Jaipur Painted Elephant Festival

Polka Dot Heaven. My makeup artist, Hilde Marie Johansen, drew inspiration in her styling of this image from Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama, the queen extraordinaire of polka dot glory. Click on Kusama’s link and be utterly amazed. Prolific doesn’t even come close to describing this 83-year-old woman’s life work. Wikipedia elaborates on the roots of… Read more…

Be black. Be jeweled. This is Russian model, Tanya, studded with faux diamonds glued to her skin that perfectly matched her outfit designed by the makeup artist/stylist/fashion designer, Hilde Marie Johansen, who is sitting next to me in the setup shot below. Tanya is tall and my ceiling was low. So she had to sit in… Read more…

Lady in Blue A marvelous, dance-filled evening. This is another of my Stroborati BODYART series styled by Hilde Marie Johansen, who applied blue paint to transform our model, Nardia. For the background I used a 2-meter diameter bamboo picnic table umbrella that I bought at Bangkok’s famous weekend Chatuchak Market. I sawed off the stem… Read more…

The Launch of Stroborati BODY ART I’m starting a new series of Stroborati body-painted images and will be incorporating some very artistic designs on the models in my upcoming images that will be styled by Hilde Marie Johansen, an extremely talented makeup artist/stylist/fashion designer in Bangkok. Hilde hand crafted this headpiece for model, Mara Bee,… Read more…

This is Steven Dasz. A South American actor visiting Bangkok in between Shanghai and Singapore movie gigs. At his feet washed the overflowing waters of the mighty Chao Phraya River, which courses through this thunderous city, and whose waves sometimes splash above embankments during the rainy season. I asked Steven to remove his shirt and to… Read more…

The Red Dzao hill tribe is one of the few in which the women don’t chew beetle nut, which stains ones mouth and lips red. They get their name from the scarlet color of their headdress and not from the color of their teeth. Maybe that’s why Red Dzao ladies of North Vietnam smile more than other… Read more…

Red has long been associated with royalty. The Red Dzao hill tribe women of North Vietnam shave their foreheads and eyebrows. The visual experience (for a naive Western eye) can be a bit disconcerting at first glance. For these women, their crowning glory is a folded red blanket atop their heads. They are a happy people. Manipulating… Read more…

In olden days these Naga warriors in the far north-eastern reaches of India collected heads from fallen opponents and they proudly displayed their trophies above the entrance doors of their bamboo huts. I’m extremely grateful I wasn’t part of their collection. I could have asked these guys to smile . . . but that would have… Read more…

It wasn’t so long ago that tribal warriors in the far north-eastern Indian state of Nagaland practiced head hunting as a favorite pastime. Fortunately for me, this fierce-looking gentleman gave up such macabre endeavors long ago. The remote Tuensang area of Nagaland was a grueling 12-hour journey that refreshed my memory of many other “bus-rides-from-hell,”… Read more…

In Amritsar lies the golden jewel of the Sikh faith: Harmandir Shrine, which rises from the center of a lake at the Golden Temple. Every Sikh strives to make at least one pilgrimage here in their lifetimes for a ritual bath in the lake’s waters and to listen to the sublime shabad kirtan devotional music… Read more…

To reach this Akha hill tribe village from my base in the small Laotian town of Luang Nam Tha, I first had to take a 2-hour local minibus equipped with four rows of twelve seats into which were crammed twenty-one people. Luckily there were no chickens or pigs or fresh fish aromas on this trip. Much… Read more…

Our trek to the top of the mountain had its rewards. It would be my first night to sleep in an Akha village. As with many hill tribes in Laos, UNICEF had helped these villagers install a water pipe from the nearest small river, which provided my trekking team with what turned out to be… Read more…

Most people travel to the northern Laos hill tribe country via a 15- to 20-hour local bus ride from Luang Prabang, the nearest major town toward the south. A fifteen-dollar bus ticket sure beats going by private chartered car that would set you back about US$230 one-way. Cramped in a tiny bus seat with camera… Read more…

Webster somewhat diplomatically defines the word “gypsy” as: “A member of a traveling people with dark skin and hair who speak Romany and traditionally live by seasonal work, itinerant trade and fortune-telling. Gypsies are now found mostly in Europe, parts of North Africa and North America, but are believed to have originated in the Indian… Read more…

This year the Bundi Ustav Festival in India happened just a few days after the Pushkar Camel Fair about five hours away. Festivities began with the traditional Kalash Yatra parade where sari-clad ladies marched through the narrow streets of Bundi carrying pots on their heads. The action was fast and the streets were jam-packed with… Read more…

Once again I’m featuring Rekah, the gypsy young lady I met in Pushkar, India. Like all Indian towns, Pushkar has a wealth of great old doors that provide instant backdrops for posing subjects. Since this location provided a more controlled environment away from the crowds, I used a 24×24 inch softbox (an unnamed brand I… Read more…

There’s a gypsy camp just outside the town limits of Pushkar, India. During the camel festival all the  gypsy girls come to town in search of photographer’s and the nice tips they are more than willing to pay for pictures. This is Rekah, who is twenty years old. I had pre-scouted the area for some… Read more…

The Rajasthani desert town of Pushkar comes alive with pilgrims and tourists every year about nine days before the full moon of November. It’s believed by Hindu worshipers that the town came into existence when Lord Brahma dropped a lotus flower to earth. Water magically appeared in the desert where the petals landed. On the… Read more…

India lights me up. But sometimes no light is the best light. I’m referring to external supplementation. It was the last night of the Diwali Festival of Lights in Jaipur. But apparently the switch for most of the city’s decorative lights recently installed for the occasion wasn’t flipped to light up my night. Perhaps the… Read more…

India never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday I headed back to the outlying countryside around Udaipur. The locals here are extremely friendly and gracious. When guests arrive they’re treated like kings–even unexpected drop-in guests. This is in such contrast with many of my experiences in the West. For myself, I’m usually a bit put off… Read more…

Yesterday I hired a car and driver for a day tour through the surrounding Udaipur countryside in search of great subjects and locations for my Stroborati environmental portraits. I made sure the driver spoke great English and explained that I needed him to also function as my photo assistant and translator. I also hired a… Read more…

When I came upon this Rajasthani man sitting at his loom in Udaipur, India, I knew the color surrounding him would make for a dramatic composition. He sat in deep shade under a canopy but the weaving yarn extended out into the harsh midday sun. See the image below left that was shot with only… Read more…

Backgrounds come first. When shooting environmental portraits, my first consideration is the background for the subject, who in all probability wasn’t standing in the most photogenic location when first spotted. Such was the case with this sadhu ascetic who caught my attention at the Jagdish Temple in Udaipur, India, yesterday. The light and shadows were… Read more…

Lets’s set words straight. Webster defines “paraphernalia” as “equipment needed for a particular activity.” Welcome to Papua (formerly known as Irian Jaya) which is the eastern-most province of Indonesia located on the same mega island shared with the rival country of Papua New Guinea farther east, a land where many past fierce battles were waged… Read more…

These PNG Huli Wigmen were performing a ritual war dance in full regalia deep in the far reaches of the Huli Highlands. They’re called “wigmen” because they don hats woven from human hair that straddle their faces, which are painted in brilliant hues of red and yellow pigment. This image was shot several years ago… Read more…

Before there was light, there was Photoshop . . . or was it the other way around? (Mouse-over to see the original image.) A rather surreal looking character indeed. For demonstration purposes in this tutorial I searched through my files for the roughest, toughest looking hombre I could find whose skin texture would lend itself… Read more…

Welcome to the world of Stroborati. We start in the pink city of Jaipur. A young Rajasthani lady lends her grace. Ambient light was almost non-existent so I added the undulating tonality artificially. My lighting setup was simple–just a Ray Ring Flash encircling my lens and three radio-controlled bare-head Speedlites off in the distance to accent her… Read more…