NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

1. I’m not alone here
2. People ‘like’ my diarrhea
3. Dancing In(dia) the Streets
4. Indian trains: Contemptibly cozy, crammed and claustrophobic
5. Feeding a City Part II: From Macro to Micro
6. Confusing realities of child labor
7. Enlightined in Bodh Gaya बोधगया
8. Kathmandu — You’ve met your match: Varanasi वाराणसी
9. Varanasi वाराणसी: Full Photographic Spectrum
10. From sea to sand: Welcome to Rajasthan
11. Holy cow!
12. Gender inequality in a Blue City
13. Indian Failwhale Tiger Tracking
14. Good Light and Good Luck: The Taj Mahal

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There’s some things in life you are supposed to see. One of these places is India’s Taj Mahal. While working on a story last month, I was in the neighborhood of the mighty Taj and although I hate massive tourist attractions, lines, groups of tourists and the rif-raf that goes along with said ingredients — I thought it best to put my negativisms asside and go see the iconic mausoleum.

And while over 11,000 people visit the marble palace every day — I decided to attempt to avoid the crowds and woke up before the sun did. I thought avoiding the crowds at the Taj would be impossible — however, I was actually presently surprised with my luck this March 5th of 2011.

When you leave your hotel in Agra (home of the Taj) its hard to believe a place could be that special. Agra itself is far from exciting. Tourism has overrun the city and marble workers, rug makers and fake jewelers seem to be a dime a dozen. Streets are crowded and lines for the Taj are said to be a kin to Disneyland.

However, on this day of March 5th, I beat the lines and was greeted with some fantastic light. In this shot above, I actually managed to pull a frame of the entire East side of the Taj – sans people.

In case you are wondering which lenses to pack while visiting the Taj — this was shot with a Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM (f/4, 1/1000, unexposed .3 stops, ISO 100) which coincidently will frame almost the entire width of the Taj from the side (without too much distortion).

Although I’m partial to the “golden hour” sunset light, the pink hue of sunrise light combined with the white marble of the Taj Mahal makes for some pretty fantastic hues, that kind of reach pink on the color spectrum. As the sun rose and the marble structure illuminated, colors around the structure, property and waters began to light up with some fantastic variation.

Light blue reflections off the still pools of the mausoleum, pink hues from the dome of the Taj and the never get’s old “golden backed silhouette” trick, toward the rising sun. While this is an easy trick (f/2.8, 1/3200, underexposed -0.7, ISO 100), arriving at the Taj Mahal early will allow you to get some pretty cool shaped silhouettes.

While getting good light involves a bit of luck and avoiding crowds requires basic logic, finding unusual frames is a bit trickier when it comes to photographing international symbols. The Taj Mahal is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and thus has been photographed probably from every angle with every lens possible. While its possible to create some more unusual frames, it was hard for me to not get drawn toward the iconic images of this building (i.e. the top photo).

On an annoying level, photographers are not allowed to bring in tripods or even big bags to the site. This makes video possibilities tricky if not impossible. I shot some video off the marbled grounds that came out pretty neat; however, in general you can count as your hands being your tripod. While this is annoying, it would probably be more annoying to be next to 11,000 people who all also had tripods taking picture of the same thing at the same time.

So — One more sight crossed off the always expanding global “to see” list. A couple more posts on the way from India before the photo blog returns to the Philippines. And with that I wish you “Good Light and Good Luck.”

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

1. I’m not alone here
2. People ‘like’ my diarrhea
3. Dancing In(dia) the Streets
4. Indian trains: Contemptibly cozy, crammed and claustrophobic
5. Feeding a City Part II: From Macro to Micro
6. Confusing realities of child labor
7. Enlightined in Bodh Gaya बोधगया
8. Kathmandu — You’ve met your match: Varanasi वाराणसी
9. Varanasi वाराणसी: Full Photographic Spectrum

Along the banks of the Ganges sits ancient Varanasi. While the focus of the city is certainly on the river, the city is connected by an intricate system of alleys small enough to make Beijing’s hutongs look like highways.

The city structure reminded me a little bit of the UNESCO World Heritage area Casbah in old city of Algiers, Algeria. However, the enormous Indian population makes these alleys seem even smaller.

The alleys don’t form a grid. Dead ends seem plentiful. And just like in Kathmandu, temples, residences and commerce are all found in the same place — often in the same structure.

Photographically this place is pretty amazing. Pilgrims come to the holy waters, wander the ancient alleys and pray at some of India’s oldest temples. Some of the world’s most colorful brides (and some of the most obviously unhappy brides) come to Varanasi to fulfil their prearranged marriage.

Poverty in Varanasi is rampant. With poverty always comes interesting faces. With these interesting faces also comes some pretty big annoyances and dangers.

Its hard to walk 10 feet along the Ghats without running into a beggar. They come in all forms: from mothers to children, infants to old man. People are lined up looking for handouts from foreigners and Indian tourists.

This has been a problem throughout India for me. Everywhere I go people (especially children) are asking for money. With the massive Indian populaiton this can become a bit overwhelming. For photographers this can be a bigger problem.

Many people are demanding money for photographs. However, the Indian method of this is to approach you and ask if you will photograph them, followed by demanding money. People certianly approach you in friendly ways, however 90% of them are looking for money.

Beyond the beggars, Varanasi also seems to be full of various scam artists. “From which country do you come from?” Is the question often asked as you pass by strangers on the street. While the question is innocent in nature, 99% of these people have an agenda. Maybe they want to be your tour guide, maybe they want to coheres you into their shops or maybe they have something else to sell — but inevitably almost all of this friendlyness has a backstory — and usually not one you want to hear.

This puts tourists in an aqward position. People say ‘hi’ to you or ‘from which country do you come from’ and you have the choice to answer them or not. If you ignore them, you don’t have to deal with their scam. However, I feel like I am being rude as a visitor by not entertaining them a little bit. If you do respond, you open the door to having someone follow you around and pester you for long periods of time.

My method and approach to this common Asian occurrence is to respond to them with a little sarcasm. Let them know, you know their scam but chat them up a bit. Normally, when they see you are hip to their plan — they will bugger off. And in the slight chance someone is just being friendly and actually wants to know “from which country do you come from” — perhaps you’ve made a friend.

While I am on an assignment and therefor have a timeline and agenda here in India, I could only spend three days in this city. There seem to be so many hidden jewels of this place and so many interesting cultural happenings — you could spend months here. But this would not be my fate — as I would have to board a 27 hour train ride across the country to the deserts of Rajasthan.

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This blog post was originally written as a guest post for Dan Chung’s DSLR News Shooter.

As 1.4 billion Chinese people celebrated the Lunar New Year yesterday — cameraman Paul Morris, journalist Kit Gillet and myself packed our bags to capture the remarkable pyro-chaos that welcomed the Year of the Rabbit.

According to ancient Chinese mythology, an evil spirit known as Nian (年) would terrorize villagers on the first day of the new year. To protect themselves, villagers would create loud noises to ward off the evil spirit. Millennia later, the Chinese still uphold this tradition by setting off fireworks continuously for a two week period.

Unlike in the West, where firework safety is paramount, safety is far from people’s minds in China, where fireworks are set off within high-rise compounds, tossed on the floor, set off in narrow alleys, and even thrown at friends in the spirit of good humor.

To capture the spirit of the Spring Festival, the three of us hit the alleys, streets and roofs of Beijing to capture the pyrotechnique display put on by the Chinese people. The truly remarkable aspect of the events that take place on New Year’s Eve is that all of the fireworks you see in the video are bought and set off by regular Beijingers – a perfect visual representation of the overwhelming size of China’s population. This creates a unique organized display of chaos which lights up the sky and echoes through the streets of China.

Our goal in filming the event was to show this organized chaos and grab some colorful frames. We were packing …

• Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Canon EOS-7D
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
• Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
• Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
• Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM
• Canon Extender EF 2X II
• De-Clicked Custom Tamron 24mm F/2.5
• 190Cx Carbon Fibre Q90 4-section Tripod
• Manfrotto 3021 Pro Tripod with Manfrotto 3047 Head
• Dan’s old 20″ compact slider, made in Singapore
• Custom Jag 35 Straight Rig with Red Rock microHandGrip
• F-Stop Gear Tilopa Backpacks

During hours of close-up filming, we were subjected to flying debris, ear-splitting explosions, and even the occasional stray firework that would ricochet off lenses, nearby cars and even my ass.

Technically shooting at night can be a bit tricky. Our ISOs ranged from 400-3200. We found with higher ISOs a lot of images came out with a cooler color temperatures or blue color casts. In the case of shooting fireworks, this isn’t such a bad thing. Most of our frames had a large variance in color anyway. With a few of the close-up shots involving rapid firework explosions the cameras had issues with the rolling shutter.

Sounds and music for this production were purchased from www.stockmusic.net.

Jonah M. Kessel is a Beijing-based freelance visual journalist and interactive art director specializing in photography, video, news and Web design.
Paul Morris is a Beijing-based freelance assistant producer and lighting cameraman.
Kit Gillet is a Beijing-based freelance journalist and documentary maker.

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I’m looking for a bilingual (Chinese/English) photo assistant looking to join me on assignments around Beijing. This is a great opportunity to learn about photography, video and multimedia production at a grassroots level while earning some money.

This is an on call position, not a full time job.

The job will vary greatly pending on clients, assignments and locations. I work with both editorial and commercial clients, shooting still photographs and video production.

This job also includes translation work, both pre and post production. This might mean transcribing interviews conducted in Chinese into English, or creating subtitles using Motion, Final Cut Pro and LiveType (don’t worry if you don’t know how to use these programs now — I’ll help you learn!). In other cases, this might be translating live during an interview or finding Chinese sources.

On a photography level, you’ll be helping to setup shoots, finding locations and in some cases — you will be able to shoot yourself. Other times, you will help with camera and lens changes as well as transporting gear.

Pay rates will be based on your experience and our clients. Bonuses will be given for jobs well done.

I’ll also help you with portfolio reviews and helping to find you outlets to publish your photos. If you are interested in learning about social media content aggregation and software I can help you with this too. Time spent with portfolio reviews and software training won’t be paid but you’ll have the opportunity to expand your photographic view and learn about a wide array of visual communication softwares including:

• Adobe Photoshop CS4
• Adobe Illustrator CS4
• Adobe Flash CS4
• Adobe InDesign CS4
• Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro
• Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
• Adobe After Effects CS4
• Adobe Premier CS4
• Apple Final Cut Pro
• Apple Motion
• Apple LiveType
• Apple Sound Track Pro
• Quark Express 8
• Soundslides Plus
• Action Script 2, 3
• Camera Bits Photo Mechanic
• News Edit ProBaseview
• Adobe Audition CS4
• Canon Digital Professional
• GarageBand
• Adobe Bridge CS4
• GIMP
• Saxotech Publicus Brightcove Publishing
• Experienced with HTML, XHTML, CSS
• Flash Video Encoder

Interested in this job? Do you meet these requirements?

• Must have strong desire to learn more about photography industry
• Must have strong desire to learn and practice about strong journalism values
• Must have a working knowledge Mac OSX operating systems.
• Must have a working knowledge of Photoshop CSx
• Must be able to hold and carry weight
• Fluent in English and Chinese (writing, reading, speaking)

Beijing natives with a knack for finding sources and getting access to places and people will be given preference. Email me here with a link to your portfolio for consideration. To learn more about me and what I do, visit my site here.

Cheers,

Jonah

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Here I am with my new friends (from right to left) model Haizhen Wang, American actress Marisa Tomei and TV hostess and model Linda Yi.

Since leaving China Daily, I’ve taken on a wide variety of clients. In the past two weeks I’ve found myself in classrooms, on mountains, hanging out with marketing executives, photographing private house parties, hutongs, forgotten cities underneath Beijing and recently — a red carpet event.

This was shot for Woman’s Wear Daily, a Condé Nast publication commonly known as WWD. WWD is a “a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called the bible of fashion.” While this isn’t the first time I’ve worked in fashion, these situations are always slightly amusing to me.

First, it’s always fun to see someone with a ton of money throw a party in China. You get a lot of bang for your buck. This party, thrown by Italian fashion mogel Diego Della Valle, actually took place in a converted coal gas storage tank. Known as Tank 751 in Beijing’s 798 Art District, the Italian shoe maker turned the industrial era building into a visual spectacle he called “An Italian Dream.”

The contrast of this party to what is going on 100 meters away in the nearest alley or street is just stunning. In general, the China dichotomy is stunning — but when events like this happen its like walking into a different planet … A fashionable planet with fancy lights and chairs so modern I’m not exactly sure how to sit on them.

The party included a red carpet entrance, a spherical, mixed media art exhibition projected onto the interior walls of the former coal tank, a lot of free booze, dinner and a post-modern ballet featuring atonal music, small amounts of clothing and androgynous costumes.

Here is my friend actress, Zhou Dong Yu. She is pretty fashionable.

While I clean up pretty well and know when I should tuck in my shirt, I would describe myself as … far from fashionable (at least in relativity to Zhou Dong Yu). Its never really something that has interested me that much. However, photographing it is an interesting experience, especially in China.

My experience photographing Western celebrities from Yao Ming (although he is a Chinese -> American celebrity), Michael Jordan, President Barak Obama, John Elway or Chris “Jesus” Ferguson have been far different then photographing celebrities in China.

I believe there are two parts to this equation. First, while the fascination with celebrity certainly exists in China — I think its not quite as extreme as in Hollywood or Bollywood. If you show a picture of Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears to a random person in America, there is a good chance they will know who they are. However, in China celebrities are mostly known by those with the means to indulge in this culture. Therefor, most people not living in a major city will have no idea who one celebrity is over another.

I think this makes for less arrogant celebrities, although to be fair two of the western celebrities at this event Diegeo Della Valle and Marisa Tomei (above) were extremely pleasant and friendly to be around. Perhaps, if everyone in your country knew who you were — you could imagine how you could get a big head. However, in a country with 1.4 billion people, with the vast majority living in some level of poverty, only a small percentage know celebrities.

The other part of the equation which makes photographing celebrities different in China than America for me, is I usually have no idea who these people are. While I grew up watching Michael Jordan play basketball, when the time came years later to photograph him, it seemed kind of natural to be a little bit nervous – or at least get hit with their celebritydom. However, that doesn’t exist for me in China. The most famous actress in the country could walk up to me, and chances are I might not recognize them. This makes photographing them — much easier.

Shooting on the red carpet

While on a cross-cultural or sociological level shooting celebrities on a red carpet in China is interesting the actual photography part is far from exciting. Above is (from right to left): Former Chinese National Ballet Principal Ballerina Hou Hong Lan, Brazilian model, socialite and lead singer of the all-girl rock band Thrush Metal, Alice Dellal and Actress Gao Yuan Yuan. For these events you simply show up and push a button next to dozens of other photographers doing the exact same thing. Lights are set up. They tell the celebrities where to walk, when to walk and when to stop. Its really not brain surgery after you have one exposure correct.

However, trying to find a candid moment is more difficult but once in awhile it is possible. The celebrities know when to “ham it up” so I don’t really think anything that happens on any red carpet is any indication of reality, but it does allow for some slight variation in photography.

On a different level, this type of photography is actually difficult for me because of the nature of the publication I’m working for. I like big frames. Or another way to put it: my naturally inclination with the camera is to fill the frame up with content. Unless I’m specifically using it for a reason, I don’t like negative space. If you look at this portrait gallery, you’ll see my tendency.

However, for a fashion trade magazine like WWD, readers want to see the outfits of the models and celebrities. This means, backing off frames and allowing the viewers to see at least 3/4 of their bodies, generally in a portrait (or vertical) orientation. This is about the opposite of what my eye wants to do.

This type of shoot is great practice in teaching your eye to work for your client, rather than only for you. WWD published a slideshow along with an article (again, behind a pay wall – sorry) on this event and included mostly shots containing 3/4 bodies with some head shots. So most of the photos in this blog post, were one’s not used actually, but one’s that I would probably prefer.

I have three more similar shoots for WWD booked for this month. We’ll see who shows up next.

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Night time photography has been a hobby of mine for many years. When I used to live at Lake Tahoe, I was constantly doing this. Now living in a small Chinese village of 20 million people, opportunity to do this is less frequent.

Even less frequent, are opportunities where clients need bulb exposures.

However, recently I worked an assignment for South China Morning Post where bulb exposures were needed — however, unlike my experience at Lake Tahoe shooting long exposures, this shoot in Hebei Province, China had some time restrictions. With bulb exposures and the nature of Camera RAW, you never want to be in a rush.

For those that don’t know, a bulb exposure is:

Bulb, abbreviated B, is a shutter speed setting on an adjustable camera that allows for long exposure times under the direct control of the photographer. With this setting, the shutter simply stays open as long as the shutter release button remains depressed. An alternative setting common on film cameras is Time, abbreviated T, where the button is pressed once to open the shutter and again to close it.

So — a bulb exposure allows a photographer to shoot for extremely long periods of time, up to many hours. However, digital cameras shooting RAW images, require the same amount of time to take a photograph as to process the image. Ergo, one would have to wait 10 minutes to see a 10 minute exposure in the LCD of the camera. This brings you back to the film era where you can’t actually see what you are shooting directly after you push the button.

The tricky thing about this: often when you shoot bulb exposures you want to shoot, then see results and adjust your settings but not the frame. Which means you have to commit to not shooting while the camera processes the image, wasting time. In this situation, I had no time to waste — or perhaps a better way to look at it is — you have no time to screw up.

The assignment was to photograph the LAMOST Telescope. A massive telescope on a mountain near Beijing. “The telescope is the result of a 300 million yuan (HK$350 million) project that took more than a decade to complete.” After completing the telescope, cities like Beijing and Tianjin have grown so much that light pollution is making the telescope less powerful. My idea, was to shoot long exposures from around the telescope to show light pollution.

I was driven to Hebei province and given 1 hour to take photographs in complete darkness. The photographs above and below all range between 10-15 minute exposures — meaning, I had to guess on three exposure times without seeing the result. It wasn’t till I was in the car on the way home where I could see the images. Due to the processing time, this meant I could only take three photographs before leaving.

Growing up in a digital world, this was quite scary. Leaving an assignment without seeing your photographs — or even knowing if you have a backup image is something I don’t have to do very often.

Fortunately, after doing this type of photography as a hobby for years I was pretty comfortable and was fairly happy with the results. Two out of the three frames I thought came out well, while I didn’t like the third so much. Funny enough, the photo that South China Morning Post actually used, was the photo I didn’t like. C’est la vie.

If you are interested in the story behind this image, read the SCMP story here, but unfortunately, it is behind a paywall.

Here are some of my favorite bulb and longer exposures from the past, where I haven’t been under time pressure.

Round Mound, Zeyphr Cove, Nevada — 538 seconds.

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, California — 399 seconds.

Lake Tahoe, California — 30 seconds.

Heavenly Mountain Resort, California — 30 seconds.

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The first of December marks the end of a 1.5-year-long contract with China Daily, China’s National English Language newspaper.

While China Daily provided me with some great opportunities I’m very excited to move on from this position and this organization to pursue independent projects. I will continue to be based out of Beijing working as a freelancer with video, still photography and design.

Although its a little scary jumping into the freelance network in a city of 20 million people, my independence from China Daily allows me to work with a greater range of clients from all over the world. Working on my own terms will also allow me to travel more and pursue some longer term projects that require extended periods of time and geographic mobility.

When I first graduated college I spent some time as a freelancer, scrapping for work wherever I could. Years later, it feels funny going back. Although I have work already rolling in, in some way it takes a little bit of getting used to being – self employed and not unemployed.

I know a large network of freelancers here in China and throughout the United States. Looking at the difference between this freelance group and my friends who are staffers at newspapers is pretty interesting. As a large generalization, the general happiness level of my freelance friends seems to be higher than that of the newspaper staffers. Although, its pretty clear that the pockets of the staffers are deeper.

When you are freelance, you don’t have to worry about layoffs … When you are freelance, you don’t have to worry about furloughs … However, as a staffer you don’t have to worry about money coming in, health insurance or finding a place to publish stories and photos.

There are clear benefits to both sides — however, the glim shadow of the newspaper industry’s state seems to be hanging over the staffers’ heads a little more than that of the freelancers. Although to be fair — both sides are clearly effected by the obvious economical and identity problems going on in the news industry.

I think to avoid the newsroom, you have to ask yourself — how unstable are you willing to be? If a paycheck from a job comes in 6-months late, can you still pay rent? And perhaps most importantly, are you self motivated enough to play the freelance game, constantly pitching stories and getting strung along by potential clients that don’t always materialize.

While I don’t have an answer to some of these questions — at this moment I’ve switched to the freelance side after five years as a full time staffer at different news organizations. If (and hopefully when) the right staff job comes along, I’ll jump back; however, at this moment in time — some freedom from a staff job and the Chinese media system is pretty exciting.

Some early observations

WHO TO PITCH TO: While this might seem obvious, for photographers it can be a bit tricky. Writers and reporters can pitch stories directly to editors. However, for photographers — we often find ourselves pitching to reporters, who in turn pitch to editors. While photo essays can sell and run independently, for the most part, assignments must include a story. Once you become a stringer for specific organizations, work will come to you — however, if you just sat around waiting for that to happen you would be wasting time you otherwise could be finding work. This is one reason why video production can be a little easier. I can pitch stories directly and complete the entire project independently.

WHERE TO WORK: There seems to be three options here: (1) Work at home (2) Rent an office (3) Work in coffee shops. After one week I’m finding working at home is more productive; however, there are distractions everywhere. Having a distinct environment to work in seems important — however, if your home and work environment become one, you might always feel like you are working — or worse, never work. The option of renting an office seems more healthy and productive but your monthly expenses sky rockets. I’ve been experimenting with coffee shops, which seems ok once you find the right one. Friend, neighbor and freelance writer Mitch Moxley works out of coffee shops daily. He says, he spends about 70 RMB (10 USD) a day on coffee. While this isn’t cheap, it is cheaper than renting office space — and it is catered.

UPDATING YOUR BIO: Whenever you move on from a job you need to update your resume. However, in this digital age its not as simple as updating one document. Photographers and journalists have bios all over the place. Every social media outlet (I think looking at at least 20 web sites) I subscribe to needs to be updated, Web sites, blogs and professional associations. While this isn’t that big of a deal, it is something different than what people did years ago.

TRANSFER FEES: For a couple clients who are based in Asia, I’ve been extremely amazed at what people charge for international electronic payment. In some cases for small jobs, I’ve found the wire fee is almost 20% of the total payment. This is tricky, because 80% is surely better than 0%, however, at a certain point it doesn’t make sense to even take money in this form. I have bank accounts in China and the US — but keeping too much money in China can be a problem for legal reasons here — in the case you need to leave the country.

WHEN TO TAKE A JOB: Should a freelancer take any job? While the bottom line plays a big factor in this, I will repeat advice photographer Corey Rich once gave me. When asked when he decides to take a job or not Corey responded (paraphrasing): To take a job it must meet two out of three criteria. The job has to either:

• (1) Be something I really want to do, or something I really want to photograph.
• (2) The job has to be with good people — who I would like to hang out with.
• (3) The job has to pay a shit load of money.

If it doesn’t meet two out of three of those criteria, he wouldn’t take the job. I think this is great advice that would certainly make your life meaningful and more fun and something all freelancers should aspire to.

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Note from Jonah: This is the first post in a discussion concerning comercial usage of Flickr photographs. Read the second, follow up post here.

My friend emailed me yesterday, asking advice on a photography related question. He writes:

Hi Jonah — So some rando sent me a message on flickr saying they wanted to include some photos of mine in an in-flight magazine for Air Canada. The email checks out with a media-production company whose clients include air canada. From the message it seems they’re offering photo credit, some copies of the issue, but no mention of money. Think I should do it?

While random emails looking for photos are normal, I had not heard of people using Flickr as a means of finding free photographs and exploiting photographers. The company’s circumnavigation of the photography industry made me want to share this with any and all photographers and business people.

Here’s how the situation unfolded.

The following emails came from Flickr mail. All names have been changed to not put any individuals in a bad light — I’m just questioning the ethics and integrity of the companies involved.

Hi,

My name is SUZY Q and I am photo researcher for enRoute magazine (Air Canada’s in-flight magazine).

In our December 2010 issue, we are going to be mentioning the Ice and Snow Festival in Beinjing. During my photo research for the piece, I came across some fantastic photos of the area that you have posted on Flickr.com. We would maybe like to possibly use one of your photos and are interested to know if:

a.) they are yours/you took them/own the rights to them and
b.) if you would be interested in giving us permission to print them. We would credit the photos to you and would send you a couple copies when it is launched.

We are working on a bit of a tight deadline. If you could let me know if this is possible, I would appreciate it.

The image that we would like to possibly use can be seen here …

Thank you in advance. I hope to hear from you.

Regards,

SUZY Q

This is when I got the email from my friend. I thought about it for a couple minutes before I came to the conclusion this is simply away for the airline, media company and in flight magazine to save money. There were clearly hundreds of professional photographers at this event, and this method which is probably more common than I would like to think, completely circumnavigates the photography industry.

In the unusual circumstance, these were the only existing photos of the event, I would understand this method of research. However, this would also make the photographs valuable. I encouraged my friend to inquire about payment.

Hello SUZY Q,

Thank you for contacting me about the photos. Sorry for my late response; I just noticed your message today. Is there any possibility of payment for the photos you use?

Thank you,

TINY TIM

Relatively quickly, the company emailed back:

Hello TINY TIM,

Unfortunately, we do not pay for those images. We give credit to the photographer and we hope that this is a chance to be shown through
onAir, Air Canada’s e-zine, by 2.5 million people monthly.

Hope to hear form you soon.

Thank you,
SUZY Q

I’ve left SUZY Q’s signature out of the email. However, I would like to point out that she is an intern at enRoute, Air Canada’s in flight magazine. This makes me even one more degree disgusted at the business ethics of the companies. Not only are they clearly doing something with dodgy ethics — they are making interns do it.

It would be unfair to suggest Air Canada and this media company are the only companies doing this. I’m sure it is common, but I would like to make a suggestion to photographers not to take work from companies doing this and a plea to amateurs — your work has value of more than “a couple copies” of a publication. Especially, as SUZY Q points out — one with an audience of 2.5 million people a month.

I have no problem with businesses using Flickr as a tool of finding photographs. However, if they are targeting hobbyists and amateurs their motives are clearly the bottom line. I’m sure enRoute is a beautiful magazine filled with the best free photos they could get their hands on.

Please spread this around on your social networks to create more awareness in the photographic and business communities.

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Note from Jonah: This is the continuation of a photo series from the Great Himalayan Mountain Range. The photos document a journey by car, foot, boat, plane and elephant from Tibet to Nepal.

I gave the woman above 5 kuai (60 cents) after taking her photo … Every since, I’ve felt horrible about it. I didn’t intend to do it, I just got stuck in an awkward situation. Let me explain …

I have never experienced the population of China reacting to tourism like they did in Tibet. From Disney-like monasteries to beggars, the impact is obvious.

I’ve been to some of the poorest villages in China. I’ve eating dinner with a family in Anhui Province, where their annual income was less than $100 per year. I’ve been to a town in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region where sand is taking over lands and livelihoods. However, never in rural China has a beggar ever asked me for money. Although this is different in cities — beggars are still very rare compared to anyplace I’ve ever been in the developing world.

Furthermore, no Chinese person has ever asked me for money to take their photo. In Tibet, traditionally nomadic people are waiting at vistas hoping to be photographed as a way of making money. Tibetan monasteries charge an entrance fee — however, on top of that if you want to photograph, an additional fee is often charged — sometimes, the additional fee is per room. Meaning you pay an entrance fee, and every room you photograph has an additional fee.

The room above in the Ta Shi Lhun Monastery cost 10 RMB to photograph ($1.49). Should I have paid?

While I have seen these actions and practices in other countries — I had not seen it anywhere in China. This part of tourism brings up a tough ethical question for travelers and photographers.

Should you pay for a photograph? What makes it more tough, is the amount of money you pay is almost meaningless on a western scale.

My attitude is: You should never pay to take someone’s photograph. If they don’t want to be photographed, that is fine — and people should respect that. By paying to photograph rural people, you fuel a very negative occurrence of tourism’s impact on people and places. Every time a traveler pays to photograph someone, it makes this form of economic gain one step more viable for rural people and in turn, aids in the disintegration of traditional lifestyles and culture.

Having said this; I admit, this is much easier said than done. For example, if a street beggar gets me at the right moment, pending on their attitude I might give them money (non-photographically speaking). The woman in the top photo was asking for money. For whatever reason, I reached into my pocket to see what type of small bills I had. After I gave it to her, I realized she was selling me the right to take her photo.

So I took it. I’ve been mad at myself ever since.

I took the above photo of a Yak on top of a mountain on a pass near the Drigung Monastery. It was just standing there eating. However, instantly after — the owner of the Yak charged at me demanding money for photographing his Yak. This was after the incident with the lady and I refused.

But then I felt bad for saying no to him. It didn’t seem like I could win — however, by refusing to give him money I felt I made a more ethical decision.

The ethics of travel photography are very difficult — especially given the purpose of your photography. Are you taking the photo for a magazine? For your Facebook page? To show your grandmother? Simply for yourself?

I do believe foreigners should not pay subjects to be photographed; however, I also understand the reality of assignments, the pressure of the value of the dollar and the feeling that you can help someone in a small way.

I believe if you minimize your impact on the people and places you visit you will leave the places more authentic for other travelers while helping to preserve global culture and our physical environment. Paying people for their photograph is doing a disservice to ethnic populations, other travels and our global society.

Road Trip on the Himalayan Shelf: If you’re just joining now, here’s what you’ve missed:

1. Road trip on the Himalayan Shelf
2. Lhasa: City of Sunlight, City in the Sky
3. In Tibet, People’s Liberation Army (mostly) out of site, but not out of mind
4. Attn: Crayola — a new color for you — Tibetan Blue
5. Tibetan Cloudscapes
6. Tibetan Prayer Flags Littering Roof of the World
7. Should you pay for photos? The ethics of travel photography
8. 29 Minutes and 15 Seconds on Mount Everest
9. Desertification stretching from Inner Mongolia to Tibet
10. ‘The journey not the arrival matters’
11. Namaste and welcome to Nepal
12. Kathmandu: The greatest place on earth to get lost
13. Kathmandu: Full of mystery, culture, history — and trash
14. ‘A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles’
15. Who has the strongest necks in the world?
16. Hey hey, they’re some monkeys
17. After the Himalayan: The Terai
18. Watch where you step: Chitwan National Park
19. At the end of the road: Pokhara
20. Final Destination 8 (in 3D): The luckiest travelers in the world
21. Tibet to Nepal: ‘The Journey Not the Arrival Matters’

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Note from Jonah: This is the continuation of a photo series from the Great Himalayan Mountain Range. The photos document a journey by car, foot, boat, plane and elephant from Tibet to Nepal. If you’re just joining now, here’s what you’ve missed:

1. Road trip on the Himalayan Shelf
2. Lhasa: City of Sunlight, City in the Sky
3. In Tibet, People’s Liberation Army (mostly) out of site, but not out of mind
4. Attn: Crayola — a new color for you — Tibetan Blue
5. Tibetan Cloudscapes
6. Tibetan Prayer Flags Littering Roof of the World
7. Should you pay for photos? The ethics of travel photography
8. 29 Minutes and 15 Seconds on Mount Everest
9. Desertification stretching from Inner Mongolia to Tibet
10. ‘The journey not the arrival matters’
11. Namaste and welcome to Nepal
12. Kathmandu: The greatest place on earth to get lost
13. Kathmandu: Full of mystery, culture, history — and trash
14. ‘A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles’
15. Who has the strongest necks in the world?
16. Hey hey, they’re some monkeys
17. After the Himalayan: The Terai
18. Watch where you step: Chitwan National Park
19. At the end of the road: Pokhara
20. Final Destination 8 (in 3D): The luckiest travelers in the world
21. Tibet to Nepal: ‘The Journey Not the Arrival Matters’

Regardless of where you are from in the world, most people have seen a Tibetan prayer flag. But until I actually went to Tibet I had no idea how they were actually used.

Tibetan Prayer Flags can be seen in hutongs in Beijing, on skyscrapers in Shanghai, in college dorms across the United States or in Buddhist temples around the globe. Normally, you see a single line of about a half dozen to a dozen colored flags.

However, the reality in Tibet: You’ll never see just six or twelve. The biker above may have learned this on this mountain pass on the Friendship Highway. Many signs and overpasses look like this.

Not only are many used, but they actually very rarely come down (according to my guide, they never come down — however, I’m a little skeptical of that statement). They are hung on Tibetan new years on houses, signs, hills, mountains, across rivers — literally anywhere and everywhere it seems possible — or impossible to hang a flag. They are actually hung in such mass, at times its a bit comical.

Enormous groups of them litter the Tibetan landscape — and I do mean litter. As they become worn and shredded they fall and blow off somewhere to most likely never be picked up again.

I talked about this with United Nations Ambassador of Peace Dr. Jane Goodall this weekend, and she agreed in the Tibetan usage of the flags, it could be considered littering (more on the three day shoot with Doctor Goodall in an upcoming post). Although prayer flags are seen all over the world, their origin does come from the Himalayan.

A prayer flag is a colorful panel or rectangular cloth often found strung along mountain ridges and peaks high in the Himalayas to bless the surrounding countryside or for other purposes. Unknown in other branches of Buddhism, prayer flags are believed to have originated with Bön, which predated Buddhism in Tibet. Traditionally they are woodblock-printed with texts and images.

Another strange habit I saw was a confetti style prayer flag that people throw out of car windows as they drive down long highways surrounded by amazing landscapes.

While its hard to argue with someone’s religious belief system, it seems weird to me a population that is so connected to the earth, thinks that throwing paper and cloth into the street is a good idea. However, people’s perception of trash around the glove is so different, I’m sure the Tibetans don’t think they are littering.

The prayer flags have different meanings. According to my guide they are:

• Blue (symbolizing sky/space)
• White (symbolizing air/wind)
• Red (symbolizing fire)
• Green (symbolizing water)
• Yellow (symbolizing earth

I’m curious how much these things cost in the Western world. In Tibet right now, I believe the “going price” is about 5 RMB (60 cents) for a dozen or so.

The prayer flags can play an element photographically speaking for landscape photography. There is always a flag to shoot in front of some landscape, rather than — just the landscape like the example above where we get a little bit of Tibetan Blue and a Tibetan Cloudscape. They make landscape photography globally unique in Tibet.

Drigung Monastery

This amazing place is the Drigung Monestary. Tucked away in the Himalayan, 150 km east of Lhasa, this place is truly amazing — and truly covered with prayer flags. A hot spring runs through the middle of the village with nice pools (separate female and male pools) that can be used for a nominal cost. The monastery continues up the mountain until a final area of prayer is built into the rock at the top of the mountain (about a one hour hike up from the hot springs — be wary of some shady dogs). As you walk up the hill prayer flags cross enormous ridge tops and valleys on both sides of you — in mass quantities.

Nuns walk around barefoot praying and chatting. There is a certain zen like feeling to the place. Although its only 150 km east of Lhasa, it does take all day to get there with the roads. I feel — its definitely worth the drive from Lhasa. Unlike some places in Tibet, everyone seemed very open to photography and people even encouraged me to explore the area. The nun above was walking around a Stupa when she stopped to give me directions to the top of the mountain.

This nun even let me photograph her in the small temple on top of the mountain. She didn’t ask for money, didn’t expect money and seemed pretty happy I made the effort to get to the monastery and then climbed the mountain.

Other villagers, were even asking for portraits, including this Paniolo type Tibetan cowboy below and the younger woman above. A lot of Tibetan men seemed to have a cowboy type image or style to them.

Check back Wednesday China time, Tuesday USA time for a new post with a note to all travelers — a small discussion of travel ethics.