People always make an impression on me.  I visit a lot of places but it’s always the people that define that place for me.  I’m too much of a people person to not be a portrait photographer at heart.  Don’t get me wrong, but put Mount Everest infront of me and I’m going to be stoked out of my mind to shoot it.  The problem is that I can’t really have a conversation with a chunk of rock, a beautiful view, or an impressive piece of architecture.

Two months ago I was in Nepal finishing up the last three days of our Tibet, Lhasa, Everest Overland Workshop.  The people of Nepal are absolutely beautiful.  One of the most rewarding parts of the tour for me was hearing people tell stories about their images – when someone shows you the picture and then starts in on the conversation they had with the person and how the image was formed through a process of human interaction.

For the most part I vividly remember the stories and conversations behind my portraits.  I love having those conversations because they turn me from a photographer into simply a human being – someone who cares enough to talk to them.  Not to mention that interaction ends up showing favorably in my images.  The images that I know the subjects name, where their from, what we talked about, etc are always my favorite – the ones where I don’t have that interaction mean very little to me.  It’s missing the human component – it’s missing some part of the story.  I get the sense I’m missing out on knowing a part of that persons story and that fact has the capacity to make the image feel hollow for me personally.

This isn’t a rule I always stick to;  some “moral high ground” I’m trying to take and it’s not even possible all the time.  I’m not making a judgement on those who never interact with the subject.  I’m simply saying that the images of people I have interacted with are my most memorable – and why not take a second to value the person just as much as the image, if not more?

Nepal 2011 – Images by Brian Hirschy

So what the heck is Laru?

The history of LaRu is vague at best.  However, in general terms, LaRu is a “harvest festival” that takes place in five small villages in Tongren county in QingHai province China over the course of 5 days.  It’s, at it’s core, a shamanistic festival with some Buddhist ties that is intended to offer appeasement to the local mountain gods, who they believe to be the reincarnations of old Mongolian army generals.  The five villages all have shamans channel the spirits of the mountain gods and then do all sorts of crazy stuff such as animal sacrifice, personal blood letting, throwing themselves on open fires, and prophesying about the upcoming harvest.  This also coincides with a local ‘coming of age’ ritual where young village men are usually pierced through the cheek to test purity (if they bleed, they aren’t pure).

The festival is unique in that it takes place in and around Tibetan Buddhist monasteries but truly isn’t a Tibetan festival at it’s core.  In fact, Younger Buddhist monks are strongly encouraged to not attend the ceremonies (though you could see a few around trying to sneak a peek).  The festival outdates the introduction of Buddhism into the area and the local inhabitants, the Tu Zu (Tu Minority), are generally a mix between historically invading Mongolians and area locals.  The Tu don’t even natively speak the surrounding Amdo Tibetan and Chinese languages.  Interestingly enough, the village I stayed in is the only place in the world where their specific local language is spoken – even 2 miles up the road the language changes.  The simple irony here is that Tibetan religious pilgrims from far and wide come to see this festival that doesn’t even have it’s roots in Tibetan Buddhism.  This should give you some idea of the cultural, genetic, historical, and religious diversity of this area.

The festival is treated like a big party with food and drink vendors everywhere.  The villagers come out in their best clothes and little kids run around seemingly oblivious to the fact that a shaman carry the spirit of a mongolian general is running around bleeding everywhere.  Most of the older village men just sit around drinking beer and chatting.  You would have thought it was the 4th of July.

When the shaman isn’t parading around, the local village men perform ritualistic dances that go on for hours.  The locals are also required to bring food offerings of tsampa, bread, fruits, grains, oil, and powdered milk to be burnt on a central altar as appeasement.  The villagers also bring alcohol which is then poured out or immediately consumed by the shaman.

It was undoubtedly a crazy weekend.

WARNING: Beyond this point, there is some blood.  It’s not that bad.

LaRu Festival – Images by Brian Hirschy

First, we did have a great photo walk at Kum Bum/Ta Er Monastery.  It had been about three years since I had been out to this particular monastery – needless to say I didn’t get the memo that it had changed from a relatively quite and important monastery into Disneyland.  It was insane.  I got there and there were Chinese tourists literally as far as the eye could see.

In avoidance of tourists, I ended up spending 2 hours with a bunch of Tibetans who were renovating several of the buildings at the monastery – where no one was supposed to be allowed in.  But here’s the thing, I could speak some of the local dialect (read: 6 sentences – very little).  I’m not talking about Tibetan or Chinese – I’m talking about what they speak. I asked in the local dialect about what they were doing and if I could come in and take a look.  They were so blown away that they let me just wander around — my own private personal tour of the innards of one of the most important temples at the monastery.  As a 6′5″ American photographer, the local language breaks the ice even if I can’t carry on a conversation in it.

Not speaking the local language is not a death sentence in this type of situation, but it continues to open opportunities for me and have seen it do the same for other photographers – I’m not breaking any new ground here.  People like to speak their mother tongue, right?  They are usually extremely proud of it – significant pieces of the culture live in the language and if you can manage to utter ANYTHING , the doors start flying open.  We are now free to interact however we can – it doesn’t just break the ice, it takes 100 pounds of C4 to it.

So what are the benefits?  The main benefits that continue to show themselves to me are as follows:

• I get access to places I’m not generally allowed to go.
• People literally and instantaniously brighten up and are incredibly surprised and happy to hear a foreigner speaking their language
• The subjects are usually more excited to get their picture taken.

Heck, I could write an entire blog about the benefits.

With that, I leave this to you –  What are your struggles, experiences, and perceived benefits of language in photography?

(all the following shots are from this years WWPW)

I’m surprised at how much I’ve done.  How often do you look back?

In the last six months:

• I have worked more as a web designer than I really want to – a trend that continues.
• I have worked on staff for an NGO doing earthquake relief, photography, and design
• I have had several very close friends die
• I have had way more conversations with my drunk dry cleaner than I wanted
• I have broken one Chinese-made bed.
• I have consistently been 4 times the size of an average Chinese dude.
• I have witnessed the most annoying sandstorms on earth – and eaten sand.
• I have frozen my butt of – more than once.  I am butt-less.
• I have eaten more noodles than…you.
• I have been married to my wife for three freak’n awesome years
• I have been to Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Narnia
• I have travelled by cab, boat, plane, ferry, train, motorcycle, subway, and scooter
• I have taken two extended trips into remote Tibetan areas
• I have shot three ethnic weddings in less than a month
• I have spoken 3 languages that are no my own
• I have been above 16,000 feet
• I have discovered that Russians like to be naked at beaches in Thailand
• I have broken or bruised at least one rib and bleed more than desired
• I have been amazed at how fast nomads can learn photography
• I have taken close to 15,000 frames
• I have spent significant time in temples, mosques, and monasteries – and KFC
• I have photographed 12 individual ethnic groups and distinct cultures
• I have had serious altitude sickness
• I have tried unsuccessfully to purchase, order, or recreate a white seamless setup on the plateau
• I have had to cancel two Lumen Dei tours
• I have done a lot more than I thought

Alot can happen in six months.  Check out my last 6 months in black and white after the break

Todays Tech Tuesday is all about lighting.

Let me start by saying that there are some travel photographers that won’t go near artificial lighting – I am not one of those.  I’m not discriminating between those who use artificial light and those who don’t.  I don’t really draw a strong distinction between the two, other than to say I love natural light just as much as I love lighting setups in many ways – it just happens to be the lighting setups that get my blood rushing and make me excited about being a photographer.  If you are one of the strictly natural light guys, no worries – unfortunately you might not get much out of this post other than maybe some information you can store away for when you do pick up a strobe,.

Moving on…

Over the last month I’ve been asked several times about what lighting setups I use while I’m on the field.

Here is my typical field setup.

Just a quick list of what you see above

1. 2x Westcott 43″ convertible umbrellas (here)
2. 2x multiclamps w/ shoe mounts (here)
3. 2x Nikon sb-24’s (here)
4. 2x Manfrotto Nano Portable light stands (here)
5. 1x Paul C. Buff CyberSync Trigger Controller (here)
6. 2x Paul C. Buff CyberSync Trigger Receiver (here)
7. 1/8th gridspot (here)
8. Lightsphere, rechargeable batteries, red bungie things, tape

The real beauty of this setup is in the fact that it takes up very little space in my bag and it was super cheap compared to most setups.  I’ve taken this exact setup all over SE Asia without thinking twice.  If you’re setup is too big or you have the mental conversation about “should I take it or not” , you probably wont take it, and in my opinion, the setup is too big for you to easily get out, set up, and capture a killer shot if the situation arises.  Food for thought:  It took me less than 3 minutes to get this shot from having nothing setup – here’s what I got. The setup can be seen here.

A closer look after the break…

1. 2x Westcott 43″ convertible umbrellas

First, this is no octabank, softbox, or even a large light modifier.  You aren’t going to get that super super soft and flattering light from these little guys, but hey, we are going for transportability and the 43″ seems to be the middle road between quality and size – and honestly, the qualities really not that bad.  These pack down very small and will fit in any decent sized camera bag and will even fit into some satchels.  One thing about the convertibles – you will noticed I’ve gotten rid of the cover that makes it into a bounce umbrella.  Why?  I lost them on the field.  I prefer the shoot through because it’s one less thing to put on, forget, or break – remember, the ability to get this thing setup asap is going to play a lot into being able to pull of these kinds of shots on the field.

2.  2x multiclamps w/ shoe mounts

You just have to have these.  This is actually maybe the most awkward part of the setup as far as packing goes.  The reason for that lies in the fact that these material used on these is small but because of the levers it actually ends up taking a bit of space and being just bulky.  Nonetheless, you have to have these unless you plan on taping the light to the stand – which is not advised.

3. 2x Nikon sb-24’s – The actual flashes

I already know what a few of you are thinking – “Why is he using those old flashes?!”  Lot’s of reasons.  Firstly, I paid $80 USD for these killer flashes just over a year ago.  They get awesome reviews.  They are cheap, strong as a rock, easy to rebuild, have easily accessible pc sync port(s) and are incredibly easy to use.  Plus, they have been around forever  The full manual controls force someone who is just starting off to learn their flash rules rather than just relying on iTTL right out of the gate – which is important.  Plus my buddy Zack would kill me.  Most of all, if I break both of them in one day, I’m out $200 USD rather than breaking one sb0-900 that would cost me over twice as much.  Simplicity is key here. **the sb-24’s are actually difficult to find now, thanks to The Strobist blog review – your best bet is second hand through Adorama or B&H

4. 2x Manfrotto Nano Portable light stands

I can’t give these stands enough praise.  They are light and tough as nails.  I’ve had these stepped on, trampled by yaks, and consistently thrown around and they have taken the beating w/o any problems at all.  A drawback is that these will definitely have to be held up in any sort of wind and their max height is about 1.9 meters.  I can get it to around 2.2 meters, but it’s pretty unstable at that point.  Nonetheless, these things are amazing for what they do and how easy they are to transport and setup.  Manfrotto knows what’s going on and they made an incredible light stand for travelling photographers.

5.  Paul C. Buff CyberSync Triggers and Controllers

I’m going to cover the Paul C. Buff products together.  Let me start on this one by saying that there are just about a billion triggers and controller systems out there – I’m not saying these are the best by any stretch of the imagination.  However, I knowingly chose the CyberSyncs for a few reasons.  Anyone familiar with Paul C. Buff products can vouch for their exceptional customer service.  In short, I needed a company that wouldn’t give me fits about replacing something (most of the time for free) and shipping it overseas.  In addition, these things are cheap, small, and incredibly reliable.  For the price of one Pocket Wizard item (receiver or transmitter) you could buy an entire remote setup from good ol’ Paul C.  Granted Pocket Wizards are truly awesome, it would be hard to justify taking them where I go and replacing them would put a serious dent in my budget.

6.  1/8th gridspot

This product is a nice little gridspot with velcro that you can attach to the head of your strobe.  Small, light, made of plastic so it won’t break.  Great to have in the bag and one that goes with me just about everywhere.  If you aren’t familiar with why you should have a gridspot, check out these links:

• Strobist on gridspots
• How to use a gridspot

7.  Fong Dong, tape, rechargeable batteries, bungies, etc

• Gary Fong Light Sphere – Everyone is probably familiar with the Fong Dong – creates beautiful soft light from an on camera flash (here)
• Tape – Always gotta have it.  That’s all.
• Batteries – I take tons of Chinese batteries along with me, but these seem to actually last longer.  Pretty generic.
• Bungee cords – These rock.  I use them to attach just about everything to just about everything else (here)

I hope that helps answer some of the questions that have been coming in lately.  I took just a few reference shots for you guys – they are all listed below.  Basically all my lit work is with a similar setup, so you can see the versatility that comes with it – not all of these are “travel photog” shots – but you get the point.  The great thing about this is that it’s light, fast, and cheap.

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