Dressing up

In southern and Southeast Asia, it is customary to dress up and adorn Buddha status. Maybe, that’s an admission that a naked sage becomes invisible.

Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar, 2011 

Transit

The great Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos said almost 26 centuries ago “A thought is an idea in transit.”

True enough; the symbol of modern industrialization has been the steam machine, where it moves the world a lot faster, more efficiently.  Such symbol still carries its significance today as the efficiency of trains; the wait between transits sort of translating to each country operates her own system.

In February, 20111 I spent a good 10 days in Myanmar, good part of 2 of those days spent in the Yangon train station, and you see a lot. 

Here in Myanmar, life is slow for most, not that time does not matter, it does, it just matters less. And you see that in trains, in transits.  You see a small life developing inside a train station, a small world there, and one may say that is beautiful because there is nothing to rush.  It is not wrong, but then the countries that move fast and efficiently are not wrong either, they spent the time they save in transits for something else.

Yangon, Myanmar, 2011

Place to be

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.

~ Helen Keller

Inle Lake, Myanmar, 2011

Vesākha

Vesākha (Pali; Sanskrit: Vaiśākha, Devanagari: वैशाख, Sinhala: වෙසක් පෝය) or sometimes referred to as Vesak is a holy day observed in greater South and South East Asia.  It was normally celebrated as “Buddha’s Birthday” while it actually encompasses birth, enlightenment and passing away of Gautama Buddha.

In Thailand, it is called the Wisakha Bucha and it is today, a national holiday and national tree day, a day when most Thais go to temple; a day of political bodies hustling the rivals, a day eventually can be pivotal to Thai future.

Picture was taken in a bronze foundry in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Mandalay, Myanmar, 2011

Guardians of belief

Nuns working on their morning study section at a nunnery, Mandalay, Myanmar.

Mandalay, Myanmar, 2011

Myanmar at the age of change

Abraham Lincoln said it well; “Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital.  Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor has not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

This was an image took in 2011, before Myanmar finally and reasonably opened for outside in 2012, wondered how long the scene such as this will last. 

It is not to ask Myanmar not to develop, they of course should. But will the harmonious state be kept?  It is something to wait and see.

Mandalay, Myanmar, 2011

Soccer

A game people can play regardless the level of society.  There are people ask why from those who play and they ask back why not.   For many, it is just a game to feel equal.

Mandalay, Myanmar 2011

Daughter and father

In a small alleyway at Mandalay, Myanmar.

Mandalay, Myanmar, 2011

Work in process

Taken at a corner of a foundry house, Mandalay, Myanmar.

Mandalay, 2011

Burmese Kid

I have to swear that I did not ask the kid to do anything, he just did everything.

Inle, Myanmar

Curiosity

A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

That’s why most children grow up and most men just grow old.

Yangon Train Station, Myanmar, 2011

Power of the brand

A monk at the Yangon Train Station, wearing the Ray-Ban Sunglasses (authenticity unknown), signaling the consumerism has arrived.

Yangon Train Station, Myanmar, 2011

In between Journey

Everyone on earth travels, some faster, some slower.

Yangon Train Station, Myanmar, 2011

Responsibility

… has a different definition across the world.

In Le, Myanmar, 2011

Ending the day

Shooting till the end of light, the best way of ending a fine photography day.

Don Forsyth, a Londoner with his D3X making his master piece, Steve McCurry settled down for the day, enjoy the peaceful boat ride on Inle, and I was on the tail of the boat, making this image with my Canon 1DsIII mounted with EF 24-105/4L IS, which helps a lot for me to capture this image of slow shutter speed to register the speed of boat while the modern technology of image stabilizer help to still maintain the subject reasonably sharp.

In Le, Myanmar, 2011

A Burmese village girl

A simple portrait of a Burmese village girl.

In Le, Myanmar, 2011

Homecoming

Homecoming unites the past and the present.

~ Unknown

When life is simple, the need is simple, In Le, Myanmar, 2011

Digital and Color Photography

Today is the day Kodak finally put down its hat, surrender from color reversal film for good, ending a 77 years heritage.

I started photography early and went thru a long list of cameras in the pre-digital time, and it is always a choice of either Kodak or Fujichrome in those days, with rare exceptions of Agfa or Ilford or Polaroid, which are all long gone before Kodak. Some said what really killed Kodak film was not digital but Fujichrome – after the success of E-6 friendly Velvia.  Velvia is perhaps the monumental product that signified Kodak has reached and over its peak.  Kodak did go on developing successfully in digital, but only for a limited time before again missed in its development direction.

This is an image I took in Inle Lake, Myanmar in February, 2011, which I just recently cam back to look at them, saying the true nature about digital photography – one tends to shoot more than he really wanted, but with no regret, but the mountains of digital files may sometimes never got paid the same attention, as film was. 

Anyway, while look through the Capture One folder I built the night after the shots and never got looked back again until today, this image shot with Canon 1DsIII with EF 24-105/4L IS strikes me a strong resembles of colors from Kodachrom, so I develop it as it is without caring to digitally correct the white balance.

One of the strongest forte of digital photography is its accuracy, that one can develop the raw file with close to reality white balance, and most often, can be overdriven by many novice photographers, like the millions of image surfing the web today.  Kodachrome’s appeal is not that it is the most accurate film, may be not even the sharpest, but it does not matter, because it delivers a character of its own.  

Today, with the digital technology, everyone should just do like shooting his own Kodachrome, makes a character of his own work.

Bangkok, 2012

The Nature

We cannot fashion our children after our desires, we must have them and love them as God gives them to us.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Inle Lake, Myanmar

FACES OF MYANMAR: The Messenger

FACES OF MYANMAR: The Messenger: Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. ~ Neil Postman Kids played with the mosquito net at a elementary schoo...

The Messenger

Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.

~ Neil Postman

Kids played with the mosquito net at a elementary school, Inle Lake, Myanmar