Downtown Troy Alabama

Originally uploaded by inspiritu

While researching family roots last summer I visited the library in Troy Alabama. Pulling out of the library and going around the block I encountered this scene and had to stop. What caught my eye was play of the late afternoon shadows on the buildings. Good fortune provided the figure dressed in white to walk by and give both contrast and scale to the scene.

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Originally uploaded by inspiritu

Discovered this unusually lovely painted sign while walking on a side street in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Illustrated signs are very common in Cambodia, a country with a low literacy rate. Signs for everything from barber shops to motorcycle repair have illustrations to go along with the script text. Usually they are very colorful and have a certain primitive quality to their draftsmanship. What strikes me about this sign are it monochromatic tones, and the grace with which it is painted. To my eye it is really quite lovely.

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Originally uploaded by inspiritu

One of the many colorful wall paintings, or frescoes, in the village of Laguna San Juan, Guatemala. This one measures about 6 feet high by 8 feet wide.

I’m not really sure what is happening in this painting. Between the look on the man’s face, and the fact that two people appear to be holding him, one could think that foul play is afoot. However, I’m more inclined to think it is about a healing.

If any of you have a clue what’s going on here please post a comment.

One night while walking back from dinner, I encountered this curious group of rockers on the streets of Saigon. They moved through the streets “lashed together” like mountaineers over ice with cords leading to a portable amplifier and eventually the metal speaker seen in the foreground. Every half block or so, they would stop their parade and rock out. One of the more interesting things I saw during that trip through Asia, I really like the color from the street lights and the seriousness on the faces of the rockers.

Working with the Ponheary Ly Foundation in Siem Reap, Cambodia, I grabbed this shot of boys enjoying a morning treat of sweet milk and bread.

Tourists visiting the ancient temples of Angkor sometimes ask tour guide Ponheary for a more meaningful contact with the people of the area. Ponheary obliges by taking them to visit one of the schools she and her foundation work with. In this case it’s the Knar school near Banteay Srei temple ruins. Tourists Beth and Bill hunter have provided a nutritious snack of baguettes and sweet milk which the kids just love. For many of these children in this very poor area this is their breakfast this day.

The Ponheary Ly Foundation is a small grassroots non-profit that works to remove obstacles to education for Cambodian children. They supply uniforms and school supplies to the poorest children whom would not otherwise be able to attend school. They also provide teacher stipends so underpaid teachers can afford to concentrate on teaching without seeking other means of income. For more information on this terrific organization please visit their website at www.theplf.org.

This portrait of my friend Anne was taken in the living room of her home. Taken by mixing off-camera flash and daylight. The idea was to create a natural looking portrait in the subjects home setting. What do you think. Do you like the way it turned out?

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Took this shot of young boys at the Wat Po primary school in Siem Reap, Cambodia while documenting the work of the Ponheary Ly Foundation (www.theplf.org). Wat Po school is a big school located in the rapidly growing city of Siem Reap. Approximately 5000 kids attend in two shifts. Half come in the morning, and half in the afternoon. These kids are on recess near the end of the afternoon school session.

Nothing fantastic, I took this shot of a piece of art glass to challenge and develop my lighting skills. It was made using one light, a softbox, and a couple of broken pieces of mirror.

This shoot was a lot of fun. My friend Cynthia Knox is an excellent painter. When she told me she needed a portrait to go with a magazine article about her art, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try out some new lighting ideas I’d been thinking of. We took a couple dozen images and this was my knockout favorite. The color comes from combining Lightroom Selenium effect with the untouched original color in Photoshop.