Update on the Fujifilm Finepix X100 Rangefinder

WIRED's Gadget Lab has blogged on Fujifilm's new details of its forthcoming X100, which looks like an old-style 35mm rangefinder but is really a hybrid because it sports a mix of an optical and electronic viewfinder.

For those who haven't seen my earlier blog post on this hot baby, it's a camera I want ....and it's a real shame that it's not available in retail stores until March 2011. What's the payback for having been really good all year if Santa can only deliver this in March or later???

In any event, the X100 has a 12.3MP APS-C sensor, and a non-removable 23mm (35mm equivalent) ƒ2 lens.  It has manual focus (contradicting one of my discussions with a fellow photographer a few days ago), and will cost about $1000.

WIRED seems to think that the fixed lens might be a drawback when compared to Micro Four Thirds cameras...I dont know. I have the Panasonic GF1 with the sweet 20mm f1.7mm lens, and I haven't felt the need to have another focal length when I use it.

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The Big Picture Blog: Best of 2010

Photo © Goran Tomasevic (Reuters)

Boston Globe's The Big Picture Blog is featuring the first part of three sets of photographs, which define 2010. The first set consists of 40 photographs...with some gems from Emilio Morenatti, Finbarr O'Reilly, while this one from Reuters' Goran Tomasevic is probably my favorite so far.

It shows U.S. Marines from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, protecting an Afghan and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province on February 13, 2010.

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Sam Chadwick: Cuba & More

Photo © Sam Chadwick-All Rights Reserved

Sam Chadwick is a travel photographer and a Hell's Kitchen (NYC) resident where he works on a variety of photographic projects and planning his next photographic travels.

He started photography as a main means of documenting his 5-day ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. Since then, he traveled to over 50 countries, creating a large collection of images of people, cultures and environments. In 2007, he reached the semi-finals of the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and his images have appeared on Reuters.

You can see his many galleries on his website, from Guatemala, Belize, Nepal, Costa Rica, East Africa and my favorite Cuba.

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The BBC Celebrates Sir Wilfred Thesiger

Wilfred Thesiger in Ethiopia 1934 (Courtesy The BBC)

For historical buffs and admirers of adventurers/explorers, here's a BBC feature that will please you.

Sir Wilfred Thesiger took nearly 40,000 photographs during his eight decades of travels throughout Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The BBC, in commemoration of his centenary of his birth, has featured an audio slideshow of his photographs.

Thesiger is best known for two travel books. Arabian Sands (1959) narrates his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins, while he Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. 

From an article 'Gentleman Thrillseeker 'in the Independent newspaper:

Since 1930 Thesiger had documented his journeys in photographs, diaries, and letters to his family. Many of his finest photographs were taken, after 1945, in Arabia and Iraq; he took thousands more, just as fine, in the mountains of Asia, Morocco, Kenya and Tanzania. Thesiger's photographs have long been regarded as works of art in their own right; they also preserve a unique and imperishable record of vanishing tribal societies.

Thesiger was an intriguing man...to say the least. There are plenty of articles and opinions pieces about him and his life.

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National Geographic Photo Contest 2010

Photo © Chan Kwok Hung- Courtesy National Geographic

The National Geographic 2010 Photo Contest winners were announced. More than 16,000 photographs were submitted from around the globe, and 3 earned top honors in the people, places, and nature categories.

The winner in the People category is photographer Chan Kwok Hung of Hong Kong, who captured the photograph of an Indonesian farmer and his buffalo charging through the mud in a buffalo race called "makepung".

I also liked the photograph of a Xhosa boy crying during a circumcision ceremony by Robin Utrecht which garnered the Honorable Mention in the People category.

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Tatiana Cardeal: Ancient China

Photo © Tatiana Cardeal-All Rights Reserved

Tatiana Cardeal is a photographer, a visual artist (and a dreamer). She's a Brazilian independent photographer based in Sao Paulo, who spent her early career as an art director and graphic designer for international magazines. In 2003, she shifted her focus to photography and started to document social, cultural and human right issues where she made her mark.

Her particular interest is in South American indigenous people, but she just featured really terrific photographs of China in this portfolio which she titled Ancient China. I suspect that it's brand new as some of its captions are yet incomplete.

Clients and publications of her images include work with Amnesty International, Childhood Foundation, OXFAM International, Fundación AVINA, The UN Institute for Disarmament Research, Forum Syd, World Pulse and the medias The Independent, WOZ newspaper, National Geographic Channel, Deutsche Welle, and the magazines The New Internationalist, Courrier International, Max, Plenty, Tomorrow, Oryx In-Flight, AFAR, WIENERIN, Annabelle,The Big Issue and YES!

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Trances At Sufi Shrine (Denver Post's PBlog)

Photo © Manan Vatsyayana (AFP/Getty)

The Denver Post's Photo Blog of the week 12.10.2010 features an interesting photograph by Manan Vatsyayana (AFP/Getty) of an Indian devotee seemingly going into a trance to rid herself of evil spirits. This happened earlier this month at the Hazrat Shah Dana Wali Dargah in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. It's north of Lucknow and about 200 miles from Delhi. Thousand of devotees from all religions visit the 650-year old shrine of Sufi saint each Thursday to seek blessings for their family and ward off evil spirits.

This is topical as I shall soon be traveling to Gujarat to lead In Search of the Sufis of Gujarat Photo Expedition™, during which our small group will photograph at various Sufi shrines in the area, and where trances and exorcisms frequently take place.

While I've seen devotees exhibit mild trances especially during qawalli performances at the shrine of Nizzam Uddin in Delhi, I also witnessed extreme displays of religious trances in Varanasi, the quintessential Hindu religious city. I spent a couple of days photographing at the dargah of the Sufi saint Bahadur Shahid, where trances and loss of consciousness by devotees were the norm. Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims mingled and sought blessings from this Muslim saint, and some of them went into intense trances. I got the lead to the venue from a NY Times article.

To see more of these practices, here's an audio slideshow I produced and a stills gallery of my photographs at Bahadur Shahid.

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