Photograph This!

Every thirty seconds in the USA, 106,000 aluminum cans are discarded; every 30 seconds.  It’s a compelling statistic, but what does that look like?  Can you picture in your mind 106,000 aluminum cans?  What about the total number of cell phones retired every day (426,000)?  Too passé?  How about photographing 29,569 gun related deaths (the total in the USA in 2004)?  How would you do that?  Well Chris Jordan, a Seattle based photographer, found a way.

Chris photographs small samples of his subject matter and then weaves the images to...Read more

Time for another poem?

Time

What a gift is time

Allotted a mere handful

Unknown amount

Dispense with as we please

Such a precious thing

Yet lately I do squander

Thoughts flow like chilled molasses

And I find myself staring at things inconsequential

How to slake the melancholy of loss?

Lijiang Calling

Man, I just had a battle royal uploading these photos.  Not sure if was the server or the great firewall of China Inc.  Either way, they are finally here.

Lijiang is a town in Yunnan province that has exploded onto the tourism scene in the last ten years.  Although I liked Lijiang more and more the longer I stayed there, it was the surrounding villages and countryside that really drew me in and won me over.  I'm not sure when I'm going back, but I'm definitely going back.  We stayed for five days, but five weeks would be ...Read more

A Poem for the Sleeping

When is a poem finished?  Is this even a poem?  It probably still needs some work, but since it's been gathering dust, I thought I would share it.  Perhaps in doing so, some life can be breathed into these slumbering thoughts.

When light ebbs and your head embraces the pillow,

What thoughts cross your mind? 

What do you imagine in those waning moments,

Before you drift away?

Do you ponder your day, things forgotten,

The promises and challenges of tomorrow?

As your eyes seal...Read more

What Keeps You from Sleep?

What a week.  It left me exhausted until today.  For some reason that only the accommodation gods understand, my neighbors fell into a synchronous systematic sleeplessness designed to keep me awake at all hours.  Did you ever see the Hollywood Squares?  If so, consider my studio the square in the middle.  If you haven’t, imagine a room surrounded by eight other rooms (minesweeper anyone?).  It’s not that everyone around me makes noise all at once, on the contrary, we all have differing schedules.  Therein lies the rub.

The ...Read more

A place to chill

Just a five minute walk from my studio and a stone throw away from the heart of Dong Men, the realm of chaotic shopping for Shenzhen's hipsters and trend setters (read people under 25), there is a most unusual cafe.  This small space was the brainchild of Jia Jia, a young Chinese woman who was tired of working for a big corporation and decided to do something she could enjoy.  Jia Jia loves coffee, music and art.  She combined all three to make the best little cafe in South China, if not all of it.

Sure, there's coffee, teas,...Read more

Cambodia Over Time

So I had the pleasure of returning to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat last month for a few days.  Took my dad.  His first time.  This was my second trip to Cambodia this year.  I went for nearly a month in January/February.  For him, it was an amazing trip as the temples there are truly stunning.  But things are changing at Angkor and changing fast.

I first visited Cambodia in 1999 with Savvy.  There were about 180,000 intrepid visitors to the country that year, most sporting backpacks.  Fast forward to 2007 and that number topped 2 milli...Read more

Does this hurt you?

There are times when it seems the stars are aligned against me; the dagger of fate dangles above my head.  Once a week, I participate in an English conversation class at a Shenzhen hospital.  Tonight, however, the class turned into a rehearsal of Top of the World by the Carpenters.  Seems someone decided it would be good for the class to sing at the forthcoming hospital Christmas banquet.  That same someone, thought this would be a good holiday spirit song.  

As long as I can recall, I have loathed this song.  To be honest, I don...Read more

Player

You probably wouldn't know it by just looking at my photo, but I'm a player.  I know this for a fact, though until recently, I remained aloof to my street cred.

About two weeks ago, I bruised my left heal.  Purple.  As bruises go, a huge success.  Completely clueless as to how it happened.  Let's just say I had a clumsy month. 

As I was walking home from the metro station, I was listening to Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR news quiz on my iPod.  That's National Public Radio.  Yeah, I roll like that.  I was not wa...Read more

Lightning Srikes

I've often heard it said by photographers that it is difficult to photograph lightning.  This always makes me wonder how they are trying to capture the image, if they have tried at all.  Then again, I've tried it the hard way too. 

When I was 19, I lived in Haifa, Israel. One afternoon there was a fantastic lightning storm.  My Norwegian roommate, also into photography, grabbed his camera and began taking photos.  Like a fool, I did the same.  We both stood on our balcony and each shot about a role of film, attempting to cli...Read more