Pashipatinath, Nepal. This is Nepal's most important Hindu temple and honors Shiva in the form of Pashipati, lord of the beasts. It is considered aupicious to be cremated here. (Craig Ferguson)

On the banks of the Bagmati River on the outskirts of Kathmandu lies the holy Hindu temple Pashipatinath. Dedicated to Shiva in his form Pashipati – the lord of beasts (animals) – it is considered a very auspicious place to be cremated and at any time one can see the recently deceased being burned on one of the “burning ghats” by the riverside.

As Nepal’s oldest and most important Hindu temple, it attracts pilgrims and worshippers from across the Indian subcontinent as well as the wider world. Entrance to the actual temple is reserved for Hindus only however non-Hindus can see in from the opposite bank. The photo below shows the actual temple.

Pashipatinath, Nepal. This is Nepal's most important Hindu temple and honors Shiva in the form of Pashipati, lord of the beasts. It is considered aupicious to be cremated here. (Craig Ferguson)

Pashipatinath, Nepal. This is Nepal's most important Hindu temple and honors Shiva in the form of Pashipati, lord of the beasts. It is considered aupicious to be cremated here. (Craig Ferguson)

The current temple, a UNESCO World Heritage listed site dates back to the 17th century althoughsome of the surrounding smaller temples are centuries older. Ir is uncertain exactly when the earliest temple was constructed on this site – the one that stands there now was constructed after an earlier building succumbed to termites.

As well as cremations, pilgrims flock to the area to take a sacred bath in the Bagmati River. Others consult with one of the many Brahmin priests in the area or leave behind offerings. Sadhus – Hindu holy men – come here em masse during the Shivatri festival. It is along these ghats – a series of steps leading down to a (usually) holy river – that life can be seen unfolding. From newborns being blessed through the deceased being cremated, the cycle of life is ever turning.

Funeral pyre at Pashipatinath, Nepal. This is Nepal's most important Hindu temple and honors Shiva in the form of Pashipati, lord of the beasts. It is considered aupicious to be cremated here. (Craig Ferguson)

Brahmin priests at Pashipatinath, Nepal. This is Nepal's most important Hindu temple and honors Shiva in the form of Pashipati, lord of the beasts. It is considered aupicious to be cremated here. (Craig Ferguson)

Sadhu, Hinduism's wandering holy men, congregate among the shrines by the banks of the Bagmati River, Pashipatinath, Nepal. The temple here in Nepal's most important Hindu temple. (Craig Ferguson)

For the past few weeks I’ve been working one-on-one with a student at Taipei Photo School, getting him schooled in a lot of the basics of photography so that he’ll be able to progress into formal study at university. Sunday we combined a bit of that teaching with my Selina’s (my wife) hobby of makeup design and headed into the studio with Hannah, a model who’d expressed interest in doing something a little more creative than usual. We’d previously worked with Hannah on the Taipei Noir project a few months ago so it was great to get together again. While Selina and Hannah were getting prepared, I took my student on a kind of tour of the studio, explaining to him the various modifiers, use of seamless, how to build up the lights, gels and more. It was a very broad overview, as he only had 2-3 hours and we wanted to get as much shooting done as possible.

Selina came up with tho different looks that worked really well. My creative ideas were lacking a bit early on but kicked in about half way through. Over the past week or so I’ve been jumping from one area of photography to another, none of which are my main specialization. From shooting May Day protests last week to teaching a basic composition workshop on Saturday, this trip to the studio on Sunday, photographing a warehouse for a corporate client Monday, retouching in the new Photoshop CS6 yesterday, and today is an image critique session with one old student and a first lesson with another beginning student. Once I warmed up in the studio though and mentally swapped from photography teacher to photographer, I found I had a couple of ideas and got a few images I was happy with. It’s nice to photograph different things from time to time but I’m now really in need of some good old travel and culture photography.

These photographs have all been processed in the new Photoshop CS6. As I was on the way back to Taipei on Monday after the factory shoot, I got an email from Adobe to say that my pre-ordered upgrade was ready for download. My first impressions are very favorable. In recent years, I’d largely left Photoshop out of my workflow, preferring instead to just use Lightroom but for certain images now I’ll be working with both programs. Most of the workflow with these went from basic RAW adjustments in Lightroom with retouching in Photoshop. On a few occasions I also added Nik Color Efex 4 into the mix with these for a little extra effect.

Student and Model

I’ll leave you with a couple more images from the studio.

A male athlete offers assistance to a female athlete as she stretches as a part of warm up. (Craig Ferguson)

A month or so ago I published a post called Keep On Running. Towards the end I mentioned that the shoot has a mixture of gear testing and free shooting and that I’d have more from the shoot. Well, time got away from me so now is as good a time as any to share a few images photographed during the gear testing phase. I was testing out a new speedlight modifier that was attached to a 580exII. Today I’m just going to be sharing some of the photos rather than giving the full review, as I want to give the equipment another test under some different conditions. I’ll have all my thoughts on the modifier in my next newsletter which will be available at the end of this month. If you haven’t already signed up for it, click on the link at the top to go to the newsletter page, or simply enter enter your email address in the newsletter box to the right.

For all you strobists out there – can you guess what the modifier I used was? Leave your answer in the comments.

Female athlete stretching as part of her warmup. (Craig Ferguson)

Male athlete stretching his quadricep as part of his warmup. (Craig Ferguson)

Female athlete stretching as part of her warmup. (Craig Ferguson)

The Look

A Child's Look

The Stare

International Workers Day (May Day) Taipei, Taiwan. 01/05/2012

The annual May Day rally took place yesterday in Taipei. Swapping my travel photographer hat for my news photographer hat, I headed down to cover the start of it. There’s been a lot of talk in Taiwan lately about issues related to workers, with stagnant wages, long hours and unpaid overtime the norm. This brought together more than 50 groups representing unions, labor organizations and student groups, with anywhere from 1000 to a few thousand people taking part, depending on whose figures you believe. The union movement in Taiwan is nothing at all like that in the West, and the relatively low turnout reflected this. I was only there for the first 90 minutes or so captured a small series of images from the assembly and early speeches.

Migrant workers at International Workers Day (May Day) Taipei, Taiwan. 01/05/2012

Member of Taiwan Radical Nurses Union. International Workers Day, Taipei, Taiwan

Members of Taiwan Radical Nurses Union. International Workers Day, Taipei, Taiwan

International Workers Day (May Day) Taipei, Taiwan. 01/05/2012

International Workers Day, Taipei, Taiwan

May 2012 Desktop Calendar

Time for another free desktop calendar, and this month’s edition offers you a rural scene in some dramatic light. Each and every month we offer you a free downloadable desktop calendar so make sure you don’t miss out by subscribing today. Just enter your email address in the box to the right and you’ll never miss a post again.

Just a quick reminder that today is the last day to get the discounted price for next Saturday’s Elements of Composition photo workshop. Only NT$2000 if you sign up today. If you delay, it’ll go up to NT$2500. Now, on with the download links for the calendar and, as usual, the same image without the calendar is below for all your licensing and print needs.

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1440×900 1280×1024 1024×768 – sized for iPad iPhone

Fish for sale in Nanmen Market, Taipei.

Traditional markets in Asia are one of my favorite photographic subjects as a travel photographer. The color, the exotic food, the hustle, the smells and sounds. While a photograph can’t really convey smell, it can show the other factors, although sounds needs a little dive into the world of multimedia to pull off. A couple of days ago I found myself with a spare hour or so as I traveled about town to meet with some private photography students and decided to duck into one of Taipei’s oldest markets, Nanmen Market. Generally you need to get to these traditional wet markets early. The best meat and freshest vegetables go quick so if you’re much later than 8am or so, you’ll miss all the excitement. Get down there at dawn if you’re really serious about markets. For me this week, I didn’t specifically set out to photograph the market and when I arrived close to noon, things were very quiet. Which makes it easy to move around but with almost no customers and most of the vendors eating lunch, there wasn’t a lot of people photography to be done. Still, photographing market food is always fun so here’s a little sampling of some of the things you could expect to see.

Vegetables in a traditional farmers market. Nanmen Market, Taipei.

Meat hanging in a traditional market. Nanmen Market, Taipei.

Rice from Taiwan's Taidong county.

Zongzi - Sticky Rice Dumplings for sale in Taipei's Nanmen Market.

Taiwanese women prepare zongzi - traditional sticky rice dumplings in Taipei's Nanmen Market.

Shrimp in a Taiwanese seafood market.

Dry goods in one of Taiwan's traditional markets.

Zongzi - Sticky Rice Dumplings for sale in Taipei's Nanmen Market.

Chili in a traditional wet market

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s neat stuff post came a few new announcements and releases. It seems that everything’s happening at once which makes it a great time for photographers everywhere. From photo sharing to photo editing to photo composition, there’s something here for everyone.

Composition

Starting off with something that’s not so new. For anyone in Taipei with a few spare hours on Saturday 5/5 there are still a few places left in my Elements of Composition workshop that will be held in Beitou. Register and pay before the end of April and you can join for only NT$2000. I’ve just finished preparing class handouts for the workshop and I can promise you it’s going to be a great day. Full details here.

Photo Sharing

Shoot + Share by Stuart Sipahigil / Craft and Vision

Craft and Vision have been producing great photography eBooks at low prices for a while now and this latest is no exception. Shoot + Share sees Stuart Sipahigil return with another title. He talks about sharing your photographic work with plenty of discussion about various aspects such as

• reasons for doing so
• strategies to get the best value
• different methods for hobbyists and working photographers
• who you should show work to – family, friends, clients, other photographers, everyone else
• choosing which photos to share
• editing and your portfolio
• social media
• online sharing and hosted professional photo sites
• your own website
• blogging
• prints and books
• exhibitions
• photo walks and classes

All in all, it’s 58 pages of great information for only a few dollars. Like all Craft and Vision releases, there’s an opening sale. For the first five days only, if you use the promotional code SHARE4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of SHOOT + SHARE for only $4 OR you can use the code SHARE20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF eBooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm (PST) April 28, 2012. Click here to view more details

Photoshop CS6

Photoshop CS6

Following on from the public beta period, Adobe have just announced the latest version of Creative Suite, CS6. There are a series of different options this time including the new subscription model Creative Cloud that gives you access to the entire Creative Suite collection for only US$49.99 per month. Of course you can also choose one of a variety of different collections that bundle different programs or buying single applications. I’ve already placed my pre-order for Photoshop CS6 and am looking forward to getting it sometime in early May. More details at Adobe.

Plug In With Nik

My friend and partner in the China Photo Workshop (May 19-26 2013), John Batdorff has just announced his newest book Plug In With Nik. The book promises to cover the entire range of Nik plugins including Color Efex Pro 4, Silver Efex Pro 2, Viveza 2, Dfine 2, HDR EFex Pro and Sharpener Pro 3.0. Currently scheduled for a September release, it’s available for pre-order now. For more information, check out John’s announcement. Don’t forget to check out his other books as well.

Sunday Brunch photographed with Instagram for Android.

It’s been a while since I’ve put together a mix of different cool stuff and links you should visit. There’s plenty going on in the photography world at the moment, so here are a few highlights that you’ll want to check out.

Luminance

Luminance is being put together by the fantastic team at Photoshelter. For years they’ve been providing value-added services to photographers everywhere, from websites and archive storage to webinars and photography eBooks. The latest initiative is Luminance, scheduled for September 12 and 13 in New York. It is planned to be a 2 day conference featuring over 2 dozen speakers including the likes of Joe McNally, Scott Belsky (Behance), John Maloney (Tumblr), Eileen Gittens (Blurb) and many more. Also taking place are a series of workshops on September 11th featuring Corey Rich, Zack Arias and more.

Luminance by Photoshelter

Creative Mornings

Speaking of Zack Arias, he recently spoke at a breakfast lecture for Creative Mornings. I encourage you to watch the video below as he talks about authenticity, illustrated with examples from his own career. The points he makes apply to all areas of creative life, not just photography, so if you’re a musician, poet, dancer or clown, you’ll get something out of this as well.

Creative Photo Charity

New from Gavin Gough is a yet-to-be-named creative photo charity. His aim is to take simple, easy to use cameras into communities and give them to children, along with the skills to use them. Working with community project leaders, schools and orphanages, the kids will be encouraged to create a visual documentary of their lives and environment, which will be edited into a cohesive collection. The result will be published in a book or hung in an exhibition in order to raise funds to provide the community with essentials they require – anything from village water pumps to medical supplies, clothing to food. The initial funds to purchase the cameras will be done via the sales of a photo wallpaper pack. Head over to Gavin’s site for full details and to get the trial pack (free) today.

Instagram For Android

Finally, we come to Instagram for Android. Long one of the most popular photography sharing apps on the iPhone, Instagram was recently released on Android and saw something crazy like 5 million downloads in the first few days. The photo that I open this post with was shot on Instagram of my wife and my beachside brunch yesterday. If you’re an Android user, head to the market page and see what it’s all about. Don’t forget to follow me on it.