Category: Uncategorized

Charminar

Tuesday, Ganesh met me in the morning and took me to buy a cell phone. He took me to a place where he knew the owner’s brother, so he would give me a good deal and wouldn’t ask questions. For some reason buying a phone here as a Westerner they ask all kinds of questions and get immigration involved. I ended up paying around $125 US for the phone, but its a nice one. I was hoping for a smart phone, but those ran anywhere from $500-750 US. I thought they may be cheaper there, but no. I had to provide them with a copy of my passport and copy of the electric bill for where I am staying. They also needed passport photos of me, which I got around the corner in a very hot photo studio. 50rs for 8 photos.

I wanted to explore the city, so I hailed an auto and told him to go to the one place I know, Charminar. It is a large structure built in the 16th century to honor Allah for curing the city of black plague. Of course, it was about as far across the city as I could get. The cost for Indians to go up, 5rs. For foreigners? 100rs. Rippoff. hehe. I went up and took some photos (and HD Video!!!! 🙂 ) then walked around the area for a while, taking back streets and alleys. It is a largely Muslim area, but as I walked the 4.5km up toward Hussain Sagar (lake), it progressively got more Hindu influence. I was planning on walking all the way to the lake, but it was 6pm and I needed to be back at the apartment by 7 to go to dinner with Ty and Gorgene.

I took a lot of portraits along the way. India is unlike anywhere else I have been in that the people ASK me to take pictures of them. I have to turn people down. Walking down the street, being the only Westerner that they’ve seen in some time, I get a lot of attention. People wave, yell, and smile. Its a very enjoyable time for me, I love the people here.
























































Christian & Whitney Wedding

I am a bit behind on some work that I have done. Here is one of the last two weddings I shot before I left the States. It’s been one of my favorites so far. I knew Whitney from our four months in Uganda together with the Uganda Studies Program in 2006. I was honored when she asked me to shoot her wedding. The site she picked, Talon Winery, outside of Lexington, Ky, was a beautiful location. Her husband, Christian, and I were quickly friends soon after we met. What a great guy.

Enjoy.















































For this special wedding I broke out a special camera, my Holga, a plastic medium format toy camera that is known to have focus and light leak problems creating very unique images. None of these markings can be exactly repeated.












What an amazing day! What amazing people!

I am writing this entry from the office of the CEO of the marketing firm that sponsored my business visa. I don’t think I can fully describe what a blessing he has been. I have been in this country for only four days now, and I’m meeting with heads of companies and departments, he’s introducing me to one of the top photographers in Hyderabad in an hour, he’s connecting me with magazines.

The power of networking is an understatement. I could do none of this on my own. If it were by my own strengths and talents I would still be living at home taking pictures of flowers. Only through networking have I been able to work for myself in Indianapolis and now enter a completely new environment and have prospects of work. It does not matter how good I am at what I do if I cannot connect with people. Everyone knows somebody.

Ganesh picked me up from my apartment and took me to his office, the office of an IT company that deals with a lot of health care issues. He brought a childhood friend with him who has been working in Sudan in public health. This fellow is truly interesting to talk to. He has been working in NGO’s first in India, then in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a wealth of knowledge and ideas on how to bring the masses out of absolute poverty and malnutrition.

Ganesh asked us both to talk to the management of the IT company. Manohar, Ganesh’s friend, did most of the talking, and rightfully so. He implored the management to think about how this company can help raise the Indian people out of poverty using IT as a means. How can the company take what they have learned from working in the corporate world and apply it to the social? He told them that a company can make a positive difference with the underprivileged, and they will find themselves better off as a company. These people can truly make a difference, and they want to, but they need the ideas and the means to make the difference. Manohar has the ideas. Now the action must happen. It will be truly interesting watch. This mindset seems to be rampant in the youth of India. They want to make a difference.

Today has excited me for the future possibilities. Manohar has invited me to work with him on documentaries, using imagery to make a difference. I do not know if I will work with Ganesh on any projects, but he will do anything in his power to help me get connected with the right people. Truly incredible.

India, day 1

I arrived. Thankfully my friends graciously waited at the airport for over an hour for me. After some 25+ hours in transit was with friends and excited to get settled. I still don’t think my mind has caught up with my body. I’m still unsure of what to think of everything. Even today when walking around the streets outside the apartment it was hard to think that this is real. Any way, here are some quick snaps of the apartment and some design stuff I captured in the New Delhi airport while I waited with my little canon G10 point and shoot.







All 200+ pounds of luggage. Its one heck of a haul to carry that by one’s self.

My overstuffed luggage. Can’t tell but my 20″ iMac is burried in there. Friggin heavy.

My room. Already is a mess. (I’ll clean it, I promise, once I get some hangers)

The high heat drier.

The dining room.

The huge kitchen.

The bathroom with a western toilet.

And the shower parked up next to it.

The view from the balcony.

New Things, new directions

It’s been a while since I’ve updated. Sorry to anyone that actually reads this. The last month has been a bit of a blur. I’ve been busy finishing up projects and preparing myself to move out of the country. Wednesday, June 17th, I fly out of O’Hare airport on an Air India jet and I arrive in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India around 2am (if I make all my connections). I will be leaving with 5 bags (way too many). A backpack that will carry my lights. A rolling suitcase that will carry my 20″ iMac desktop computer (I wish I could afford to buy a new Macbook Pro, but paying the $150 to have the extra bag is much cheaper). A bag that will only hold my light stands and tripods. [These will be checked luggage]. My photo bag with my camera and lenses. And finally, a backpack with whatever random stuff I want with my on the plane. [These as my carry on].

I will be met at the airport by a missionary couple, Ty and Georgene Lunberry, who are allowing me to stay in the extra room in their apartment until I get settled and figure out what the heck I’m doing in India. I’ve been friends with Lunberry’s since I was roughly four, their son I considered my best friend for years. They spent 14 years serving in East Africa and just last year were sent to Hyderabad. This is an incredible blessing. Hyderabad works. It’s not ideal. It’s not where I would have chosen for myself. But it works. I couldn’t have planned it better myself. I traveled to Hyderabad in 2007 and met with some incredible people. I am excited to reconnect with these friends. I have business contacts in the city as well.

My loosely planned out goal is to work in the advertising industry doing my freelance photography. A marketing firm sponsored my five year multiple entry business visa. I have no great expectations of, well, anything, but I will spend the first few months exploring the city and establishing relationships with the marketing and advertising firms in the city, as well as established photographers.

Why am I doing this? Why am I leaving behind the business I have only started to build which promised to grow at a significant rate? I do not want to get stuck. I feel I need to break off now while I have the freedom and lack of responsibility enough to do so. I have nothing holding me here. If I do not break free now, I feel I never will.

I have always wanted to live overseas, especially after my experience living in Uganda for four months in 2006. Those four months were far to short (and the two weeks in India were incredibly painful. It is not right to leave after only two weeks, let alone four months). In my time in Uganda I heard something from the people that I will not forget. They said, “Come, be with us. Come and live and work among us, beside us. Do not come to change us, do not come to convert us, but come and be.” So I am going to be, simply to live among another people. I have no great expectations except to experience. I have no long term goal. I am on a journey and I do not want a destination. I do not even think I want to know where the journey is taking me. I want to experience the journey.

Last night I spent my last Friday in the United States, the last in the foreseeable future, spending time with select friends. I finished the night with my friends from Saudi Arabia. After a time at our usual bar we headed back to their apartment with “Kapsa” on everyone’s lips. It was almost 3am and everyone was hungry, so we would share in their favorite meal, Kapsa. This delectable fellowship of a meal, all seated on the floor covered in newspaper or plastic, tearing into a platter of rice and chicken that had boiled together, both mutually flavoring the other. We get back to the apartment and the others decide to go swimming. I, having woken up at 5am the morning before, decided to sleep until they came back. I was awakened around 6:30am to finally eat Kapsa. We sit on the floor around the platter placed on newspaper and dig in with our hands, squeezing the rice and vegetables and delivering the ball precariously to our mouths. The Saudi’s laugh at me for not being able to pull the chicken from the bone with my right hand (mainly because the chicken was scalding me). It is improper to use your left hand while eating with your hands. I love the experience of kapsa. This is not my first time, I have shared with my Saudi friends few times, but I first experienced it in the basement of a hotel in Hyderabad around 3am two years before.

Three more nights in my apartment before setting off on this new adventure. I am excited to see where it takes me….nervous, mainly about where I’m going to store all of my things and actually cleaning my room.

Who needs a studio?

Here is a picture that I took of a friend for a headshot she needed. I used two Canon Speedlites with no attachments. I placed her about five feet from the white wall by my stairs and put one Speedlight on a tripod on the stairs to light the back ground. The key light I put on another tripod slightly to my left and pointed it behind me and slightly up to bounce off the white wall and ceiling. Viola. Studio looking shot using only two Speedltes and bouncing light off of walls. Who needs a studio?

New Personal Project!

I wish that I was more driven to shoot on my own. I do not often enough come up with a concept then make efforts to achieve my idea. A while back I was taking a nap in my car when I woke up with these images in my head (mostly the first five). Sophie was a wonderful model.












I have driven past this building numerous times thinking that I should sometime take photos of it. Finally I stopped.


Business School

I did a fun shoot this past weekend for a business school. I had a good time working with the people and a new advertising firm. Here are a few examples.







The start to the IU Mini Marathon

The inside of JL Waters Outfitters

The exterior of Nick’s English Hut

West Baden Springs & St. Meinrad Abbey

Last week a friend and I took off in the car and went to West Baden Springs near French Lick, IN to see the “newly” renovated hotel there, an impressive structure built in 1902.

Quite impressive, but strangely decorated. There were a lot of different patterns and types of decorations that didn’t necessarily work well together.

Then we drove to St. Meinrad, IN to see the Abbey there.
Having seen the ridiculously ornate churches of Europe, despite being a Benedictine abbey, I appreciated the simplistic nature of this church.

It was a wonderfully beautiful day and concluded with a spectacular concert from Tommy Emmanuel www.tommyemmanuel.com

Ra Ra Riot and So many Dynamos

Last night I went to a small venue and saw three really great bands. So Many Dynamos from St. Louis, Cut off your Hands from Auckland, New Zealand and Ra Ra Riot from Syracuse, NY. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a really good show. I didn’t shoot as much as I normally would, but I was enjoying my company. These pictures don’t do the show justice. Check them out on Myspace. www.myspace.com/somanydynamos. www.myspace.com/cutoffyourhands. www.myspace.com/rarariot.

So many Dynamos

Ra Ra Riot

Bloomington Fog

I love fog. I love how it gives new simple life to cluttered and dirty scenes. I love how it separates and creates new perspectives. One morning last December this beautiful fog blanketed my city and I gladly took advantage.






I drove past here the other day and noticed how close a large building is to this field. It really blows me away how thick the fog can get.








PS Happy PI day!