India Pushkar Fair Photo Tour: Peter Fay

My long time friend, Peter Fay of San Diego captured this stunning portrait of a man in a doorway in Jodhpur India. Peter will likely be adding this image to his upcoming India show at the Ordover Gallery in Solana Beach California. Pete is a veteran shooter and frequent Jim Cline Tour participant. He has traveled with us before, to Guatemala and Myanmar and always has a fantastic gallery opening a few months after returning home. Pete, we're looking forward to your India opening!

India Pushkar Fair Photo Tour: (by Blank)

(blank) of San Diego California spotted this bird perched on a motorcycle rear view mirror and captured a magnificent image. The tiny bird only paused for a few seconds but blank was quick to capture the instant that the bird noticed his own reflection. When blank is not traveling he shoots surfers on the California coast, so he's used to reacting quickly and catching the decisive moment. Nice job Blank! (photo and name removed by request )

Digvijay Magazine!

I rarely use Photoshop, but it sure comes in handy when you need to combine images and text. While driving from Jaipur to Agra Ayn Brown and I sat in the back of the bus and created a "Magazine" featuring our local India tour guide, Digvijay (DV for short).
I made the photograph of DV while he was leaning up against a wall at Amber Fort. He was in the shade with some wonderful bounce light illuminating him. The pose was so "GQ" that I had to get it. Using the text tool in Photoshop 7.0 (yes, I'm a bit behind on Photoshop upgrades) I overlaid some text to create what looks like a magazine cover. We presented DV with a printed copy, made a a local one hour photo store while we were enjoying a nice dinner. I think he really got a kick out of it!

Our Photo Tour Makes the Local Newspaper!

Jim Cline Photo Tours highlighted in the local newspaper! While shooting an impromptu sunrise ceremony at Gadisar lake near Jaisalmer, the local newspaper snapped this shot of Vivien Rickaby photographing a sadhu. The caption (in Hindi) reads “Smile for the camera”. Other group members visible in the photo include Pete Fay and Ayn Brown.

India Pushkar Fair Photo Tour: Caroline Villeneuve

Caroline Villeneuve of Bathurst, New brunswick, Canada, one of the novices in our group (and a very quick learner, I must say), immediately began to make many wonderful, interesting and evocative images. Here, Caroline captured three Rajasthani men sitting in a row. She positioned herself so that the three men were at an increasing distance from her lens, and by using a shallow depth of field, created a photograph with an amazing feeling of depth. Way to go Caroline, you've got the eye!

India Pushkar Fair Photo Tour: Michel Sirois

On our second morning at Pushkar Fair several tour guests decided to get up before dawn to photograph the Rajasthani tribal men sitting around the campfires and having their morning masala tea. We situated ourselves at an intersection of two foot paths near a busy tea shop and started panning everyone that walked past. Michel Sirois of Bathurst, New brunswick, Canada, captured this incredibly powerful image by panning with dead-on accuracy. The resulting picture evokes a tremendous feeling of motion. Bravo Michel!

India Pushkar Fair Photo Tour: Ayn Brown

This killer shot is by Ayn Brown of Johannesburg South Africa. Ayn captured this man smoking a chillum. By putting the subject off center and also framing the man's head and the smoke against the darkness of the window, Ayn took what could have been a good shot and made it an extraordinary image. Way to go Ayn!

India Pushkar Photo Tour: John Rickaby

This fantstic shot by John Rickaby was made today at Amber Fort in Jaipur. John captured this image using an old Canon digital Rebel...so if you think using an outdated entry level digital SLR will hold you back; think again! It's the photographer rather then the camera that matters most. Great shot John!

India Pushkar Photo Tour: Tom Lehman

Everyone on the tour is getting such wonderful images I'm posting them for all to see. The first image I am posting is by Thomas (the bull) Lehman of New York. Tom's image reminds me of a Steve McCurry shot....dark, mysterious and utilizing a very shallow depth of field. Tom is know as "the bull" because nothing can stop him. Although he carries the most gear of any of the tour members, he's always the first to hike the extra mile in search of the perfect image and the last one to opt for a ride home. After an extremely long day trudging through deep sand at Pushkar Fair, Tom "the bull" declined the camel cart ride back to camp and continued shooting even after sunset. He returned to camp with full CF cards, looking as though he had just been on a short leisurely stroll to the corner market and back. Tom, where do you get all that energy? Bravo to Tom for this incredible photo!

India Pushkar Fair Photo Tour update

Just a quick update on our tour. We're in Jaipur now having just left the Pushkar fair. Our group of ten is having a great time. While in Jaisalmer we were working on sillouettes during our evening camel safari to the Khuri Dunes. Every one in our group got some great images. Here's an example I shot using my Canon EOS 1D Mark II set at cloudy white balance and minus 1 exposure compensation. Other tour participants have shots just like this one and even better!




A few days ago we ran across Nevada Wier and the National Geographic Photo Tour group during a sunrise shoot at Gadisar Lake. Nevada is a delightful woman and we chatted about photography for a while and realized that we were staying at the same hotel in Jaisalmer! Then at Pushkar we ran into her again. It seems that the NG tour is on a similar itinerary. What a small world. Check Nevada's excellent blog (just google Nevada Wier). Photo above courtesy of Ayn Brown

I'll try to update this blog when we get to Agra tomorrow. We're heading to the back side of the Taj Mahal for some sunset reflection shots. Meanwhile Jim is with his Day of the Dead tour in Oaxaca Mexico. Life is good.

Ciao!

Kenro Izu Angkor Hospital for Children Siem Reap Cambodia

I had the pleasure of working with and photographing Kenro Izu an internationally acclaimed Japanese photographer & humanitarian known best for his photographs of sacred places. Ten years ago, during a series of trips to photograph the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, Kenro was moved by his encounters with children disfigured by landmines and in need of medical care. As a way of returning something to Cambodia, he founded a nonprofit organization, Friends Without A Border, and built the Angkor Hospital for Children in 1999. Since that time, the hospital has treated over 560,000 children.

Kenro and I spent a few days together, and visited several of his favorite temples, so that I could photograph him for an article in the June 2009 issue of Town and Country Magazine. It was a typical, hot day in Siem Reap, so Kenro and I took a short break and enjoyed a cold Angkor beer.

For a look at the published article click here

Fun in Myanmar (Burma)

Last year (2008) during my Myanmar photo tour, I was sitting in the shade at the foot of Mingun Pagoda enjoying a Coke when a Buddhist monk drove up in a home made truck with a load of Burmese folks in the back. Being one of the few foreigners around (tourism was way down due to political unrest and cyclone Nargis), he and I started chatting. I commented on his truck and he immediately said "let's go for a ride", so I said sure and walked over to the passenger side of the truck to get in. Before I could get in and sit down he said, no you drive!
The full story and more photos here:
http://www.karlgrobl.com/BurmaTruckDriver/index.htm

The joy of sharing photos

This image shot by Judit Fabian. Judit was one of the tour guests on my May, 2008 Peru tour. She captured me handing out pictures to a group of children in a remote, andean, indigenous weaving community. One of the great joys of photography is sharing pictures. Since I have the opportunity to revisit places where I have made photographs, I try to bring back a few snap shots every year. No matter where I travel, people always appreciate getting pictures of themselves. I thank Judit for sharing this image with me. See some more of Judit's images at her website (http://www.redrockphotoadventures.com/).

Salvation Mountain, Leonard Knight

I went out to meet Leonard Knight at Salvation Mountain near the Salton Sea yesterday...He's quite a character.Leonard Knight painted a mountain, yes that's right he painted a mountain. It's called Salvation Mountain, it's located in Imperial County just east of the Salton Sea about a hour and a half from Palm Springs. Salvation Mountain is Leonard's tribute to God and his gift to the world with its simple yet powerful message: "God Is Love." Salvation Mountain must be seen to be fully appreciated.Its 50 foot height and 150 foot breadth is made totally of local adobe clay and donated paint and is truly unique in the United States and probably the world. From its Sea of Galilee at the bottom, to the big red heart in the middle, to the cross at the very top, the reoccurring theme of "Love" is everywhere at Salvation Mountain I made a short slideshow here

this Vietnamese girl lost her leg to a snake bite, she was being fitted for a new prosthesis

 

This little Cambodian girl's expression haunts me to this day....

 

 

I got thrown out of Cuba in June...they don't like journalists

 

 

USAID

Photographed a Cambodian girl...it ended up on the USAID Jobs for the 21st Century Cambodia Assessment

Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, called "the blue city".....I was walking in with my photo tour group and ran into Steve McCurry, he was with his
National Geographic group ....we took a few snaps together, then moved on

Here's aphoto of me and Steve

Guatemala, what an amazing place for photos...haven't been there for almost 6 years...I gotta get back!

Oct 7 2002

Hi,We are safely in Danang, Vietnam. It's a bit coolerthan Cambodia but just as interesting as Cambodia. ourhotel is right across the street from the beach/ocean.whatever body of water it is ...... one of you willknow but i can't remember - the Lonely Planet guidesays it is the real 'china beach'. been cloudy andraining here but we rented a motorbike yesterday androde around anyway - cameras covered - not in town buton the outskirts. was really fun. karl is at thephys.therapy clinic finishing up his photos and thenwe go on an adventure tomorrow to the mountains. somequaint/historical place built by the french.it truly is a different world out here therefore weare thoroughly enjoying it !!!! we are both healthyand meeting some of the kindest people. they all haveRAVED about karl's photos. it's such a good thing thatwe got the laptop for him to work from whiletraveling. he is saving so much time because he isdownloading, editing and handing over the CD'simmediately. now he will have more time upon returninghome.we are off weds.evening to ho-chi-min for a few daysand finally to hanoi for the final HVO assignment. we send our love to all of you and sincerely hope youare all in good health ....until we email again ....Carrie & Karl

October 3 2002

Hi Kate,
Things are going great here in Phnom Penh, George arrived yesterday and I have been shooting like crazy.
Next update from Vietnam.

Oct 3 2002

All is well in Phnom Penh, just about done photographing the site !
we are off to Vietnam tomorrow

sept 30 2002

Hi Kate and Amy,
Just to let you know...our Silk Air ticket is invalid for domestic travel in Cambodia.
This morning at 9:30 we were told that we could not board the airplane or travel on silk air. Silk air has öwn stopover rights"on the Siem Reap -Phnom Penh sector, in other words they are only able to carry passengers from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh if the passenger arrived into Cambodia via Silk Air's flight from Singapore.
We were told that we had to purchase a one way ticket on Siem Reap air...the flight today leaves at 4:30...so we have essentially lost a day waiting at the airport.
I informed Suzanne Gumbly by phone to let her know of our late arrival.
Meanwhile the folks at Silk Air helped us exchange tickets.
If Amy could please re-check all of our future flights it would be a great help...as you know...getting anything done here takes longer and is more difficult to accomplish than with fast internet connections, fast computers and 800 numbers.
We are looking forward to getting to Phnom Penh.
Best regards,
Karl

Sept 30 2002

Hi everybody, It's Monday night in Siem Reap. We are finished with the temples and the HVO work. tomorrow we head to phom pen in the morning. Our visit here has been great ! Angkor is amazing and everyone is so friendly.Yes,it has been extremely hot but thank goodness for the AC here at the Angkor Saphir hotel.We will see what the Email situation is in Phnom Pen and try to email you in a few days.best regards,Karl and Carrie

June 6 2002

Chichi still has character despite the pavement, but i keep remembering the guat that you and i visited the first time...so exotic, so strange, so much fun to share with you...not it's a bit different but it still is awesome. Yes we are coming back to see Odilia soon !
We are in Antigua now, at a place under the archway and across from where rockwell and i stayed last time. it is nice and only $40. The place we stayed last night in Santiago atitlan was very nice...new, clean, great landscaping and volcanoe views...and only $40 too ! Unfortunately, santiago has changed and is not as good as when we came. I did however, meet and photograph the Santiago atitlan woman who is pictured on the 25 cent coin...if memoory serves me right i have a photo of her from a few years back too !...she may even be the one we bought the hat from !!!!!!! I gotta check when i get back.
Tonight we are going for a pizza and a gallo beer at the little place we discovered together...you remember...across from the jade place where steve bought the expensive mask.
Damn, I really miss having you here to share all

june 4 2002

we are in panajachel at the dos mundos hotel and today we are going to the village of santa catarina palopo...tomorrow we go to santiago atitlan by boat and overnight at the hotel Bambu...eco bambu is there website i think or type in bambu atitlan into google. then off to antigua on thursday and friday....fly home saturday