On a recent trip to india I watched a Bollywood movie on the plane called Marina. The video below is the theme song "Chennai". Here is the plot:

Ambikapathy ('Pakoda' Pandian) is a orphan runaway who escapes from his cruel uncle to Chennai and eventually ends up at Marina beach. He earns his livelihood by first hawking drinking-water packets and later poached chickpeas to the public visiting Marina beach. His calm and matured manners win him the admiration and later the friendship of other boys employed at the beach. Ambikapathy has a passion to be educated, so he works in the day to save money for schooling whilst trying to study at night on his own. His ultimate dream is to be enrolled in a proper school. His passion also slowly begins to rubs-off on the other children on the beach. 

An old man (Sundararajan) and postman (Jithan Mohan) are the guardian of sorts for these street-children. The beach is also the got-to place for many lovebirds. One such couple is Senthilnathan and Swapna Sundari.

I remembered really enjoying the film so yesterday, while spending the day in Chennai before the beginning of our tour,  I made an effort to go down to Marina Beach where I photographed a small slice of life – perhaps these boys were influenced by the movie!

I just spoke to 3 of the Emirates flight attendants who will be on our flight today. One was from Brazil, one from the Netherlands and the other from New Zealand. I've heard great things about this airline and it is my first flight with them – bound for Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Often the atmosphere in India is choked with pollution. Instead of lamenting the poor visibility embrace it and create something special. On two separate occasions during my January 2013 tour to the Kumbh Mela we had this poor visibility, the first time in Allahabad , and several days later at Varanasi. These are the results! Do we have a theme going here?

The friendly people at Photodeck describe them as Photography websites with a brain. They certainly are that. Updated to use the latest coding standards, they have introduced  some very nice templates to get you started. I have been with them for the past 4 or 5 years and now have an archive of more than 11,000 images stored on the robust Amazon servers.

The template designs are fully adaptable to your tablets and smart phones – each adapts to the device used, supports all advanced features, comes in 23 color variants, and offers extensive customization options.

If you are interested in a great platform to get your images seen try Photodeck free for a month. If you like it use my personal Tell-your-Friends coupon code. You will get 50% off your first month.

Coupon code:YG@UAKDSD

Check out what I have done with one of the template designs. Click on the website image to go to my site.

Here Chris is using good lighting technique to photograph this Himba woman in the doorway of her home. At the time the direct, outdoor light was pretty harsh so she has placed her in the shade of her hut and is relying on the reflected ambient light as her primary light source. You can see the beautiful warmth that surrounds the doorway, and with careful image processing this turned in to a gorgeous image.

NEWSFLASH!  Photographic Journeys – An Afternoon with Sam Abell and Evelyn Nodwell
Join Sam Abell and Evelyn Nodwell 2:00 pm Saturday March 15, 2014 for an illuminating afternoon of conversation about photography at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. Mr Abell, renowned National Geographic photographer and teacher, will present a talk drawing on his 30 years as a world-ranging photographer of gardens, cultures and history. He will then join his friend, the distinguished Vancouver photographer Evelyn Nodwell for a walking conversation of her works on display in the Garden's gallery. Take a look at some of Evelyn's and husband Ted's images at the following [LINK].

GUIZHOU CHINA, In the Season of New Rice
March 1 - 30, 2014  Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 578 Carrall Street, Vancouver BC. 
(Exhibit Opening  2:00-4:00 pm Saturday March 1)

This photography exhibit by anthropologist and award-winning photographer Evelyn Nodwell explores village and small town life in Guizhou Province at a time of China’s growing urbanization.

Guizhou is among the least developed of China’s provinces. Many villages are still accessible only over rough, winding and narrow gravel roads; some are only accessible on foot. More than one-third of Guizhou’s towns and steep, green hills are populated by an ethnically diverse population of many indigenous ethnic minorities.

After the fall harvest, villages stage festivals, a traditional time for courtship. Festival activities include fireworks, water buffalo fights, bareback horse races, dancing, lusheng pipe playing and stalls of food, balloons and crafts.

Women dress in a wide range of clothing, from elaborate embroidered and silver-adorned festival dress, to jeans and high heels. Festival dress, also worn at weddings and other important events, is carefully stored in trunks and handed down within families.

At weekly markets, too, many women wear their traditional ethnic clothing, often a very dark blue-black or brownish indigo which is locally grown and made into a dye. Throughout Guizhou, spinning, dying, weaving, elaborate types of embroidery and batik are widely practiced by women, some of whom are recognized as master textile artists.

Rice is an important crop. Fall festivals are often called Tasting New Rice Festivals. The dried rice stalks are important fodder for animals and are stacked in the fields in characteristic pointed dome shapes.

The beauty and spontaneity of these photographs is thanks to the welcoming openness and good nature of the Guizhou people.

About the Artist
As an anthropologist, Evelyn Nodwell has worked in Vancouver and India. Based on her research in India, she produced two television documentaries in collaboration with Knowledge Network. As a photographer, Evelyn has had photos published in Canadian Geographic magazine, The Province newspaper and Vancouver Coast and Mountains Tourism publications. Her prints have been included in the Burnaby Art Gallery sales and rental division. She has given photo workshops, and judges for camera clubs in Vancouver. In 2013 one of her images from China, A Good Laugh, came in 4th out of 280 photos at the North Shore Challenge.

Evelyn Nodwell embraced digital photography early for the degree of control that it gives her. In 2004 she produced the first slideshow in digital format for the annual Showcase at the Shadbolt Center for the Arts. Being a new technology, it was accepted with some trepidation by event organizers and became the winning show that year.

“First come the acts of seeing and experiencing - a heart-stopping play of light or color, a mood, an atmosphere, a human moment, an interaction.” she says. “There quickly follows the impulse to capture the moment or inspiration. Then comes the desire to communicate and share it. Photographing both nurtures and requires slowing down to savor the moment, to be fully engaged with the life around, and to see every sight and experience as if it were new.”

As an anthropologist Evelyn Nodwell is interested in people’s everyday lives. Whether she is photographing quickly to capture a fleeting moment or waiting patiently for compositional elements to become clear, she does not control a situation but looks for what happens. She strives to create images that give insights into an inner life, actions that speak about lifestyle, and interactions that speak about connections and context.

About Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, the first of its kind outside of China, is an authentic representation of an age – old garden tradition which reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The Garden is characteristic of the private spaces within a Ming scholar’s residence. With its asymmetrical arrangement of rocks and plants, its winding paths and corridors, and the vistas that overlook its courtyards, the Garden emulates the rhythms of nature.Ming dynasty scholars, the elite of their time, lived and worked in their garden, sharing these enchanting spaces with friends and family of all ages. Like any home, a scholar’s garden was filled with energy, but also offered quiet moments for contemplation.

The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden was named "World's Top City Garden" by National Geographic and, in 2012, "Canadian Garden Tourism Garden of the Year". 

I have just about finished distilling down 7,000+ images from my recent scouting trip to Socotra and Mainland Yemen. It has resulted in a final edit of 272 – for now anyway. As always, with this vast quantity of imagery, it is always good to revisit the files 6 months or a year later on with fresh eyes.

I have posted the edit to my Zenfolio site at the following link. If you would like to see a quick overview just scroll down on the homepage and all the images are there in the flow.

Our next trip to Socotra is in April 2015 and we have 3 spots still open.

Socotra Slideshow
Here is a selection of my greatest hits in the form of a slideshow. Enjoy!

This is a nice post from super stock photographer John lund who recently came on one of my tours which I ran with Luka Esenko.