Almost Finished....Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Photo © Ahmed Shajee Aijazi

Well, the week passed by like a flash! The hard work during my Multimedia For Photographers class (yesterday -Friday-, my students and I spent around 12 hours non-stop in class putting the finishing touches to the multimedia projects) paid off, and the projects are very well done, imaginative and personal.

Tonight is the night when all the students attending the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop will be presenting their individual work...and I bet some haggard-looking people will be walking around like zombies by the end of the day.

Despite spending long hours in class, I find that reviewing portfolios is the most difficult and exhausting of all the tasks I do during the Workshop. It's challenging to provide honest but candid yet constructive opinons about the work presented by the photographers...much of the work I've seen during the portfolio review session was thoughtful, interesting and some outright beautiful...and all was needed was a few suggestions here and there.

Review: York Coffee Emporium - Coffee and Tea by Post

York Coffee Emporium have kindly sent me samples of luxury loose tea and gourmet coffee. They are York's only independent artisan micro-coffee roaster and all of their coffee is roasted in the heart of Yorkshire, fresh to order. York Coffee Emporium luxury teas are sourced from The Metropolitan Tea Company. Most of them contain either Fair Trade or Ethical Tea Partnership accredited tea.

Decaf 'Centrals' Blend is processed using the CO2 method and means no harmful chemicals have been used. I couldn't tell the coffee was decaffeinated, there is nothing worse than drinking decaf coffee that has a peculiar taste. The coffee is medium bodied with a good after taste and very enjoyable to drink.  If you drink decaffeinated coffee, or have considered buying decaffeinated coffee, freshly roasted gourmet coffee wins every time. Just imagine bringing that independent coffee shop experience into your own home.

Hubby is the tea drinker, he enjoys a cuppa and tasted the teas for me.  Russian Caravan (great name!) is a light black tea with a hint of Lapsang Souchong. In Russia the traditional way of making tea is to allow a pot to simmer and steep all day; this is why Russian Caravan tea is quite light and flavoursome to withstand a day in the pot.  Hubby described this fine tea as aromatic with a very good flavour and enjoyable to drink.

Buckingham Palace Garden Party Tea - the tea is described as a medium body blend delicately flavoured with Earl Grey and Jasmine.  This is the blend specially selected for garden parties at Buckingham Palace.  Earl Grey is hubbys favourite and he really enjoyed this Jasmine perfumed tea, he is a creature of habit and normally chooses Earl Grey with Bergomot. No Palace Garden Party for us, but he said the tea tasted wonderful.  If you are having a posh afternoon Garden Party of your own, I am assured this tea would be perfect.........weather permitting of course!

Thank you to York Coffee Emporium and Ben for the samples.

My Work: I'm Getting Serious Now....Muay Thai

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I was very glad to have attended a late night Muay Thai at the Loi Kroh dingy and grubby boxing ring. I had access to wherever I wanted to go, which included chatting up the bar girls (and the ladyboys) who work at the bars and drinking spots surrounding it. The most incongruous was a store selling Muay Thai paraphernalia such as gloves and shorts at the entrance of the area, and owned by a veiled Muslim woman. She didn't seem to be fazed by the going ons at the abutting girlie bars.

I had my Fuji X Pro1 fitted with the 18mm lens, and used it whenever the fighters came close to the edges of the ring such as the one above. I also had my Canon 7D with a 70-200 as reserve when I needed the reach.

I am buzzed by the scene in that area....the hardness of the Muay Thai fights and the "softness" of the bar girls...two extreme, and probably motivated by the same thing; the need to make money.

Tia And Thom Of Loi Kroh...And The Lovely Bar Girl

All Photos © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Loi Kroh Road is an interesting byway in the Old City of Chiang Mai, and a section of it in particular has been a magnet for the type of street photography I do.

Lined with girlie bars with television screens and billiard tables, it also has its shares of tattoo parlors, Texas-style saloons, and fortune tellers. It's also where I met Thom who's a bartender/bouncer at one of the girlie bars in an alley that leads to a grubby Muay Thai boxing ring.

I also meeting Tia, a little person, who supposedly is a Muay Thai fighter but is more of a clown (as I discovered later on). He is a very effective poser...and looks fierce in his outsized gloves.

As for the lovely young woman who was tending bar at one of the many establishments, I assured her that by placing her photograph on my blog would bring her not only luck, but many suitors.

Arctic Exploration - Shackleton’s and Scott’s Cabins

Earlier I posted about how Google has been taking their street mapping technology off trail. One of the products of this experiment has been the documentation of several historical sites. In particular, recently Google released 360 degree views of the huts of two great Arctic explorers, Shackleton and Scott. Using Google Street view, you can navigate through the entirety of their huts on the Antarctic continent.

To view Shackleton’s hut, follow the link here. You can drag the image around to turn the camera in different directions, and you can use the arrows on the bottom of the image to move back and forth to different locations in the cabin.

For Scott’s hut, follow the link here. Don’t forget to use the arrows on the bottom of the image to navigate back and forth through the cabin. The software allows you to go through different rooms. There are several to explore.

Google has also mapped several other location in Antarctica. For the full list of locations, check out the post released by Google here.