I just added a new Portfolio called Giga Pixel Panorama. It is a small collection of the better images that I managed to capture using the Seitz Roundshot D3. Unfortunately the ‘tiny’ size of the images on the web do not give an idea of the huge size and detail of the originals. To do justice to these photographs you would need to print them using one of the large format (44″wide and over) Epsons, Canons, HP, ColorSpan etc. to really appreciate the sheer amount of detail the camera can capture. I printed a few at 44″x 110″ and a few well over that size. Ironically, the problem becomes to find walls (or surfaces) large enough to view the prints from a correct distance. Having said that, I should also remark that the quirks and the V.1.0 nature of the camera, software combination almost drove me insane. Seitz is working hard on providing something that doesn’t require the patience of a Swiss watchmaker in order to shoot a good image, something that unfortunately now is a mandatory requirement. The quality of the images is phenomenal if you manage to hit the sweet spot, though not without trial and error attempts. Right now the images are prone to excessive color noise and blooming artifacts unless the lighting conditions are ideal. High contrast areas are also a source of issues, night shots are a coin toss 9 out of 10 times. Despite all these shortcomings, the D3 is a remarkable piece of equipment that will be in a class of its own once all the imperfections get fixed.
Anyone interested knowing more details about the images and/or publishing rights, please contact twistedpixel@gmail.com
It has been many months since I updated the site. Finally, my travel schedule has slowed down a little allowing me to focus more on updating the the portfolio sections as well as the blog. Since last year I have traveled extensively easily exceeding 100k air miles. One of the places that stood out on a trip I did to India was Hyderabad. Charminar is one of the top spots of any tourist visiting Hyderabad, although to tell you the truth I haven’t seen any, making me as it happens quite often, one of the main attractions. The monument itself is quite impressive, although my main focus wasn’t as much the landscape rather the people. The surrounding area is an incredible mix of cultures, although the majority of the population is Muslim. Charminar and the area around it is a cluster of prominent landmarks in the city’s history. Its neighbourhood is extremely densely populated and around this architectural axis are a multitude of colourful bazaars. Obviously toting a camera around my neck attracted attention, but after spending time in the area, my presence began blending with the crowd. I spent at least an hour just standing at an intersection waiting for the right moment. That morning there was a large contingent of para-military personnel patrolling the area, as not long ago a bomb set by extremists exploded at the historic Mecca Masjid killing 10 people and leaving at least over 50 injured. Despite tension could still be felt even after a few months after the blast, I was almost constantly greeted by friendly people that approached me in curiosity.
I’ve been adding a few more photographs I have taken recently during a visit around the Wenzhou countryside.
Some are added to the Wenzhou section and a couple in the Portraits portfolio.
I’ve been offline for almost 2 months due to a very hectic schedule and frequent travel. I finally managed to have some bandwidth to update the Shanghai City Life and Shanghai After Eight sections.
I added three more photographs in the Malta gallery. These were taken at Fort St. Angelo a well known location throughout the Island. Here’s what the site Visit Malta has to say about it:
Fort St Angelo is the jewel in the crown of Malta’s military heritage. According to tradition, it stands on the site of a fortified Roman settlement. Certainly, the nearby harbour creeks were in use since Phoenician times. In medieval times, the Castrum Maris as it was known, was occupied by the Aragonese and the Angevins. In 1530, when the Knights arrived on the Islands, the Fort became the seat of the Grand Master of the Order. It was to play a heroic role in the Great Siege of 1565, when, against all odds, it managed to repel a formidable Saracen armada. The epic resistance of the Knights during the three-month siege, gave the Fort its legendary status. In the 19th century, the British took over the Fort and in 1912 it was officially listed as a ship, first as HMS Egmont and then in 1933 it was renamed HMS St Angelo. More recently, the Government granted the Order of the Knights of St John the upper part of the fort, comprising the magisterial palace and St Anne’s Chapel.
The area is now closed to the public for renovations, I guess I was lucky to be there while it was still open.
Today I added 2 more photographs I took while I was visiting the temples of Jiuhua Shan.The first one is a pool of molten wax reflecting one of the intricate roofs of a temple.
The second is a pool of hardened wax mixed with rust sediment from the tray that collects molten wax deposits of votive candle altars.
I divided this series into 2 separate portfolios, BEFORE and AFTER, to show the demise of the well known Shanghai Xiangyang ‘fake’ market, an institution among tourists and locals, that attracted thousands of people a day. Besides the fake merchandise, it was also home to thriving community and a daily farmers market.
The Wenzhou collection is part of an ongoing series I started taking in late 2005, over several weekend trips to rural villages in Zhejiang province. Wenzhou is considered an up and coming city where wealth and success are mostly due to its people renowned for their entrepreneurship and acute business sense. I tended to avoid the more chaotic Wenzhou center and instead ventured into the small villages around the city. I think I haven’t seen such a wide gap between rich and poor as I did in this area, where it is common to spot expensive european cars and witness villages where many dwellings are made out of corrugated sheet metal and people share quarters with farmyard animals. Human pollution is one of the worst too, a stark contrast compared to Hangzhou with its manicured parks and gardens, just a few hundred miles north.
Jiuhua Shan is over 8 hours train ride and 2 hours car travel from Shanghai into Anhui Province. It is a place of majestic peace surrounded by spectacular views of mountains covered by bamboo forests. I think I have seen at least several hundred buddhist monks during my stay. Most of them live and work at the various monasteries and 99 temples scattered across the mountain range.
I have been lucky enough to be able to photograph some monks who were particularly happy to let me shoot away while performing their daily chores and meditation. I was invariably a great source of comments and curiosity as the only foreigner in a 100 mile radius.
This collection of photographs is an ongoing series of children’s portraits of rural and urban China. Some are from villages tucked away in deep remote areas which appear to be a world apart from the tremendous economic growth that many cities are experiencing. During the last year I volunteered my spare time to help and assist some families in need. Most of the children roaming the streets are abandoned due to China’s one child per family law. The majority are girls. Luckily in the areas I visited most children are adopted by local families, although many children are still ‘lent’ to other families, in an attempt to avoid consequences for giving birth to more than one child. I’ve witnessed a case where a girl was abandoned and eventually adopted by an other family when she was only a few days old, after 3 years her biological parents took her back with great emotional distress for the adoptive family and completely disregarding the heartbreaking cries of the girl. In rural areas daily life is very tough, animals and humans share the same harsh environment. The hardship and sadness transpires through the eyes of the beautiful children I met and played with.
The village of Xian Ju is one of those rare places where time has stopped. It is tucked away in a remote mountain range in the Zhejiang province.
What I have been able to record with my camera are just a few glimpses of the dramatic reality and social differences still profound within China’s recent history. It is a village where running water and electricity have been a luxury until a few years ago. Most houses have been in the same exact state as they were 500 years ago. Made of wood and joined together without any use of nails, yet strong enough to withstand centuries.
This was my first visit, I was caught unprepared. It was a very bright sunny spring afternoon and the contrast between sun lit and areas in shadow made it very difficult to get correct exposures. But that paled in comparison to the darkness of the interiors with white hot shafts of light creeping in through the gaps surrounding the wooden walls and doors, forcing me to use high ISO sensitivity (800) and lenses wide open with shutter speeds well below 1/30s, making it very difficult to achieve sharp images. One woman was gracious enough to let me in and take a few photographs of her home. Even the only 2 light-bulbs hanging one in the kitchen and one in the dining room appeared as if they had been there for 200 years. As I snapped along in the kitchen area, I could hear a low pitched faint rumbling noise, when I enquired about it, the woman opened the door to the adjoining toilet area, which consisted of a wooden bucket with a pole sticking out of it to help carry it out into the latrine canal. To my surprise the partition wall just a couple of feet away gave view and explanation to the noise I heard earlier. Two large 400 pound pigs were sleeping in a small pen maybe 10×10 feet wide.
I am planning a second visit later this year.
I’ve been following the activities of this group of men for some time during my visits to the rural village of Louqiao. They all ride bicycles that are retrofitted with a sort of flatbed, transforming it into a pickup bike. Their daily job consists essentially into roaming several rural areas while using either cowbells or in some cases battery operated megaphones to urge people to donate unused junk. They also sift through massive piles of garbage in search of items that might have some resale value.
The images are a short series I took while they were taking a lunch break at a local street bar with pool tables. At first they were hesitant to let me use the camera, but after a few minutes and a couple of pool games later I was able to gain their confidence.
