Akha Innocence

Tubular City The old town of Hanoi can provide visual delight around every corner. I strolled down one narrow street filled with metalwork shops. Most often I walked along the street’s edge since every square inch of the sidewalk was either serving as a parking lot for motorbikes or a horizontal space for workers who… Read more…

Elephantasy For the second time I photographed the awesome painted elephants of Jaipur in the western state of Rajasthan, India. These magnificent beasts possess incredible power yet they are a patient species. Perhaps we humans have much to learn. I could have been crushed in an instant at the whim of this marvelous animal. He… Read more…

Drippy Teaser On a recent stroll through the old town in Bikaner, India, I happened upon an old metal door splattered with numerous paint drips. I zeroed in for a close-up view. My guess is that the person who painted the wall up above with white paint had  no idea he was creating a thrilling… Read more…

Camel Fashionista The Jaisalmer Desert Festival is a draw for dressed-up camels and hordes of not-so-dressy tourists. The camels seemed to care less either way. By nature they can be an arrogant lot. Or maybe that’s just the way they like to portray themselves. I like camels. . Laminated Print . Mounted Print . Canvas… Read more…

Magic Axe Street markets in India offer unique surprises. I found this collection of hand-wrought axe blades on display at the Nagaur Cattle Fair in central Rajasthan. Such events attract craftsmen from nearby desert tribal villages who set up makeshift booths along the road to sell their wares to the hordes of cattle merchants in… Read more…

Metallica Art can be found in chaos. Bangkok has a bit of graffiti but unlike most major cities in the world, here this alternative art form is mostly isolated to old buildings in the process of being demolished, which sometimes takes months. In the interim the graffiti artists have added a nice splash of design… Read more…

Upward Dreams I walk through narrow streets. Sometimes I look up. I love shadow. I love highlight. Sometimes I lapse into a world enveloped by my dreams . . . then I realize it’s not a dream. (From Udaipur. A rather magical old town in the south of Rajasthan, India.) . Laminated Print . Mounted… Read more…

Got Small Change? The Akha Hill Tribe women of northern Laos adorn themselves with old coins. Read about the unique Akha people in my travel blog post, “Akha Hill Tribes & Bamboo Love Shacks.” . Laminated Print . Mounted Print . Canvas Print . Matted Print . Framed Print . . Photo Print . Greeting… Read more…

Artistic Camel Twenty thousand camels come to Pushkar, India, during the full moon of November each year. Often there’s much competition amongst camel herders when it comes to decorating their camels for the festival. This one had his fur shaved to form this pattern and to serve as a background for a painted design. …. Read more…

Fabric Fantasy The color in Indian textiles has a way of grabbing me. Something inside me lets fly with the thrill. Usually I zero in on a very tight composition trying to isolate intensity. I like the punch and the kick of raw color and bold design is a bonus that can send me over… Read more…

Fireworks The skies and buildings in India light up each year for the Diwali Festival of Lights. Officially it’s a celebration of Rama’s and Sita’s homecoming in the historical Ramayana story. All across the country it’s a joyous time of giving and receiving sweets and setting off firecrackers and sky rockets like these, which were… Read more…

Whimsical Song This is a close-up detail of fabric found at a shop in Hoi An, Vietnam. Circles by their very nature have the capacity to define limits. I’ve never been led astray by a circle . . . perhaps because its boundaries are so confined. Give me some circles and magic light and I… Read more…

Blissful Buddhas come big in Burma. This one in Monywa near Mandalay is 423 feet tall. That’s about 40 stories. Notice the scale of the very tiny person way in the distance at the top of the stairs on the left. While not all forms of Buddhism involve the worship of Buddha statues, the sects in… Read more…

Sequestered This is another image from my sequin series shot in Vietnam. The orderly rows of scarlet sequins seemed on fire but with closer inspection I could see that all the sequins were just plain silver shiny ones. The brilliant saturated red was being reflected from objects behind me. My silhouette blocked the crimson rays… Read more…

Mellow Yellow Artistic compositions can be found just about anywhere. During a short auto-rickshaw ride from Jaipur to Amber Fort the road narrowed through a rock-carved pass. The uneven surfaces of the boulders were painted in alternating yellow and black swatches that served as makeshift warning markers. My driver thought it was a bit weird… Read more…

Boxy Blue The two little blue doors piqued my interest but I decided not to kill the intrigue by opening them. Wandering the narrow alleyways of Jaisalmer Fort can provide ample photo possibilities and this discarded blue bookcase became one of them. Even junk can possess a beauty of its own. See more photos like… Read more…

Sequentially Arranged This sea of sequins in Ho Chi Minh City reflected scenes behind me, which created a subtle color wash on each tiny mirror-like surface. The sequins themselves were colorless. Typically I would have moved in tighter for a closer view to see more detail. In this case I reversed my approach by pulling… Read more…

Shake Your Booty Where do elephants sit? Anywhere they want to as the saying goes. This big guy was proudly strutting his stuff during the a painted elephant festival in India. Even his toenails were painted pink. Read more about this mind-bending celebration in my blog post, “Jaipur Painted Elephant Festival.” . Laminated Print …. Read more…

Whistle Blower Red trains can draw attention. This one was on display at the Jodhpur Central Railway Station. I was captivated by the color and the candy cane composition. Old steam locomotives possess an aura of romance from times long passed. I could almost hear the whistle blowing and envisioned the huff puff of the… Read more…

Red Delight Peeling paint can reveal layers of history. Though I wondered what the red had depicted, the more recent addition of green left me equally perplexed. Like other photos that day, when I shot this image last October in Siem Reap, Cambodia, I was standing almost knee-deep in flood waters from an inundation caused… Read more…

Envy The hustle bustle chaos in the narrow lanes of Pushkar during the camel festival can be overwhelming. Excitement fills the air. The streets are packed dense with revelers, holy men and tribal villagers who have come to town for the celebration. I noticed a sari-clad crowd of Indian ladies gathered in front of one… Read more…

Bowled Over Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu valley is filled with crooked alleyways and small public squares where old men linger to reminisce better times of years past. Even today these gathering places also provide a venue for artisans to craft their wares. Sun-dried clay bowls filled the plaza edge-to-edge and I went about composing my… Read more…

Triangulation Sometimes life doesn’t give us what we want. When that happens to me, I use Photoshop. I found these packets of incense at Cholon Market in Ho Chi Minh City and I was intrigued by the triangular shapes. However, three packets were missing which left gaping holes in what would have been a perfect… Read more…

Undulation The graphic designs of Rajasthani fabrics excite me. Up close it’s easy to see they are handmade as are many other traditional craftworks in India. The stitches in this piece were uneven but that added character and in this case provided a freestyle counterbalance to the rigid, grid-like pattern. A slight breeze created the… Read more…

In the Pink In the past my attention was always focused toward finding nifty travel images but now that I’ve added a fine art photo angle to my pursuits, I’m expanding my search. This slightly weathered, hot pink triangular patch of color caught my eye in Chiang Mai. Typically I would spend time in Photoshop… Read more…

Sugar Cane The Rajasthani people love color. Even simple, hand-made walking canes seem to explode in vibrant hues. Maybe they seek counterbalance to the drab shades of brown in the barren desert landscape that surrounds them or perhaps they are just channeling their artistic expression toward the celebration life. See more photos like this in… Read more…

Shiny Steely A sparkle of light from metal objects inside a hardware shop in Jaipur caught me eye one day as I strolled down the street. Naturally I had to go inside and investigate what was causing the reflection. Holding my camera up, I asked the shopkeeper if it was OK to take a photo…. Read more…

Flipped Out When I passed this black metal roll-up door in Chiang Mai I was intrigued by the silver spray painted patterns. It wasn’t graffiti. Perhaps something had been painted in front of this door. The shop was closed on Sunday and I couldn’t read the Thai language signboard. Early the next morning I returned to… Read more…

Universal Appeal One never knows where beauty might lie among the mundane things we encounter. Sometimes fine art photo compositions seem to jump in my path. I was trudging around Nong Khai, Thailand, and the heat of the day exhausted me. Then up ahead I spotted a picnic table in the garden of a Buddhist… Read more…