I went to Chinatown in Bangkok yesterday. I had been invited by a friend, Bob, that I had met in the Taipei airport and his friend, Maeve, a line producer in the film biz in Hollywood. What an intense experience. I’ve been to the Chinatowns in NYC, Los Angeles, and Seattle, but this was a whole new experience. The Chinatown in NYC is very intense… at least until you visit the one in Bangkok.
Henry Rollins. Is there anything more to say? I just love this portrait of him. Just perfectly exemplifies the intense nature of his personality. I just wish I had had the foresight to go see a Black Flag show when they were touring. The first twenty seconds of the song Damaged I is just blindingly intense. Hell, the entire song is out of control.
I do really enjoy his spoken word shows, especially when he went to Australia and did Henry Rollins: Live in the Conversation Pit. Next time he tours I’m definitely going to see him.
Important: I’ve searched, but I could not find an attribute or credit for who took this photograph. If you can show that you took this photograph and want it credited or removed, I’ll do so immediately. Send me an email here.
He’s a little gaunt, maybe even severe. And he salutes me—and I don’t get saluted often. Hardly ever. I guess that’s not surprising. So on my first jet-lagged day in Bangkok I was a bit caught off guard to find myself saluted by a very serious man dressed suspiciously like a police officer.
What was it? Maybe my shaved head, suggesting military? Maybe It’s the two-toned, collared shirt that I’m wearing. If you are somewhat color blind and squint at it a bit, you might think it was one of the military shirts worn by the guards at the US Embassy, which is just down the road from my hotel. Head, shirt, both, neither. I couldn’t tell.
I’m experimenting with long exposures and am particularly happy with the way the color palette is rendered in this image. The faint pastel colors remind me a bit of the hand-painted black and white images of yesteryear. I have a photograph of my mother when she was a young girl, probably 4 or 5 years old, that is hand painted. It’s gorgeous. The rendering of paint on a silver halide print doesn’t look like a darkroom or digital print; it has a certain depth that comes from having layers of material worked one into another. I think I could successfully print this image. I don’t think it would have the character of that photograph of my mother. Please click to enlarge.
For the geeks, here are the details:
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Bangkok Panorama:
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Lumpini Park in Bangkok. I workout and get great Thai massages there, test camera hardware and workflows, and endure the endless playing of PSY’s Gangnam Style by the guy in charge of the PA system (used for the huge aerobics classes held after work hours). I heard it eleven times yesterday. Catchy tune. The first time. Or second. Hmmm, never thought of earplugs as being a necessary photographic accessory until now…
Folio Sale:
The introductory sale on my Botanica Obscura folio is almost over—January 1st, the price goes up to $90. Take a look at the folio in detail in my store here or in my Facebook store here. This has been one of my favorite projects so far—I love how the photographs turned out, and the making of the folio itself was a blast. Take a look! And, if you don’t want to purchase the print version, there is a free downloadable .pdf available also—please only use Adobe Reader to view the pdf. Here is the file in my store and here in my Facebook store. Thanks for looking!
I’ve been a huge fan of Really Right Stuff’s (RRS) gear for many years and have had their quick-release Arca-Swiss style camera plates and clamps on nearly ever camera I’ve owned. The one thing that was always missing from their catalog, however, was an detent-indexed rotator, used for, among other things, shooting stitched single-row panoramic images. This is my solution to that missing piece.
Note: Click on any of the images for a larger version; a manufacturers’ link to each item described is provided at the bottom of the post. Detailed technical specifications can be found at each of these links.
Goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitch—fuck-me-that-hurts. That’s my response. Under duress. I’m responding to Tom, whom I’ve met on the long end of three minutes earlier. I’m in Lumpini Park, Bangkok, getting in a morning bodyweight workout. He’s there… well, to kick my ass, Thai massage style.
I’ve been meeting some interesting people here in Thailand and have decided to do a Bangkok Personalities project: describe people that I happen to meet that strike me as interesting, and shoot a portrait or two of them. The first will be posted soon, take a look!
The image above? Not a person, but something I ate that was really good: Daikon radish pickled with soy sauce (among other things). Yum!
Time for a folio sale. I’m sitting here in the SeaTac airport waiting for my 1AM flight to Bangkok. So, I thought I’d send out a reminder of the sale on my Botanica Obscura folio. $15 off until January, 1st.
After a four day delay thanks to one of Vimeo’s processing bugs, my product description videos are up. Take a look at the folio video here. And take a look at the print video here.
Back to hanging out in the airport…
