Sep
17
2008

Head of Tourism in Nong Khiaw

Last year I was in Luang Namtha and, being interested in seeing more of the country, hired a motor bike to ride a small circuit through the surrounding country. A Chinese woman I met on the trip wanted to go along; she said she had never ridden a motorbike so, rather than rent one, she rode on the back of mine where her main contribution was to scream at each big bump and clutch my shirt on each curve. I had also met a tall Brit who stood out amongst the average backpacker and especially the small statured Lao, literally, being 6′ 8″ and when he heard about my plans to sight-see, rented a bike to do the same circuit. He was young and athletic, whereas I am older and more aware of my capabilities.

So I would putt ahead and stop to take pictures while he caught up. He was a large enough curiosity that, when we stopped in a couple of Black Thai villages (we were lost), woman would hold up their children so they could see this big strange Farang.

Eventually getting back on the paved road when the dirt road we were on petered out into a non-negotiable path, we stopped at one road-side restaurant to get a drink. A broadly smiling Lao man came over to us and motioned us down a side road. Well, he was friendly and slightly drunk so we went along and found out that we had been invited to a wedding - and my friend, being a foot taller than anyone else, was one of the prime attraction. After way, way, way too much rice whiskey in the hot sun, we finally said our goodbyes and best -wishes and got back on the road which seemed much curvier than the first half of the ride.

A few days later, I was in Nong Khiaw, staying at the Riverside Resort (sic?) which, by the way, was the nicest place I’ve ever been in SEA (great bungalows, great food, beautiful view) and was just wandering around the boat landing to see what I could see.

I started talking with a middle-aged Lao man who eventually introduced himself as being responsible for tourism in that area. I invited him for coffee and he told me his entire life history and then ask me to walk down to see his office. After a pleasant time talking, he invited me to his home that evening for a baci ceremony and said I should bring a friend if I could.

I had met a Chinese backpacker on the bus from Luang Namtha and so I invited him along. We showed up with some gifts for the Lao man’s family (that was appropriate and went over well). His entire family was there - wife, parents, in-laws, children, grandchildren - 15 people - and the entire baci unfolded. Hand holding, saying prayers, everyone ties a cotton string on each of my wrists - a strange and moving experience.

After the ceremony and dinner was over, we spent an hour or so talking about our respective families - all channeled thru the tourist chief, who was the only one who spoke Lao and English; his English was limited but, except for one word my Lao was non-existent.

Great time, great food (except for the baked fish that stared at me through the entire meal) and one of the most memorable experiences of my trip.

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By Lewis | Posted in Laos, Thailand, Travel, photojournalism | Tagged , , | Comments (2)
Sep
16
2008

What I use pictures for

I have no idea why other people take pictures; perhaps some people don’t even know why they do.  I am very clear about my own reasons - and there are two.

Reason 1)I have a need to create that is frustrated by a singular lack of talent or artistic ability.  It’s not work - because I work at it - and its not technical skill - because I can do pretty much what I need to do.  I clearly just don’t have ‘it.’ So I have gradually come to terms that I am the photographic equivalent of a patzer.

Reason 2) My photographs are some tangible reminders of the past.  I can hold them in my minds and they will bring back sharp remembrances of places, things, feelings - that have been fading in my mind. I love nothing more than to leaf through my boxes of old snapshots or click through digital folders - and often find myself smiling with the memories they induce.

Maybe that’s the reason that I don’t just post pictures. I try to post ‘around’ the picture.

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By Lewis | Posted in Photo philosophy | Tagged | Comments (0)
Sep
02
2008

It’s not the taking of the picture, but the seeing

I was following a thread on motivation and ‘photographers’s block’ on the Nikongear.site and a lady from New Jersey made an incredibly trenchant observation that struck directly to the issue in my own life. She said that

Well, for starters, I remind myself that there is really no Obligation to Record !!!
I remind myself to just let go of that idea and — here’s the shocker –
just enjoy the scene for what it is in that little moment of time.
Make a mental snapshot. Then let that moment go.

That’s why I am grateful to photography as a pursuit; it has taught me to see things, to appreciate those moments of interest or beauty or intrigue that are all around me. No longer does the world just pass me by in a blur of unrecognized detail; it is a series of frames that I can capture and remember.

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By Lewis | Posted in Photo philosophy, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (1)
Aug
07
2008

Missing stuff

I took a long walk today, trying to walk off a back spasm that has been bothering me. I should do that more often rather than going to the gym.  It smells better outside and I get to think a bit.

On the way home, walking down a long hill, I could see some runners approaching. They looked like high schools boys on the track team, moving along pretty briskly but not so seriously that they couldn’t joke.  They came up the hill at about the same pace and - at the same moemnt that I realized how little the slope affected them - I realized how much I missed extreme physical activity. After years of lots of sports, I’ve had enough wear and tear in spine and knee that I can’t do much any more - some softball, some low-level stuff - but none of the really strenuous things I used to love.  I miss the long runs with friends, the bike treks that turned into races, the full-contact tag football games. Man, getting old really sucks.

Below is a casual game of  “foot volleyball,” the Malaysian sport of sepak takraw, as played in a village outside of Vientianne, Laos.

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By Lewis | Posted in Photo philosophy, Quiet rants, Travel | Tagged | Comments (0)
Jul
25
2008

In the zone - photographically that is

When I was a kid and playing lots of sports, sometimes I would get in the zone.  Pitches looked slow, the basket looked big and everything worked right. It has been hard to get into that ‘zone’ while taking pictures.  Maybe there is just too much technical stuff to absorb and use, quickly.

However, lately on a trip to New York, I seemed to be in that zone.  Out of two days of casual shooting I got perhaps a dozen really good memorable keeper pictures.  And, for me, that’s a lot. It may be that my standards have gone down or an embolus has effected my cognitive functions. I do know tha my standards are changing - in a way I can’t seem to verbalize but I will work on that.

Kaitlyn getting wet

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By Lewis | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)
Jul
16
2008

B&W and color all over

I’m making some broad generalizations here so there are bound to be lots of exceptions but I’m ignoring those. I was post-processing a few pictures the other day and, in converting one to B&W. I wondered why B&W always seems more ‘important’ than color. I have an Internet-friend who mostly shoots photojournalistic shots and converts everything to B&W. (Interestingly this doesn’t seem to violate rule 6 of the Code of Ethics of National Press Photographers Association (NPPA)

6) Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images’ content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects. (http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/ethics.html)

Look at the PJism on any site and you’ll often see BW - just because they are photojournalism and that’s the way it must be. OTOH, many of these pictures, when bereft of their color, often become just snapshots of a particular time and place without the composition and tension that we associate with good pictures of any kind.

Clearly, as color is taken away as a stumulus, the design and the subject become more important. Because I have always lived in a relatively modern society and had newspapers, I have been socialized to associate B&W with ‘news’ pictures, implying that the picture must have something important to say.

Of course, there is the case of selective color where the grey tones are used to provide the context but reduce the impact in comparison with the smaller part that is in color. The differential impact of color and BW is made obvious; one doesn’t see many pictures where almost everything is color and the important part of the image is gray.

I am sort of interested in pictures that combine greys and colors in a way that use the strong characteristics of both.

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By Lewis | Posted in Photo philosophy, Uncategorized, photojournalism | Tagged , | Comments (0)
Jul
06
2008

Penetration of the subject

I have been quite sick for almost three weeks - a little cross-checking of the on-line literature has made me believe that it may be mycoplasma pneumonia. This has coincided with one of my frequent bouts of worst-photographer-in-the-world depressions and so I have been quite dispirited about life - and photography. Those two are pretty much the same thing.

Well, in two successive days, my attitude has turned around. No, I’m still sick but I did an photo outing in Highlandtown, a semi-grungy Baltimore suburb and at the National Mall in DC for the 4th of July Parade.

I have finally gotten a handle on using the fabulous Nikon 70-200 and got to use the 24-70 for my first full day. The clarity and ‘depth’ of the images that these lenses can produce is amazing.

And that brings me to my subject.  I have always wanted to make pictures of people that got past the picture-face that people put on, that ‘penetrated’ to some real representation of what the people were.  I know this is hubris, that I could know people on a casual encounter, but I have always loved casual portraits where the subject is fully engaged with the camera, understanding that the picture is being taken and, in some way, communicating with the lens. The quality of lenses always seemed to interfere with my attmepts, never the detail or color that I wanted.  Well, I think my new lenses have broken that barrier and, from now on, I can’t blame any failures on the equipment but only on myself.

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By Lewis | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
Jun
26
2008

Are old pictures, well, old

I’ve noticed that many people who post on photo sites seem a little embarassed to post images that haven’t just been taken. They sort of apologize that this picture was taken xx months or years ago, as if they aren’t aken post-able shots any more.

Well, I know the feeling; I just don’t have that feeling.  Because I don’t think that creating the image stops when I pres the button, old files are a constant source of new ideas or images for me, much as I revisit places I’ve been before. (Additionally, as a person who is tied to the past by very strong bonds, every picture is an emotional journey for me.)

Here’s another picture from the American Southwest. New Mexico facing west towards the Arizona border.  Not my usual style or cup of tee but, when I see this kind of sky, how can I resist?

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By Lewis | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
Jun
19
2008

Body of work

One of my sons gave me this terrific book for Father’s Day, “The Americans” by Robert Frank - a book of photographs taken throughout the US in 1956 and 1958.  While some of these pictures were excellent on their own, the rest gained their strength from being included in a collection, from being part of a whole.  It seems that many iconic photographers are like that - they have a vision that carries throughout their entire body of work, that affects how they see the subject so strongly that each pictures is inevitably seen as part of a whole.

Me, I’m not so luck - or good. I am slowly settling into a style but, unfortunately or not, my pictures are individual and not so easy to categorize. Sometimes. like the picture below, I have no expressible idea why I even see or like the picture.

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By Lewis | Posted in san francisco | Tagged | Comments (0)
Jun
16
2008

I am not this Chinese Grandfather but I wish I were

I have been away in San Francisco for a few days, seeing my son and his family - the official reason was to go the my granddaughters’ graduation from primary school and high school. The weather was unnaturally beautiful for San Francisco in June and on Friday we had some time to walk around in San Francisco’s Chinatown. There is a small park between Kearney and Grant Streets which is always crowded with adults and children and it is a favorite place of mine to sit and people-watch. There are lots of little children on the play equipment, most being watched by their grandparents. Most Asians seem to be wonderfully attentive and loving parents and grandparents and it was a pleasure to watch all of the interactions. I watched this old man push what seemed to be his grandchild and other children around on this tire, his attention and affection very obvious.

Suddenly I was hit by the realization that, because my children and grandchildren are scattered around the country (and even as far as the UK) that the number of times I will get to see them before I die will be limited - and perhaps even few. I can accept many things, including my death, with equanimity but this has hit me hard. I love my children almost to distraction and hate the idea of being separated from them. I am lucky enough to have two of the five relatively close but that does not heal the pain of missing the other three.

Long ago I realized that one’s career is like wading a powerful river. While you are in it, it seems that it, and you, are important - but the instant you step out, the hole you have made closes up. Nothing I have done is really meaningful or important compared to my family. The realization that sooner or later I will be losing them(at my age it is unfortunately sooner) washed over me and, even 5 days later, I have difficulty pushing it away.

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By Lewis | Posted in Quiet rants, Uncategorized, photojournalism, san francisco | Tagged | Comments (0)