A Couple Of Walls

If you have been following this blog for any time, then you know how I love textures. Yes, these are just a couple of walls, but the colors and texture are what grabbed my attention...the second one is typical here in Indonesia. People close their shops up with these boards, and they have to remember the order the boards go in...sometime they number them, but in this case, they used the name, "Rahman"...cute.

Beautiful But Deadly

I have heard that this Banded Sea Snake is the most poisonous snake in the world, but they are like little puppy dogs underwater and very shy. They have very small mouths, so there is not much danger in getting bit by one. I got this shot at the end of one of my dives...I was doing my safety stop after a long dive and had very little air left in my tank...my camera was turned off and my strobes were all folded up when I saw this snake appear...he stayed still for a bit, and I thought, "I should dive back down and get a shot"...so, that's what I did....turned my camera on, unwrapped my strobes, and shot down for 5 seconds...took one shot, and went back to my safety stop...ha ha...got lucky!!

Three Salty Dudes

I originally processed this photo in color with the ship being a vibrant green, but I thought it would look better as a black n white photo. These guys have been around ships a long time. The guy in the middle told me they were headed to Sulawesi in the morning to load up some fresh coffee...cool. I wonder how the coffee is...

The Sewing Man

My wife always says, "If you want something done in Indonesia, just walk down the street, and you can find some guy that can do it for you"....if you want some sewing done, "just walk down the street"...

So here it is...a guy with his sewing machine tucked beneath the underpass of the toll road...

A Mountain of Trash

Remember some of my other photos from the dump? Well, here is one that catches the entire scene as I drove up to this spot...literally, a mountain of trash.

Pumping Water

Believe it or not, most of Indonesia still pumps the water they need daily by hand from wells. I have heard that ALL the water in Jakarta is contaminated...no surprise there...which means not only do they have to pump their water by hand, but they have to boil it as well...

Have a great weekend!!

Streets Of Jakarta

I love the type of scene like this where there are a thousand things going on...the more you look, the more you see going on. This city is like that...at any moment in time, there are millions of things going on...

My Internet Was Down

Wow...this has been the longest stretch of time without a new photo...sorry about that. We had a major storm last week, and lightning hit the tower that connects me to the server...so, I had no access to the internet the past 5 days...I am up and running again, though...so have no fear.

The Kaki Lima Waits

Kaki Lima means "5 feet", and it is the name given to these little carts that sell different food...

The Old Becak In The Corner

I know that this is not the prettiest back yard you have ever seen, but there is something about this scene that is beautiful...know what I mean?

The Men Wait For Work

When I jumped out of my car at the big garbage dump outside of Jakarta, these guys were all taking a break from the hard labor...their baskets temporarily empty, they will be fast at it again...collecting plastic and other things they can sell from the dump...

Live Young

You HAVE To Check This Out...

A good friend sent this link to me...some OUTSTANDING photographs!! Have you ever just wanted to quit your job, sell everything you own, and just....TAKE OFF?? These photos will make you want to do just that...

CHECK THESE PHOTOS OUT...

Skywatch Friday - Been a Long Time

Happy Friday!!

It has been a long time since I participated in "Skywatch Friday"! I was a dedicated participant in the early days of this blog, and many of my followers have come from "Skywatch Friday"....
I owe a great deal of gratitude to the good folks at "Skywatch Friday" for the success of my blog over the years!! Thanks!!

I am looking forward to once again browsing the hundreds of blogs that participate week in and week out sharing their sky from their part of the world...

If you want to see what I am talking about, CLICK HERE...

Photographer VS Digital Aritst

I was reading some interesting debates on-line today about the use of Photoshop. There are many photographers out there that are more traditionalist, and feel that what you get direct from your camera is sacred and should not be changed or enhanced in any way. Photoshop is evil to these people, and they believe once Photoshop is used, the photograph ceases to be a photograph. On the other hand, there is the digital artist who uses what comes out of the camera as their canvas or template to create a piece of art. I think in this age of digital photography, more and more photographers are leaning towards defining themselves as artists instead of photographers...but my question is this: After working on a photograph in Photoshop, is it still considered a photograph? Or is it now considered "Art"? Where is the line drawn between the two? Is Photoshop really evil?

Which (below) is considered a photograph today? Which one would you rather have hanging on your wall? Which one would you rather see in a travel magazine?

Jakarta's Iconic Bajai

Panorama photos don't really come out too well on the web as I am restricted to 900 pixels, so this photo is only about 200 pixels tall. Having said that, this is a 5 shot pano of these famous iconic bajai's of Jakarta. The government is trying to rid of them as they do put out pollution and they are noisy...but, it would be sad to see them go...

More From Potato Head in Bali

This place, Potato Head, in Bali was just so cool. I took a ton of photos here, and was wondering the best way to show them to you. I have already posted a couple, and was thinking to add a new one each day, but then thought, "Naaaah"...I will just post all my favorites in one post. So here you go...five more shots from Potato Head...

A Composition Nightmare

I was in Singapore this past weekend. The main reason for going was for my daughter's gymnastics competition, but my second reason was to have my Drobo looked at. Well, I got mixed news about the Drobo....

They wrote this morning, and told me that they can recover my files, but the cost will be 1500 Singapore Dollars (about 1200 US Dollars). My file structure will be lost too, no file names...only the file types....that will mean a great deal of work to go through 85,000 photos, but at least I will have the photos back. I still have no idea what happened and what caused this nightmare, but I did learn a valuable lesson...BACK UP, BACK UP, and BACK UP again!!

I am still not sure if 100% of my data will be retrieved....I will decide when I hear back from them if it is worth the 1500 bucks...but my gut feeling is that it is worth it...it's only money, right?

Now for the photo below....

I was standing next to the escalator going down to the MRT in a shopping mall waiting for my wife and daughter who were shopping in some store...isn't that always the case for us guys? Waiting for the women to shop? They should have large comfortable chairs in every clothing store, shoe stores, and other female stores....and there should be free beer on tap for all the guys waiting for their girl friends, daughters and wives....and maybe a good game on TV...if that were the case, the women could shop till they drop, and us guys wouldn't care because we would be entertained....ok, I digress...back to the photo...

Anyway....I was standing there looking at this scene, and trying to figure out how to compose the photo...so many lines...how do I frame the shot? Do I make the top of the photo parallel to the large mural or do I line up the the beam on the left or do I straighten the lines of the tiles? These are things going through the mind of a husband waiting for the women in his life to shop...ha ha...in the end, I decided to line up the top of the mural with the top of the frame...in any case, a cool scene....and by the way, after 20 minutes of waiting, the girls ended up buying nothing...typical.