Travel Photographer Of The Year At The RGS

Photo © Matjaz Krivic-All Rights Reserved-Courtesy TPOTY

I am envious of my readers in the United Kingdom as they get the opportunity of attending The Travel Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society which runs until 10 June 2011. Well, I hope to be in London a day or two before its end, and see it myself...fingers crossed.

The best entries from The Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) 2010, along with some of the best of the society's own archive images, are at the exhibition but those who can't attend it in person can view a fantastic BBC audio slideshow.

TPOTY has signed a five-year agreement with the RGS to hold exhibitions at its 1 Kensington Gore (London) location.

The Leica File: The Jinghu Players Of Chinatown

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I"m happy to report that the kerfuffle pitting the NYPD against the senior citizens of Columbus Park in Chinatown seems to have been resolved. As you may have read in an earlier post, the NYPD disbanded the amateur Chinese opera bands that played at the park for years, and were filmed apparently using unnecessary force to do so.

But never underestimate the resilience of the Chinese...the cacophonous opera singers and their loyal musicians were back in force and in full form yesterday ...however minus their portable amplifiers. Amps and microphones violated the New York City Noise Control Code, and the NYPD swung into action. However, not only were the musicians back, but I've never seen so many chess, mah jong and card players despite the faint drizzle.

The musicians use a panoply of Chinese traditional musical instruments, such as the yangqin, a sort of dulcimer with a near-squared soundboard, and played with two bamboo sticks, as well as the jinghu, a small two string fiddle, a circular bodied plucked lute called the yueqin and the recognizable gu and ban, a drum and clapper.

As you can tell, I used a 1.4 aperture in those two photographs. I'm currently enamored with extreme shallow depth of field!

POV: To Stage Or Not To Stage?

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

I was invited a year or so ago as contributor, with other photographers (such as renowned travel photographer Bob Krist), on Pixiq, an online community where a group of professional photographers engage other enthusiasts about photography and related interests, and while it was very tempting, I excused myself because I just didn't have the time.

I occasionally drop by Pixiq to read some well-informed posts from other travel photographers, and recently I was interested in an article by Jim Zuckerman entitled Travel Photography Portraits in which he candidly tells his readers that he carefully pre-plans his photo shoots, and sets up his travel photographs, whether these are in Himbaland or elsewhere in the world.

I was equally interested to read a couple of comments, made by Marc-André Pauzé and others, essentially querying Zuckerman's work ethic for staging photo shoots, and then paying his "models". Both sides eventually get a little defensive, since they have opposing points of view.

This is not an unusual debate, and one that has been often discussed in travel photography. I didn't know Jim Zuckerman, but from his biography he's a well known photographer whose work has appeared in scores of magazines, and leads photo tours in many parts of the world. It goes almost without saying that he would make sure that he (and his clients if on a photo trip) will be able to "bag" the photographs he's after...since nothing is guaranteed in life, he just makes it possible by paying money and setting the shots.

Marc-André Pauzé, in contrast, is a photojournalist whose work ethic is against paying to set up photo shoots and opportunities. He and his peers are documentary photographers, and setting up photographs is anathema to them.

Zuckerman and Pauzé come from different corners...their market is different, and their clients seek different products. Photographers who are more commercial will set up photo shoots, use reflective umbrellas, master strobes and flashes...etc., while the latter in the photojournalism corner will use a camera, a couple of lenses and develop a relationship with his subjects, but not pay.

As Marc-André writes in his final comment: "Travel photography, as photojournalism and street photography is not staged. It is about Life."

I agree. Staging photo shoots robs reality, but I'm reasonably flexible on my own photo~expeditions to accept that staging is occasionally either better (depending on the subject matter) or the only alternative. In contrast with Jim Zuckerman, I don't really have a list of preconceived images because it would stifle my creativity and may make me not see other opportunities. My photo~expeditions single most important description is "where travel photography meets photojournalism"...and I believe it's the right one.

However, when I walk in a village in Gujarat, I'm prepared for the eventuality that staging a few photo shoots will be needed if these don't happen serendipitously. Do I like staging photographs? No, I don't....but on occasions I have no other good options. And I'd rather return with some lovely staged photographs than none.

Another important point: would I ever claim that a staged photograph isn't? No, I wouldn't...and that's an important work ethic. We have seen photojournalists breaking this work ethic rule win awards and grants, and frequently getting caught and exposed for what they are....frauds. As far as well known travel photographers as concerned, Jim Zuckerman is far from being the only one who stages photo shoots...most of them do, and their clients seem to expect it.

If you've read that far down, here's the reason I used a Gujarati doll photograph to illustrate this post: subjects in staged photos sometimes look like the doll...inanimate and lifeless!

National Geographic: Sony World Photo Awards 2011

Photo © Amit Madheshiya-Courtesy Sony World Photo Awards

The National Geographic's website is featuring the 2011 winners of the Sony World Photography Awards which is administered by the World Photography Organization. The awards were chosen by a panel of 12 judges, led by British photography critic Francis Hodges.

The choice of the first photograph of the Indian villager at an open-air movie as the Best Pro "Arts and Cultures" Picture is a great one. His facial expression is priceless...and is the "perfect moment".

The photographer is Amit Madheshiya, who tells us that travelling cinemas in India visit remote villages once a year, screening an eclectic mix of films for the equivalent of about 40 U.S. cents a ticket.

I suggest you also visit Amit Madheshiya's website which features The Nomadic Cinemas, with 24 images of this photo essay.

By the way, Amit's website is hosted by PhotoShelter...the professional website to show off your best photos.

WTF! The NYPD Hates Chinese Opera?

Photo Courtesy The Gothamist

One of my favorite photographic destinations in NYC's Chinatown is Columbus Park, where large number of Chinese residents and non-residents congregate during the weekends to play xiangqi, a board game similar to Western chess, mah-jong, and cards while listening to cacophonous Chinese opera performed by two groups of amateurs (most of whom are senior citizens).

But now I'm seriously pissed off. Here's why:

The Gothamist recently had an article with a video featuring the NYPD arresting an elderly man at the park on May 8 when they tried to stop a group of senior citizens from playing Chinese music...presumably he was a member of the bands that accompany the singers.

It may have been caused by a noise complaint by a resident, but it's more likely that it was that these bands of amateurs did not have the requisite permits that all street NYC performers need to have before playing in the streets.

Having said that, there's no doubt the NYPD crossed the line in how its officers dealt with this. On The Gothamist site, there's a short video that shows how the Chinese and others were brutally dispersed...the use of mace and batons was threatened, and the man arrested was thrown to the ground, then handcuffed.

These amateur Chinese opera singers (more like classical Chinese karaoke in my view) were certainly cacophonous, and perhaps even discordant to Western ears, but they brought in a lot of tourists and residents alike, and didn't harm anyone...quite the opposite.

So it's either that the NYPD has no ear for Chinese opera, or they really have nothing else to do. Since Osama Ben Laden was killed last week or so, I suppose they can now focus their efforts on arresting harmless senior citizens who speak no or little English.

The NYPD ought to nab the marijuana peddlars in Washington Square Park instead...or the vendors of counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags on Canal Street...and leave me the Chinese opera singers to photograph.

I wrote a number of posts on the Columbus Park Chinese opera, but this one describes the setting, while this following audio slideshow I produced is of one of the bands.

Katharina Hesse: Human Negotiations

Katharina Hesse is a damn good documentary photographer, and here's one of the many reasons why I say that:

She and her colleague, Lara Day, are requiring support for a worthwhile photographic book project Human Negotiations. It's on Kickstarter, and is an independent, self-funded documentary, exploring the lives of a community of Bangkok sex workers through both images and text.

Human Negotiations is not a journalistic account of the sex trade, but instead is a personal interpretation of a line of work that is frequently misunderstood.

To date, the project has garnered international support and was shown at numerous spaces and international festivals. Pledged funds will go directly towards printing costs so that Human Negotiations can be published as a book to coincide with an exhibition in China's foremost space for contemporary photography and video art.

So do consider to help Katharina and Lara with your pledges! It's really a worthwhile project and will encourage other documentary photographers to bring similar projects to the fore.

Katharina Hesse is a Beijing-based photographer who has lived in Asia for nearly two decades. Her photography focuses primarily on China’s social concerns among them youth, urban culture, religion and North Korean refugees.

Lara Day is a writer, editor and photographer based in Hong Kong and Bangkok whose work has appeared in leading publications including TIME and Travel + Leisure.

Stefen Chow: The Hasidim

Photo © Stefen Chow-All Rights Reserved

Stefen Chow is a photographer currently living between Beijing and Singapore. He worked with various news organizations, including Getty Images, Associated Press and Bloomberg News, as well as commercial clients such as Keppel Corporation, Singapore Airlines and Shell International. Not content to have traveled to over 30 countries, Stefen also summitted Mount Everest in 2005.

His website is full of visually varied photo galleries and I thought his most interesting were those of his personal work. For those who are adventurers, I recommend you view his work of Chomolungma (the Tibetan name of Mount Everest). and for those interested in culture to spend time viewing his large photographs of the Hasidim in Brooklyn, New York.

Hasidic Judaism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularization Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith, and was founded in Eastern Europe in the 18th century. Brooklyn is home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside of Israel, with one of the largest concentrations of Jews in the United States.

Al Jazeera: Vietnam

Photo © Nicole Precel_Courtesy Al Jazeera

If you think Al Jazeera is only an excellent source of international news, and the Arab satellite television channel that left all our cable networks in the dust during the momentous events in the Middle East, you'd be wrong because it also features photography essays such as the one by Nicole Percel's Vietnam: Between Tradition & Modernity.

In February 2011; Nicole Precel and Nick Ahlmark were in Chi Ca Commune, a cluster of villages in Xin Man district, part of Ha Giang province in northern Vietnam, the poorest province in the country, to make a movie for the final episode of Al Jazeera's Birthrights, a series examining maternal health around the world.

Al Jazeera also features social documentary work such as the accompanying video The Mountain Midwives of Vietnam.

A 2012 The Travel Photographer Photo~Expedition™

Here's a sneak announcement for the first 2012 The Travel Photographer Photo~Expedition™, whose destination will be Kerala in south India. The objectives of the expedition/workshop will be two unusual religious festivals, a Vedic gurukul, a Kathakali academy and street photography in one of the oldest trading cities of the Western ghats.

The program, routing and pricing are almost ready, and I shall be sending its details to my newsletter subscribers by mid week.

So keep an eye on your inbox!!!

POV: Yes, I Have A Name. It's Mohamed Shaglouf!

"From the pickup, Lynsey saw a body outstretched next to our car, one arm outstretched. We still don’t know whether that was Mohammed. We fear it was, though his body has yet to be found."

We all remember the relief that the photojournalism/media felt when Stephen Farrell, Tyler Hicks, Lynsey Addario and Anthony Shadid were freed from their brutal ordeal at the hands of the pro-Qaddafi military.

Those us who have long memories also recall that the photojournalists' Libyan driver was named in the various articles that reported on the event as Mohammed, or "the driver", if at all. I wrote a blog post lamenting the fact that Mohammed's last name was unknown, despite his probable end at the hands of the Libyan loyalists.

Felix Salmon of the Reuters blog has written The Hermetic & Arrogant New York Times which, among many targets, aims at Bill Keller's (the NYT's editor) by writing this:

He (Keller) talks at length about Hetherington and Hondros, and about other photographers, like Joao Silva, who parachute in to war zones, meet fixers, get their shots, and then move on to the next job — if they don’t get their legs blown off in the process. He writes movingly about NYT photographers Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario, who were brutally treated in Libya but survived; he doesn’t mention their driver, Mohamed Shaglouf, who almost certainly didn’t.

For the life of me, I can't understand why he didn't. Is it tribalism, elitism, myopia, "i don't give a shit" about non NYT people...or non-Americans?

Simon Norfolk: Afghanistan

"This current war is tragedy, is an imperial game, is a folly...

Following the welcome demise of Bin Laden, I thought it timely to feature photographs or a multimedia essay on Afghanistan. I didn't want it to be of the conflict, or some other cliches, so this short movie on Simon Norfolk's Afghanistan project seemed much more appropriate.

In October 2010, Simon Norfolk began a photo series of Afghanistan, influenced by the work of 19th-century British photographer John Burke. Norfolk’s photographs of "modern" Kabul is presented along with Burke’s original portfolios.

Norfolk is critical of the Afghanistan war and of journalists who report from the safety of armored compounds, and especially of photographers who travel around Kabul with a security details. He was told on his arrival that he couldn't photograph freely in Kabul except with bodyguards, but he did.

The accompanying audio is really wonderful. The Afghan music and songs are hauntingly beautiful, and the call to prayer (towards the end of the piece) accompanied by pictures of Kabul at dawn may give you goosebumps.

A welcome change from the depressingly unimaginative photojournalism work we see out of Afghanistan.

The Leica File: The Guitar Man

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Saturday's ideal weather in New York City saw throngs of people in Washington Square Park, and the regular solo and group musical buskers were there as well. However, I noticed an acoustic guitar player I hadn't seen before, and moved in closer to photograph him.

Peter Grudzieh is from Astoria, Queens, and occasionally comes to the park to play his guitar and sing. I didn't recognize the songs he performed; perhaps some vintage Bob Dylan? I introduced myself and promised I'd send him some of the photographs. Although I cover up the Leica logo with black tape, he recognized it, and also knew it was German-made.

One of a kind.

And I'm sure I'll see him in the park again.

(M9/Voigtlander Nokton 1.4 40mm 1/360 iso 160)

Eric Lafforgue: SoHo Loft Gallery Exhibition

I'm very pleased that Eric Lafforgue's photographs will be on exhibit at the Soho Loft Gallery in New York City with weekend events scheduled for May 7 and 8. I will try to drop by on either of these dates to see them by myself.

Eric Lafforgue is a French photographer who started photography in 2006.  Magazines and newspapers from all over the world began using his work for illustrations on North Korea, Papua New Guinea, the tribes of Ethiopia, etc. His work also appeared on multiple National Geographic covers and featured  in The Economist, CNN Traveler and many other travel magazines worldwide.

He is part of the European leading agency Rapho and works both digital and film using Hasselblad H4D-50, Canon 1Ds Mk III, 5D MK II, Leica M6.

I consider Eric Lafforgue to be one of the best ethnologist-photographers, and I posted on his work a few times here. Apart from his stunning website, he also posts much of his work on Flickr, and I never understood the reason since by uploading images to it, he is granting the site a non-exclusive, royalty free license.

Note: Eric just advised me that a significant portion of his sales of photographs originate from his Flickr account. For him the formula works perfectly!

Cazenove+Loyd Leica Travel Photographer of The Year

Cazenove + Loyd is a bespoke (aka luxury) travel company based in the UK started almost 20 years ago by Susie Cazenove and Henrietta Loyd, which has teamed up with Leica to offer a photographic competition celebrating exploration and adventure.

The Cazenove+Loyd Leica travel photographer of the year competition 2011 is looking for photographs taken in one of the company's three areas of expertise, Africa+Indian Ocean, South+South East Asia, Central+South America.

The Travel Photographer of the Year 2011 will win a new Leica X1 and accessories, plus an X1 Akademie Workshop at the Leica Store Mayfair. From January to December 2011, an entrant can win a monthly prize of a new Leica camera, Leica sports optic or Leica Akademie workshop at the Leica Store Mayfair.

Images submitted don't have to be photographed with a Leica, and the copyright remains with the photographer...but the company and Leica have the right to use the winning images from the date of entry to 18 months after the closing date of the Competition.

The Leica File: The Flag Vendor

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

"Don't Let Me Holler
Buy A Flag For 2 Dollar"

And so many people did. The vendor of United States flags did a brisk trade on May 5 on Church Street in Lower Manhattan...and why shouldn't he? The crowds had come to the area near Ground Zero because President Obama was nearby laying a wreath of flowers to honor the people killed in the September 2001 terrorist attacks, and marking the death of Osama Ben Laden.

Where I was, there were no displays of jingoism or bravado...only a sense of contentment. There were lots of locals and tourists milling about, pointing their cameras at all the flags, as well as television crews filming the crowds.  When the cavalcade of black SUVs with President Obama quickly whizzed through, the cheers were deafening....and when it quietened down, the vendors continued their spiel...Don't Let Me Holler, Buy A Flag For 2 Dollar.

(M9. 1/360 f1.4 Nokton 40mm iso 160)

Veejay Villafranca: Fate Above Faith

Photo © Veejay Viilafranca-All Rights Reserved

Vicente Jaime “Veejay” Villafranca is a photojournalist from the Philippines, who worked with Agence France Presse, Reuters, World Picture Network and the United Nations IRIN news wire. He was of the 7 Filipinos to be accepted in the first Asian documentary workshop of the Angkor photography festival in Siem Reap, Cambodia. His project on former gang members won the 2008 Ian Parry Scholarship. His work has been shown in London, Lithuania, Hong Kong, Phnom Pehn, France, Turkey and Manila. He is represented by Getty Global Assignments in London and Melon Rouge in Cambodia.

I particularly liked Veejay's powerful photo essay Fate Above Faith, which documents the faith of half a million people who seek to show their faith in the streets of downtown Manila by venerating the 400-year old relic of the Black Nazarene, which is a life-sized, dark-colored, wooden sculpture of Jesus Christ, and considered miraculous by many Filipino devotees. During this event, the devotees are overwhelmed by their faith and barefooted and dressed in the devotional colors of maroon and gold, surround the relic's carriage, pulling and tugging at the cordon ropes.

Equally impressive is Veejay's photo essay on the Badjao, the indigenous people of the seas who settled on the coasts of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Zamboanga in the southern part of the Philippines.

The Leica File: Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton

Having determined that adding a Leica lens such as the Summilux 50mm 1.4 to my Elmarit 28mm would bankrupt me, I started researching alternatives and was happy to find that the Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton was well spoken of, and only cost a fraction ($430) of the Summilux.

The Voigtlander 40/1.4 is said to be one the fastest 40mm lens a for full frame 35mm photography. It's available in black Leica M mount, has a 43mm filter size, 7 elements in 6 groups, with a close focus of .7 meter.

I stared for a while at a couple of images on various websites that compared both lenses, and could barely make any difference...unless I read the captions which directed me to squint really really hard to see some distortion in the Voigtlander's image. Would the barely visible (to me) distortion warrant a premium of $3000 to choose the Summilux?

No.

So the Voigtlander 40/1.4 is now my second glass acquisition for my Leica M9, and probably will be my walk-around lens.

I've already shot a few images, and was impressed with the "bokeh" at its widest aperture. I'll post a few over the weekend.

POV: Bin Laden And Let's Get Real

Here are some quotes off commentary that I thought were right on the mark:
 
Jon Stewart (The Daily Show): "The face of the Arab world in America's eyes for too long has been bin Laden, and now it is not. Now the face is only the young people in Egypt and Tunisia and all the Middle Eastern countries around the world where freedom rises up."

Robert Fisk (The Independent): "So now for a reality check. The world is not safer for Bin Laden's killing. It is safer because of the winds of freedom blowing through the Middle East. If the West treats the people of this region with justice rather than military firepower, then al-Qa'ida becomes even more irrelevant than it has been since the Arab revolutions."

Tom Friedman (The New York Times): " And that is that he lived long enough to see so many young Arabs repudiate his ideology. He lived long enough to see Arabs from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen to Syria rise up peacefully to gain the dignity, justice and self-rule that Bin Laden claimed could be obtained only by murderous violence and a return to puritanical Islam.

Robert Fisk (The Independent): "But these past few months, millions of Arab Muslims rose up and were prepared for their own martyrdom – not for Islam but for freedom and liberty and democracy. Bin Laden didn't get rid of the tyrants. The people did. And they didn't want a caliph."

Luke Duggleby: The Art of Kathakali

Photo © Luke Duggleby-All Rights Reserved

Luke Duggleby is a British photographer with a degree in photography from the University of Gloucestershire. Currently based in Bangkok, he's shooting assignments and personal projects from India to Indonesia, China to Cambodia for various publications and NGOs.

His photography has been featured in The Sunday Times Magazine (UK) , The Independent on Sunday Review, Stern, Monocle Magazine, TIME, The Telegraph, GEO France, GEO Germany, The New York Times, The Times (UK), Geographical (UK), The Wall Street Journal Asia, and the USAID, amongst others.

Out of his many galleries, I chose two that I particularly admired; The Art of Kathakali, and The Last of the Bound Feet Women.

Kathakali is one of the oldest theater forms in the world, and originated in the area of southwestern India now known as the state of Kerala. It's the classical dance-drama of Kerala and is rooted in Hindu mythology and literally means "Story-Play". In my forthcoming 2012 photo-expedition to Kerala, I am planning an exhaustive photo shoot at a Kathakali school (as I did in 2009).

As for the Bound Feet Women, NPR featured an article on this practice and its history here, where it tells us that millions of Chinese women bound their feet to turn them into the prized "three-inch golden lotuses." Footbinding was first banned in 1912, but some continued binding their feet in secret. Some of the last survivors of this barbaric practice are still living in Liuyicun, a village in Southern China's Yunnan province.

Marty Stalker: Egypt-After The Revolution

Here's an impressive documentary on Egypt during the heady days immediately following the revolution, filmed by Marty Stalker. Marty is a writer/director living in Northern Ireland with a passion for film-making. He recently graduated from the Lights Film School in New York City.

His Vimeo page informs us that the documentary was filmed on the Canon 5D Mark II with Zeiss compact prime Lenses in March 2011, and edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 with Magic Bullet Mojo.

You can read Marty's notes on its production on his Scattered Images website.

The yells of the crowds one hears in the opening few moments of the movie are interesting since these are "Here's The Thief" (presumably about Mubarak), and "We Want Our Money". I liked how grainy black & white newsreel-like clips were inserted among the main colored movie. I am certain you'll be impressed by Dr Kamal Aboumagd, the wise constitutional lawyer, a gentleman who, in his demeanor and style, exemplifies the Egyptians of yore.

Well done.

POV: I Told You So....

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy - All Rights Reserved

On November 8, 2010, I wrote a post titled "Photo Tours Are Useful But..." in which I suggested:

"However, let's take this a step or two further because, simply put, there are photographers who market their workshops (and there are many these days) whose work may be phenomenally beautiful and inspiring, but who are unable to lead, who can't/won't teach and are unable/unwilling to share. It's simply not enough that the photographer's work is good...not at all. There are many more factors that come to play in one's decision in choosing a photo workshop."

It seems my advice is valid because the blogosphere is currently abuzz with news that the photo workshops/tours conducted by a famous photographer are really not worth the trouble nor do they warrant their lofty prices.  So let me reiterate what I say over and over again:  If I wanted to go on a workshop I'd rather go with a grunt...not a celebrity/famous photographer....I wouldn't want to be patronized nor palmed off to an assistant...that's my personal view, and you can read the whole post via the link above if you need to.

I certainly don't need to beat the caveat emptor drum louder than what has been written in the courageous and eloquent  Reflections on Steve McCurry Myanmar Workshop (don't miss the comments from other participants in the workshops) nor can I top Duckrabbit's witty rapier thrust to the jugular in the Competition: Please fill in the missing word post....

And how can I not provide the link that may have started the whole fuss, which appeared in the brilliant A Photo Editor, in which a Craiglist ad for an exploitative internship is deservedly criticized.

As always, make up your mind. It's your money and your time after all. Naturally, if you still want to spend over $10,000 on a workshop and learn how to make children cry, then by all means join up.

Oh, you may wonder why I chose a Balinese Arja performer to accompany this post. Well, an Arja actor is a man disguised as a woman...and a visual metaphor for things sometimes not being what they are advertised as. I could have used an image of a kathoey, but I don't have one.

The Leica File: Strawberry Ice Cream

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy -All Rights Reserved

Walking in the Meatpacking area of New York City, I saw the ice cream truck's technicolor paint job, along with the red shirt and white hat worn by the ice-cream eater, and all seemed a perfect juxtaposition of brilliant colors. I know I haven't nailed it from a compositional standpoint, and I'd be happier had I gone lower and a few inches to the left...but it is what it is, and that's what street photography is all about...the scene happens in a second and you either get it or you don't.

Because of the 28mm lens, I was about a foot away from the gentleman and he seemed unaware that he was in my frame, and the integral part of the composition.

I should have used different settings instead of the f2.8 and an iso of 400...it was a brilliant sun, and I could've had better results with an f8 and an iso of 160, but my camera had these settings on already, and I didn't have time to reset them since I was focusing as quickly as I could. I find that accurately focusing the M9 still requires very careful adjustment...even in brightly-lit scenes such as these.

Beyond being sharpened a little bit, the image wasn't post-processed nor cropped.

Li Wei: The Earth (Mongolia)

Photo © Li Wei-All Rights Reserved

Li Wei is a freelance photographer based in Beijing, who was born in Hohhot,Inner Mongolia, and who graduated from the Communication University of China.

His photographs of Inner Mongolia are those of an insider...no tourist stuff here, nor are the photographs the type one sees in glossy magazines advertising Mongolian lifestyle.

Inner Mongolia (distinct from the country of Mongolia) is an autonomous region of China, located in the northern region of the country. It shares an international border with the country of Mongolia and the Russian Federation. Han Chinese are the largest ethnic group, constituting about 80% of the population, followed by Mongols.