkor Thom. After walking myself into a frenzy, I began taking photos of of the tent areas after eating lunch to get all the touts to shut up.

This photo was my favorite — the driver was so overloaded that he couldn’t even start his bike.

Camera equipment used on this exposure was:

Canon EOS 30D
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L-series lens

Indeed, I must confess again that my life is not so very hard.

There’s an epic quality in witnessing a sunset. I’ve thought of them as the final great crescendo the day provides us no matter what the struggles and failings we may have experienced in the hours before.

If only we’d stop and take the time to pay attention and recognize.

I took this photo in the Gulf of Thailand during my trip to Southeast Asia in Spring of 2007. The only thing more spectacular than this was the starry night that followed it.

I used the following equipment to make the exposure:

• Canon EOS 30D
  
• Canon 17-40mm L-series lens

Amazingly, I forgot both my tripod and shutter switch and instead jerry rigged my camera’s timer to go off and placed it in a secure spot on a grounded boat to avoid camera shake.

Ao Nammao holds an endearing place in my consciousness as the closest I’ve been to heaven. I envy the owner and workers of the bungalows that I stayed at for they get to live the life we all dream of. Every morning and every night, the bungalow manager stands watch and bears witness to the sun’s majestic opening and climax before going back to work.

Most of us will work 80 hour work weeks to get two weeks off a year to glimpse at the rare privilege some people have already archived for every day of the week.

This exposure was taken with the following equipment:

• Canon EOS 30D
  
• Canon 17-40mm L-series lens
  
• Remote shutter switch
  
• Tripod

Expect an equally dramatic sunset photo to add symmetry to this post later in the week.

Sometimes you get lucky and take good shots that capture expression and emotion when shooting on the fly. Unfortunately, you don’t get the perfect exposure all the time — like this image which isn’t properly focused and loses its sharpness as a result.

Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia
Date: March 2007
Camera: Canon EOS 30D
Lens: Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L-Series IS

This was taken on my fourth day in Cambodia after slogging through the Angkor Watt temple complexes the previous three days. I was put off by the more tourist-centric areas of the city so I took off along the river and followed the streets until the touts followed me no more.

I discovered the real Cambodians of Sieap Reap to be warm and hospitable and utterly fascinating with how happy they were despite how little they had.

This is the first shot in a series exploring everyday life for Cambodians.

More to follow.

I’ve become increasingly agitated when girls come to me and ask me to take some high-quality, professional photographs of them. The problem, the vast majority of the time, is by “high-quality” they really mean “magazine-quality.”

And unless the photos match up to the images the media bombards them with, they’ll hate it. I’ve shot some amazing photos of girls who have taken one look at my work and wanted me to delete or destroy the pictures entirely.

All self esteem issues aside, it’s always intrigued me why girls almost uniformly reject realistic images of themselves — even high quality, professional ones.

It always comes back to the great mass-media conglomerate of our culture. There’s been a lot of public outcry over the way “the media” defines beauty. Big boobs, small waists and surgery to fix whatever natural blemishes you were unfortunate enough to be cursed with. The standard is indeed high and seems to keep gaining altitude with every passing year.

Unfortunately, skinny supermodels with fake breasts (who are employed in ample numbers by “the media”) are not the root cause of the problem. I believe photographers are the real culprits.

Photography, you see, is the art of lying.

Read the rest of this entry »

I am severely behind developing the 1200+ photos taken during my recent trip to Southeast Asia. Publication on this site is delayed until some structural changes are completed.

In the meantime, select photos will be uploaded to my Flickr account.

Samsung announced today it has developed the world’s first three-inch VGA LCD panel that “directly meets industry interface standards for digital still cameras.”  What this means is that future LCD screens on digital cameras will allow multimedia to be viewed at a resolution of 640×480.

In layman’s terms, expect significantly brighter, more detailed LCD displays, which will enable you to review your photography more thoroughly after you take an exposure.  This innovation will make it easier to spot blurry images and ensure your photo is framed properly.

Presently, a majority of camera LCDs only display multimedia at a resolution of 320×240 — significantly lower in quality than Samsung’s new LCD.

Read the rest of this entry »