Thinking About Panorama Formats

June 1, 2013 by Jon | Leave a comment

I recently was contacted about selling one of my prints, a black and white panorama of an old wood mill incinerator in Eastern Oregon (Download a free .pdf of this panorama here). That got me thinking about panoramic image print formats:

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Posted in Fine Art Printing, Panoramic Photography, Technical, Thinking About... Tagged |

Bus Travel In Laos: Six Essentials

May 29, 2013 by Jon | 1 Comment

A good (or should I say interesting) way to learn about a country’s people is by taking the various forms of transportation the locals use. For longer trips in Laos, that form is the bus. Here are six essential things you should consider taking to make bus travel in Laos enjoyable bearable:

Photo For Bus Travel In Laos: Six Essentials

Photo in a Tuk-Tuk. I feel like singing the Beastie Boys “High Plains Drifter” when I see this picture…

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Posted in Travel Tagged |

Leaving Laos!

May 14, 2013 by Jon | 3 Comments

What was supposed to be a trip of a few weeks turned into an adventure of almost three months. I was “embedded” with an international NGO medical crew (more on that in later posts) photographing their activities. Now I’m leaving Laos. Click any image for a larger version.

leaving laos

Fisherman on the Mekong, my last night in Laos.

Laos is amazing—I think I’m in love. This is one of those posts that could go on and on, and I was going to try to keep it brief and to only 20 28 or so images. However, if you are looking for brevity, this ain’t the post… I go could on for hours. I will write some more posts on certain aspects I want to delve into in greater detail in later posts, but let’s get on with it…

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Thinking About Composition

April 12, 2013 by Jon | Leave a comment

I tend to spend an inordinate amount of time considering the composition of my images. I’ve been known to reshoot a still life 10-20 times until I get it composed exactly how I see it in my mind’s eye. Back in the days when I shot and developed all my own film, it was quite a long process compared with my digital workflow of today. I think that extra time was worthwhile though—it essentially gave you time to forget the exact images you had shot while you waited to have enough rolls to mandate mixing a fresh batch of chemicals, developed and dried the film, and then scanned and archived. You got fresh eyes…

Thinking About Composition

Thinking About Composition: About 99% There. Click To Enlarge.

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Posted in Black and White Photography, Technical, Thinking About... Tagged , |

Botanica Obscura Folio Sale—Happy New Years!

April 9, 2013 by Jon | 1 Comment

Lao New Years, that is. The Lao celebrate their New Years or Pbeemai (pronounced pi-mai bi-mai) on April 13th, 14th, and 15th. The 13th is the last day of the old year; the 15th the first day of the new. What is interesting to me is the 14th: Sangkhan Nao or day of no day. April 14th isn’t part of either year, it’s a day of rest and fun. One of the activities is the throwing of water on friends and passersby—something of a purification ritual.

Since this is going to be a bit of a party, I thought I’d put my Botanica Obscura folio on sale for 50% off. That’s right, for the rest of April, the print folios will be priced at $45 instead of their normal $90.

botanica obscura folio sale

Sale!

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Posted in Black and White Photography, Fine Art Folios, Fine Art Printing, Online Store Tagged , |

Canon Concept Store In Laos Rocks

March 23, 2013 by Jon | Leave a comment

So… I created a bit of an issue with my carry everywhere point-and-shoot Canon Elph 110 HS that I bought for my trip to Thailand/Laos. Let’s just say a visit to the factory will be required… don’t ask. If I mention “water buffalo” will that suffice?

photo canon store laos ixus 125

Ixus 125 HS, the non-North American version of the Elph 110 HS

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Apocalypse Now Redux, Redux. NSFS (Not Safe For Squeamish)

March 7, 2013 by Jon | 7 Comments

I’ve been in Xamtai, Laos, waiting on authorization from the local authorities to do a photo project with an international NGO working here. So, I’ve been keeping busy photographing the very cool bamboo water wheels that the Lao use to move water from river level to the farmland above.

apocalypse now redux

As I wandered down the river I noticed a bunch of Hmong busy on the other side of a large truck. As I came around the truck I was briefly taken back to the scene in Apocalypse Now where the camera is cutting back and forth between Willard killing Kurtz and the ritual slaughter of a water buffalo.

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Posted in Black and White Photography, Movie Reference, Travel Tagged , |