In the middle of our trip we visited Kathmandu. It's the largest city in Nepal with approximately one million people. When we visited, the city was fairly stable and safe. We were worried as there have been some unrest there in the past. But, there were still some issues. The biggest of which was the landfill/garbage problem that the city faced. As I understood it from talking with locals, an adjacent city that had the landfill for Kathmandu and the surrounding areas was so overrun with garbage that they blocked garbage trucks from Kathmandu from dumping garbage in their landfill. Therefore, the city wasn't able to pick up the garbage from the streets of Kathmandu, and it just began to pile up. In the middle of the streets. It was quite a sight (and smell.) Check out the rest of the pictures to see what I'm talking about, and to also see that there's beauty beyond this.

Sejin had a few words to say about this place too:

It was funny to see many souvenirs with 'Nepal's Himalayas' written on them on the streets in Nepal and 'Tibet's Himalayas' written on them all over the Tibet. So, who's Himalayas is the best? Kathmandu is becoming like Pahaarganj in Delhi which means busy narrow streets with lots of shops for foreign travelers. We had to haggle for the best price for everything and deal with the taxi drivers who don't want to drive you. The central Kathmandu where young people can date and old people can smoke and meet friends is just as dark as a cave and we couldn't see any of the people pass by but could smell them and touch them. I had to hold the tip of Sebastien's clothes so that I won't get lost among the thousands of people in the dark.

-Sejin

Bhaktapur is in Nepal too but the closer we get to India, the more Nepal lost its beauty; such is the case with Kathmandu. I remember there was a little girl with her mom on a street close to the American Embassy and we happened to walked by them a few times to find an ATM on a hot day. The little girl tugged on Sebastien's shorts and blocked his way in an attempt to get some money. She might have done that so many times and knew that foreigners like to ignore that they are there. So by experience she became bolder. But at the end, she didn't know someone could step on her toe if she interrups ones way which Sebastien did, by accident. I understand that begging is the way that they can servive. It's a pity and it's unfair that the little girl has no choice but to follow her mom's passage and I'm thinking where is the Human Rights for these people?

-Sejin

One of my favourite parts of this city was visit Swayambhunath (also known as The Monkey Temple) on the top of a large hill in the centre of the city. Aside from the wonderful view, and the aged relics, the temple was crowded with pigeons, dogs, and of course, monkeys. I love photographing these animals wandering around and interacting with the patrons giving them grains and other food. So fun! Sejin, on the other hand, doesn't like pigeons all that much, so she wasn't having nearly as much fun... Haha. Here's another note from Sejin about the local perception of this temple and it's monks.

I remember a conversation with a young taxi driver on the way to the Monkey Temple. He was thinking the monks are lazy bums who only gets money by just sitting in a house and not doing any productive work. He was very pissed that monks are sucking up the people's money all day long, every year, every decade.

-Sejin

I took this video of the monkeys interacting with each other on the steps to the monkey temple, and Sejin posted it on her YouTube account a few months ago.

On our last day we took a bus from Kathmandu to the Nepal/India border. It took about 9 hours total, including two stops for food. At one of the stops, I snapped a shot of this little snail working hard to get to the top of this plant. He made it, don't worry.

As always, if you would like to see the other photos from this trip, please see the album posted on Facebook. Take care for now!

I wasn't planning on photographing any weddings solo this year, but I made an exception for a friend of mine. Monique and I went to elementary school together and stayed in touch since. Her fiancé Graeme and I have never met, but I got along well with him right away. Their date is set for August 21st, 2011. I'm excited!

As a way for myself to get to know the couple, and to share their engagement with the world, we got together recently for an engagement shoot. Here are the results. Also, I'd like to give a big thanks to Kyle Humphrey for helping out as an assistant. I met him through the couple, and he'll be helping out at the wedding too.

As always, if you would like to see a few other photos from this session, please see the album posted on Facebook. Take care for now!

Two Posts in one week? Crazy! When we originally started planning out our trip, we picked a few special must-see cities before connecting them with other destinations. Bhaktapur was one of those original few. After seeing the movie Baraka and appreciating the beautiful imagery that this city has to offer, it was hard to pass it by. Durbar square in the centre of the city offers some of the most magical inner-city landscapes I've ever seen. Beautiful ancient temples maintained to their original magnificence sprinkled about, and connected with brick walkways; makes you feel like you've been plucked out of this century and taken a few centuries back.

What I didn't plan for, though, was the interactions we were about to have with the locals of Bhaktapur... Mostly with the children that attempted to part you from your money in creative and bold ways. The child pictured above was more bold that creative... It's important to keep in mind the effects of children asking for money on the streets of third-world countries, so we tried to stay conscious of that as we wandered the streets.

Hit the jump for some more insight on this city frozen in time.

I've asked Sejin to add some thoughts about these pictures and what the city means to her.

Unfortunately, you can't hear sounds from pictures. That is the disadvantage of photography and that is the sad thing about these pictures. We couldn't make you listen to the people talking on a street, dogs howling, bells from the shrines, murmuring mantras from old men, children's cries for tourists' money, women's chit chat. You miss all these things while looking at the pictures. So, imagine you are there with me, staying at the same hostel and enjoying the late brunch at the first floor of the Shiva Guest House where lots of tourists stop by for a drink. Then, you'll hear what we heard and you'll see what we saw.

-Sejin

If Toulouse is a Ville Rose in France, Bhaktapur is its Nepali version. The name Bhaktapur came from the City of Devotees. Historically, the place was a trade route from India to Tibet. I think that's why people were open to foreigners, talking to travellers as if we had been known them for a long time. It might be a scam to bring you to their "Art School" where they sell lots of traditional paintings by using young children, but still, I can't deny that people were not afraid of cameras and our approaches.

-Sejin

It is strange that in Nepal and India, dogs are not very different from humans. Or should I say, humans are not very different from dogs. They could sleep anywhere they want and they are poorly nourished. They are not eager to change their life, they are okay with what they have. If the street is packed with garbage, just walk around the corner and take another route to get to your destination. Don't be too bothered; that's the rule. They don't have to fight with what they have right now because in their next life, they could be a guy like Donald Trump or a famous actor or an actress in Bollywood movies. So, they might know how to live a life on that day, at that very moment. As a person who lived 26 years in a country that has the fastest Internet, Korea, I myself had more to complain about than the whole population of Bhaktapur in terms of living expectations. They are the people who live at the same time with me but strangely, they seemed like people in the past. Not because their technology is behind but because their importance of life seems much simpler than us.

-Sejin

If you're wondering what all these people are doing waving sticks around, you're not the only one. I had some trouble figuring out exactly what festival we were witnessing every night we were in Bhaktapur, but I think it's the Cow Festival (Gai Jatra). People would dress up in some pretty silly clothing, cover themselves in paint, and parade in a long line keeping a simple beat by banging their sticks together. It was pretty energetic, and it passed right by our Hotel probably 2 or 3 times per night.

There you have it! If ever you have a chance to visit this country, I certainly would encourage you to do so, it's incredible. Stay tuned for the next post about Kathmandu.

As always, if you would like to see the other photos from Bhaktapur, you can visit the album posted on Facebook. Take care for now!

Let's just ignore the fact that this post is long overdue, and just focus on the pictures themselves.. :) These pictures are from our long trip last August, where we travelled into Nepal from Tibet. Crossing the border was pretty interesting, and our stay at The Last Resort was fascinating, and a bit scary (you'll see why after the jump.)

As for the picture shown above, it almost seems like it was taken from a plane, but in fact it was taken from our little hotel on the Tibet side of the border, which is high up on the side of a deep valley where water runs down from the Tibetan plateau. Such a wonderful experience to spend a night in the clouds. Hit the jump to see more.

Construction was constant on the Tibetan side of the border, as the roads were routinely washed out by rainfall and landslides. We thought it was pretty rough terrain, that is until we crossed into Nepal... If you look at the list of all the photos you'll see a few from the Nepal side and it's clear they don't spend that much time repairing the road.

As we arrived at The Last Resort, this is the sight we were greeted with. Bungee Jumping! I was destined to try out the 160m drop into a narrow gorge with rapid white water at the base. Check out the video below of my jump, you can thank Sejin for taking the video from the safety of the lookout ;)

We left The Last Resort after 3 days and headed to Bhaktapur, just outside of Kathmandu. On the highway we witnessed some pretty fascinating things, such as above, you can see the passengers riding on the top of the bus. Looks kinda fun.

As always, there's a few dozen other images you can see in the album posted on facebook. Don't be shy!

Well, that's it for now. I'm currently editing pictures from our stay in Bhaktapur, and amazingly historic site that has managed to maintained it's ancient look to this day. Stay tuned! Take care for now.

Wondering where I've been for the last several weeks? Getting married of course! Myself and Sejin were married on May 7th, 2011 in Saint John. Her parents were down to visit so we've been pretty busy with everything.

If you'd like to see some pictures, please head on over to the official blog post on my friend Sean's page:

http://www.seanmcgrath.ca/blog/2011/05/sebastien-sejin-wedding-saint-john-nb/

Keep around for a long overdue post about our journey into Nepal last year... Still working on it!

Take care for now,

My brothers, Mathieu and Alain, own and operate a recording studio here in uptown Saint John and they've just launched their new website, www.fluidaudiogroup.com. Needing some new banner photos for the site, Mathieu asked me to take a few pictures of the upstairs drum tracking room that has recently been reorganized and cleaned out. They also needed a photo of the workshop area that highlights the chaos that is the workbench. Click the link to see a few more photos.

The photo at the top of this post is of the drum tracking room at the back of the top floor. It was once a fur storage fridge, with racks and catwalks to hang coats. It's a beautiful room with wainscoting from top to bottom, and hardwood floor that has never needed refinishing. The ceiling is 14ft high at the highest point. As for the photo itself, it is actually several unique exposures blended into one; each photo has a flash pointing at a different element of the room. During post-processing, the best parts of each photo are brought into one final blended image in Photoshop. Tedious, but simpler than using 6+ flashes outside of the frame.

Above is another photo of the drum tracking room from a different angle, taken in the same multi-exposure fashion as the first.

We wanted to showcase this room from a high point in order to show the size. To accomplish this, I secured the camera to a monopod, set it to remote trigger with Pocketwizards, and climbed a ladder for maximum height. Holding the monopod from one end, and raising the camera until it touched the ceiling, I popped a few shots. Afterwards I would bring the camera down, check how the images turned out, and repeated as necessary from different angles. Simple!

As said, another required photo was of the workshop. I wanted to use a fisheye lens to really emphasize the clutter equipment. There's one flash through an umbrella, high above, lighting the table more evenly, and you can thank Mathieu for kindly holding that up.

And while I was up on the ladder, why not take a photo of Sejin and Matt.

A note from Sejin about her impression of the studio:

The studio has everything that makes sounds! Especially, two drum sets are facing each other so two drum players can talk less loudly! :) When I went to the room for mixing the songs, I felt like I should be on a stage starting my show, maybe because the wall is painted with orange colour and the light was perfect for dancing. I love to visit the studio, it's fun and vitalizing!

-Sejin

In other news, I know it's been a little while since I've posted here, but I have valid excuses, I swear! Work has been keeping me really busy, and while I'm not at work, I'm helping Sejin plan our wedding that's coming up in just over a month. It's been pretty busy! On top of that, I'm currently preparing to take my motorcycle course as I just bought a 1986 Suzuki GS-400S that I will thoroughly enjoy this summer, and I just signed a lease on a new Honda Civic that's been almost too fun to drive so far. Would you blame me?

As always, I've posted these and a couple more photos on Facebook for you to comment on individually if you wish. You can see them here. Take care for now!

As a break from our regularly scheduled updates from our last trip, I'll post about a (relatively) short trip to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. I'm excited to share these pictures, as it's definitely more colour than I'm used to photographing. Colour makes me happy. Click the link to find out more about this trip.

A note from my fiancée Sejin about one of her favourite qualities of this city:

In San Miguel de Allende, you will see people with bags of 50 oranges for their daily fresh juice. Wherever you go, if you order a glass of orange juice, you won't be disappointed by the freshness.

-Sejin

This tour was organized by two local photographers, Mark Hemmings and Jamie Wilson. I had visited Japan with Mark last March, and I knew from then that I would want to visit San Miguel as well. I'm glad I did!

As you first drive into this charming town, about 3 hours away from Mexico City, the view you're greeted with is of the entire town laid out below you. As you can see in the photo below, the light is magical at sunset.

I'm not sure what it is about this photo, but I absolutely love it... :)

Colour, colour, and more colour. A lot of the buildings are falling apart though, but it does add some character.

This photo kind of reminds me of a frame out of a movie, I really like it.

During one of the afternoons, we spent some time photographing a model named Shantel. She was very charming and fun; it's too bad we didn't know a bit more Spanish...

We witnessed a lot of day-to-day activities of the locals, spending a lot of time wandering the streets photographing people going about their business. Always a treat to do everywhere I go.

Spent some time up on the roof of the villa we stayed at taking some pictures of the foliage against the sunset. Sean McGrath inspired.

Can't go to Mexico without getting pricked by a cactus or two... Here's a note from Sejin describing her impression of the landscape.

During the 7 days with Mark and Jamie, we only discovered the very essential parts of the San Miguel de Allende area. Most of the places we went to are reachable in an hour and when we went farther, we saw more ruins and barren mountains. Understanding the life under the flaming sun and appreciating the greenery, my heart grew fonder, as the days passed, for the people who grew plants and crops.

-Sejin

Not a single cloud in the sky for days on end.

This charming little lady couldn't have been more than 4'8". She is apparently a regular visitor to this church, especially when foreigners visit. She is a very talented model though, with reasonable rates.

We visited a mine named Santa Brigida in Pozos, about an hour outside of San Miguel. This mine is a great place to wander around ruins, so long as you're careful not to fall into seemingly bottomless pits. Here are some photos of the old smelters that have been slowly falling apart for almost 2 centuries.

The little surprises you find on your journey if you just look around can be wonderful. Luckily the others on the tour were doing just that and found these little ants marching about. I've never seen anything so organized in such a small scale. Thousands of ants marching up a tree empty handed, then back down with some bounty.

Apparently this church in Jalpa, a tiny village about 30 minutes from San Miguel, has been under renovations for many years, slowly being brought back to its original status. They've certainly come a long way, but it's interesting to photograph some of the unpolished elements.

Lovers... It's a common sight in San Miguel.

A walk around the Parroquia at night will always reveal some interesting things. You won't need to bring your iPod either, the mariachi bands will keep the air filled with music. :)

Just make sure you look to your sides when walking around, or else you might miss an opportunity like this one, of a lady preparing some food in a restaurant kitchen. The restaurants are another great trait of this city, often with really interesting gardens setting the backdrop as you can see in the photo on the right.

I also wanted to share with you Sejin's thoughts about an art gallery we visited on our last day in San Miguel. There were no photos from there, but we did buy some little stained colour wooden boxes that add some pizazz to our bedroom décor.

At Fabrica la Aurora, the holy art maze place, I was so confused; I wondered if I was in Mexico or in New York. I couldn't believe my eyes and the reaction from the whole sensation I had was like when the astronauts saw the earth from the space with their naked eyes.

-Sejin

Well there you have it! Another city added to my list of 'must revisit.' I'm glad I had a chance to experience the atmosphere of this beautiful gem. As always, if you would like to see the other photos from this trip, please see the album posted on Facebook. Take care for now!

The Friendship Highway in Tibet runs from Lhasa to the Tibet/Nepal border. Part of our tour package was to be driven down from Lhasa to the Nepal border, through Shigatse and Tingri before arriving at the border-town Zhangmu (Kodari.) The route is about 740km long, and takes a total of 15 hours or so of driving to complete it. Hit the jump for some more images and notes on this famous route.

It's an amazingly scenic route taking you up into the clouds, mountains, and dry cool air, down to the lush greens of the edge of Nepal. The photo above is of a section of the highway near Lhasa. The lake is the Yamdrok Tso, which you can also see in the following picture.

In the next photos you can see some Nomads hitching a ride across the highway, and some children playing around the concrete barriers.

An interesting photo of a bird perfectly in focus as we rushed by in the truck, along with a photo of a shepherd with his flock of sheep.

Here's a photo showcasing the beautiful landscapes along the Friendship Highway.

There were some interesting sights along the way. At every high point along the route people would leave thousands of prayer flags strung about, almost to the point of waste. There were also several large trucks filled with children. I'm assuming that's their school bus?

At the highest point on the route, 5050m altitude, the air was very thin. We didn't spend much time there but I was able to take a few impacting images, including this one.

Beautiful yellow fields and rich blue sky.

The first image here was taken very high up on the route, down to a little village at the base of a valley. The second one is of some ruins along the highway about 40km away from the Nepal border. You can see the clouds hugging the hill-tops carefully in both photos.

As you approach the Nepal border, the altitude drops from 3000m to around 1200m pretty sharply, and the scenery changes very quickly too, going from the dry rubble you see in the photos above, to the humid lush green you see in the photos below. Waterfalls become a common site, with the road washed out in many areas.

I've included a map of our GPS logs to show exactly where we went, but as you can see we didn't wander far off from main road. The map is interactive, so please feel free to drag and zoom around to see different landmarks.

Well, that's it for now. As always, the entire album of 70 photos is available for you to browse through and comment on in facebook, photos/20100825_FriendshipHighway. The next post will be on the border towns Zhangmu and Kodari, as well as our short stay at The Last Resort. Take care for now!

Tingri was about as close as we could get to what "back-country" Tibet would truly be like, as we didn't wander far off of the Friendship Highway. That being said, I'm almost positive that the true back-country experience would be very different than this. At least Tingri had hotels...

Hit the jump for some more thoughts and pictures on this charming little town.

We stayed overnight in this little town to break up the long drive between Shigatse and the Nepal border.

Sejin always refers to her experience in Tingri as "not so nice", maybe even appreciating the bed-bugs of Gorakhpur more. I actually kind of liked it though. It's certainly a eye-opening experience to wander around a baron town, children everywhere with no apparent purpose, run down buildings that seem to still be well appreciated.

The streets were pretty quiet, but every once in a while we would come across some locals who we could interact with a bit. They're always quick to extend their hand for money or whatever else we have to give, like stickers or notepads. In return they'd humour a picture or two. Here are some teenage 'fashionistas' that we found.

The boy here was a pest. Haha. I made the mistake of taking pictures first, before offering anything, and he became quite demanding and would walk backwards in front of us, eyes locked, hand out. I took the opportunity to snap a bunch of shots before he buggered off to go see his mom, who came back with a baby in her arms begging for money with a pretty sob look on her face. I don't remember whether or not we gave them anything. Maybe a wet-nap...

The most notable thing about Tingri is the presence of dogs. They are everywhere. For the most part they leave us alone during the day, but our tour guide mentioned that it changes at night, as there are hundreds of wild dogs that come down from the mountain as scavengers for food, and end up fighting with the local dogs. The residents of Tingri close up all their gates every night to prevent the wild dogs from getting in to pilfer, and attack their dogs. For the entire night we heard a constant roar of near and far barking as the battle for dominance took place. Often we heard growls and yelps as they attacked each other nearby. Sejin didn't sleep much...

These photos are from the relatively calm daytime. Just hanging around.

I got up early in the morning to witness the sunrise over the hill. Here's a photo of a pretty gloomy and hazy Tingri.

Popular mode of transportation:

I was told by our tour guide that what we were seeing here was possibly the tip of Mt. Everest, but after looking around at other photos online, I think I wouldn't have been able to see it with so many clouds. But, it's definitely the Himalayan mountain range, and as close as we got to Mt. Everest. That will do, for now!

We were lucky to witness this short lived beam of light just missing Tingri. The clouds were so dynamic and fast moving, all of the landscapes were beautiful.

So... Tingri? I think I'd go back.

As always, there's an another large pile o' pictures available on my facebook page, Tingri, Tibet - August 25, 2010. Go and check it out, and leave some comments if you like!

Shigatse was probably our favourite town in Tibet. It's not quite as "occupied" as Lhasa is, and retained a lot of charm and history. We found the people to be very friendly and a wander around the streets and markets allowed us to engaged with them more. They were always intrigued with seeing the pictures we took of them and would quickly crowd around the camera. So fun! Hit the jump to find more.

Here are a few more photos from around the streets near our hotel. The guy sitting in the lawn chair was pretty sharp...

In Lhasa there is the Potala Palace that was the (former) residence of the Dalai Lama. In Shigatse there is the Tashilhunpo Monastery, the residence of the Panchen Lama, which is the highest rank after the Dalai Lama. There is a fascinating and sometimes unfortunate story behind the choosing of the Panchen Lama in recent decades that you should read up about, but I won't get into it here.

The Tashilhunpo Monastery really caught our attention. Although the other monasteries we've visited thus far in Tibet were active to a certain degree, this one certainly showed the most attendance, with the assembly hall nearly full with monks chanting, and the alleyways outside full of bright yellow hats.

In the small temples the walls were starting to decay, and you would find small donations stuffed into every crevice you could find. There were paintings and scriptures on nearly every wall.

These beautifully worn steep steps that led outside from the back of the main assembly hall caught the outside light very well. You can see both Sejin and our tour guide Tashi faintly at the left. A lot of the residences in the monastery were derelict as you can see in the photo on the right.

We only stayed in Shigatse for 2 nights, but it was very memorable. These are only a very small selection of photos from Shigatse. To get a deeper look into our experience, please view the other photos on facebook, Shigatse, Tibet - August 24, 2010.