Tom Bourdon: Varanasi Holy Man

Photo © Tom Bourdon -All Rights Reserved
I thought that Tom Bourdon's photograph of a sadhu offering water to the sun on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi would be a perfect choice to end my blog posts for 2009. It projects the optimism we ought to feel today while we are at the cusp of welcoming a brand new year.

Tom Bourdon is UK born, and is an award winning international travel photographer who specializes in photographing religious and cultural festivals/celebrations across the globe. To my knowledge, he's one of the very few who specialize in documenting festivals, and if I'm not mistaken he might be traveling to the Kumbh Mela this year in Haridwar. If he does, you can bet he'll have splendid images to show.

Happy New Year to all my readers...and looking forward to see you again next year!

NGS' Traveler: Best of 2009

National Geographic Traveler's Editor-in-Chief Keith Bellows presents his favorite pictures published in his magazine throughout 2009. The audio slideshow features 14 photographs made by various photographers in countries ranging for Malaysia to Peru.

I'm always intrigued how photo editors choose the photographs that are published, but I haven't learned much from Bellows' narrative. This collection actually mystifies me...sure, there is a bunch of lovely photographs but many are pedestrian and unimaginative, to say the least. The photograph of the four women on a bench in Shanghai is one of those. I looked at it for a while, trying to figure out the reason(s) for its inclusion here, but honestly couldn't.

I don't know if this was rush job put together by novice interns, but it's certainly not a shining effort by the National Geographic.

Michael Bednar: Eagle Hunters of Mongolia

Photo © Michael Bednar -All Rights Reserved
I like big pictures, and Michael Bednar's website galleries have such large photographs, that viewing them is a virtual immersion into his imagery. His photo story about the Eagle Hunters of Mongolia is a visual treat...especially since it features not only environmental portraits of the hunters and their eagles, but also breathtaking imagery of the stunning Mongolian landscape.

For Kazakhs, hunting with eagles is ingrained in their cultural heritage, and historians believe hunting with birds of prey was practiced by nomadic tribes in Central Asia almost 6000 years ago.

Michael Bednar is a travel and documentary photographer based in Vancouver. He started by discovering the diversity of life and cultures in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. After some years of globetrotting, Michael returned to Canada to attend the Western Academy of Photography and secured a diploma in Professional Photography.

He worked at daily newspapers in Southern Alberta, and eventually turned freelance, with his photographs published internationally.

Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer

Photo © Mathias Braschler/Monika Fischer -All Rights Reserved
Vanity Fair magazine has featured the work of Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer, who dedicate themselves to documenting in portraiture the human cost of the climatic changes.

Schlepping large-format cameras from Timbuktu to Siberia, and from Australia to the Alps, Braschler and Fischer visited 21 countries during 2009, and have photographed the inhabitants of deserts, mountains, forests, and glacial valleys....thus documenting examples of accelerating environmental changes.

Both photographers were nominated in Vanity Fair's Hall of Fame for their work.

Via Photojournalism Links

New York Times' 2009's Travel Photos

Photo © Justin Mott/NY Times -All Rights Reserved
Continuing the wrap up of the "Best Of" for the year, here is The New York Times' best travel photographs as picked by their own photo editors, and which were published in the newspaper's Travel section during 2009.

The photographers whose work is shown in the feature are Chris Bickford, Peter DaSilva, Lalo de Almeida, Josh Haner and Todd Heisler, Andy Isaacson, Michael Kamber, João Pedro Marnoto, Kevin Moloney, Justin Mott, Michael Nagle, Jeff Pflueger, Susana Raab, Scott B. Rosen, Brian Sokol, Vanessa Vick and Dave Yoder.

I was surprised at the statement made in the feature that 19 photographs are the maximum number for The New York Times slide-show player, and wonder why that is so.

Need To De-Stress? Visit Brooklyn Travel Agency!

While the thought of buying an expensive ticket to Europe might stress you out even more, take heed, sometimes this just isn't the case! As with anything else in life, once you live you learn. You learn the quickest way to get home and what backroads to take, you learn to never go to the grocery store during rush hour traffic time, you learn that bad things (unfortunately) do happen to good people. You also learn that you can save money in a lot of situations where you didn't think it was even possible.

I mean a ticket? You have to pay whatever price "they" say right? Wrong! If you check out a site such as ours, you can very quickly see that there are going to be price differentials and get cheap flights to Israel and Europe airline tickets. This is simply because our Brooklyn travel agency is going to be able to seize different prices. That’s why agencies are much different than if you would just go to a website online and buy a ticket.

With Do All Travel, you get the same treatment as you would with a real estate agent, you want the best deal, and we know if we get you the best deal, then it's going to make you happy! Getting tickets at a fair price is possible, but first you have to learn that life lesson - try our Brooklyn travel Agency!

American Photo: Images of the Year 2009

American Photography Magazine is featuring Images of the Year 2009 . Rather predictably (but deservedly) Ed Kashi is the Photojournalism Category Winner with his essay documenting the Trans Amadi Slaughter, an abattoir in Nigeria that had sprung up after petroleum-related pollution destroyed local fisheries.

Photo © April Maciborka -All Rights Reserved
Other winners in the Photojournalism category are Larry Louie, Ed Ou, Andrew Biraj, April Maciborka, and Achille Piotrowicz. I thought that April Maciborka's work (above) documenting shrimp farmers in India was the best. Her toned photographs are really impressive.

I featured April Macibroka on this blog earlier this year, in which I thought that her work exemplified the essence of what a travel photographer is, or should be. The post can be found here, so I'm glad she earned the recognition that she did.