Photograph SLR

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Sage Sausage Rolls - Recipe

These well dressed little beauties are filled with good quality sausage meat from my trusted butcher, I then add a grated apple, a few breadcrumbs, chopped sage and parsley. Decorate with fresh sage leaves. The recipe is from Delicious Magazine and because I have never found a recipe to upstage this one, I use this time and again! I use my Stellar Eazistore trays because the sausage rolls don't stick whilst cooking.

Open freeze the uncooked sausage rolls on trays and when frozen pop into ziplock freezer bags ready for cooking - easy!

Ah! Kumbh Mela Time

Quite a number of photographers, some friends and acquaintances, are gearing up to join the millions of Hindu pilgrims who will travel to Allahabad at the end of January and February, and document this unique religious event. I'm also certain that a number of photographers will offer workshops there...some charging an arm and a leg, others not so much.

This brings back memories of my attendance of the Maha Kumbh Mela of 2001, which was in the estimate of many the "mother of all Kumbh Melas" as it occurs only every 144 years.

The Ardh (half) Kumbh Mela is celebrated every six years at Haridwar and Allahabad, the Purna (complete) Kumbh takes place every twelve years, at four places Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nashik. The Maha Kumbh Mela which comes after 12 'Purna Kumbh Melas', or 144 years, is held at Allahabad.

By the way, isn't it surprising that Allahabad, or city of Allah/God as it was named by Mughal emperor Akbar, is the city where the most Hindu of all religious pilgrimages is held? And that's because it's the site of where the Yamuna and Ganges meet, and it was the birthplace of the Vedas and the grand epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

What struck me the most while photographing in 2001 were two facts: the overwhelming number of people (from charlatans and con men, religious freaks, and the genuinely devout Hindu pilgrims), and the surprising organization and efficiency of the police and organizers. It is said that about 60 million people attended the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela.

I also recall how photojournalists were too aggressive in covering the bathing ceremony of the Naga Sadhus, and some of them were severely beaten and hospitalized. This, of course, meant that the rest of us had to surreptitiously take pictures when the police ordered us not to shoot during a Naga Sadhu procession (see above photograph). I had a press pass at the time, and it allowed me to circumvent the long lines, but that was about it.

In expectation of seeing photo essays on the event, here's the BBC's photographs of pilgrims already arriving in Allahabad.

The auspicious bathing dates of the 2013 Kumbh Mela are here.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Kauser Haider | A Hall Full of Cinema

The Manoshi Cinema Hall in Old Dhaka is a 70+ year old crumbling old building with torn plaster walls and decrepit chairs. It features three shows a day; mostly of action films that appeal to lower income segments of Dhaka's population. Mingling with genuine cinema buffs, are drug addicts, prostitutes and other similar denizens of this capital city, while its staff of about 25 work around the clock to operate the obsolete machinery needed to project the films.

Kauser Haider is the photographer who brings us A Hall Full of Cinema. It has been featured on various blogs, but it was nominated as a 2012 Photostory choice. A well deserved accolade for such a visually interesting subject. Brilliant and very large photographs!

Kauser Haider is a Bangladeshi documentary photographer who prefers to work with social issues, humanitarian focus, and travel photography . He enrolled in Pathshala South Asian Media Academy for BA in Photography, and subsequently participated in various international workshops conducted by Philip Blenkinsop, Shannon Lee Castleman, Shorab Hura, Abir Abdullah and Munem Wasif.

A Hall Full of Cinema was exhibited internationally in Angkor photo festival and Delhi Photo festival .

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Chocolate Truffles

Home made chocolate truffles are fun to make and I just love getting into a chocolaty mess. I'm not sure how it's possible to make truffles without getting sieved cocoa powder and icing sugar everywhere, most things in my kitchen were coated with a fine dusting of both, including me.

I find the best way to deal with edible gold lustre spray is to place the rolled truffles onto cling wrap and carefully spray directly onto the truffle, also spray the clingwrap surrounding the truffle. Take the cling wrap and wrap around the truffle and roll the truffle back and forth until totally coated - this also prevents lustre spray coating all of your kitchen gold, which is fine for Christmas, but not such a bright idea when the New Year arrives.

Despite the mess they are well worth making, they can be flavoured to your own taste with Baileys, Cointreau, Brandy to name a few ideas. The chocolate truffles can be rolled in a variety of coatings - I coated mine with icing sugar, cocoa powder and sprayed some of the truffles with edible gold lustre - they can be coated with toasted desiccated coconut, chopped pistachios or dipped into melted chocolate. After you have made them place into gold petit fours cases. They will make a lovely Christmas gift too.

Keep in the fridge or they can be frozen. They taste fabulous chilled......

The recipe is from the BBC GoodFood website.

2012's Four Most Popular Posts On Travel Photographers

I thought I'd feature four of the most popular (ie viewed) posts of 2012 on The Travel Photographer's blog that have the Photographers: Travel tag.

So here they are in the reverse order of their appearance:

1. My own Hà Nội Streets photo gallery. Photographs made with the X Pro-1 of the street life of Hà Nội.

2. Monica Denevan: Burma. My post describes her pictures of Burma and China as luminous and gorgeous.

3. Myanmar By Ruben Vincente & Joao Almeida. The posts announced the photo exhibition of these two talented photographers. Their work from Myanmar (Burma) will convince you to visit Myanmar at the earliest.

4. Mark Carey: Viet Nam In Black & White. I wrote that this was a highly recommended viewing stop for all those interested in Viet Nam and solid street photography...and that great travel photography does not need to be in color.