Aug,08


 
 

August Wallpaper: Remembering Ramadan

An August wallpaper in remembrance of the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan


(Download the August wallpaper here)

Most people don’t realize that huge amounts of Muslims in western China.  In fact, a third of the city I live in, if not more, is Chinese Muslim and has been for a very long time. In just this province alone it’s suggested that there are over 800,000 Chinese Muslims.  Last friday alone 50,000+ worshippers showed up at the main mosque in town for prayers.  Truly there is an amazing and diverse culture here that many people in the world, even in China, don’t even realize exists.

Living around Chinese Muslim culture, I’m continually reminded that these are great people and quite the opposite of what they are portrayed as in western Media. Ramadan’s purpose is to teach the worshipper about patience, spirituality, humility and submissiveness to God – not entirely scary things, right?  They are amazing people and as always it’s an important time to remember our commonality as humans and for cultural outsiders to actively practice respect, whether we are participating in Ramadan our not.

I was sad when I realized I wasn’t going to be here this year for the end of Ramadan called Eid.  Eid is truly and amazing event in western China – it’s reported that anywhere between 100,000 and 200,000 muslims show up for the breaking of Ramadan – making it the largest gathering of muslims anywhere outside of the middle east (see images here).  I think it’s important as a photographer, but mostly as a person, to try and understand parts of this culture.  Hate is often based on ignorance – ignorance makes us bad photographers, or worse, hateful people.

This year I thought it would be nice to go a bit deeper and visit many of the mosques the dot the city I live in.  In a sense, I knew I was going to miss Eid (here) so I did my shooting early in an effort to further my understanding of this amazing culture.

The chinese Muslim culture is extremely rich as you can see from the image above.  Chinese and Arabic together – simply amazing.

Hope you enjoy this months wallpaper!

 
Aug,04


 
 

Review: ThinkTank Airport Airstream

Review of the ThinkTank Airport Airstream rolling camera bag


*For information about Think Tank’s huge Modular Set and Skin Set sale as well as information about the contest associated with this review, please see the very bottom of this post.

Think Tank is in the business of saving my back.  Over the last three years my gear that I carry with me in the field has only increased and the chronic lower back pain I have has also only increased to the point where I needed an alternative to my ThinkTank Streetwalker HardDrive (here). Post back pain, I had been looking for a good roller camera bag- one that was small enough to satiate the non-standardized and often nonsensical requirements for carry on luggage that many of the local airliners here in Asia have.  I finally landed on the Think Tank Airport Airstream The Airport Airstream has turned out to be quite the bag for me.  This is a bag that I have taken on business trips and one that I have carried out to the nomad grasslands of Western China all the same.

ABOUT THE BAG
STRAIGHT FROM THINKTANK

The perfect small roller for traveling with a selected amount of gear; meets international carry-on size limits.

Top Features:

  • INTERNATIONAL carry on size.
  • TSA combination locks.
  • Front cable & lock secures laptops.
  • Back cable & lock secures to fixed object.

Gear Profile:

  • Holds up to a 400mm lens

Photographer Profile:

  • All photographers, from pros to serious enthusiasts.

Technical Specifications:

  • ID: 13” W x 6.5-7.5” D x 15.5” H (33 x 16.5 x 39.5 cm)
    ED: 14” W x 8” D x 17.5” H (36 x 20.5 x 44.5 cm)
  • 9 – 10.5 lbs (4.1 – 4.8 kg)
  • Lifetime Warranty

continue reading…

 
Aug,02


 
 

Review: 3 Legged Thing Brian X1

Review of 3 Legged Thing's new X1 Brian carbon-fibre travel tripod


Before using the 3LT Brian X1, I used to think their were two kinds of photographers in the world:  those who absolutely loved tripods and then those who simply thought that they were a necessary evil and lugged one along anyways.  For year’s I fell into the second camp of people who thought tripods were “a necessary evil”, heavy, cumbersome, heavy, often annoying, heavy, heavy.  I’d never really been a “Tripod Guy.”  You know, the “Tripod Guy”, the offshoot of the “Camera Bag Guy” who collects tripods as prizes and has trouble deciding which one to use.  I’ve used a fair amount of tripods but never fell in love with any of them. I always hated carrying a tripod and when I needed to make a decision between taking one and not taking one, I’d almost always choose not to carry one with me.   Then came the Brian X1.  After using the 3 Legged Thing Brian X1 for the last three months I’ve had quite a change of heart and the Brian X1 makes the decision to carry a tripod with me a very easy one.  I’ve been converted and now don’t even think twice about taking it along.

continue reading…

 
Jul,22


 
 

500px: The new kid on the block

The impressive new photo sharing/portfolio site - A solid Flickr replacement


Check out my 500px profile here – http://500px.com/bhirschyphoto. Also if you are interested in signing up, they offer a free account option.  Yearly fees are $50 but if you use the promo code FRIENDS they knock of $10 for the first year.  Lastly, if you do visit my 500px page, I’m in the process of uploading images I want on there, so don’t expect a ton.  I’m using Chinese internet/internot which can literally take days to upload what I want online.  Woe is me…

There are about a billion difference choices for where you can store your images online.  Unfortunately for Flickr my pro account expired last month and 500px came along at just the right time.  Not really wanting to pay again for a sub-par service who’s user base seems to more and more consist of a bunch of over-happy people leaving over-enthusiastic comments on every single image they see has left me ready to jump ship for about a year now.  There is also the fact that Flickr’s design makes my eyes bleed every time I even think about it. For me, this made it easy to replace Flickr w/ 500px as one piece of my online presence.

click above image to see a larger screenshot of the profile page.

The layout for users’ profile pages are absolutely stunning(see mine here) – squares and whitespace people!  It’s gorgeous.  On top of all that the people making comments seem to be actual photographers – the comments and ratings are actually helpful vs. Flickr’s over-optimistic uselessness.  But here’s the real thing that made me switch – It’s pretty dang cheap at $40 a year. That price buys me another outlet for good feedback as well as the ability to sell my images straight from my 500px webpage.  I’m in the process of consolidating my images on the web and where I sell and display those images.  In the midst of a complete portfolio redesign (coming soon to portfolio page) and wanting to reduce my yearly costs, 500px is making a solid impression on me though I haven’t determined if it’s a complete game changer or just a Flickr replacement for me – still to be determined!

The only real downside I see right now (and this is certainly just me) is that the portfolio option they give you doesn’t look all that great and makes it a bit difficult to work in brand recognition through all your sites.  Let me rephrase that – the portolios are actually really good looking, they just aren’t what I’m personally looking for and the inability to make those changes makes the option not as useful for me personally. I kinda wish I could disable my portfolio and just let people land HERE instead of HERE.  However, for someone who doesn’t have a portfolio at all this is a freaking steal for $40 / year.  It’s everything Flickr isn’t:  Great feedback, excellent profile pages, ability to sell your images for no extra charge, and a free portfolio page (if you want it).

Like I said earlier, I’m not entirely sure where this will play out for me in my online presence.  For now though, it was worth the $40 to get an absolutely brilliant Flickr replacement.  I’m not sure if my 500px account will win out over my incredibly useful Photoshelter account or not, but the fact that I’m thinking about it says something – dare I say.

Are you on 500px?  What do you think of it?  Let’s see your comments below!

 
Brian Hirschy Photography