Ellwood Morning with the Mamiya RZ67

Recent Work

I’ve been getting back into photography again which has felt great. Photographing with my Mamiya RZ67 using Portra 400 film. Hope all of you enjoy!

Panama Travels

A couple of weeks ago Kellie and I were fortunate enough to fly to Panama for nine days. While there, we spent our time reading, exploring and taking photographs. I was photographing with both my Canon 5D Mark II and my Mamiya RZ67. With my Mamiya I was working with Kodak Portra 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400. After spending four days in Panama City getting lost, we were able to spend three days in Boquete (located in northern Panama) hiking and visiting the Panama Elida coffee farm. Thanks to both Verve Coffee Roasters and The French Press we were able to get a full tour of the Elida Farm, owned and operated by the Lamastus family, and to see how their world renowned coffee is grown and cultivated.

We hope you all enjoy the photographs taken on our journey!

Eight Hours Running Around Angkor Wat

My mind is feeling pretty heavy and slow right now. Getting over a ridiculous case of food poisoning due to some street side pineapple while also feeling the effects of four months of travel and knowing I still have a couple more to go. Because of this, I am finding it difficult to write about my short time spent at Angkor Wat located outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia. In short though, I wish I would have had more time to explore that area. All of the temples were incredibly amazing but my favorite by far was Angkor Thom. I was having difficulty capturing the beauty of the temples laid in front of me but hopefully all of you enjoy the photographs.

My parents left a couple of nights ago and this evening I will be getting on a train that will take me down south towards Railey beach. I had an amazing time going around Thailand, Laos and Cambodia with my parents and will certainly miss their company. I am though very excited for the rest of this journey. Railey beach is known for its incredible rock climbing and is a place that I have been looking forward to going to since I first arrived in Thailand. I will be there for the rest of the month, hopefully climbing every day and once May arrives I will continue further south into Malaysia. Once in Malaysia I will take a short (and surprisingly very cheap flight, thanks to AirAsia) flight to the island of Borneo. A couple owns an abandoned coconut farm there and are currently in the process of restoring it. I will be working for them for the month of May. Looking forward to this.

Hope all of you are well,

Robb

Boating down the Mekong towards Luang Prabang

Taking a slowboat down the Mekong river is a journey everybody should experience if given the opportunity. Spending two days floating by mountainsides filled in with dense forest and small villages gives you the feeling that you have drifted back a ways in time. With so much time on your side you’re left to relax while seeing lifestyles in small villages that are completely different from what you are used to.

The one thing that really got on my nerves though was the amount of disrespect shown by other tourists on the boat towards the Lao people that lived along the Mekong. Passing by a village you’d see old men and young boys sitting in a weathered canoe pulling in fishing nets and suddenly all the other tourists would run to that side of the boat point their cameras right in the faces of these people and start taking photographs of them. Now obviously I can see how much of an amazing photograph this could be, but there is no respect shown towards these people if you get in their face and take their photograph without even attempting to get their permission or show them afterwards. It is depressing knowing that the Lao people who live along the Mekong have to deal with this disrespect and lack of privacy every day. I have seen this unfortunately not only on this slowboat trip, but around the city of Luang Prabang and other tourist based towns as well. Tourists need to work on being more aware of what they are doing. While it is good that we can help these people make a living by visiting their country, we need to show more respect as well. Please, stop stuffing potato chips in your mouth while pointing your zoom lens in the face of an old man fishing and don’t run up to the monks while they are receiving their alms and put your camera directly in their path. You’re making all of us look disgusting.

There is my main frustration. Aside from seeing tourists treat the Lao people as if they are here for our sole entertainment, I have enjoyed my time in this beautiful country. In a little while we’ll be leaving Lao’s and heading towards Siem Reap in Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. I am extremely excited about this. The photographs that you see here are mostly from the two day boat journey, and then one of Luang Prabang. Hope all of you enjoy the work!

Take care,

Robb

Moving Forward

04/01/11

Good-byes always seem to go by to quickly. Here I am at my house, next second I am in the truck speeding towards the bus station, suddenly I am shaking a hand, bowing saying khob kun kraab, kit du mak kraab, tsawatdi kraab and then I am on the bus waving back to people, who are waving to me, standing in the back of their truck. These beautiful people have become family  and I am really going to miss all of them.

Now it is almost 9 pm and I am stuck on this bus that feels like a spaceship as it gracefully glides past small villages with neon blue street lights. Tree’s brush the windows but the air conditioning smothers all outside noise. Left listening to a mix made by a good friend and thirteen hours of restlessness before arriving at a new destination. Chiang Mai. And it’s both funny and painful because when I first arrived in Samsibed impatience for seeing this country flared, and now that I am moving towards that goal all I want is to be back where I began. I want to sit on Mae Won’s wooden table with the rest of the family, eating delicious food. I want to sit on the bench that looks out to the main road with Mae Yai, eating a mandarin and talking about what we can talk about, food, meditation and the forest monastery five kilometers away that she goes to a few times a month to help the monks. I want to get on my bicycle and bike through the red, orange and green countryside towards school, looking at the water buffalo looking at me. I want to sit in Nung Taks garden at 5 in the morning while watching the Earth wake up. The sunsets are the color of burnt red dirt, the sunrises a nice cool blue. The birds are always there, you cannot see them, but their singing is heard. The roosters crow at 5 am just like they crow continuously throughout the humid day. Sometimes you’ll hear a lizard laugh. Life moved slowly. The leisurely pace frustrated me when I arrived but eventually I laid down and embraced it.

So now a new journey begins. I feel different and I feel the same and I still feel like I am eighteen. Onwards to Chiang Mai, Lao’s, Cambodia and Malaysia.

04/06/11

Chiang Mai was short and sweet. From what I saw I would say it is an incredible city with a very strong art scene. I hope to go back there, although I don’t believe I’ll be able to any other time during this trip. One of the highlights of Chiang Mai was finding a legitimate coffee shop. Could not believe it, honestly. They pulled me a shot of espresso that wasn’t as good as home (The French Press), but considering what I have been having out here it was absolutely incredible. Obviously I forgot the name of the coffee shop. Sorry. The Sunday market was beautiful. A lot of great artists sell their work on the streets during this market and there was a wide variety.

Monday morning we caught a long, humid and very bumpy bus ride to Sukhothai, about six hours south of Chiang Mai. Sukhothai is mainly known for their buddhist ruins. UNESCO created a park around the main ruins, but you can rent a bike for a dollar and spend all day going to different ruins scattered throughout the countryside. So, Tuesday that is what we did. Spent our time biking, taking photographs and being left breathless by the beauty of what we were seeing. I wish we could spend another day here but unfortunately time is against us and we must continue on. Today we’ll be heading back up north to Chiang Rae. From there we’ll cross over into Lao’s, get on a boat and spend two days on the Mekong, eventually ending up in Luang Prabang. It’ll be a journey and one I very much am looking forward to. Will probably be taking photographs but until then I hope you all enjoy these photographs.

My parents have arrived!

I don’t know what to say. I am extremely happy that I get to show Thailand to my parents. Having them here is hard for me to believe. Watching them play tag with the kids at school and seeing my mom help my host mom cook at home has been great. We’ll leave for Chiang Mai on Friday, and then who knows. Taking it one day at a time and enjoying this moment very much. More photographs to come for next week.

Miss you all a lot,

Robb

Bangkok. Seriously.

Bangkok, you are one unique city. After living in Samsibed Pattana for the past couple of months, coming here has completely thrown me. This city seems to work on a healthy amount of constant and somewhat contained chaos while Samsibed Pattana ran on a relaxed mindset of “well, if I don’t get it done today maybe I’ll finish it tomorrow”. You can’t even compare the two places, they don’t hold any similarities.

I don’t have much to say in this entry. This past week I have spent each day trying to get as lost as possible while taking a few photographs and eating a lot of papaya. Chinatown has become one of my new favorite places, and the park near the Silom district has become a great refuge when I need to get away from the noise of the tuk-tuks and thousands of people all walking in one area. In just a few days my parents will be arriving, and after they rest here for a couple of days we’ll make way for Samsibed Pattana! Very excited to get back up north again. Looking forward to showing my parents the village, introducing them to my amazing host family and spending time at the school. At the end of the month we’ll start our journey up north and I don’t really know what will happen after that.

So, I hope you all enjoy these photographs that were taken around Bangkok. Will continue on photographing and continue updating this blog whenever the time feels right. Miss all of you quite a bit.

Onwards,

Robb

Time to bring out the school portraits!

I am having a hard time believing that I am almost done volunteering at this school. Today, and tomorrow will go on by with my final classes that I have with these kids. With Pratom 4-6 we were able to begin working on basic conversation while I was here and so they will be working on their final test that goes over the questions and answers I taught them. I am very proud of all of the students here and will very much miss their smiles, laughs and constant curiosity.

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of taking portraits of every one of the students here at Toongswang School. I set it up right outside my classroom and had each grade come one at a time. It was a great hour of laughing and trying to get the kids to stay still long enough to capture their portrait. There are 150 kids at this school and so I won’t be putting all of them up on here, but I was able to narrow it down to my favorite thirty portraits which I hope all of you will enjoy as well.

I’ll be leaving for Bangkok Monday morning. While there I will process the film that the children used with the 35mm cameras, and make a photo album for the school and for my host family. I will pick up my parents on the night of the 24th and after allowing them a couple days to adjust we’ll take a train back to Sisaket and then jump on a bus to come back here to Samsibed Pattana. We will spend a few days in Samsibed Pattana and then I will say my real good byes to the school and to my host family and this is something that I really do not look forward to.

Don’t have much to say in this entry, was mostly wanting to put the portraits up so all of you could see the kids that I have been teaching for the past couple of months. Hope all of you are having a beautiful week.

 

Take care,

Robb

Sak Yant Tattoo’s and a Wedding Ceremony

This past week was very much enjoyed. Kru Pu, the english teacher of my school has a brother who believes in the magic of Sak Yant tattoos. Unlike the traditional tattoos that you see getting done by a machine, these are done with tapping the needle into the skin by using a bamboo stick or as is seen more often now a days with a metal pole. Each tattoo benefits you differently. For example, one may have a spell that will give you protection & power while another may have a spell that will give you the love & acceptance of others around you. The teacher (man who gives the tattoo) will usually be reciting chants while giving the tattoo to the person, and after the tattoo is complete he may apply a type of ointment to complete the spell given. Last week Kru Pu’s brother invited me to the buddhist graveyard, where the tattoos were taking place, so that I could watch and learn about Sak Yant tattooing. While I was there the teacher gave six different tattoos to people who believe in this magic, as they call it. Before receiving the tattoo the person would light incense and offer it to the buddha shrine as well as whatever offering he brought with him (usually a small amount of money or food). After offering the food and reciting some prayers or chants he would go to the teacher and the tattooing would take place. What I was most amazed with was watching the teacher tattoo the person. He would not stencil the tattoo on the person or even look at a book, but simply tattoo the spell from his memory. I had a very nice hot afternoon with these people, and although they wanted me to get a tattoo while I was there I had to say no. They weren’t replacing the needle after each tattoo and the cleaning done on the person getting tattoo’d and on the tattooing tool was not that thorough. I wish they would have been doing a better cleaning job though and replacing the needle each time because getting this type of tattoo in a  buddhist cemetery, located in a forest would have obviously been quite a memory for me to hold onto.

This weekend my host families neighbor was getting married and so I was able to take part once again by taking photographs of the event. It was a very beautiful wedding, and I had a lot of fun with the family and all those who came to witness the young couple become husband and wife.

This will be my last week teaching here at school! I can hardly believe it. Next Monday I will be taking a train to Bangkok. While in Bangkok I will be processing all of the film that the children shot with the 35mm cameras as well as making a photo album for my host family and one for the school as well. I am very excited to see what the children shot and once it is processed and put on a cd I will certainly put some of them up on this blog. Another reason why I am going to Bangkok is so that I can pick up my parents! It is wild! The two of them will be flying in on the night of the 24th and together the three of us will trek through Thailand, Laos and possibly Cambodia until they leave on the 14th of April. I am more than excited for this. I love my parents a whole lot and so to be able to share this journey with them for a few weeks is something that means a lot to me and I cannot wait for it to begin. When they arrive we will take a train back to Samsibed Pattana so that they can see the school that I have been teaching at, as well as meet my host family. We will stay in Samsibed Pattana for a few days before heading up north. It’ll be a wild adventure I am sure, and am looking forward to writing about it and taking photos of all that happens.

I have begun taking portraits of all of the school kids, and am hoping to take some portraits of my host family either today or tomorrow! I will more than likely be posting another blog later on this week once all of the portraits have been taken, so stay tuned!

 

Wish you all the best,

Robb